Shipwreck Sovereigns – The coins that spent a century at the bottom of the sea

The Sovereign is one of the most storied coins in the world, including coins that shouldn’t exist, some that offended Kings and Queens and even one that contained a poisonous substance… But have you heard about the one that spent over 100 years on the seabed? The Shipwreck Sovereign In Victorian times, the Sovereign was […]

Making a mark – The hidden symbols on coins

Every coin’s design tells a story, but sometimes if you look a little closer, you’ll see an additional feature in the form of a “mark”. But what are mint marks and privy marks? And what do they tell us about a coin? What’s in a mark? Marking a coin is not a new phenomenon. It […]

Dissecting a Design: The Queen’s 95th Birthday Sovereign

The brand new 2021 issue of the UK Gold Proof Sovereign has just been released and the design holds a couple of features sure to inspire a fast sell-out. Click on the points below to discover them… If you’re interested… You now have the opportunity to secure the 2021 Gold Proof Sovereign. Limited to just […]

How Covid-19 has changed coin collecting

Coin shortages, Mint closures, soaring metal prices and reduced issue programmes, these have all been impacts on the collector market as a direct result of Covid-19. But whilst the pandemic has had tragic health and economic consequences it is far from all doom and gloom for numismatic collectors. Here are the 4 ways coin collecting […]

Breaking News: The Official 2020 Remembrance Poppy Coins are here!

The official Royal British Legion Poppy Coin are one of the issues I look forward to seeing the most each year, not only are the designs always stunning, but 10% of every coin sold is donated to The Royal British Legion. Over the years, donations from the sales of these coins have contributed £1.1 million […]

The coin designed by the £1m artist

Coins are miniature pieces of art. That statement could not be more true in the case of a new gold issue from Canada… The Royal Canadian Mint recently released a stunning gold coin that was designed by an artist back in 1967. A painting by that same artist has just sold for almost £2m at […]

Can you spot the difference between these Sovereigns?

An awful lot of Sovereigns have been issued during Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II’s reign – over 50 different individual years and that’s before you consider all the various finishes from bullion to Proof. There have been many significant Sovereigns during her record-breaking reign that could lay claim to being the most important QEII Sovereign, […]

When grief took over UK coinage

Every coin tells a story. Some have designs loaded with symbolism, such as a sword signalling a country’s strength, wreaths made up of the region or country’s main agricultural crops of the time or an olive branch acting as a symbol of peace. But only once has a monarch’s grief been represented on UK coins. […]

The weird and wonderful coins of the Berlin World Money Fair

Every year, thousands of coin collectors and hundreds of dealers and Mints descend upon the Estrel Exhibition Centre in Berlin for the World Money Fair. It’s a pretty intense few days of one meeting after an other, being shown countless coins – some from countries I’ve never even heard of. So what caught my eye […]

Why who we are is important to the coins we collect

Coins are a lot of things – pieces of metal, currency, miniature works of art, an embodiment of our history, national identity. And sometimes they are all of those things and more. Sometimes a coin is issued that just means so much more to you. It’s an intangible thing. The Royal Mint has just issued […]