SidS

When I saw this I thought it reminds me of something... Then it struck me, Mr Burns from the Simpsons when he was mistaken for an alien.
 
 

When I saw this I thought it reminds me of something... Then it struck me, Mr Burns from the Simpsons when he was mistaken for an alien.
 
 

When I saw this I thought it reminds me of something... Then it struck me, Mr Burns from the Simpsons when he was mistaken for an alien.
 
 

My first hammered coin, not worth much. I got it for about £10 back in 1994. Not even that pretty, Edward I 10A Canterbury mint.
Then Braveheart was released a year or two later and I thought, "Hey I've got a Patrick McGoohan coin".

Well this is complex to be fair.
Originally - and I'm still uncertain about the definition of 'original' - but the £ was a pound weight of silver. I won't even write 'sterling silver' either.
I have come across several origin stories:
1st - Dating back to Charlemagne in France and then copied by Offa of Mercia in the late 700s (760s-780s) the broad silver penny was introduced at 240 to the pound weight of silver. This silver was near pure though and not sterling. Not sure which pound was used some Frankish pound or an Anglo-Saxon one.
2nd - Dating to Henry II era, around 1180 or so, a new coinage of "sterling silver" was initiated. In theory 240 of these pennies made 1lb of silver based on the tower pound. That said, these coins to my eyes at least are rather smaller than the Anglo-Saxon pennies I've seen - I imagine them to be lighter. So did 240 of these coins really weigh 1lb weight, or had the coinage started to detach from the weight system already? Or had the pound become lighter? Either/or could be true.
The fact is, during Richard II's reign there is a surviving inventory of his treasures from the 1390s, where items are priced based on their weight in silver - the coinage system and the weights system are still heavily linked. However, for me the discrepancy comes about with the coinage as it had become progressively lighter since the 1180s, quite a few revaluations during Edward III's reign.
The silver was reduced significantly in weight in the 1400s, meaning there was a complete disconnect between £ in money and lb in weight.
Indeed by the 1560s, about 62 shillings could be struck from 1lb weight of silver - 62 shillings having the monetary value of £3 2s.
So inflation had long removed any link between the two. By the time the modern sovereign was issued in 1817, it was 66 shillings struck from every pound weight of silver - thus valued at £3 6s.
The ratios between gold and silver have fluctuated over the centuries.
1817 sovereign is about 8g of 22ct gold.
1540s half sovereign is about 8g of 20ct gold.
1380s noble is about 7-8g of 23ct gold (a noble being a third of a pound).
 

When I went to the Titanic exhibition at the O2 arena back in 2011, there were a few sovereigns and halves that they had recovered from the sea bed. Some Edward VII but also at least one George V sovereign, so it was either 1911 or 1912 for certain.
I wonder how many more lay down there at the bottom of the Atlantic?

Good to see the rather phallic looking carrot in hand photo.
When my mouse hovers over it, I get a message "Enlarge image".
It makes a change from being asked "have you got anythng smaller?"
😎

I lost all my copper in a boating accident.

My first hammered coin, not worth much. I got it for about £10 back in 1994. Not even that pretty, Edward I 10A Canterbury mint.
Then Braveheart was released a year or two later and I thought, "Hey I've got a Patrick McGoohan coin".

My first hammered coin, not worth much. I got it for about £10 back in 1994. Not even that pretty, Edward I 10A Canterbury mint.
Then Braveheart was released a year or two later and I thought, "Hey I've got a Patrick McGoohan coin".

I lost all my copper in a boating accident.

My first hammered coin, not worth much. I got it for about £10 back in 1994. Not even that pretty, Edward I 10A Canterbury mint.
Then Braveheart was released a year or two later and I thought, "Hey I've got a Patrick McGoohan coin".

Don't buy them. If you want change you'll have to hit them in the pocket.
So long as you keep buying them, they'll keep making them. You can moan all you like at the mint, but it's counter-productive to say, "I hate these... How many have you got?"

Yes the coating. They've used it on circulating coinage since about 1998. It's a satin finish or something similar.
My thoughts on it: if you want an UNC coin you can not get one from change as the coins get scuffed so easily, you can only get true UNC condition coins in BU sets. Means more money, also add into this fact that the commemoratives exploded in number around 1997 onwards, the 50p and £2 coins often picking up multiple varieties every year plus many different packaging types, long sets, short sets, birthday, anniversary etc. The list is endless.
I guess sovereigns went the same way.

Can't see me ever buying one of those, I thought they were overpriced at £350 per sovereign, when shield sovereigns were retailing at £125-£150 per piece.
It at great design the 1989, but not at any price. I could buy a few guineas or a gold noble instead at £1900-£2000 per coin.

Don't buy them. If you want change you'll have to hit them in the pocket.
So long as you keep buying them, they'll keep making them. You can moan all you like at the mint, but it's counter-productive to say, "I hate these... How many have you got?"

Don't buy them. If you want change you'll have to hit them in the pocket.
So long as you keep buying them, they'll keep making them. You can moan all you like at the mint, but it's counter-productive to say, "I hate these... How many have you got?"

Can't see me ever buying one of those, I thought they were overpriced at £350 per sovereign, when shield sovereigns were retailing at £125-£150 per piece.
It at great design the 1989, but not at any price. I could buy a few guineas or a gold noble instead at £1900-£2000 per coin.

Don't buy them. If you want change you'll have to hit them in the pocket.
So long as you keep buying them, they'll keep making them. You can moan all you like at the mint, but it's counter-productive to say, "I hate these... How many have you got?"

It's not just Aussie coins. The entire US state quarter program, the UK platinum jubilee 50p with the insipid large 70 on it. Most modern euro coins. The whole world's gone clipart.

Does anyone else think most of these artistic coins all look like MS word's clipart?

SHTF certainly means different things to different people.
To some it's financial collapse/reset and the runaway inflation scenario. To me it's a zombie apocalypse, to others it's war bring declared, Russian/Ukraine or wherever... yet to the majority it would be any of those scenarios above leading to Strictly Come Dancing or I'm a Celebrity Get Me Outta Here being postponed/cancelled on the BBC.
Such is the world we live in.

SHTF means different things to different people.

Scenario (a) - inflation is out of control so liquidate some of your PM's to purchase essentials to survive.
Scenario (b) - we are all burnt to a crisp and everything has turned to dust and your PMs will have melted, not that you would ever know.
I think (b) is more likely than (a) because we are too fixated on counting the candles on Boris' birthday cake, did they or did they not culture, and setting new rules on gender neutrality.

in high relief
 

Does anyone else think most of these artistic coins all look like MS word's clipart?