Pre-decimal silver (?)

[Jay2]

On 06/04/2023 at 10:07, SidS said:

The working classes with rough calloused hands from manual jobs hated them as they were fiddly and bronze coins were easier to handle. When the brass threepence came out in 1937, it didn't take long for it to superceed the silver one.

I recently read George Orwell's "Keep The Aspidistra Flying" in which the main character frequently laments the shame of paying for anything in those tiny threepence coins. The ambitious but starving artist usually throws them away rather than have the gall of passing them off as currency!

[Earthmetal]

5 hours ago, Jay2 said:

I recently read George Orwell's "Keep The Aspidistra Flying" in which the main character frequently laments the shame of paying for anything in those tiny threepence coins. The ambitious but starving artist usually throws them away rather than have the gall of passing them off as currency!

Which is odd, as they lay a far better claim to currency than their brass replacements.

[stefffana]

On 01/04/2023 at 13:02, FourNinesFine said:

OK, I've fallen down something of a rabbit hole here... and I'm trying to learn more about pre-decimal British silver.

I have done a good trawl of previous forum posts and tried to get my head aorund it - in full appreciation that I'm covering ground that will have (and has) been covered before. But I am still stuggling with some of the basics.

For now, I'm just looking to understand which coins had actual silver content (of any meaningful amount). Of those, what was the percentage. And if that silver content changed for different date runs of a particular coin.

I don't know what the protocol is for tagging people directly, but I know these guys have all contributed their expertise previously, so hope it's OK.

@arphethean

@Bigmarc

@SidS

 

The end-game is to pick up some of this to have a bulk stash of (whatever we call Junk / constitutional) Bristish silver with a reasonable silver %. So not looking for collector's items or to have a 'complete' run etc. But if the prices for such are the same as Bullion, I'll knock the idea on the head.

Ideally, I want to get to a place such as:

"Your best bet is to stick to 'x' coin between these dates, which has x% silver content"

[FWIW, I've become quite smitten with specifically the '1877 Empress British India Rupee' - but that's a different story for another time.]

Please point me at any existing resources if you know them. Happy to do some further leg-work.

Thanks in advance.

 

FNF.

Any progress so far, my friend?

Have you added to your stack some weight @spot?