I have a freshly minted shoulder of lamb

Yippeee. My favourite coin arrived today from the Royal Mint. It’s the nicest coin the Royal Mint produce imo. A fine 999 silver Britannia £2. They release them every year at about this time. A good investment I think.

It’s the 100th anniversary of the BBC next year. The Royal Mint have just announced that they will be unveiling a coin to celebrate this event quite soon. I suspect that it will be very popular when it is released. If you do try and get one, I suggest (if they are available) getting a brilliant uncirculated or proof coin. They will be a bit more expensive but it will be worth it in the long run.

The Royal Mint, and others are pushing the sale of the new 2022 annual coin sets. They are available in either brilliant uncirculated or proof. The reason this years may be good is that for the first time a royal 50p will be issued. This is to celebrate the Queen’ platinum jubilee.

I don’t normally collect Royal type coins but it might be worthwhile in the future to own this one. The individual coin was issued by the Royal Mint on 6 January and the set will be out soon. The individual coin (BU) can be bought from change checker for £4.50, slightly more at the RM. I will be waiting for the RM to issue the set and will be purchasing one of those. I do note though that this year the price for the BU commemorative set is £60, up from £55 last year. The definitive BU set is still £30.

News today of a metal detectorist on his first outing for 10 years finding a Henry III gold coin in a field in Devon. Apparently there are only 8 others in existence. Prior to auction it is estimated that it’s value could be close to half a million pounds! If anyone has a metal detector, go and have a hunt. Follow the rules though.

The Royal Mint have announced that the Platinum Jubilee Royal 50p coin will be issued into circulation on the 7 Feb. At this stage only 1.3 million of the coins are being released. This will make the Platinum 50p coin the second rarest 50p after the Kew Gardens. From a purely collective point of view it is well worth looking out for this coin is it may become valuable in future years. If you get one, keep it in a plastic coin capsule to stop it getting scratched.

The other point is that due to its relative scarcity, it may make the annual coin sets more valuable in the future. Worth a punt.

pembsexile wrote: January 18th, 2022, 11:12 am News today of a metal detectorist on his first outing for 10 years finding a Henry III gold coin in a field in Devon. Apparently there are only 8 others in existence. Prior to auction it is estimated that it’s value could be close to half a million pounds! If anyone has a metal detector, go and have a hunt. Follow the rules though.

Quick update. The coin made £540,000 in an auction on Sunday. The finder will get a cut. Phew.

Some sensible news on coin prices at last. The normal or average market is holding up very well and some top end coin prices are increasing quite a bit. Out of my price range though.

The good news is that the price for a Kew Gardens 50p seems to be dropping. Only a few months ago they were going for £160 ish on eBay. Totally ridiculous imo. It seems that the latest prices are in the region of £130. Much more sensible but still too high imo.

News update. The Royal Mint has just released a brilliant uncirculated £2 coin to celebrate the 150th anniversary of the FA cup. It won’t be available for general issue though as the RM haven’t released a general circulation £2 coin since 2016. It is available from the RM and specialised sellers - change checker for one. The RM usually charge £10 for a BU £2 coin.

News this week that there are still £19 billion of old paper notes and coins that have still not been cashed in. The paper £5 and £10 notes were withdrawn several years ago. The paper £20 and £50 notes will still be legal tender until 30 September 2022. There are also still £105 million pounds worth of old round pound coins out there as well. Amazing. That is an awful lot of money. Unless people are collecting them, I just don’t understand it. Check your old wallets, sofas and cupboards. You never know.

Some info’ on how to spot a counterfeit £5 note:

1. The hologram word change between five and pounds when tilted
2. The metallic foil should have go.d on the front and silver on the back
3. The words Bank of England should be raised
4. The green foil patch should be circular and contain the word Blenheim
5. On the see through window around the Queens head ‘Bank of England’ should be printed twice.

Hope no one gets given any.

Just a general query. One of the best websites online for info’ on coins is the change checker website. I use it regularly. They normally update info’ on a news page every few days at most leaving it for a week. It is now May 8th. I note that they haven’t put out a post since April 14th when they posted about Maunday money. This is very unusual. I hope things are OK at the site. Does anyone know or has heard anything?

The Chancellor has announced that there will be a new issue of the £1 coin to be put into circulation next year to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the introduction of the £1 coin. It will be accompanied by all the modern safety features and designed by the artist Michael Armytage.

The latest scarcity index for coins has just been published. With regards to the alphabet 10p coins the most scarce of the lot is the 10p Z coin. Very, very scarce apparently. Hold on to one if you have one. We don’t see many A-Z 10p coins in this neck of the woods anyway so I guess I will never see one from circulation.