Personally I've given an old £1-00 note, 1971first decimal set, Commemorative crown to grown up sons as a bit different part of Christmas gift

phil_in_npton wrote:Good Afternoon Mike

What’s always puzzled me is who decided how much money should be in the world?
In the beginning there was no money, now there is loads, it must have increased gradually so who decides? And how?

Surely banks/ governments/ countries can’t just produce banknotes as they feel like it?

I know the turnaround of money keeps economy’s going but who “owns” the actual money!

Also, with the pandemic meaning companies/businesses are starved of income then surely those not spending it are a lot better off?

Just puzzling!

Phil in Npton

Good evening Phil.

Your post made me think, sorry for the late reply.

I have no idea who decides how much money there should be in the world. Good question, and I have wondered it myself. An answer would best come from an Economist though, not me. It did set me thinking about money though.

The phrase ‘legal tender’ came into my head. I have since found out a bit more about it. In numismatics we hear the phrase an awful lot. I suspected that it was what we could legally spend in shops to pay for goods. It isn’t. There are some coins issued by the Royal Mint that can’t be spent in normal circumstances. Such as the £5 coin, the £10 coin and the £20 coin. All other coins normally in circulation can be spent of course.

However, a shopkeeper is not legally bound to accept cash for payment. If you go to pay for goods that are worth £3, the shopkeeper can legally refuse to take your £3 in cash. Alternatively, you could pay the £3 in bananas, apples or oranges should the shopkeeper agree. Totally bonkers imo. I thought that was the whole idea of cash, that it was your guarantee to the shopkeeper that he/she was getting paid in full. Not so.

Apparently, legal tender means that if you are obliged to pay a debt in a court of law and you use authorised money issued by the Bank of England, the debt can be paid legally in full. However, if your debt is £240 and you pay x5 £50 notes, do not expect any change. The court is not obliged to give you change.

To further complicate matters, there are even different rules about notes issued by Scotland and England and whether they can be used in each Country. They can’t.

Fascinating, and I learn something new every day.

2021 coins here:

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/articl ... signs.html

Got a Florence Nightingale £2 coin today, not seen them before. Looked on-line and if it is true, I have one of the rare misprinted ones.

Willthiswork wrote:Got a Florence Nightingale £2 coin today, not seen them before. Looked on-line and if it is true, I have one of the rare misprinted ones.

I am not aware of any misprinted Florence Nightingale £2 coins. 6,175,000 of these coins were minted so they are relatively common. I do hope you are not looking at the so called error coin on eBay. Currently going for £120.

The seller is advertising this coin as;

‘dots do not go all around the Queens head’ and
‘Edge writing is upside down’

The dots issue is a common event. It is part of a printing issue where the coin is not centred to the die correctly. It adds no real value to the coin.
The edge writing upside down is complete BS.

Edge writing is a completely random process as the writing is struck on the blank before the metal even goes to the final press.

Please do not be fooled.

pembsexile wrote:

Willthiswork wrote:Got a Florence Nightingale £2 coin today, not seen them before. Looked on-line and if it is true, I have one of the rare misprinted ones.

I am not aware of any misprinted Florence Nightingale £2 coins. 6,175,000 of these coins were minted so they are relatively common. I do hope you are not looking at the so called error coin on eBay. Currently going for £120.

The seller is advertising this coin as;

‘dots do not go all around the Queens head’ and
‘Edge writing is upside down’

The dots issue is a common event. It is part of a printing issue where the coin is not centred to the die correctly. It adds no real value to the coin.
The edge writing upside down is complete BS.

Edge writing is a completely random process as the writing is struck on the blank before the metal even goes to the final press.

Please do not be fooled.

Bugger!!!

I got a 2011 King James Bible £2coin in my change from my takeaway last night

Just checked, less than 1,000,000 in circulation...... Worth about £5. Not that I intend to sell now I'm getting into this

neilcork68 wrote:I got a 2011 King James Bible £2coin in my change from my takeaway last night

Just checked, less than 1,000,000 in circulation...... Worth about £5. Not that I intend to sell now I'm getting into this

Nice one. That’s a relatively scarce coin, well worth keeping. It’s 9th on the change checker scarcity index. Don’t know if you are aware, but if you are getting into this, you can get dedicated pictured albums to keep the coins in. Keeps them from getting any further damage as well.

How many of the 37 £2 coins do you have?

pembsexile wrote:

neilcork68 wrote:I got a 2011 King James Bible £2coin in my change from my takeaway last night

Just checked, less than 1,000,000 in circulation...... Worth about £5. Not that I intend to sell now I'm getting into this

Nice one. That’s a relatively scarce coin, well worth keeping. It’s 9th on the change checker scarcity index. Don’t know if you are aware, but if you are getting into this, you can get dedicated pictured albums to keep the coins in. Keeps them from getting any further damage as well.

How many of the 37 £2 coins do you have?

got the albums..........about 15 now

If you are getting interested in collecting coins then my advice would be to put them in albums. You can get them from the Royal Mint online (pricey though) or eBay. New companies springing up offering these albums as well. You used to be able to get a £2 coin album from the RM for £5. Now they spilt them into x4 folders/albums each costing £5.

What I have noticed recently is that the price of these unofficial albums on eBay has increased exponentially. It seems that numismatics is increasing in popularity during the Covid pandemic. Supply and demand I suppose. It seems that it is not just coins that are increasing in value.

Haven’t received my hard copy of Coin News for February yet, but just seen a digital copy of their editorial for Feb. It backs up what has been said about coins and coin collecting taking off in a big way.

Apparently, the Auction houses are saying that ‘everything across the board is flying out’. It seems that not just special coins, but everyday coins are fetching good prices. Of particular note are Sovereigns. Gold will always be sought in troubled times but it seems that the Sovereign is doing very well. If you have any and want to make a profit, it seems that now is the time to sell. I won’t because I am a bit of a hoarder.

They also seem to back up what has been said about people being furloughed seeking alternate hobbies to keep them busy. Numismatics is one of them and is on the up.

I got a 'Wheelchair Rugby' and 'Boxing' 50p coins in my change yesterday

I see they are quite rare...( 9th and 25th on the list)


I also found an old style 'Cardiff' and Rose and Oak' style £1 coins in one of my change jars...I see they are rising in value on Ebay

Good Evening

Lucky you Neil!

My collecting has stalled somewhat. We just don’t do much in cash these days, what with not going out anywhere much.

My son used to go through the bags of coin change as he worked in retail, and found a few that way but he has changed jobs since.

As an aside, and on a similar ilk, he is collecting Las Vegas casino chips, also seem to be very collectible.

Always interesting to read about others and their finds!

Phil in Northampton

neilcork68 wrote:I got a 'Wheelchair Rugby' and 'Boxing' 50p coins in my change yesterday

I see they are quite rare...( 9th and 25th on the list)


I also found an old style 'Cardiff' and Rose and Oak' style £1 coins in one of my change jars...I see they are rising in value on Ebay

The Cardiff one is one of the four Capital city coins in the old £1 coin set. There are 24 coins in all of the older £1. Luckily I have 2 sets. Now, if you can find the Edinburgh one, that is something. It is the rarest of the old £1 coins.

As an aside, the new £1 coins are boring. Only one design since 2016, (there are a few deviations), hopefully they will do a new design soon.

News this week that the mintage figures for the 2019 10p alphabet coins have been released. Apparently, only 63,000 of the letter W,Y and Z have been released. Amazingly, no more than 83,000 of any of the 2019 10p coins were released for circulation. This makes them all very rare indeed. No wonder we can’t find the coin in our change.

My suggestion. If you find any 2019 10p coin in your pocket, keep it, don’t spend it, put it in a jar and see how much it is worth in a few years time.

10p coins are a relatively new collectors market so it is difficult to foresee how much they will be worth. However, the Kew Gardens 50p had a mintage of 110,000 and that goes for approx £160 on eBay. Play the long game I’d say. Your kids and grandkids may thank you for it.