The Coinage History of U.K. Coin Collecting

Money was never been quite so valuable until coin collecting entered the world of the hobbyists.

Since its inception, coin collecting has continuously represented the ancient way of preserving the history of the human race. Coin collecting allows people to protect and conserve their nation's history. Through this kind of activity, coin collectors allow other people to touch and  examine the kinds of coins that ancient people used.

In the United Kingdom, coins are considered one of the most precious relics that the nation has ever produced because most of their coins are considered to be a true representation of the royalty. For instance, U.K. coin collectors would be happy to own the 50-cent coins that were manufactured by the Royal Canadian Mint for the "Golden Jubilee of Queen Elizabeth II."

Facts about UK Coin Collecting

Unlike in the U.S., coin collecting in U.K. uses different terms in categorizing the kinds of coins that are collected. For instance, in the UK coins that were circulated from 1971 to 1981, the term "new pence" was used to differentiate them from the so called "ancient pre-decimal pennies".

By the year 1982, experts felt the need to change the word "new" into a more concrete characteristic that would denote the value of the coin as well. Therefore, the terms "two" or "thirty" were used as well as other terminologies that would indicate the coins worth.

After a year, the "two pence" or the "2p" coins were so common that the coin collectors had very little demand for them so the Royal Mint continued to issue the "2p" coins but only in sets that were exclusively distributed to coin collectors. There are only 20 "2p" coins that still bear the "new pence" wording on the reverse side in circulation and new coin collectors who wish to collect these coins will have difficulty in finding them.

In line with UK history, the UK coin collecting has undergone many changes. The very first change was the "decimalisation" of the coins. With the inception of the "decimal coinage," the English coinage system was established on relationships that indicate the new value of the ancient coins. For example, the coin that used to be known as 2 halfpence is now converted into 1 penny, while 20 shillings is equal to 1 pound or £1.

UK coin collecting is, indeed, not just mere realization of a hobby but a concrete representation of what was transcribed in the history of UK.

Timothy Eller

qj7nyyra.jpg Home Based Greeting Card Business System.
Discover How To Turn Your Favourite Hobby Making Greeting Cards Into A Prof... (more)

Votes: 0
E-mail me when people leave their comments –

You need to be a member of syndication express to add comments!

Join syndication express

Comments

  • Thanks Sonia!

  • Fascinating facts here Timothy!

    You are truly enlightening me about currency as I had no idea that the reason our smaller denominations have been taken out of circulation is due to collectors!

    The belief has been that it is due to our greedy governments that we now round up to the nearest 5 cents (in Australia anyways), but then with the commencement of so much electronic banking, the 1 cent is still applied.

    Keep up the great work! 

  • Thank you ladies.

  • Thanks for sharing this information Timothy. Very interesting.
  • Top Member

    Very informative post Timothy on the history of coin collecting in the U.K. Shared via Syndication Automation. I definitely have learned something new today.

This reply was deleted.