Research on your Victorian or later coins.

[Dave The Slave]

Reading the post by Easylife, " What was your worst days detecting " has spawned this thought.
When you find a Victorian or later Copper or even Silver, where the date is legible, do you get your coin book out or look it up on the net to see if it is a rare example, or perhaps just for a mintage figure ?
Don`t know whether it`s me being fastidious, as i do like researching items, even the mundane, mass produced pre -Decimal coinage. Could be down to the fact that i have only found 3 Viccies and perhaps less than 20 pre Decimals. When i see others photos posted on here i do like to check out the date, to see if there is a variation and indeed if you have found one, although sometimes the date is not on the photo.
Even a 1957 Halfpenny, where the design was changed part way through the year, so that you have a wavy or calm sea versions, gets me sifting through a large bag of pre Decimal, given to me and yes both versions where in there. Detecting a 1917 Penny, led to me looking it up and seeing there were KN and H versions for 1918 and 1919. KN Kings Norton has significance to me as my paternal; Grandparents were born there and resulted in me purchasing a 1919 KN Penny , the year of my Grandfathers birth.
Therefore a dated Victorian onward coin, pre Decimal, do you look it up or just put it in the old coin jar ?
Cheers,
Dave.

[figgis]

Can't say as I do look them up, Dave, though maybe I should. Aside from anything else, some have value. After hearing on a video that the finder wished that his Victoria penny was an 1860 issue I checked my books to find I had one That was a while ago and should have spurred me on to checking every coin but I don't.

[Easylife]

I have two tubs for the pre-decimal coppers, one for the really bad condition ones, and another for the better condition ones. I don't look at the dates or look up any to see if they are rare as I can do that any time in one big batch after sorting them. On my pasture I frequently find coppers each trip so it's kind of same old. But I can perfectly understand them being of more interest if they only seldom come up. I think that even any rare ones would need to be in half decent nick to have any value.

I still haven't read up on the George III Irish halfpenny Dave, but will do sometime!

[Mucky]

I remember when I started detecting I use to carefully examine every coin. Now I just Chuck them in my pile and when I get round to sorting out the pile the pre decimals just get a quick rinse dried then end up in my coin jars. I still have them of course but it would be a huge task now to look at the dates on that lot!

[Saffron]

When I find any readable predecimal coin I always make a note of the date, and record it with the rest of the days finds. I might also make an odd note (eg for Victoria which of her heads its is .... that reads badly! ... lets try again ... which design of her head it is!), for the older ones I will make a note of the Spinks number.

But I never go to the stage of checking if its rare or not for Victoria onwards.

I have just realised what a mistake this might be

Take a 1877 Queen Victoria penny: there are several slightly different designs for both the obverse and reverse .
For obverse 8 and reverse J (using 2019 Spinks) its worth £2 (what I thought would be a reasonable price for any Victoria penny).
BUT ....
For the same obverse 8 if the reverse was design H its worth £3,250

Yes that is correct ...... £3,250 for a Victoria penny.

Evan

ps: Sorry can not post any more tonight as I have a heap of old coins to check

[Easylife]

ps: Sorry can not post any more tonight as I have a heap of old coins to check

I see it just like those competitions where you are supposed to check the code on the wrapper to see if you have won, I just put them straight in the bin without checking, what are the chances, I just can't be bothered!

But then again, I wonder what grade any coppers that have laid in the ground for 100 years or more would be?
Would a super rare crusty be in any demand? I don't think so!

[Saffron]

I see it just like those competitions where you are supposed to check the code on the wrapper to see if you have won, I just put them straight in the bin without checking, what are the chances, I just can't be bothered!

The other week I bought a box of a well known breakfast cereal. A few days after I opened it and as putting it back on the shelf noticed it said about a competition. As waiting for kettle to boil I stopped and read the details ..... normal blurb ... and "find your unique number on the inside of the box and check online to to see if you have won".

As about to go on the computer and time to spare looked inside the box.

it was BLANK !!

The odds might normally be only 1 in a thousand, but at least give me that remote chance.

Evan

[Easylife]

it was BLANK !!
The odds might normally be only 1 in a thousand, but at least give me that remote chance.

But it just did not, it gave you absolutely zero chance if there was no code at all!
I just don't bother as they only really want your details to spam you!

Right best get back on topic!
Are all Victorian or later coppers made of the same metal composition? Do some survive better than others?

[Saffron]

<cut>

Right best get back on topic!
Are all Victorian or later coppers made of the same metal composition? Do some survive better than others?

Sorry mods

A quick look through Spinks gives no indication of any change in the composition of copper (1) coins from the start of Victoria's reign until decimalisation in 1971. My feeling (not scientific) is that coins for all of this period survive at the same level.

Evan


Edit: (1) I do know that for this period the farthing, half penny and penny were actually made of bronze and not copper; but I am old and when I was young we always called them "coppers" - hence why I put "copper" here (I expect the same applies to Easylife when he used the term in his post).

[Easylife]

Are all Victorian or later coppers made of the same metal composition?

From 1797 to 1859 pennies were made of copper, then after made of bronze.
In 1857 a survey by the Royal Mint found that around one third of all copper coinage was worn or mutilated. These new coins were minted in bronze, and their specifications were no longer constrained by the onerous requirement that their face value should match the value of the base metal used to make the coin. These new coins were introduced in 1860 and a year later the withdrawal of the old copper coinage began.