Coin Collector

On 10 August, five million 50p coins celebrating the coronation of His Majesty Charles III entered circulation. Featuring a design produced by Royal Mint coin designer Natasha Jenkins to celebrate His Majesty’s coronation earlier this year, the new c

The British Association of Numismatic Societies (BANS) is holding its Autumn Conference from Friday, 8 September until Sunday, 10 September at the Stratford Manor Hotel, Stratford-Upon-Avon. Starting on the Friday evening, the event offers a wide ran

Eight months after the theft of gold coins from the Celtic-Roman Museum in Manching, Bavaria, reported on in Issue 18 of Coin Collector, police have announced that four suspects were arrested on 18 July. The Bavarian Criminal Police Office stated tha

In July, The Royal Mint Museum welcomed back a friction screw press made by the Birmingham firm of Taylor & Challen. This large machine was another of the museum’s large machines that has been expertly conserved and restored by Penybryn Engineering L

Stack’s Bowers Galleries in the USA have launched their Coin Resource Center, an online reference guide for all United States coins. The Coin Resource Center, available on the Stack’s Bowers Galleries website, is an in-depth digital archive of numism

The Ashmolean Museum has announced that Dr Frédérique Duyrat, Director of the Department of Coins, Medals and Antiques at the Bibliothèque Nationale de France since 2015, will succeed Professor Chris Howgego as Director of Collections and Keeper of t

The American Numismatic Association (ANA) has awarded its highest honour, the Chester L Krause Memorial Distinguished Service Award of 2023, to Dr Mike Fuljenz. Over the past four decades, Dr Fuljenz, who is president of Universal Coin and Bullion in

Excavations in the ruins of a medieval monastery in Germany have uncovered four 500-year-old gold coins. The discovery was made in the abandoned Himmelpforten Monastery, near the town of Wernigerode in Saxony-Anhalt state. It is believed the coins co

The demolition of a 1940s building in Portsmouth, which is now part of the city’s university, has uncovered a time capsule containing a King George VI half crown. Thought to have been buried on 9 May 1949 during ceremonies to mark the start of constr

In Australia, the Noble auction on 25–28 July included a very rare New South Wales holey dollar, which was Australia’s first minted coin (lot 1556). Created to address a shortage of coins in the new colony, Governor Lachlan Macquarie imported 40,000

The British Numismatic Society has developed an exciting web resource, which maps and provides information on the coin hoards of Britain and Ireland, c. 450–1544. All coin enthusiasts should find the website fascinating, as well as easy to use after

The announcement of a hoard of coins seems like a nearly weekly occurrence for the UK and the rest of Europe. Such finds are very rare in the United States, and it was my good fortune to be part of an amazing discovery in my home state of Kentucky. A

The short-lived Central American Republic produced some of the most attractive coinage seen on the market today. The characteristic Sun face with five peaks is a famous design that has been getting a lot of attention in auctions around the world. In

Ask a number of people in the UK to name one of the seven Anglo-Saxon kingdoms, and Mercia would perhaps be the most frequently mentioned. Although not a currently existing county or administrative area like Northumbria or Sussex – irrespective, both

In the last issue of this magazine, I looked at some of the things that could go wrong in the course of producing a coin using the hammered technique, that is striking a coin between two dies by hand. Now, it is time to look at some other problems wi

Since Queen Victoria’s 50th Jubilee in 1887, official medals have been issued to commemorate the various coronations and jubilees. The medals have been awarded to selected individuals and are worn with other British medals, ranking after campaign med

A penny coin clipped by sharp-shooting circus star Annie Oakley sold at auction for £5120 at Bonhams in May. Annie Oakley, acclaimed as ‘the greatest wing shot in the world’, was the star of Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show, which visited the UK in 1887

The Royal Canadian Mint issued a new $1 commemorative circulation coin on 1 August honouring Elsie MacGill, an exceptional Canadian who broke barriers as an engineer and women’s rights champion. Responsible for many firsts as a woman studying and pra

On 24 July, The Royal Mint unveiled the latest coin in its Music Legends series, which this time is celebrating The Police. Coinciding with the 40th anniversary of the band’s classic, triple-GRAMMY-winning album Synchronicity, this release is the fir

To celebrate the year of art nouveau in Belgium, the Royal Mint of Belgium has issued a unique €2 coin, which is Belgium’s first €2 coin dedicated to an artistic movement. The movement began in 1893, when the architect Victor Horta put the finishing

A new €7.50 coin has been issued by the Portuguese Mint (Imprensa Nacional-Casa da Moeda) to celebrate the 125th anniversary of the Vasco da Gama Aquarium in Lisbon. Titled ‘Literacy of the Seas’, the coin helps to highlight the importance of preserv

The earliest minted coins were literally made one at a time, by hammering or punching a design into metal using a die. Experimental archaeology has shown that using this technique, 100 Lydian lions could be made in an hour. The process required two,

We have a Brilliant Uncirculated Star Wars 50p to give away in this issue’s competition. The recently issued 50p is from a galaxy far, far away (well, it’s from The Royal Mint in Wales actually) and features a colour image of droids R2-D2 and C-3PO.