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Looking for help on UK coins

Started by info-I-look, February 10, 2011, 06:46:30 PM

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info-I-look

Hi I am working on a story with my 12 year old daughter were we find a treasure bag of British coins dating from 1850. We are looking for a site to find discriptions of coins from that time and what their value would be today. This is a learning experiance for us both and we are having fun at it. If anyone can help point us in the right direction it would be greatly appreciated. 
Thankyou,

translateltd

Sounds like a fun project - Tony Clayton's site http://www.coins-of-the-uk.co.uk/ may be a good one for starters.


info-I-look

Thankyou so much. Great site, just what we needed.

;D

UK Decimal +

Another site which you might find useful is Numismaster, where you should fill in (1) World, (2) Great Britain and then the date [1850].   This will give you the coins of that year.

The coins in everyday use in 1850 would be (in order, highest value first):-

Half-Crown (code KM#740, Silver) Eight of these to One Pound

Shilling (code KM#734.1, Silver) Twenty to One Pound

Sixpence (code  KM#733.1, Silver) Two to One Shilling

Three-Pence (code KM#730, Silver) Four to One Shilling

Penny (code KM#739, Copper) Twelve to One Shilling

Farthing (KM#725, Copper) Four to One Penny

BUT, for the really valuable coins, you need:-

Sovereign (KM#736.1, Gold) One Pound

Half-Sovereign (KM#725.1) Ten Shillings

I've listed all the ones that would be in everyday use, but if it was TREASURE, it must be SOVEREIGNS.   The coin known as a "Gold Sovereign" was One Pound as we now know it.   The use of the words 'Pound' and 'Sovereign' were different only because of the Gold content.

I hope that this is useful to you.   Any more information, just ask.

Bill.
Ilford, Essex, near London, England.

People look for problems and complain.   Engineers find solutions but people still complain.

Figleaf

#4
Small reminder: in 1850, coins struck before 1816 no longer circulated.

Bags of coins tend to be monochrome. Either gold coins with a smattering of silver or silver coins with a few gold pieces. Copper is too heavy compared to value and "downstairs" money anyway. Middle class owner would leave a bag strong on threepenny bits (church collections, hackney's) and sixpences. Upper class owner would prefer sovereigns and halfcrowns, but calculate in guineas (21 shillings). Silver 1, 2, 4 pence were struck (maundy money) but didn't circulate. Crowns were unpopular (too heavy), but they were hoarded, especially by upper class children.

You should consider that in 1850, paper money was already common. Gold was used mostly for hoarding and showing off. However, paper money is quite vulnerable to moisture. It all depends on where you find the bag...

To calculate the value of 1850 sums of money in present day, use this claculator:
http://www.measuringworth.com/ukcompare/

I would recommend to use the retail price index. The other factors are fun, but can be challenged.

Peter
An unidentified coin is a piece of metal. An identified coin is a piece of history.