Well It Had To Happen Sooner Or Later!

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Originally posted by Ætheling

I must confess I haven't actually seen one! My last UK catalogue is dated 1999. :D

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Your kidding, right? You live in the UK and you haven't seen one yet?

Wow, that's WAY back!! I remember seeing some UK coins (at least I think they were UK coins) from the Crusades and thought they were really cool looking. I always thought I would like one but I bet they are VERY expensive.

Well they are ultimately the cheaper ones. I do have some erm decidedly 'not so cheap' ones loitering around.

In fact a tenth century penny is due to arrive in the mail tomorrow for my set, although i'll not be in so i'll have to collect it on friday! Grrr... still can't have it all your own way I suppose.

Right Edward I coins were minted between 1272-1307, Edward I was also known as Longshanks, of Braveheart fame. So in answer to your question these coins were exactly what was circulating in England when William Wallace was around! I say England because these are English coins minted in England (as the UK did not exist as an institution until 1603) Scotland, Ireland and England were all separate countries.

In about 1280 or so though the king of Scotland Alexander III had died after falling off of a cliff (a tragic but rather amusing accident), unfortunately he only left behind a daughter who was very young and she died not long after. Thus Scotland had no king and was threatening to tear itself apart with internal disputes between rival claims. Thus the nobles of Scotland asked Edward I (who was busy conquering Wales at the time) if he'd like to step in and nominate a successor. So he did.

A guy called John Balliol was picked (Edward figured John would be a useful ally to have), the other Scots resented this choice. But problems became worse when Edward decided to take advantage of the situation, why rule Scotland through John when you can rule it direct? So he attemptesd the conquest of Scotland... he had some success but it wasn't all he'd hoped for.

Edward II (the somewhat effeminate figure in Braveheart) came to the throne in 1307 and subsequently lost the lot, he lost Scotland by 1314 and by 1327 he'd lost England too (to his wife and her lover)... before he was murdered in a rather gruesome fashion with a red hot poker later that year.

England and Scotland had separate currency at that particular time.

As for where to buy I'll stick a link up later.

Hey Ætheling, it looks like you've lured in another one!

Seriously, the hammered issues are incredible since each one is handmade, each is also unique in its own way.

Although I must stress by the time you get to 1400 the isuue of cleaned coins becomes iffy. By 1500 and later it's best to avoid them because as the coins begin to look more like the modern coins (i.e Tudor coins with profile portraits) the standards set on modern issues become to be followed more and more.

Now with my tenth century type set it's more a matter of getting what's available whilst it's available. Cleaned is the least of your worries getting it without chips, nibbles, clipping and hopefully if you're lucky in one piece is good going.

Oh trust me dealers usually state whether it's cleaned ornot by the 1500s, suggests to me that people must have complained before. Earlier coins it's not usually mentionned, I think it's aken to be a fact that if it's a certain age then it will have been cleaned at some stage.

I have a small collection of British coins.
Love maundy pennies but they are hard to come by this side of the Atlantic without having to buy the whole set..