Princetane's Growing Collection Of British Coins

That is a great coin, I don't have any QA's at all, something to strive towards.

Your intake of small silvers is exceptional, well done. And very entertaining.

Been a bit slack due to family stuff and a stamp show in which I won a major prize and custody of a 75 year old Interclub trophy covered in silver plaques!

Back to late August at the coin shop, in amongst the groats I brought this 1898 Halfcrown, which was a date that had eluded me.


A very nice piece in EF with deep recessed lustre traces. I suspect this coin is in original condition too.

The Direction of my English coin collecting and thrust of this thread

Although I am doing small coins now, I decided when I collected UK and English coins, not to collect all at once but in sections

First Halfcrowns - as starting big would bring a nice base to build on (Starting on Threepences and working up would be boring my opinion)

Then Florins, which I started seriously in August 2020 about 9 months after halfcrowns.

Exactly one year later (Aug 2021) I started on shilings and now as you see (Aug/Sep 2022) I decided sixpences were next, but as I already had good bases for these coins, adding all the others into the mix (3d, groats, 3 halfpences and Maundy) would help too.

I already had most of the pennies, halfpence and farthings.

So the next step is by late 2023 to move onto Crowns and Double Florins (Expensive) and by the end of the decade because of cost, finally the Gold!

Possibly between the Crowns and Gold, I may also start on medieval or at least pre 1500s stuff, because at the moment 90% of my material is 1816 or later and the 10% that is not is mostly 1660s to 1780s and just 4 of my coins are 1500s (2 shillings you have and 2 sixpences coming up). I count these as modern coins as they were denominations not issued before the 1500s. Plus you can read these coins in Latin letters and script, whereas Pre Tudor stuff is in medieval witchy poo Latin and Lombardic lettering.

After this blab, the final coin from that shop in, a worn but nice 1905 3d that cost like $4 or something. It completes my "1905 Year set"



Finally I brought 3 other coins, Australian and Fijian which fall outside the scope of this thread. The coins are visible on the "Acquisitions thread" in the Australia/Pacific section.

In amongst that excitement, I forgot that group of shillings I brought. I still collect all the other denominations as I start new ones, as coins pop up spasmodically.

This group of 4 were quite cheap at around $50 for all of them and it features a 1844 shilling in fine but heavily stained.


The staining suggests such a coin was at the bottom of the sea for decades, in an old well or cesspit. NZ's earliest history is mid 19th century and with all the building activity now (Esp after Chch earthquakes), 19th century remains are exposed all the times and often old coins are found, being Georgian (As in post 1815 material), Victorian etc - well even British coins suggest a pre 1910 and definite pre 1934 context.

Gold coins cause real interest, but mostly its stained old silver coins like this and bronze coins including pennies and of course Tradesmen's tokens from the 1850s to 1880s. The coins are exciting and historic but seldom worth more than a few dollars.

Last year a metal dectectorist found a 1817 sixpence on a old site in Auckland which had building remains back to the 1840s. Thinking the coin was worth thousands, it was actually worth around $20 in Fine condition like my shilling above! He could not keep it as anything over 100 years old is considered an artefact and thus an archaeological treasure. He felt he was been hornswoggled, it took major coin dealers to prove this fact to him.

The myth of "It's old, so it must be priceless still exists"

If this man is not convinced, I can invite him here and let him know he can have an Elizabethan 6d over 400 years old for less than a tank of fuel!

Also amongst that group was these 3 very stained shillings from 1873, 1874 and 1875. Under the gunk, they are mostly aVG/aFine.


1873 almost Fine, 1874 almost VG, 1975 VG/VG+

Like the 1880.

The 1878, don't recall getting one from that year - the 1876 maybe. Yes I like those coins too - but I am very fond of the lesser ones like the 1909 and 1844 shilling too.

Continuing on, the high grade Victorian sixpences just keep coming!


Here we have the real deal EF one from 1885, if you loved 1876 and 1880 you are going to love that one!


How about an almost UNC one from 1887 and this is the shield sixpence that lasted a few months and changed back to the crown and wreath, because people tried to plate them and pass them off as half sovereigns (Gold coins worth 20x as much face value). Fortunately this one was souvenired like a lot of 1887 dated coins and had 135 years of careful handling before I got it.

Lets go back 300 years to my oldest sixpences!


Yes 1587 when Elizabeth was queen and executions and heart shaped ruffs were her obsession. This ancient piece cost no more than the Victorian bling above it - very historic, mintmark is crescent.


This one is not fully readable datewise but the hand mintmark suggests its 1590 or 1592 as the blob on the fourth digit should be is too wide for a 1 and hand was only on 1590 to 1592 coins.
This one is cleaned too I believe, the 1587 is not.

The joy of these hammered coins is they are much thinner than later coins and their size is bigger than a shilling.

Lovely additions!

Thanks, coming into the last few weeks now.


EF 1928 6d, got it cheap, but took a long time to arrive as the sender lives high up in the mountains of the South Island and there was a 1 in 100 year blizzard (We have had 8 1 in 100 year storms this year) The wait was worth it.


Next came my biggest purchase of 2022, this very rare and beautiful Wreath Crown of 1929, these are true rarities and very beautiful. Its probably the best coin I have brought since the 1731 Half crown back in early 2021!

That crown is a mighty coin. Stunning (obligatory oohs and ahhs).

How do your op shop ladies come across these old pre-dec GB coins in NZ?