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Heaton/Birmingham Mint Advertising, Specimen And Pattern Pieces

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jbuck's Avatar
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 Posted 04/06/2025  02:15 am  Show Profile   Bookmark this reply Add bhmtokens to your friends list Get a Link to this Reply
Scan Coin is a company located in Sweden. Their business started in the mid sixties and they made coin counting and sorting machine. They have since grown to provide more services for coins and bills including design. These are token were used by Scan Coin to calibrate their machines in the late '90's

There are other Scan Coin tokens out there that were made by other mints to use in their calibration.


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 Posted 04/08/2025  1:42 pm  Show Profile   Bookmark this reply Add bhmtokens to your friends list Get a Link to this Reply
This is one of my favourite set of specimen tokens issued by The Mint, Birmingham. Best guess is they were struck in the 1890's. All of them are 38mm. They are all difficult to find. I have the first one shown and I am constantly on the quest to find the others. There could possibly be other variations or other metal compositions too.


Bronze


CuNi


Nickel-Silver/Unifaced


Bronze/Unifaced


Silvered Bronze/Uniface
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 Posted 04/08/2025  11:07 pm  Show Profile   Bookmark this reply Add Errers and Varietys to your friends list Get a Link to this Reply
Nice examples!
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 Posted 04/26/2025  11:39 am  Show Profile   Bookmark this reply Add bhmtokens to your friends list Get a Link to this Reply
William Raymond Pierce King was the managing director of The Mint, Birmingham from 1960 to 1973. These were trial pieces and calling cards for Mr. King.

CuNi

Silver

Gilt Brass

The next two are different as 'supplier' has been changed to 'suppliers'


CuNi

Plated Steel

They are all just under 30mm in diameter. There is rumour that there is a Stainless Steel variety but I have not seen it yet. Both varieties of the CuNi are the easiest to find. Any other metal version is considered very rare.
Edited by bhmtokens
04/26/2025 4:13 pm
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 Posted 04/26/2025  10:32 pm  Show Profile   Bookmark this reply Add Errers and Varietys to your friends list Get a Link to this Reply
Nice additions, bhmtokens.
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 Posted 05/12/2025  9:33 pm  Show Profile   Bookmark this reply Add bhmtokens to your friends list Get a Link to this Reply
I had some fun the other day and got a number tokens and medals tested for their metal content. A few surprises were had.

The next four pieces use the same die setup, but the metal and/or finishing are different. They are all 45mm in diameter.


875 Silver, 45.2g, Hallmarked


875 Silver Proof, 45.0g, Hallmarked


Copper Silver Alloy, Proof finish, 43.2g


CuproNickel, Proof finish. 38.7g

I am always learning something. Cheers!
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 Posted 05/12/2025  10:14 pm  Show Profile   Bookmark this reply Add Errers and Varietys to your friends list Get a Link to this Reply
Very cool, bhmtokens.
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 Posted 05/20/2025  12:56 pm  Show Profile   Bookmark this reply Add bhmtokens to your friends list Get a Link to this Reply
What I have today is a set of specimen Euros made by the Birmingham Mint.

There has been a lot on conjecture as to what these pieces were for, how many were made and how many are currently in private hands. Here is the story about the Birmingham Mint specimen euro coins.

The Birmingham Mint was involved, along with other European mints and blank manufacturers, in defining the technical specifications for the blanks used for the new Euro coins. The original specifications were adopted in May, 1998. After consultation with some stakeholders, the final technical specifications were adopted in February 1999. The Birmingham Mint Specimen Euro coins were minted on blanks from the original specifications of 1998.

The Birmingham Mint was vying to get contracts to supply blanks to the mints of Europe. They wanted to show potential customers the quality of their blanks. Specimen pieces were minted on actual Euro blanks the Birmingham Mint produced. There were 65 presentation sets made and distributed to mint masters throughout Europe. There were also some 'pouch' sets that Birmingham Mint employees carried with them as salesman's samples.

In late 1998, The European Commissioner who oversaw the quality of the Euro, saw these specimen pieces and deemed them to be counterfeit because they were the exact size, weight and metal composition of proposed new Euro coins. He ordered them to be destroyed.

Most of the sets were re-obtained by the Birmingham Mint and destroyed. There were a few sets unaccounted for and remain in private hands. It is estimated that less than 10 full presentation sets and a few 'pouch' sets still remain.

This information was provided by Mr. K. Binnion who was the Engineering Manager of The Birmingham Mint, and oversaw the production of the Euro blanks and the collection and destruction of the 'counterfeit' specimens.

I have included a photo of a presentation set and a photo of the 20 Euro Cent specimen.




Another nugget of information. the Birmingham Mint never officially minted any Euro coins. They did however strike some 2 Euro coins for the Royal Dutch Mint in secret. The Birmingham Mint was already producing the blanks for the RDM but the RDM was struggling in striking the 2 Euro coin.
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 Posted 05/20/2025  11:28 pm  Show Profile   Bookmark this reply Add Errers and Varietys to your friends list Get a Link to this Reply
Very cool, bhmtokens! Thank you for sharing.
Errers and Varietys.
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