Why do people collect rare English coins?

Why do people collect rare English coins?

Coin collecting, especially English coin collecting has remained very popular from generation to generation. People like to collect things. That’s pretty much a given. And people like to collect things that remind them of specific times in their lives, and sometimes, of times gone by in general. Also, some people develop and interest or even a passion for history and relish the possibility of holding a genuine piece of history from that era and imagine that it might have been handled by an important person of the time.

What better way to touch history in your hand than by collecting old coins and one of the most important countries of the last two thousand years was England. Hence English Coin collecting has remained popular for many many years. Coin collectors seek out the best examples of the rarest coins and they hoard them and hold them (sleeved or encased of course – you really don’t want to get damaging finger marks on an uncirculated or a proof coin!)

Coins are fantastically tactile objects. Old worn English coins can happily be handled and tossed, flipped and generally played with. Imagine who might have held your George III sixpence hundreds of years ago. Look at your Queen Elizabeth I half groat and try and work out where that coin might have been on it’s 500 year journey to your coin collection. Imagine being able to pop online to buy a genuine Elizabethan coin,  Elizabeth I that is, a coin that was struck in the realm of this amazingly enigmatic Queen, for under £20! Well now you can thanks to the wonders of the internet and Rare British coins  pulling together all the best and most interesting English coin sales and auctions into one handy page for each type of rare British coin.

Obviously rare English coin prices go up and rare coin prices go down and if you are lucky you can get a very good deal, otherwise British Coin prices tend to be relatively stable thanks to the long established British Coin price guides available.

Another reason why people collect coins is because they are small, and, silly as it may sound, a coin collection is easy to house and manage. If you collect coins you may want to get yourself a coin cabinet, or you might make do with a folder with removable plastic pocketed sheets to keep your coins clean and organised. If you wanted to collect Cellos then that wouldn’t be an option. You would need acres of space. Coins, on the other hand can fit into the smallest house or flat.

Some people also buy coins for status. There are so many brilliant gold coins out there for sale and auction that owning one is a real thrill for many numismatics. Owning a gold coin doesn’t have to be ultra expensive either. Recently struck half sovereigns can be bought for under £100 online even allowing for the surge in gold prices thanks to the recession (see our page on the right hand side) and full sovereigns for around £150 –  sometimes more sometimes less. These coins are amongst the most famous in the world and symbolise much about what made Britain one of the greatest industrialised nations. The very thought of being able to spend a real gold coin up until fairly recently is very exciting and so sovereigns and half sovereigns often have pride of place amongst rare British coin collections in the same way that Penny Blacks are sought out by stamp collectors.

Another exciting thing about coin collecting is seeking out coins that have been made in error. Indeed, the most famous recent error were a batch of undated 20p pieces minted in 2008 which are now appearing for sale for huge prices. Who knows what they will end up selling for in fifty years time. Check your change, you never know your luck you might end up with one of these next time you go and buy a newspaper!

Ultimately it doesn’t matter whether your collection of coins is valuable or not, what is important is that you enjoy it, cherish it, and hopefully learn some history from it. Whatever your reason for collecting coins, we hope you will find our site helpful if enabling you to find good and well priced rare British coins to add to your collection.