Guide to Coin Collecting

HOW MUCH IS A COIN WORTH?

Retail Price: £27,500 4064B	Retail Price: £2 4112
[The numbers relate to those in the Standard Catalogue]

The date can also make a significant difference to the retail value of a coin.

The coin on the left is a 1933 George V penny, while the one the right is the exact coin issued a year later. No pennies were issued for general circulation in 1933. However, at least seven pennies bearing this were struck. Three were part of date sets placed under foundation stones, two were presented to the British Museum and two found their way to collectors. A 1933 penny in good condition would retail for at least £40,000 today, while a 1934 penny would command up to £15 in really good condition.



State of preservation
While the design, legend, mintmark or date are extremely important in determining a coin’s value, a coin’s exact condition is absolutely crucial when determining a coin’s value. Even the minutest wear, which is barely noticeable to the eyes of a layman, can radically affect a coin’s worth. A coin could be worth £1000 in absolutely mint state, but not even £1 if very badly worn.

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In Europe coins are graded by a descriptive classification. As the grading of a coin is a subjective matter, it will be no surprise to learn that opinions can differ. Rather like beauty, the state of a coin’s preservation is in the eyes of the beholder. Like all skills, the grading of coins can only be acquired over time by handling actual specimens. The descriptive terms used in dealers’ lists, sale catalogues and standard catalogues are:


Fleur de Coin (FDC)
This grading classification is the ultimate in condition. It applies only to a coin that is in perfect mint state, i.e. the piece is in absolutely perfect condition. Even the faintest and smallest of scratches (referred to collectively as ‘hairlines’) could bar a coin from being awarded the unqualified FDC tag.

Brilliant Uncirculated (BU)
Relative to the period in which coins have been collected, this is a new term. Strictly it should only be applied to ‘modern coins’, i.e. those struck from the beginning of the nineteenth century. Automated mint production results in every currency coin leaving the mint bearing imperfections, i.e. hairline scratches and small edge knocks to the rim of the pieces, caused by their contact with other coins. These marks will be revealed only upon close inspection and not by a cursory glance with the naked eye. To qualify for the addition of the word ‘Brilliant’, an uncirculated coin has to have retained its full lustrous colour, i.e. be as ‘bright’ as on the day it was struck. In technical terms, this means ‘a full mint lustre’. Such pieces sell at a premium over their ‘dull’ counterparts. One also sees the degree of lustre qualified, i.e. ‘with 70 per cent lustre’. The term BU is particularly useful where bronze, copper or nickel-brass coins are concerned. Attempts to revitalise a toned or tarnished specimen by chemical means can be detected immediately by the experienced eye. Such coins lack true lustre and are pale and ‘pasty’, with a pinkish tinge in the case of bronze specimens.

Uncirculated (UNC)
This term is used to describe coins which have never been in circulation, but which have lost their original mint lustre owing to exposure to the atmosphere.

Extremely Fine (EF)
A coin described as EF should be virtually perfect; in other words it should show little sign of having been in circulation. Upon close inspection (a x10 or x8 magnifying glass is very useful), very slight wear on the high points of the design will be revealed. Additionally, there will be a greater number of hairline scratches than those on an uncirculated coin.

Very Fine (VF)
This term is used to describe the grade of a coin that shows definite signs of circulation. While having lost the sharpness of EF specimens, the general detail will still be very clear. Slight wear will be seen on the raised surfaces of the design.

Fine (F)
Noticeable signs of wear will be seen on the raised parts of the design, indicating that the coin has seen considerable circulation, or that the design is weak owing to faulty striking. Although the main features of pieces so graded will be quite bold and clear, the details of the design will have a faded quality.

Fair
A coin in this condition will be worn, but the legend and main features of the design will still be distinguishable. This grading will also be applied to coins that were very weakly struck.

Poor
This indicates a very worn piece. A coin in this condition has no value as a collectors’ piece, unless it is extremely rare. The United States term used for this state of preservation is Fair.

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Grading may be qualified by the use of Good Extremely Fine (GEF or EF+) or Nearly Very Fine (NVF) and so on, indicating that the piece is better than, or nearly in, a certain state of preservation. You may also encounter EF/VF, which signifies that the obverse is Extremely Fine and the reverse Very Fine. A coin described as VF-EF means that the coin is between Very Fine and Extremely Fine condition. This may be because of uneven wear or faulty striking. Phrases like ‘bold Fine’, or ‘pleasing EF’ are self-explanatory. The cataloguer in such instances is attempting to express the general appearance and desirability of the coin.

A common fault amongst collectors is to over-grade and consequently to overvalue, coins. The same unfortunately applies to some coin dealers. A combination of a lack of experience in grading and purchasing from a dealer who is ‘optimistic’ in this direction, can spell disaster for the newcomer. It is therefore essential for anyone in their early days of collecting to purchase from established and experienced dealers of good repute. Possibly tempted by a discount below the prevailing ‘catalogue price’, the new collector may find that he or she has purchased a Good Very Fine specimen for ten per cent or so below the going rate for an Extremely Fine example, i.e. has paid £250 for something worth £150.

Having carefully scrutinised the surface of a coin, do not forget to inspect its edge. Whether or not coins have been in circulation, they could well have been dropped on a hard surface at some period during their life. This could result in an ‘edge knock’. When you are handling a coin, you should always guard against accidentally dropping the piece by ensuring that you hold it above a soft surface such as a carpeted floor, or a jeweller’s padded tray. Needless to say, edge knocks do reduce the value of a coin. Likewise an item that has been mounted for use as jewellery will similarly sell at a discount to an unmounted example. Examine particularly the edge of any gold coin for the tell-tale scratch marks of a ring mount that may have been placed round the piece’s circumference. Beware too of specimens that have had a soldered fixed mount removed. Quite often there could have been an attempt to disguise damage to the milled edge caused by the removal of the mount by ‘renovating’ the milling.



Demand
It will be appreciated that the general state of the economy plays an important part in the overall demand for coins as it does in any other sector of the market for fine art. Also the demand for a particular series of coins can also fall in relation to the total demand for coins generally. This is so with ancient Greek and Roman coins, where the emphasis away from a classical education is said to be the reason for proportionately fewer of the total number of collectors showing an interest in these coinages. The reverse can also happen. For example, up until the late 1970s, little attention was paid to the fascinating Islamic coinages of the Middle East. Arabs themselves were not attracted to their past coinage and consequently the market for Islamic coins was confined to a small band of dedicated scholars and collectors. However, all this altered when Arabs developed a growing awareness of their cultural heritage and began to form collections of numismatic treasures.



Availability
Prices in a free market are determined by the interaction of supply and demand. In economic terms, price tends towards the level that equates supply and demand. This sounds very complicated, but it is not. At any moment in time, the number of genuine coins available to collectors is fixed in number. However, the supply of coins into the market does vary over time. Should the demand exceed supply, then prices will rise. The opposite is true when their supply is greater than the demand.

Of course, while the total number of coins cannot increase, it will be appreciated that the whereabouts of all coins is not known. Although we have no idea of their numbers, vast quantities of coins were buried in the past for safekeeping. The discovery of any hoard of coins is of great importance to numismatic scholars. In many cases they are the sole guide as to the coinage in circulation at a given period in the past. Consequently they help the historian in determining trade patterns and are the main aid to the academic numismatist for dating and classifying coins.

As a result, laws in many parts of the world require all coin hoards to be handed to the relevant authorities and are retained permanently for study. In Britain, a more flexible approach is taken and specimens not required by museums are returned to their finders - and they receive the full market value for those not handed back. Consequently not all coins discovered find their way to the market. For example, the 14,780 Roman gold and silver coins and around 200 other gold and silver objects discovered by a treasure seeker in November 1992 at Hoxne, Suffolk were retained for the nation by the British Museum. The finder received a payment of £1.75 million.

However, in June 1993 a metal detecting enthusiast discovered a hoard of just over 5,000 coins contained in three pots at Middleham in Yorkshire. This was the largest hoard of coins of the Civil Wars period ever to have been discovered. Although a few of the coins were retained by museums, most were returned to the finder who decided to sell them at auction. Their condition was mixed and with a few exceptions, the coins were sold in multiple lots. The whole hoard realised nearly £77,000 at Spink Coin Auctions in July 1995. Despite the volume of the material flooding on to the market, the demand was strong and prices generally higher than was expected. Certainly supply did not exceed demand and prices did not dip.

In May 2003, Spink sold the first portion of the Slaney Collection, a remarkable collection of British coins formed in the 1940s and 1950s. Described as an embarras de richesse (ie a superfluity of good things), every seat was taken in the saleroom with furious floor bidding taking place throughout the event. More price records were broken than at any London sale in living memory.

Of course, collectors may dispose of coins so as to up-grade their collections. Alternatively, they may decide to sell a few choice coins in order to obtain a great rarity. Few private collections have remained intact to be handed down from one generation to the next. Almost inevitably, either the people who have spent a lifetime forming a cabinet of coins, or their heirs, decide to sell. Consequently, the pieces that have been siphoned from the market over many years return ‘en bloc’. The market’s reaction to the return of the material is a little like the father welcoming the homecoming of the prodigal son. The more discerning the collector, the more ecstatic is the numismatic fraternity. The sale inevitably acts as a catalyst in the market; in other words, although the supply of available coins has been increased at a stroke, demand rises proportionately more. This situation has become more noticeable in recent years, emphasising that quality coins are becoming more difficult to find. The market has never experienced a state of saturation on the disposal of a quality collection.

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