THE AUGUST EDITION OF COINS NEWS, BRITAIN'S MOST POPULAR COIN MAGAZINE, IS NOW ON SALE! Get the August edition of Coin News from newsagents, from the Token Publishing office or through our website www.tokenpublishing.com
News-Antique.com - Jul 16,2008 - ARTICLES IN THIS MONTH'S MAGAZINE:
Trajan Ladies
The women behind the Emperor
Dates for Deliberation
Examining the years of scarcer issues from the Royal Mint
Andrew Stafford
Meeting the new Deputy Master
Henry Morgan - Part III
Concluding a numismatic detective story
India's reclusive numismatists - Part II
Behind the scenes with India's coin enthusiasts
Leather, Card & ceramic tokens
A fascinating look at these alternative tokens
Essay Competition winners
Winner of the Open Section
Lyndsay Bedogni shares his story
The dating game II
A further look at dating conundrums
The Bahrain counterfeit
A strange story of a little known counterfeit
Guernsey and its banknote issues
Notes from a beautiful Island
A classical numismatist
John Andrew talks with Jeremy Cheek
REGULAR FEATURES:
Editor's Comment
Coin news & views
Around the World
New issues coin update
Royal Mint Bulletin
Market Scene
Price Guide - double florins & crowns
The Lexicon
Coin Classroom
Spotlight on the sovereign
Banknote News
Bookshelf
New issues banknote update
Price Guide - Guernsey notes
From the archives
Letters to the Editor
Dealers' list
Fair diary
Auction diary
Societies diary
Semi-display adverts
The Web Page
Classified Advertising
Advertisers Index
MAKING IT HAPPEN
As I am sure you’re aware (at least I hope you are after all the coverage in COIN NEWS) Britain has a new set of reverse designs on its coinage. The “jigsaw puzzle” of the Royal Shield spread across the six lower denomination coins was launched in April and up and down the country the general public (well some of us) are eagerly looking out to see when these new coins will come into circulation. Some have, it appears, been spotted in Slough (see “Readers’ Letters”) and we look forward to hearing from other eagle-eyed readers with regard to when they appear in your change elsewhere. In the meantime, however, some confusion has come about with the release of coins dated 2008 but bearing the old reverses (we’ve seen 5p pieces and pennies so far). This has led to a flurry of emails, letters and phone calls to the COIN NEWS office asking whether this was either a mistake on the part of the Royal Mint or perhaps sets were being broken up. The answer is actually neither—we always knew there was the possibility of the old reverses being put into circulation as the new ones weren’t launched until April 2 and as such any coins needed by the banks before that date had to bear the old symbols. There was no way the Mint could provide the banks with the new coins before that date in case some of them “got out”, thus ruining the launch itself, so they had to issue the old reverses. Unfortunately the system being what it is, these coins are only just turning up in our change now—hence the confusion on the part of some who expected only the new reverses to appear post-April.
Now of course the reason for the appearance of the “old” coins is perfectly reasonable and
