Five or six years ago, it wasn’t difficult for anyone who wanted to start collecting coins. That is because you would come across quite a few pictures just in your everyday change. And if you were to ask for twenty quid in fifty pences at the bank, then you would probably find at least seven or eight treasures for your collection.
But now those days have gone 🙁
These days it is hard to find any picture coins at all. Getting a couple of bags to sift from the bank will bring very few results and finding anything in loose change is nigh-on impossible. The truth of it is this – if you are expecting to come across any ‘A-Z ten pences’ or a rogue ‘Olympic fifty pence’, you really shouldn’t go getting your hopes up….
So, what the hell has happened??? Where the Dickens did all of those collectible coins disappear to? And will things ever revert to the way they once were?
Well, there is a very simple reason why we hardly ever find picture coins anymore. It is basically because they have been sucked out of the system. Since all the hype began about ‘valuable coins in your change’ virtually every man and his dog has developed an overnight interest in numismatism. And a lot of this has come about because of the crap that has been printed in our tabloids.
Sure, we all know there are coins out there worth money, but the prices given in newspaper stories are wholly unrealistic most of the time. In fact, I have only ever seen one or two pieces where prices are anywhere close to being accurate.
Even people who do not have any real interest in collecting are still pulling pictures out of their change and then trying to sell them on eBay. In fact, even Change Checker are sifting through circulated coins and then selling ‘Olympic fifty pences’ on their own website for ludicrous amounts!
Meanwhile, a mere five minutes of looking at prices in the coin category on eBay will tell you –
- How many people will set themselves up as ‘experienced coin sellers’ when they are actually nothing more than chancers
- How underhand some sellers are by carefully wording things in order to purposely take people in
EBay is honestly a great place for bargains (and with more than just coins too) but it is also a crooks’ playground. The entire scenario is horrible; most newbie collectors will not be very knowledgeable and are easily taken in – which is the greatest strength of any unscrupulous seller. Think about it. Since new collectors are unable to find anything in their change, they are forced to look online for their coins. And dodgy ‘coin traders’ are fully aware of this….
Rich pickings :/
Lambs to the slaughter :/
And the last question I posed at the beginning of this post? About if we will ever see a return to the glory days of finding coins in our everyday change? Well, going on the way things are right now, it is pretty doubtful to be fair. To come across picture coins in circulation, you NEED coins in circulation. And let’s think about this for a moment – are The Royal Mint actually putting many pictures into the monetary system????
NO!!!!
In fact, only a minimal amount of commemorative fifty pences are circulated these days and RM have already made it clear that it will be about ten years before any new two pound coins are released into everyday change. So the long and the short of it would appear to be this – we have seen the best of times and from this moment onward, anything we do happen upon will be far more infrequent than it once was.
Sorry if that is depressing but I am only applying logic to it all!
© Article is copyright of Mik Smith 2022
MAIN IMAGE – reblogged from freerangestock.com
OTHER IMAGES – reblogged from unsplash.com
