Coins by Type

Individual Coins

If you don't see your coin here, it's because GEOCACHING ATE MY BRAIN.

Normal service will resume shortly.

I'm giving away my coin collection!

Like any collectible, the value of a coin is determined by rarity and condition. Some ancient Roman coins are so common they're worth pennies; some Lincoln pennies are so rare they're worth a fortune. And the less a coin has been handled, the more it's worth — coins which have never been in circulation at all bring the highest price.

Ain't that screwy? Thank goodness I'm not a real coin collector!

I can buy wonderful coins for nothing because they're beautiful or old or from an exotic place. An uncirculated coin has no soul. It's just a piece of metal.

But an 1899 penny with Queen Victoria's head worn well nigh clean away was in somebody's pocket while he cheered the old queen's jubilee celebration, snug in the kit of a soldier in the trenches of WWI, opened the lock to a hundred London public toilets (some of these were beautiful!), bought dozens of sweets for grubby nephews, dug out of the rubble of the London Blitz, endured the years when England was groovy with a quiet dignity, retired as a coin of the realm and made its way 3,000 miles across the sea to jingle in the pocket of a weasel. And now, out it goes again to be a game piece in a 21st Century sport of satellites. What would Queen Victoria have thought of that?

A coin is a time traveller and a world adventurer. But it's also a small, tangible piece of all the hundreds or thousands of lives it passes through. I don't know how many hands it takes to wear the queen's head down to a shadowy silhouette, but it must be an awful lot of homely meals, afternoons out, new shoes, cups of tea, dark plots, afternoon newspapers, pints of beer, tram rides, shoe shines, trips down the sofa cushions, ice creams, bets, bribes and bicycle tires. Shame we can't know all the adventures a coin has had, but we can look at the wear and know it's had them.

It can be surprisingly hard to buy things that aren't worth much. I have to order coins in mixed lots, and end up with a surplus of certain ones. These I keep in a little pile on my desk or carry in my pocket and in idle moments, of which I have as many as possible, I turn them over in my hands or run my thumb over them or otherwise do things that would make a real collector wince. Large old British pennies, especially, are warm, smooth, and pleasant to touch. These are the coins I'm caching in. I've carried them around with me for quite a while and they all have plenty of weasel on them. Now, on to your part of the story.

I'd wash my hands before I ate if I were you.