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RMW Collection of England and Great Britain

Yesterday, I had the phone call/meeting with doctors which made me realize that my remaining time is short. I have a second form of cancer now. Truth be told, I have been quickly accumulating thinking in the back of my mind that this could happen. It has, just more quickly than I expected. So, rather than continuing to accumulate, I will have to sell the collection I love to the next set of renters of these pieces. I dont know how it will be done yet as there are various aven

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RMW Collection of England and Great Britain

Here is the first of a few installments on the various types of the British copper and bronze penny, a mainstay of everyday British commerce for generations. Its story started with the copper pieces issued under license by the Soho Mint in the 1790s, as the Royal Mint did not have the technology required to produce this kind of quality at the time, and also had other priorities during the Napoleonic Wars. The 1797 piece shown here weighed one full ounce, and was roughly equal to the value o

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RMW Collection of England and Great Britain-Victoria Penny Types

Here is a selection of Victorian Penny types from my collection. First up is an 1844 Head Copper Penny S 3948,, Ms 65 Red, reputed to be the last red gem penny in the former Baldwins vault. Next is an 1863 Bronze Head Proof Penny. S 3954, PR 65 RB Then an 1876 H Heaton Mint Penny, S 3955, MS 65 Red An 1899 Veiled Head Penny, S 3961, MS 65 Red, Comes next S 3961A is an 1895 Low Tide Penny High Tide Penny, Ms 65 RB Lastly, S 3961B is an 1897 High Tide Penny, ungraded

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RMW Collection of England and Great Britain

Just got this back from NGC. An extremely lustrous silver medal, 303 years old, graded as a 64 plus. Purchased at auction in England. Certainly is a different allegory on the reverse than the James II medal. Whereas with James the crown is conferred by heaven (signifying the divine right of kings) , here it is given by Britannia, representing the people/nation.

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RMW Collection

Here is an example of the very rare 1897 High Tide Penny variety, which I picked up last week. I bought it slabbed in England as roughly the equivalent of an Ms 63. It might make 64 , especially given the obverse. This is the first piece of this variety I have seen in good condition. So , only one piece to go to finish off a complete type set of Victoria copper and bronze. Only the Heaton Mint halfpenny to go. I saw one in basic Unc today. Looking for a gem. I will see if my bud W

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RMW Collection

I just picked up a nice 1932 British halfpenny in 65 RB today. I'm now about 2/3 of the way towards finishing a nice date set for Grorge V halfpennies.Compared to US pieces, British pieces in nice red from the same period are quite scarce. Many of my pieces came from the Baldwin Vault in London, where they were kept in pristine condition since their issue, in some cases well over a hundred years ago. Baldwins has been in business as a coin dealer since 1872, but it's only in the last y

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RMW Collection

OK, fans of coins from across the pond. Or not. Its time to GRADE THAT COIN! Lets see how everyone grades this in US and in British (which is different). A winner gets all of the others to genuflect in his or her general direction. Good luck.

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RMW Collection of England and Great Britain

Just picked this up yesterday, an 1893 Victoria Veiled Head halfcrown, already graded as an MS 65. I paid too much for it as usual, but I really liked the luster on it, as well as the design on the reverse.

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RMW Collection of England and Great Britain- More Edward VII Pennies

Here are the 1905, 06 and 07 pennies in my collection. In those years, the drums of war were beating louder, as the two sides which ended up fighting each other in World War I were pretty much set in these years, and Britain built a new class of battleship, the HMS Dreadnought, which immediately rendered the rest of its own navy, as well as that of any others, obsolete. The naval face by the end of 1907 was on in earnest.

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RMW Collection of England and Great Britain- Edward VII Pennies

Edward VII was the eldest son of Queen Victoria and assumed the British throne after her long reign, in 1901. Although Britain was still considered by many to still be the worlds premier superpower, by 1901, her uncontested superiority was in a position of being challenged, by the United States and more crucially, by the recently united German Empire, which by most accounts had the worlds greatest army and was during this time beginning to build up a navy, the object of which was to one day

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RMW Collection of England and Great Britain

I have one more George III piece to show, and then we move on to later reigns There is an 1806 restrike farthing here, struck in the mid nineteenth century using dies left over from the Soho Mint,whose coin making operations had wound up by that point. By the reign of George IV, steam powered machinery had finally been installed in the Royal Mint itself and higher quality coins began to be produced in greater quantities after the Napoleonic Wars. The George IV proof farthing shown

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RMW Collection of England and Great Britain

Now that the Coronation Medals I have are done, lets go thru a tour of English and British farthing patterns and proofs. Most of these were produced in tiny quantities, often well less than 100. First up will be the 17th century pieces I have, a 1665 pattern Charles II (Peck variety 423) and a 1699 proof in silver. The 1665 is being graded right now but will probably come out as a 64 or 65. the 1699 proof is a 65, cross graded from PCGS, which also graded it as a 65. A fairly

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RMW Collection of England and Great Britain- 20th Century Coronation Medals

I have shown some Victoria 60th anniversary Jubilee medals previously and so will stick to Coronation Medals here, in probably the last installment of this series. I will include the official medals of Edward VII, George V and George VI here. To my knowledge, Elizabeth II did not issue official Coronation Medals, although many unofficial ones were done.

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RMW Collection of England and Great Britain- Victoria Coronation Medal

So far, starting with James II in 1685, Ive posted examples of official Coronation Medals of the monarchs of England and Great Britain. Now, we come to Victoria, who came to the throne as a teenager and gave her name to an age, when the British empire was at its peak and when the sun never set on it, as its possessions circled the planet. Britain was indeed the superpower of most of the Victorian Age. This piece is the most recent acquisition and was graded as an MS 64. I thought a nic

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RMW Collection of England and Great Britain- William IV Coronation Medal

This is the piece that started my collection of British Coronation Medals as I liked its design. NGC MS 66 and cost all of 150 bucks. This series is not all that expensive to collect. William IV was the brother of George IV. During his short reign, landmark laws were set up to extend voting rights to many in the middle class.

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Britiah George II Young Head Proof vs Currency Farthings

You can see the difference in production standards here, between an FDC 1730 Proof farthing and an MS 65 1739. Hopefully you can note the detail to the portrait on the 1730 versus the comparative lack of it on the 1739. Often, the reverse to the currency pieces lacks detail to Britannias head on the reverse (comes out flat due to lack of striking power or deterioration of the dies), although this one has more than most.    

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1672 farthing

Here is an example of the first farthing in the milled series, from 1672.  These were often not produced with quality control in mind but this one came out very well for the type. It is made from copper and after 345 years i still has some original mint red on it!

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1812 3 shilling Bank Token

In 1812, Great Britain was still at war with Napoleon and also was involved in a skirmish with the US called the War of 1812. Neither side particularly wanted to fight it, but it still had significant consequences for the future of North America. Emergency conditions still applied with respect to Britain's coinage and so , in addition to the 1804 dollar shown last time, here is a 3 shilling Bank Token piece.

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1804 Dollar

The Bank of England issued emergency currency during the Napoleonic Wars in the early 19th century. Here is an example of a Bank of England 1804 Dollar.

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