Somewhere along the line I have lost a post. In fact, I have lost an entire evening. I’m really not sure how I managed that.

The shop was full most of the day. We had people in as we opened (by appointment), Someone rang to make an appointment for 10.30, but I pushed them on till 11.00, which was good, as someone wandered in at just after 10.30, thinking they had an appointment. They had spoken to the owner lat night and he hadn’t bothered to tell us. Then one of the regulars turned up, And another.

So, despite my supposed planning we still ended up crowded. We had several people call in the afternoon too. One of them had coins worth 85 pence. This isn’t quite the record for the week – someone else brought coins worth 65 pence earlier in the week and someone emailed for a valuation on coins which said “New Pence” on them. All coins had that on them at one time, as that’s what they were called. They became “Pence” about ten years after decimalisation. I suppose they were no longer new by then.

In 1983 the Royal mint made a mistake and made a batch of coins which had “New pence” instead of pence, but they only went into sets, not into general circulation. The sets are probably worth £1,500. Coins from circulation dated between 1971 and 1981 with “New Pence” are very common and are worth face value.

We frequently get people enquiring, thinking they have a fortune in their hand, just to find out they have pennies. It shows the power of one inaccurate newspaper article.

We once sold some 1983 year sets to someone who obviously thought that all year sets had the rare coin in. They don’t. Most of them have the ordinary coin in. He was very upset and claimed we had cheated him. Why he thought professional coin dealers would be selling sets worth £1,500 for just £12, I don’t know.

Kew Gardens – expensive coin

The Kew Gardens 50p is a rare coin you might still find in your change. They only minted 210,000 of them instead of the millions they did for other years. No, I don’t know why. This article is a reasonable guide to rarities, but note the prices are mainly for true “Uncirculated” coins, not ones out of your pocket.  Note the general downward trend of the prices as coin collecting is less popular now – people don’t use coins as much since lockdown.

The header picture is one we often get calls about – the 2007 £2 with the “upside down” writing on the edge. It’s not true. The coins are fed into a machine and 50% of them end up with the edge inscription “upside down”. I have wasted hours on the phone telling people this, thanks to idiot journalists.