Antique coins and Her Majesty The Queen
Posted by ANTIQUES.CO.UK on 14/09/2022
I love the idea of collecting antique coins, although I never seem to find the time to start. I never seem to be in the right place at the right time to find a antique coin worth collecting and I care little for the specially created commemoration coins that are sold every time there’s something to celebrate, usually royal. I can’t quite understand the logic of paying a large amount for a coin that’s brand spanking new and has never been in circulation. But that’s just me.
Antique coins however, have a totally different effect on me. I wish I could start up a collection of my own, but I’d be tempted to carry them around in my pocket like loose change, hoping to capture some essence of the previous owner, perhaps the last person that would have carried those coins around in their pockets, perhaps hundreds of years before, rubbing their fingers over the rough edges, mulling over minor problems, gazing into the middle distance turning the coins over and over in their hands, working their way through various day to day worries. If you were to hold one in your hand for more than a few seconds, would you be able to capture one of those memories?
And how many times did the coins change hands I wonder, how many stories do these coins contain within them. The Japanese believe that a house can carry the energies of the previous occupants long after they’ve left. Is that the same for coins perhaps? I like the idea that a antique coin can be the recipient of other people’s energies. Perhaps, mistakenly I always imagine that antique coins change hands several times more than a piece of antique furniture, their size and monetary value giving them the potential to move around at far greater speed than a antique Welsh dresser or a antique Chippendale chair.
There is always going to be a delicious history to a coin which is twofold, the history of the coin itself and the history of the people whose hands it passed through. Sadly, in all likelihood you’ll only get the first and none of the second. If you do get the history of the people that used it, then there is more fascination to be had, more value in the original owner in some cases than the circumstances that inspired the coins creation itself.
Coins are fascinating; they carry the memories of the coins creation and the reasons; if we’re lucky we can have memories of the owners who spent them too. They can bring memories of happier times or memories of sadder ones (war time coins spring to mind).
Whatever the case I shall continue to be fascinated by them and who knows, perhaps I might start that collection one day.
All the coins mentioned here are available on www.antiques.co.uk and perhaps by the time you have a look for yourself there may be some more interesting additions for you to mull over….