Foreign Coins - Oh Dear Oh Dear

Today I set myself the mission of sorting my unrecognisable coins into countries! You know those coins that don't have a spot of English language on? Just squiggles? Yep, them! I've managed to work out the majority of them just by attempting to type the language/letters into google and sifting through the search results! What did people do before Google? I know Google doesn't pay much tax... but wow it does help us guys out.

Another Nazi Coin

Today I found ANOTHER Nazi coin! I'm fascinated with them. If you look to my second ever post on this blog you'll see I found in my coin collection a 5 PFENNIG 1940 German coin. This is a 1 PFENNIG 1942 coin. Both in circulation when Hitler was in power, hence the swastika! Very bad condition as you can see however it's not the condition that matters to me. As long as I can identify the coin and see a date, it's going in my collection!

A Photographic Coin?! Huh?

I bought this photographic coin back in 2015. It's legal tender, worth £5! It's 24-Carat Gold-Plated Copper (so not worth any more than face value). I'm pretty sure I paid £5 for it which isn't that bad really. I can always spend it if I get bored of it (not going to happen!). It's so cool! Only 30,000 were issued and I'm not even sure if that was a lot that's how inexperienced I am however... when I'm 90 years old I've got a feeling it's going to be worth AT LEAST... £6.

I Found 2 Silver Coins!

The gigantic pile of coins that I sorted through yesterday it turns out had 2 silver coins in! I didn't even realise until I posted them on Instagram (@uneducatedcoincollector) and thankfully (@bendersshinymetalass) pointed it out! I had no idea! All British 3 pence coins made from 1816 to 1919 are 92.5% silver, so there's 1.11 grams of silver in each of them. I asked him how much they're worth and he said about 0.49 euro cents which is 39p in British value. I'm learning I'm learning!

I also got round to finishing up the 'Spain' and 'France' coins for sale page on this blog. Haven't sold any international coins yet so we'll see how it goes!

A Top Up of Coins

Today I received over 5 kilograms of coins through the post. They were expected to come on Tuesday but they were delivered today so I was extra chuffed! I sat there in the living room for maybe 2 or 3 hours sorting them out into countries. There was a dominant number of USA, Spain and South Africa coins which was surprising! I ALSO GOT ANOTHER NAZI COIN which I'll post tomorrow on this blog. It's even more faded than the other one but it's still cool.

Because I now have a decent amount of USA, Spain and South Africa coins I'm now going to order 3 folders for them to live in! This afternoon I got round to filing in preparation for the folders arriving! I started with 5 Pesetas from Spain and I've listed the spares on the blog! I will list the other spare denominations tomorrow! It's 18:55pm here and my eyes are strained from reading small coins all day haha! Not to mention the amount of 1989-2001 5 Pesetas I've got. If you haven't seen them go onto the 'Spain' page on this blog. They are absolutely tiny. I had to read the date on ALL OF THEM I think I now need glassesajkfahf.

My First Sale

I've been on Instagram and Blogging for a couple of days now and I've had my first sale! Shout out to Samuele from Italy (Instagram: @italiancoincollector)! He bought 11 coins all at 10p each, and I'm absolutely blown away by how cheap it is to send a 100g envelope to Italy! £2! So all he had to pay was £3.10! I was so excited just to feel like I'm helping someone fill gaps in their collections because that's what I'm doing myself!

Oh and I didn't even realise you could digital stamp envelopes?! All I did was type in his address into the Royal Mail (our national postal service) website and it prints all the details straight onto the envelope! Unbelievable how technology is changing. But sadly I guess this means the start of the original postal stamp dying out...

I'VE SET MYSELF A GOAL

I was looking at my UK coin folder containing the majority of denominations there is to find, thinking WOW. WHAT IF I DID THIS FOR EVERY SINGLE COUNTRY IN THE WORLD?! How cool would that be?! So my aim is now to have one beautiful red folder like the one photographed for every possible coin there is in the world. I'll have a folder for USA, Sweden, Australia, New Zealand, India, all of them! Will I reach this goal? Maybe. I'm 21 years old so I've got years to do it (touch wood!)

The Coin That Made Me Start Collecting

Back in about 2014 (I think) Mum was having a clear out in her wardrobe and found an 1892 full sovereign. She knew it was there, but she hadn't seen it in ages! A few days went past and she told me she was going to sell it to a coin dealer! EY?! Stop right there! Selling a Gold 1892 coin to a DEALER?! I asked her how much the dealer had offered her and she said £150! So I bought it off her for £150 instead! She was pleased because it's staying in the family. I'll never sell it. It's a beautiful coin! It's not in mint condition and it does have some tiny tiny marks but it's one of those things that is worth more than the money!

This is the coin that got me interested in coin collecting! How can a small circular gold coin be worth so much money!? Or maybe I'm interested because it reminds me of treasure? Ha! Or just because it's so old and in smashing condition? All of these factors play a part! I'm going to do some more research on this sovereign and come back maybe in a few months with some updated knowledge!

I left the coin in its sleeve pocket (it's in my special folder) because I need to avoid touching it at all costs! It's unnecessary wear on the coin if you keep touching it, so I read on the internet anyway! You can tell I'm new to this!

Hitler Could've Touched This... Right?!

When I was sorting through my bag of unsorted coins at the weekend I found this 5 REICHSPFENNIG. Now, this is where my uneducated mind came into play. I saw the swastika (Nazi symbol) and I thought wow Hitler could've touched this! But it's basically like holding a 1940 UK One Penny and saying 'Wow Winston Churchill could've touched this'. Nevertheless I still found it interesting to see the swastika and relate it to history.

To make my situation even worse my history grade at high school was absolutely shocking. You'll never guess it. Nope, not an F. I got a G. Yes they exist! I sat there in the exam hall, opened the exam paper, read the question and closed the paper. The exam invigilator looked at me like WHAT ARE YOU DOING?! But I genuinely had no idea how to answer the question. I sat there and counted the bricks on the wall. History never interested me at school so I just switched off in class. Which is weird because I'm so fascinated by old coins!

5 Reichspfennig

Right... Here We Go!

The name of my blog, my new email address and my ebay account name gives it away. I am an uneducated coin collector and I'm absolutely loving it. I'm 21 years old... so many, actually nearly all of the coins I own are older than me and that's the beauty of it!

I run my own business selling gym equipment and have done for the past year. I'll link my website below just to show you I'm an actual person! I'm making a living out of it, just! I quit my job as a labourer because my gym equipment business was starting to gain some ground. I haven't entered this coin lark to earn money at all. The only coins I will be selling are duplicates in my collection and the money I use will then go into buying coins to fill the gaps in my collection! I love it! Oh and I'm not charging a tonne for the coins! It'll be 10p per coin or something like that, depending on the coin. To tell you the truth I haven't the faintest clue what some of them are worth so you could get a bargain!

You may be thinking huh? A 21 year old? Collecting coins? Why am I not out partying every night? To tell you the truth I hate all that going out, getting drunk, ruining the next day with a hangover scenario that most of my age group get themselves into. Most of all it's chucking money down the drain. I'd much rather sit inside all weekend sorting through a pile of 20p's to see if I can find one without a date. Ha!

I'm still trying to work out my motive for coin collecting, but I'm sure it will come to light in years to come!

www.millersfitness.net (my gym equipment website)