The noble art of Coin Collecting

If you happen to look on the back of a fifty pence piece before you spend it you’ll notice something very interesting. On one side is the usual picture of the Queen but on the other you will something find a rather nice piece of art. The fifty pence is a large coin and it gives the Royal Mint a chance to celebrate an event or commemorate something from History. If you find a Tower wrapped in a vine of flowers then you should get very excited as this is a rare Kew Gardens one and can fetch up to way above the fifty pence’s actual worth. So, don’t put it in the vending machine just wait for that chocolate bar. This is the art of coin collecting and its being going on for centuries. One of the best ways to speak to Coin Dealers UK based such as https://www.gmcoins.co.uk/.  Where does this specialist form of collecting come from?

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We aren’t talking about hoarding coins or general saving, this is the actual collecting of coins purely for how they look or there artistic value.  For example, in the Roman Empire from the archaeological evidence gained we can clearly see that certain collectors were kept by scholars and teachers as an example of the time and for recording purposes. The Empire produced coins to celebrate another victory for its Generals or Senators in battle, the coronation of a new Emperor or the gaining of a new province under Rome’s yolk. You can’t get higher up the collecting chain than the Emperor himself and Caesar Augustus was an avid fan getting out his collecting to show off whenever he had a party (things got a bit more “spicey” when Caligula came to power it would seem).

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With the fall of Rome civilisation takes a bit of a back seat for a while and the noble art of bartering starts to come back into favour as there isn’t any form of structure to run Europe and everything rather becomes a bit every person for themselves. However, in the Medieval period things have settled down and the Age of Kings brings about the need for coin again. Like Augustus it was the done thing for a King or Queen to have a collecting of coins and the Lords and Ladies soon followed. One of the main reasons for this was so they could show off. “Oh, I collect coins darling because I don’t need to spend them…” You can see why coin collecting became known as the “Hobby of Kings”.