Commemorative coins

[Coldicote]

Couldn't decide the best place to put a question about old coins, but they do seem mainly historical. I would be glad of ideas how to use or dispose of them please. I have a 1951 George VI Festival of Britain crown (5/- piece); two crowns from the Queen's Coronation in 1953; two Silver Wedding crowns, 1947 - 1972. Also, in an original pack, a set of pre-decimal coins including the 'robin' farthing, the ship-backed halfpenny, a 12 sided threepenny bit and the rather large half-crown. Suggestions welcome please.

[paddywak]

Get them checked out by all means but don't expect too much the coronation crowns for instance where given to school children and must have been minted by the tens of thousands (I've just looked and I've three still in the presentation cases), but you never know.Why not save them for your kids, my sister had five sets of pre decimal coins and a selection of commemerative coins mounted and framed for each of her kids and they look pretty good on the wall

[kempie]

The commemorative crowns were minted in their millions e.g.

1951 FoB - 1,983.540 minted
1953 - 5,962,621 minted
1972 - 7,452,100 minted

Pristine decimal Crowns are unlikely to realise more than �1 or �2 above their face value of 25p, while pre-decimal coins may exhibit an increase in value somewhere in the range �3-�30...

http://www.tclayton.demon.co.uk/values/index.h tml

[Coldicote]

Thank you for your replies. It's an interesting subject but obviously very large numbers were minted so the face value doesn't count for much. I do wonder though whether they might have any silver content and metal value?

[kujawski]

have a check on ebay

[kujawski]

well

1951 George VI Festival of Britain crown (5/- piece)
are fetching about 6pound on ebay

two crowns from the Queen's Coronation in 1953
are fetching about 2 squid

two Silver Wedding crowns, 1947 - 1972.
between 2 and 5 pound

Also, in an original pack, a set of pre-decimal coins including the 'robin' farthing, the ship-backed halfpenny, a 12 sided threepenny bit and the rather large half-crown.
also about 1 -5 pound on ebay

sorry to be so glum

[Coldicote]

Not glum at all kujawski. I didn't expect they would be worth a fortune, but thank you for going to the trouble of finding out about them on e-bay. Perhaps it might be possible to find a practical use for them - pot stands maybe. I'll have to think more about that.