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With hundreds of colour pictures and hundreds of pages of information about
British coins. Whether you are looking for information about coin collecting or
coin values, you have come to the right place.
British coins. Whether you are looking for information about coin collecting or
coin values, you have come to the right place.
The use of coins in Britain dates back thousands of years to Celtic tribes which produced their own quite stylised coins. Their currency was the gold
Stater and the silver and bronze Unit's. Later during 43 A.D. the Romans began their conquest of England and brought their own currency and coins
to the land. After the Romans we move on to the Early and middle Anglo-Saxon Kingdoms. Each kingdom minted their own coins and they did so by
placing precut out prepared thin planchets of metals into coin dies. The lower die would be set into a block and then the top die would be hammered
down, squeezing the planchet in between, imprinting it with the required design and thus producing coins. These coins are referred to as hammered
coins.
The period of use for hammered coins is from around 600 A.D. to 1662 A.D. when milled (machine minted) coins became the norm. The first milled
coins in the UK were actually produced during Queen Elizabeth's reign in 1561 when a French moneyer called Eloye Mestrelle introduced his method
of using a screw press (as pictured on the left and right in the black and white image above) which was powered by a horse. It is very similar to how
some mills ground their grain so this method was nicknamed "mill money" and this is where we get the term milled coins. These coins were of superior
quality but they soon lost favour as many workers were worried about losing their jobs due to the introduction of these "machines" and hammered
coins were still faster to produce.
We don't see milled coins being produced again for circulation until the era of Oliver Cromwell "Lord protector" and this is where this sites focus starts
from. Some collectors focus on hammered coins other on milled, some on both. I personally started collecting milled coins first and started this
website to focus on this type of coinage. Milled coins offer a plethora of choices and types t collect and many sets would take a lifetime to complete.
The great thing about coin collecting is that you can choose the focus of your collection whether it be Pennies, Crowns, coins from Queen Victoria's
era or just a mixture of nice coins, hopefully you will find this website of some use.
Please feel free to download and use parts of this website for your own personal use however all images remain the copyright of the individuals or
organisations that were kind enough to allow CoinsGB use of them. Please do not copy and post pages from this site to other sites or use them on
your own site without authorisation. However do feel free to share links to this site if you like it or it would benefit the knowledge of others.
Stater and the silver and bronze Unit's. Later during 43 A.D. the Romans began their conquest of England and brought their own currency and coins
to the land. After the Romans we move on to the Early and middle Anglo-Saxon Kingdoms. Each kingdom minted their own coins and they did so by
placing precut out prepared thin planchets of metals into coin dies. The lower die would be set into a block and then the top die would be hammered
down, squeezing the planchet in between, imprinting it with the required design and thus producing coins. These coins are referred to as hammered
coins.
The period of use for hammered coins is from around 600 A.D. to 1662 A.D. when milled (machine minted) coins became the norm. The first milled
coins in the UK were actually produced during Queen Elizabeth's reign in 1561 when a French moneyer called Eloye Mestrelle introduced his method
of using a screw press (as pictured on the left and right in the black and white image above) which was powered by a horse. It is very similar to how
some mills ground their grain so this method was nicknamed "mill money" and this is where we get the term milled coins. These coins were of superior
quality but they soon lost favour as many workers were worried about losing their jobs due to the introduction of these "machines" and hammered
coins were still faster to produce.
We don't see milled coins being produced again for circulation until the era of Oliver Cromwell "Lord protector" and this is where this sites focus starts
from. Some collectors focus on hammered coins other on milled, some on both. I personally started collecting milled coins first and started this
website to focus on this type of coinage. Milled coins offer a plethora of choices and types t collect and many sets would take a lifetime to complete.
The great thing about coin collecting is that you can choose the focus of your collection whether it be Pennies, Crowns, coins from Queen Victoria's
era or just a mixture of nice coins, hopefully you will find this website of some use.
Please feel free to download and use parts of this website for your own personal use however all images remain the copyright of the individuals or
organisations that were kind enough to allow CoinsGB use of them. Please do not copy and post pages from this site to other sites or use them on
your own site without authorisation. However do feel free to share links to this site if you like it or it would benefit the knowledge of others.