Saturday 17 June 2017


OXFORD NUMISMATIC SOCIETY

The British Commonwealth -

Many people start collecting the coins of their own country and then either go back in time or travel the world (speaking collectively). In the 1960s and 1970s it was easy to get some commonwealth coins imply from the coins in your pocket. A South African penny, Australian sixpence or New Zealand half crown. They were same size as British coins. You could put together quite a collection. Nowadays things have changed. You occasionally find Gibraltar pounds or Channel Islands money in your pocket. I once got an Ascension Island 50 p.

I suppose most people would just pass these on in their change as quickly as possible but the budding coin collector or even the more experienced one will put them aside.

The theme for our meeting today was coins of the Commonwealth. Members brought year sets from Canada, India, New Zealand and Falklands. Single coins were well represented. There were some fascinating early issues which were cut or countermarked Spanish dollars. I knew these were used in the Caribbean but had no idea they were also used in Gibraltar and Prince Edward Island.

Why did colonies have their own coins and not just use British issues? The answer is it was illegal to export British currency for many years. Local merchants sent goods to England and agents here would sell them and send manufactured goods to the colonies. Capital stayed in Britain. It was not until recently that colonies and commonwealth states had their own currency. Sometimes it was based on sterling or a local currency such as rupee or dollar.



                   

Monday 12 June 2017

ONS programme 2017/2018


19th August   Summer coins – coins from hot countries
           
9th September   The Elephant.


 21 October    The coin collector’s bookshelf.      and the AGM


11th November          1917 War and revolution 

2nd December           speaker?

13  January   Winter coins   

10 February  Ships, planes, and trains. 

11  March      Islands, peninsulas and enclaves in the Mediterranean.
                       
14  April         Commerce and trade in empire – Rome or Britain

15  May          Politics: revolution and independence
           
12 June         Women on coins.

 14 July        France

 August        Indo-China and the East Indies