Next club meeting - Monday 5^th. October 2009.

• British Colonial Money in Africa by John Roberts-Lewis

Meetings are held at the Abbey Baptist Church, Abbey Square, commencing at 7.00 p.m.

Summer Social to the Royal Mint – 14 club members made the long journey to Llanstriant to the Royal Mint. We met soon after 09:15, and left Theale SavaCentre at 09:30. The traffic gods were kind, and a clear M4 saw us at the Castle Mynach pub just after 11:30, which inconveniently was 30minutes before they opened! Fortunately, the time pasted fairly quickly, and we had plenty of time for a leisurely lunch before headed to the Mint to arrive at approximately 13:00. We were met by Kevin Clancy who gave us a brief introduction before we split into 3 groups to tour the Mint facility. We were shown four key areas, being the design and die engraving room; the tooling and reducing areas (where the blank punches, and coins dies are made); the coining area (where the blanks are punched, and finally struck) and finally ‘Historical Services’, a collection of numismatic history to rival them all!

An enjoyable day was had by all, and I am proud to say that I have now held a 1933 penny and a 1936 Edward VIII £5!

Twenty-eight members attended September’s meeting, which (certainly in my short time with the club) is a record! This is possibly attributable to the speak and subject of this month’s talk, being Ken Peters and his talk on The Cheat In Your Change – How to Spot Fake Pound Coins.

Ken began his talk by describing his strife at getting the Royal Mint and/or Government to acknowledge the problem of fake £1 coins in circulation. Over 1.5billion coins have been issued by the Royal Mint since their introduction in 1983. By 2005, estimates on the number of counterfeits varied from an insignificant number under 1% (the Royal Mint), probably reaching 2% (the British Museum) and at least 2% (our presenter, Ken Peters). This would suggest approximately 30million fake £1s in circulation! A recent survey carried out by Ken and volunteers from around the UK lifts his estimate to a massive 47million, or more than 3%!

After this astounding announcement, we were shown a selection of the good, the bad and the downright ugly in counterfeit £1 terms. Now as numismatists, we know that there have been 4 different QE2 effigies, 5 different edge inscriptions, and no less than 12 different reverse designs! In only two years since 1983 have the £1 coins been the same, being 1998 and 2003… However, as the 1998 £1 was only issued in Uncirculated and Proof sets, these are very rarely seen in circulation. This means that each and every year has a unique combination of design factors! This fact seems to have been lost on the counterfeiters however, giving us an easy Quick Check to detect forgeries. Seven key factors to check are colour, soft metal, damage, die-axis, edge detail, combination errors and weight. At this point, I would love to list each year and design combination, however do not wish to infringe upon Mr Peters’ copyright, and as such must direct you to his book The Cheat in Your Change (ISBN 0-9543487-1-0) or a recent copy of Token Publishing’sThe Coin Yearbook, or Spinks’s Coins of England!

Counterfeits shown included various edge errors, including one reading Decus Lacessit Tutamen, and another where the lettering was virtually unreadable, and the graining disappeared. Another had clear join marks where two cast halves had been soldered together. Others included poor detail in the design, incorrect pairing’s of obverse and reverse, and a double-headed attempt where two 1p coins had been stuck together! Also shown, was a fairly good attempt, with one major drawback… it was dated 1971!

A lively discussion followed where members recalled their own experiences with fake £1 coins. Members were also challenged by Ken to deduce which 6 of 12 £1 coins displayed were the fakes.

We would like to thank Ken very much for a very enjoyable and most informative talk.

Club Subscriptions

Will members yet to renew their subscription please see Peter at the next meeting or send same to the club secretary. Membership cards for newly paid up members are included with this issue of the newsletter.

Past Events

30 years ago, the club hosted "Short Talks by Members".

10 years ago, Kevin Clancy of the Royal Mint showed some archived film clips

1 year ago, Graham Dyer gave a talk about the reduction to and selection of .500 Silver

Lockdale Coin Auction - 11, Ipswich 20^th September

Baldwins Coin Auctions - 11, Adelphi Terrace 29-30^th September

Spink Banknote Auction- Adelphi Terrace 29-30^th September

DNW - Coin Auction 30^th September

Coinex 2-3^rd October