Got back from my aunts house, listen to the coins she had!

coinguy89

We got in there, and to stir up conversation, my father mentioned that I had just got back from the coin show. My aunt said "I have some coins". She went back into her bedroom and brought out what she said she had at this house. Supposedly she has a whole bunch more at my aunt and uncles house in Florida. She brought out the following coins:

1896 Morgan dollar-About Uncirculated
1907 Barber dime-Fine
1918 Mercury dime-Good
1865 3cent piece(holed)
1891 Farthing
1899 British half penny
1880 Canadian nickel
1953 One Shilling (holed)
1829 1 cent(OMG! This coin was so beautiful, I know im not much for grading, but it had most of its original color, a bit of toning, and absolutly no cleaning or alterations. I said it was a XF-40. Amazing detail on this piece, defiently a keeper.)
1806 British 1 cent
"1773 John Wilkes Esquire- Member for Middlesex".(I believe this one is a token, maybe a medal, really cool looking though, does anyone know of something like this? It is made of what appears to be copper, is about the size of a large cent, had a man on the obverse[bust to face], writing on the back had the inscription noted above, and it was a little off center, about 5%.

Russ

<< <i>1773 John Wilkes Esquire- Member for Middlesex" >>



Sounds like an advertising piece for a lawyer, or "Solicitor" as he would have been known.

Russ, NCNE

ziggy29

Here's a little information about John Wilkes.

coinguy89

Thanks Ziggy29.

Darkhorse

<< <i>1880 Canadian nickel >>



The 'fishscale' series is always a popular one for Canadian collectors (along with all the other archaic Canadian series). If you have a pic you can post it at canadiancoin.com to get a more accurate grade and value.

coinguy89

<< <i>

<< <i>1880 Canadian nickel >>



The 'fishscale' series is always a popular one for Canadian collectors (along with all the other archaic Canadian series). If you have a pic you can post it at canadiancoin.com to get a more accurate grade and value. >>



Sorry, I didn't bring the camera with me.

lordmarcovan

<< <i>1806 British 1 cent >>


This would be a penny or halfpenny. How big around is it?

The British coin is a penny, and the American coin is a cent. While our tradition here has made it mostly acceptable to call a US coin a "penny" (though this is technically incorrect), it's worse to call a British coin a "cent". The "1880 Canadian nickel" you mentioned above is a five cent piece. Since it's a tiny silver coin like our half dimes, and contains no nickel, it's not quite right to call it a "nickel". Canada did introduce nickel five-cent pieces similar in diameter to our own, in the 20th century. You can call these "nickels". I'm not sure if the Canadians do, but probably so. As Darkhorse mentioned, the little silver 5c pieces are commonly referred to as "fishscales", and that nickname was also applied to the US silver three-cent pieces.



<< <i>"1773 John Wilkes Esquire- Member for Middlesex".(I believe this one is a token, maybe a medal, really cool looking though, does anyone know of something like this? It is made of what appears to be copper, is about the size of a large cent, had a man on the obverse[bust to face], writing on the back had the inscription noted above, and it was a little off center, about 5%. >>


This is almost certainly a Conder token. (Not "condor"- that's a carrion-eating bird!). Conders are British tokens from the late 18th century, and are very popular. They have a wide variety of attractive and interesting designs. As a matter of fact, the "Conder Craze" has been sweeping the Darkside a lot lately!

Conders are often available in high grade, even Uncirculated, with traces of red- and they are surprisingly affordable in many cases.

coinguy89

Thanks for the info Rob, and thanks for correcting my error.

UncleWiggly

Sounds like plain ole fun.


Jerry