Old Coins You Recall

[Vicarious Thrillseeker]

My first job was with Barclays Bank and I was a cashier when the first rolls of 20p pieces arrived. Same for pound coins, or "pound note coins" as one of my colleagues called them.

I feel as though there were a few George V coins knocking around in my childhood.

Uncanny. My first job was with Barclays Bank. I started when I was 16 at the Shotton branch, then moved up to Wrecsam. They asked me to leave not long after my 18th birthday - I kept falling asleep down in the vaults when being sent down to find customers' cheques. Two of my ex-colleagues went to prison for embezzlement - maybe I had a lucky escape as I was always easily led.

[Patrick Thistle]

Machin really should have gotten per piece royalties

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arnold_Machin#

Probably the most replicated piece of artwork ever.

Back in the 70s there were regular letters to the British Philatelic Bulletin complaining the machin definitives were boring and it was time for a change. I flicked through a load I inherited and found that quite funny.

[Fussbudget]

Probably the most replicated piece of artwork ever.

Definitely up there, though La Semeuse must be running it close

[Amor de Cosmos]

Probably the most replicated piece of artwork ever.

Back in the 70s there were regular letters to the British Philatelic Bulletin complaining the machin definitives were boring and it was time for a change. I flicked through a load I inherited and found that quite funny.

On the whole philatelists are, and always have been, an extremely conservative bunch.

[Fussbudget]

Machin is a great name in French by the way. Makes it sound like you've forgotten what he's actually called "you know, Arnold Thingy"

[ursus arctos]

And here I thought I was the only one who had an extensive collection of Philatelic Bulletins

[3 Colours Red]

There is, or was, a logic to sizes and metals. Copper coinage for lower denominations, each getting larger with value. Same with silver ones.

Don't forget that the 2p was intended to weigh exactly twice as much as the 1p, likewise the 10p was to the 5p. This was so that in the days before "no mixed coin" bank bags, you could - in theory - simply weigh £1 worth of coppers or £5 in silvers without having to worry about having them all the same denomination.

[Patrick Thistle]

And here I thought I was the only one who had an extensive collection of Philatelic Bulletins

I don't have them any more. Did you hear it's ceased publication?

[Amor de Cosmos]

Don't forget that the 2p was intended to weigh exactly twice as much as the 1p, likewise the 10p was to the 5p. This was so that in the days before "no mixed coin" bank bags, you could - in theory - simply weigh £1 worth of coppers or £5 in silvers without having to worry about having them all the same denomination.

Yeah, I meant 'd' coinage, rather than 'p' coinage. I should have made that clear.

[Various Artist]

One little thing about the left/right-facing alternating monarchs on coins that I rather cherish.

Elizabeth II faces right on all of hers, because her father George VI faced left on his. Two kings earlier, his father George V also faced left on his. Between them, though, came Edward VIII – who should according to the alternation have faced right, but of course no coins with him on ever entered public circulation (his abdication in December 1936 came 3 weeks before the first were due to be struck)... and, weirdly, the dies etc. that were produced for these were designed with him facing left. His younger brother, however, continued the pattern as if he had faced the other way.

[RobM]

Thanks. So it would appear from that website that George VI sixpences could still be used up to 1980. George VI Florins (worth 10p from 1971) were legal tender until 1993; shillings (5p) until 2.1.91; although I doubt there were many George VI ones left by the time they ceased to be legal tender.

Random fact: I know that Susan B Anthony was from Rochester.

Sixpence was 2 and a half new ps.

[Sits]

One little thing about the left/right-facing alternating monarchs on coins that I rather cherish.

Elizabeth II faces right on all of hers, because her father George VI faced left on his. Two kings earlier, his father George V also faced left on his. Between them, though, came Edward VIII – who should according to the alternation have faced right, but of course no coins with him on ever entered public circulation (his abdication in December 1936 came 3 weeks before the first were due to be struck)... and, weirdly, the dies etc. that were produced for these were designed with him facing left. His younger brother, however, continued the pattern as if he had faced the other way.

But Ed. 8 was on stamps; I have some of my Dad’s, which I thought might be worth something until disabused of this notion somewhere on OTF in the past.

[Sits]

Uncanny. My first job was with Barclays Bank. I started when I was 16 at the Shotton branch, then moved up to Wrecsam. They asked me to leave not long after my 18th birthday - I kept falling asleep down in the vaults when being sent down to find customers' cheques. Two of my ex-colleagues went to prison for embezzlement - maybe I had a lucky escape as I was always easily led.

Age 16, Maidenhead Bridge Road. I was sent to the strong room one day to tidy up the safety deposit boxes* and dropped a metal locked box. On picking it up a gentle shake yielded a sound suspiciously like broken china . I placed it carefully back on a shelf, right in the corner.

*There were a couple of old trunks just the right size and shape to have bodies in them.

[Felicity, I guess so]

Particularly towards the end of my time in W. Germany 1976-9, when the mark was strong against the pound, it was a lucrative game to bring shillings back from Britain and use them as 1 DM in older type street (or platform) vending machines

[Satchmo Distel]

Sixpence was 2 and a half new ps.

I can recall using two of them to buy a 5p bag of crisps (and I think Snaps were priced at 2.5p when Harry H Corbett advertised them).

[Walt Flanagans Dog]

Particularly towards the end of my time in W. Germany 1976-9, when the mark was strong against the pound, it was a lucrative game to bring shillings back from Britain and use them as 1 DM in older type street (or platform) vending machines

I've no doubt told this story on here before but I used to work with someone who previously worked at Edinburgh City Council. She was talking about a past trip she had been on to Norway and I made some comment about it being expensive there. She then explained how the Council used to collect up all and sort all of the foreign currency shoved into its parking meters and pay and display machines, and periodically let its employees bid for it. So she got involved in this and bought all of the Norwegian currency thst she could, and got it cheap because no one else wanted it.

The maths of this continues to boggle my mind, as to how many Norwegian tourists were deliberately bringing coins over to pay for parking in Edinburgh, and they would have had to be low value enough to produce a saving against using sterling coins, but high enough value that at our protagonist was able to subsidise her trip with them. Not to mention how many coins she would have had to take back to Norway to make it worthwhile.

Of course, its plausible that she was taking the piss and making the whole thing up, but she was normally quite earnest about things, so I'm still inclined to believe it.