u/wablewis

I have gotten fascinated with the use of Mexican, British, old Spanish and other nations silver and gold coins in the US until the Coinage Act of 1857 made those coins no longer legal tender. At times as many 80% of the silver coins in the US were from other nations. After the revolutions had settled down and the mines and mints reopened in the 1824 ~ 1825 time frame, Mexican coins became quite common in the US.

I am slowly working on birth year type sets for my paternal ancestors back 5 generations, starting with the one who would move to Wisconsin after the American Civil War and start the farm I grew up on. John was born in 1840 in upper state New York and would likely have seen more of these than actual US Seated Liberty coins.

As a result, I'm adding a set of 8, 4, 2, 1, 1/2 & 1/4 Reales to those year sets, beginning with this well circulated 1840 8 Reals Mo ML as representative of what he might have seen in commerce.

I have gotten fascinated with the use of Mexican, British, old Spanish and other nations silver and gold coins in the US until the Coinage Act of 1857 made those coins no longer legal tender. At times as many 80% of the silver coins in the US were from other nations. After the revolutions had settled down and the mines and mints reopened in the 1824 ~ 1825 time frame, Mexican coins became quite common in the US.

I am slowly working on birth year type sets for my paternal ancestors back 5 generations, starting with the one who would move to Wisconsin after the American Civil War and start the farm I grew up on. John was born in 1840 in upper state New York and would likely have seen more of these than actual US Seated Liberty coins.

As a result, I'm adding a set of 8, 4, 2, 1, 1/2 & 1/4 Reales to those year sets, beginning with this well circulated 1840 8 Reals Mo ML as representative of what he might have seen in commerce.

Last month I bought a nicely toned first year (1878) example from the San Francisco mint for right about the melt price for silver. It was too pretty to let slip away at the coin club auction.

Then yesterday I made the mistake of going to a local coin shop and left with a beautiful uncirculated one from the last year of production, 1921 from Philadelphia’s mint. That cost a bit more but it’s a Choice BU coin (again probably spent decades in a vault because people weren’t carrying silver dollars much) or MS-63 if I wanted it in a coin tomb (I do have them in capsules).

The first and the last so that’s a good enough Morgan collection for my tastes.

Full House, Queens over Kings... 😎

Five generations of this coin from the Netherlands.

38 mm, 25 g .945 fine silver

Willem II - 1848

Willem III - 1874

Wilhelmina - 1898

33 mm, 15 g .720 silver (the cost of 2 world wars)

Julianna - 1959

But even that couldn't be sustained in the modern world...

29mm 10 g 100% Nickel which at least gives it a decent look and feel. This was the the last Rijksdaalders as the Euros came in.

Beatrix - 2001

I still need an 1840 2 1/2 Gulden of Willem I to complete the set.

Full House, Queens over Kings... 😎

Five generations of this coin from the Netherlands.

38 mm, 25 g .945 fine silver

Willem II - 1848

Willem III - 1874

Wilhelmina - 1898

33 mm, 15 g .720 silver (the cost of 2 world wars)

Julianna - 1959

But even that couldn't be sustained in the modern world...

29mm 10 g 100% Nickel which at least gives it a decent look and feel. This was the the last Rijksdaalders as the Euros came in.

Beatrix - 2001

I still need an 1840 2 1/2 Gulden of Willem I to complete the set.

My local coin collecting club has a members auction after each monthly meeting.

This one came up tonight and I was able to snag it for $55USD. I'm horrible at grading, especially US coins but I put this into my database as AUNC. If you think that's overly generous, please let me know so I can get better at it.

Honestly I prefer UK, French and Netherlands coins, but this one was too nice and at too good a price to let slip away.

Two uncommon, could almost say rare, coins from 1927. Both only had around 15,000 struck that year.

The first, the florin or 2 shillings coin, was in plentiful supply in circulation so they only struck proof coins that year. This makes it a bit difficult for collectors but pretty much guarantees that if you cough up the coin for the coin (sorry, couldn’t resist) you’ll get a very nice coin.

The second is the first of what are known as the “Wreath” crowns for the reverse. These were minted late in the year in 1927 to 1934 and again in 1936. (1935, of course, was the Jubilee and the lovely "Rocking Horse" crowns. I have several of them :) ) The crown, much like the same sized silver dollar in the US, was not popular as a circulation coin because it was so big. People didn’t like carrying a pocket full of one oz coins if they had the option of paper currency. Instead these were given out as Christmas gifts to VIP customers by the Bank of England. Even these weren’t common - the 1927 issue at 15,000 was the largest striking of the series.

I have wanted one for a long time because of the beauty of the reverse but they are not cheap and so when investing my former stock market retirement fund into historical coins, this was one I picked up.

I'm not into stacking but I always thought the Britannia looked good. Just because I think that it’s a nice looking silver coin, I added a 1 oz. .999 fine silver Britannia to my collection. Mostly these are aimed at silver bugs but eh, I like it. By letting them send a random year, it was like $10~15 cheaper but I think I got lucky - Liz’s portrait is better than Charlie’s, IMO. This one is from 2018. I might be tempted to collect the odd numbered ones pre-2013 because some of those reverses are quite cool as well.

In today’s mail is my, so far, most expensive coin, a 1711 Queen Anne shilling. Queen from 1702 to 1714, she was the last monarch of the House of Stuart. I spent way too much for this, probably, but it is such a beauty for being 315 years old. This is what £300 looks like today. I bought it from a dealer in the UK.

Not sure what grade this would be called. Bits of wear on the high spots, a couple of rim dents. but it's still the nicest one I could get and that's a good thing