Looked through your loose change recently ?

[phylo_roadking]

Copper IS horrendously expensive nowadays, and a lot of U.S. small-denomination coinage is disappearing out of circulation for that reason...!

[geoff501]

[quote=Smudger Jnr;208010]

Originally Posted by geoff501

Are they steel? I was always under the impression the alloy was copper/ nickel.

They used to be. A quick check on some change, have found a 1996 two pence coin that likes my magnet. I think the old German Marks were steel also?
Metal prices in the recent past saw copper water pipes in house building replaced with stainless steel and copper telephone wiring with aluminium (which I understand is bad for broadband)

[Za Rodinu]

Originally Posted by phylo_roadking

For other members - about twelve years ago, a local bank here was bought over by foreign owners, and they decided to revamp the bank's notes...in particular the £5 note, for they were too easily damaged and too expensive to keep replacing. So they produced a batch of 25,000 PLASTIC five-pound notes from a foreign "manufacturer" that were to be indestructible.

I thought only central banks could issue new money but different customs...

[China Hand]

Originally Posted by geoff501

I have a couple of bags of 1p and 2P which I believe have a scrap value greater than the face value (new coins are copper coated steel)....

When I was disposing of my father's very modest coin collection a couple of years ago, the Edinburgh dealer was interested to hear I was then living in China. "We are getting a lot of interest from Chinese customers at the moment", he says. "Collectors, you mean ?", I said, thinking of newly rich Chinese maybe wanting to start such a hobby. "No", says he, "scrap dealers, 'cos the copper price is so high..."

[von Poop]

I'd quite like to find one of these down the back of the sofa:
BBC News - World's largest gold coin sells for $4m at auction

[Vitesse]

Originally Posted by Za Rodinu

I thought only central banks could issue new money but different customs...

That's the case in England and Wales, but Scotland and Northern Ireland have their own legal systems and certain of their banks retain the right to issue their own notes. These Scottish and Ulster notes are legal tender throughout the UK, although you seldom come across Ulster notes on the mainland. Scottish notes circulate pretty freely in Northern England but once you get south of Derby they are viewed with increasing suspicion, especially outside big cities and tourist areas, and most people will refuse them as change.

Jersey, Guernsey and the Isle of Man also issue their own notes (and coins) but unlike the Scottish and Ulster notes these are not legal tender on the mainland. Having said that, I believe some businesses in ferry ports with routes to the islands will accept them. However, in the Channel Islands, all these notes circulate together and I once even received a Gibraltar £5 note in change there!

Banknotes of the pound sterling - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

[CL1]

I would be happy finding some of these,particularly the 1933 Penny

Pictures of Coins of the UK - The Penny (4)

[Oldman]

For those of us that are past a certain age and remember pre decimal coins we all had a little book and always checked our chane to see if we had anything of value in
the pocket.
All shillings, sixpences, florins and half crowns before 1941 (I think its correct) had a very large silver content and you could make a small amount by selling these on.

[TomTAS]

Hi All,

I work with money all day and have not seen one yet.. Doesn't mean they are not out there but most are already in coin collecters collection's...

Cheers
Tom

[phylo_roadking]

Any citizens of Northern Ireland have one of those cute "Space Shuttle" fivers in their wallet?

The Ulster Bank had made a batch of 25,000 of these about 15 years ago now, for use in their cashpopints - when there still WERE fivers in cashpoints! They wanted a banknote that could survive the rigours of an ATM and frequent mechnaical sorting/stacking/bundkling...and repeated cleaning in the ATM (they're sprayed with a bacteriacide as they're sorted and put through the slot)...

...unfortunately the "indestructable" plastic fivers were too slippery for the internal rollers to grab! But they've been in regular use over the counter since - well, they ARE indesructable!

Except....they're slowly disappearing! Last time I heard they were worth £11 and more to note collectors around the world! And that was nearly ten years ago, god knows what they're worth now!!!