Johnny 1989

Isle Of Man (2000-2010)

Into the 21st Century now and we sort of come full circle as the coins go back to the more traditional designs of the 70's & 80's rather than the more "random" designs of the 90's.

Series 7 - 2000-2003 (Millennium Series)

Back to more traditional designs for Series 7, a set that I rather like, particularly the 5p, 50p & £1 coins, unfortunately the £5 coins is missing from this set, I hope to get hold of it in the near future. I believe this set was known as the "Millennium Series", rather interestingly with this set it was the first to introduce an everyday circulating £5 coin, something of which the other countries that use the Pound have yet to introduce, although a £5 coin to replace the £5 note has been spoke of in the last few years for the UK, although nothing has come of it, so far.

EDIT: £2 coin for this series has now been added, see above, although dated 2002 it is from the same series

Series 8 - 2004-2010

The Eighth & current series of coins of the Isle Of Man of which all feature buildings or landmarks of the Isle Of Man, although this set I do have the £2 coin I unfortunately don't have the £5 coin again. This set is the second longest minted now in it's sixth year (the longest minted series is currently Series 5 from 1988-1995), with a change of design due next year, however whether it does remains to be seen, I personally hope that 2011 sees a new design myself.

Phew, that took ages to post, thankfully the biggest series is now more of less done. Onto the much more smaller a simpler sets from now on

Isle Of Man (1984-1999)

As we leave the 80's and enter the 90's the coins of the IOM take a very different direction design wise, gone are the variations on traditional items of the Isle and in come designs for Technology & Sports on the Isle.

Series 4 - 1984-1987

The Fourth series is my second favourite series from the Isle Of Man, again following on from previous series, theme wise, this one seems to be a variant on the previous theme. This set from 1985 also has an additional stamp mark on it for the "Isle Of Man, Year Of Sport 1985". Unfortunately, much like the previous series several of these coins have been retired from circulation due to the size changes of the 5p, 10p & 50p coins. The £1 coin is missing from this picture.

Series 5 - 1988-1995 (Industry on the Isle Of Man)

The Fifth series is one of the longest running and also rather oddest of the lot, to be honest not one of my favourites, especially compared to the last two series, however the first one to break away from the more traditional images on the Isle Of Man coins, this series concentrates mostly on industry in the IOM. The first two pics of the set dated from 1989 show all coins from 1p-50p. As you can see the design for the now discontinued older sized 50p shows a now rather dated PC. The next two pics are of the £1 from this series which shows a very dated mobile phone & the last two images are of coins that replaced those from earlier in the series. As you can see the smaller 5p keeps exactly the same design, however the smaller 10p has a more traditional design, presumably because all coins featuring the Triskeles emblem where withdrawn, the 20p now has the same border as the UK version however the design remained the same although shrunk down to fit inside the border, oddly enough the design on this modified design was replaced the following year.

Series 6 - 1996-1999 (Sporting Series)

The Sixth series sees another complete change in design for the coins of the IOM, unfortunately this is one of the sets I have which are incomplete as the 1p & 10p coins are missing from this picture and my collection. This set depicts sport that is played on the Isle itself, since this set was introduced (I believe) that the Pobjoy Mint has since issued commemorative 50p coins, in particular those for the Manx TT racing. I should point out, the reason for there been two £1 coins been posted above is because rather oddly the £1 coin on the left does not feature the Triskeles emblem round the outside like all the rest of the IOM coins, unfortunately I don't know why this variation exists, anyone have any ideas?

Isle Of Man (1971-1983)

Well here we go, the one I dreaded scanning, coins of the Isle Of Man (of which the currency is known as the Manx Pound), so vast is this collection that I still have a couple of incomplete sets. There have been 8 series of coins so far of which some have been rather unique & distinctive. As there are so many images to post here I have split the Isle Of Man into several posts, bare with me:

The first 4 series of coins (series 1-3 shown in this post) draw on more traditional items, wildlife, etc. of the Isle itself, something which appeared on their coins for almost 20 years.

Series 1 - 1971-1975

The First series is rather traditional for the Isle Of Man, featuring animals, flora & fauna, symbols, etc. that are know to the isle of man, coins minted in this series were 1/2p, 1p, 2p, 5p, 10p & 50p. Bonus picture of a silver 1p coin showing the detail of this rather nice looking coin

Series 2 - 1976-1979

The Second series is more or less the first series MkII as in they still display animals, buildings, etc. but with the addition of the map of the Isle Of Man, this particular set from 1979 has an extra little stamp mark to celebrate the "Millennium Of Tynwald - 979-1979" on each coin. This series also saw the introduction of the £1 coin in 1978 (not displayed here but displayed below) which pre-dates the UK £1 by 5 years.

Series 3 - 1980-1983

The Third series is one of my favourites, again featuring things native to the Isle Of Man however with some lovely details around each object in question. The first two images are of an uncirculated set with the 1/2p, 1p, 2p, 5p, 10p, 50p & £1 coins enclosed, the next two images are of the coins introduced during this series, the 20p (which is my favourite of this series due to it's level of detail for a modern coin) & the £1 coin which ultimately replaced the thinner silver coloured versions.

The Gambia

Up thread I mentioned how hard it was to get coins from The Gambia, however with some luck I went into my "local" coin shop (when I say local I mean Central London) & by chance this set was in one of the cabinets. As you can see they are a bit tarnished, however for £6 I can't complain (especially considering the costs of some British Gambia coins on ebay). The Gambia coins have one unique feature, the writing on the obverse is in a very unusual position, the writing is horizontal in the lower third of the coin rather than round the edge, this is the only country ever to do this that carries the Queen's portrait. Missing from this image is the 8 Shillings coin of which I hope to obtain soon.

Canada

EDIT: Update to show QEII Canadian coins over the years

Here is a collection of circulating coins from Canada, in here are several commemorative 50c & $2 coins. Also included are examples of the earlier 5c coin which was 12 sided at one point & was thicker than the current circulating coin & the 1c coin which was round, then was twelve sided & then became round again. Also included is an earlier $1 coin, which I believe was a commemorative only (although I could be wrong)

With the exception of the obverse the designs for Canada have more or less been unchanged for over 50 years rather uniquely, for a coin with a monarch's profile. This particular set shown above have a portrait of QEII that is unique to Canada.

Jersey,

I've found more Jersey £1 coins in the UK than I have on Jersey, they still use £1 notes, the coins are seldom seen. I've never found a Jersey £2 coin on the island though I'm told they are there. Guernsey and Isle of Man are similar.

You are quite right, I used to go to Jersey for a fortnight every year for sixteen years on the trot and I did not come across many £1 coins. The £1 notes are more favourable, apparently.

Interesting, I did always wonder why £1 coins from Jersey were in such a good condition even when they were near 10 years old, this explains why

heh jersey, IOM usualy pop up here. they have differant designs on every denomination have fun with isle of man lol

anyway i got these

and gibralter seems to pop up in change for some reason.

Ooh never seen that £1 before, I'll have to keep an eye out for that one

BTW did you just mention IOM, well you'll be please to know that I've just scanned my entire collection, dear God did that take for ever

The '80s £1 are neat, but the regular £1 with the ship and the 20p with the lighthouse are quite neat to me.

 

All I've got to show for the measly £200 or so of coin that I've handled over the past year is a 2004 Gibraltar pound.

Ah OK, fair enough, I see those two over here so often that to me there just like the standard £1 & 20p coins to me, oddly enough the borderless Jersey 20p in London is fairly common for some reason.

Anyway a few more up in a mo

I quite like the Jersey coins!

Thanks , any ones in particular? I personally like the £1 series of the 80's, I hope to get the rest of these at some point, unfortunately I got a lot of these this time last year, I then stopped collecting coins about September 2009 & didn't start again until April/May this year, of which when I went back to the shop they had all been unfortunately sold.

Oddly enough for me Jersey is one of my least favourites, but that's only because they appear so often over here, with the exception of the £2 coin understandably & oddly enough the 2p coin, the rest are rather common. As I think I mentioned several times above Isle Of Man is my favourite of the crown dependencies if only because they refresh them quite often, however the current design has been in use since 2004/5, which I believe is the longest running series of the lot.

I hope to get the Isle Of Man ones up this weekend, I think there's at least five different series for here, although there could be more

Jersey

Several series here for Jersey

Pre-Decimal

A selection of pre-decimal Jersey coins, the first 1/12th shilling & first two 1/4th shilling coins are standard issues, the other three are commemoratives. I believe only these coins were issued in Jersey pre-decimal although please correct me if I'm wrong.

The decimal series:

Series 1

Here is an incomplete set from the first series of decimal coins, which were minted between the late 60's-1980, the designs for each coin were exactly the same. Shown here is the 1/2p, 1p, 2p, old sized 10p and a special commemorative £1 coin of a rounded diamond shape. Guernsey also had their own commemorative from around about the same time.

UPDATE: Series 2 added

Series 2

Complete series 2 which was very short lived, I believe this was only used for a few years although this could possibly be the only year these were issued. The design is virtually the same as Series 1 except the word "new" is absent & the year is split either side of the shield

Series 3

Virtually complete set of the current Jersey coins (only the defunct 1/2p is missing), as can be seen here the designs are much more varied that the first set. Included here is the old sized 50p & the 1982 20p, which has the date on the back (see if you can find the date, explains why it was moved to the front). Of all of the crown dependencies Jersey's coins circulate in the UK the most commonly, along with Guernsey.

Finally the £1 "Bailiwick" series when ran throughout the 80's, unfortunately I only have 7 of the 12 coins at the mo, I hope to get the rest in the near future.

Jamaica

Jamaica is a bit of an oddity when it comes to regional coins, only three coin denominations ever carried the Jamaica name, the Farthing, Half Penny & One Penny. When it came to Elizabeth II's reign however the Farthing had already been dropped meaning only two Jamaican coins ever bared her portrait. However during her short reign over Jamaica she had three versions of each coin, shown above is the first series & on it's way within the next few days will be the third series from her reign. Not much else to add really as there doesn't seem to be that much info out there regarding Jamaican coins under British rule.

UPDATE: Third Set Added

And so we come to the third & last set of coins issued with QEII's portrait, not much different from the second series, this series however celebrates the centenery of British Jamaican coins, however these coins didn't enter circulation for very long as Jamaica became independent soon afterwards

Learn something new every day. Thanks!

I also learnt (after searching out for Seychelles coins since those posts above) that they eventually got their own 1c & 5c coins, as soon as they arrive I'll post pictures of them

A few more tonight, not many mind as I wasn't really in the mood for scanning much tonight (it's very muggy weather wise over here in the UK tonight), there's also an update to the Cook Islands post as well, should all be up within the next half hour

Huh... the Mauritius 1, 2 and 5 cent coins are identical to Seychelles coins of the same era (not sure about the higher denominations as I don't have any of them) -- except of course for saying 'Mauritius' rather than 'Seychelles'. One of the charms of Commonwealth coinage is that the reverses differ from country to country, usually displaying something local. I can't think of another instance of this among Commonwealth issues.

Seychelles,

 

Prior to 1903 they were a dependency of Mauritius, from 1903 becoming a separate colony but using the Mauritius currency. From 1939, new 10, 25 cents and ½ and 1 Rupee were issued, but Mauritius 1,2 and 5 cents continued to be used. It was not until 1948 that the Seychelles issued 1,2 and 5 cents and when they did the continued with the Mauritius design. I believe the coins to have been interchangeable across both territories until independence.

I'll be honest I think I was lucky when I got that complete set of Mauritius coins, I have had a lot of trouble trying to get hold of coins from the Seychelles, Fiji, Southern Rhodesia, Rhodesia & Nyasaland and The Gambia in all honesty, in particular the Seychelles and Rhodesia & Nyasaland. However I have manage to get hold of Niue's first set of coins from 2009, pictures up as soon as I get them

Gibraltar....

 

Coins now produced by the Tower Mint (London), prior to 2004 it was by Pobjoy Mint.

The owner of the Tower mint is Raphael Maklouf who designed the 1985 portrait for the Royal Mint.

The portrait on the coins of Gibraltar is a sort of modernised version of the 1985 portrait....

 

There have also been some one off commemoratives in recent years, marketed by Westminster collections ltd.

Including a 2004 series of 50p for Battles, and a 2007 2p and £2 for the diamond wedding anniversary (Elizabeth + Phillip)

That explains the hybrid/modernised version of the portrait, the earlier ones seem to suffer from being under-stamped, however coins issued with this portrait of latter dates seem to be stuck stronger. I shall have to have a look out for several of these commemorative coins as well, again thanks for the info

Rhodesia

EDIT: Rescanned to now include the Florin coin, completing this set.

The final set of Rhodesian coins issued with the Queen's portrait (Florin now added). These coins are rather interesting for two aspects, firstly they were one of the first coins to depict the new portrait of the Queen (The Gambia been the other in 1966, Britain itself didn't use this portrait until 1968), secondly these coins are dual-denominated (with the exception of the Threepence which was added in 1968). Unfortunately like the previous coins of Rhodesia & Nyasaland they had a relatively short life.

Although I posted the Bahamas variants in one posting, the coins for the various Rhodesian set ups I will post separately.

That's all for now, more soon.

Nigeria

Complete set of Nigerian pre-decimal coins, the 1/2p & 1p don't depict the Queen's portrait but do bare her name. The brass colour Threepence is thinner than the UK variant, there was no Half Crown coin issued in Nigeria.

New Zealand

Quite a few different sets here, Pre-decimal, old decimal & new decimal. I would like to apologies for the angle of some of these coins, unfortunately this is the angle they are in the sealed packs & I can't get them to change round unfortunately.

Full set of pre-decimal coins, this is a complete sealed souvenir set from 1967, favourite coin the Half Crown, lots of lovely detail in that one

Original set of decimal coins originally introduced in the late 60's (this set is dated 1978) with a commemorative $1 crown, all coins in this set have since been withdrawn. The 1c & 2c were taken out of circulation on the 1st May 1990, the 5c was withdrawn on 31st October 2006, the larger 10c, 20c & 50c were also withdrawn on the 31st October 2006 although unlike the 5c they were replaced with new smaller designs (see below). The 10c originally had the legend "1 Shilling" on the coin along with the "10", however this was eventually dropped, the design however remained the same. The Kiwi was dropped from the 20c in 1990 as the new $1 coin carried a Kiwi design, this design can now be seen above.

This set is 29 years on from the above set, as can be seen the 10c has been shrunk & is of a copper coloured metal (of the same size as the UK 1p), the 20c (showing the design introduced in 1990) is now smaller & is of a "Spanish rose" shape (used on the 10pts Spanish coin & 20 Euro Cent coin), the 50c is also noticeably smaller. The $1 & $2 coins are also shown here, however (prior to the change in size to the NZ coins) these aren't of the same shape & size of the Australian $1 & $2 coins like the rest of the NZ coins were before the size change.

Mauritius

Coins are no longer issued with Queen Elizabeth's portrait, however coins with the same reverses are still issued to this day, above is the complete set issued with QEII's portrait. The Quarter Rupee is not only my favourite design of this set but one of my favourite coins of all time.

Gibraltar

A collection of Gibraltar coins from over the years, I'm not sure however what belongs to what series before the 2004 series as it seems some coins never changed design beforehand however other lower values changed quite regularly.

2004 saw Gibraltar celebrate it's Tercentenary & a new set of coins issued for the region, Gibraltar now has a unique QEII portrait on their coins which is a hybrid of the 3rd & 4th portraits. Interestingly enough, if you look closely at the Obverse side, you can see that several coins have been "under-struck" and so the detail on several coins, in particular the 5p. I hope to have scans of parts of the previous series (I believe there are two other sets, one previous one since this issue) up in the next few weeks.

Australia

Complete set of Australian Coins, the 1c & 2c were withdrawn in 1991 with the $1 introduced in 1984 & the $2 introduced in 1988, other than that apart from commemorative 20c, 50c & $1 coins Australian Coins haven't really changed at all since introduction in 1966. At the bottom is a bonus 50c coin, which is similar to the standard one but seems to have an "updated design" although latter coins have the traditional design. Missing from this picture, the round 50c which had a short life due to high silver content in the coin.

A selection of commemorative 50c coins from Australia along with a commemorative 20c coin, Australia also issue commemorative $1 coins as well, I don't have any of those unfortunately.

re: Hong Kong - there was also a 10-sided $5 coin in the mid-1970s. It was withdrawn and replaced with the slightly smaller but thicker $5 coin used today.

Interesting, I shall have to seek one of those out, thanks for the Info

Hopefully I'll have more up soon this evening.

Tristan da Cunha....

 

Made for collectors by the Commonwealth mint. TDC uses the St Helena & Ascension Pound.

 

Lately we have coins also (following the same sizes) for Gough Island and Stoltenhoff Island both unihabited so quite why the penguins need coins is a little beyond me

I though as much, any coin that bares that prticular portrait is usually a collectors coin, I have to say that I'm rather glad they use a unique portrait rather than an established one, it more or less makes it clear that they are "fantasy" coins. Just found about the Stolentoff Islands coins literally minutes before you mentioned them, although didn't know about the Gough Islands ones. I probably will end up getting hold of a set of each of these, seeing as I have coins baring her portrait from virtually everywhere else, although I'm more interested in getting hold of official coins from other regions such as Fiji & the Seychelles at present

Cook Islands....

 

Only the 1,2 and 5 Dollars are legal tender. All the older size denominations were withdrawn in 2006, when New Zealand reduced the size of it's coins. As you probably guessed they now use New Zealand coins, but the 2003 issued 1,2 and 5 Dollars remain.

 

The 2000 1 and 5 Cents never were circulation coins, being made specifically for collectors.

The latest set of coins again are specifically for collectors, the Cooks Island government get 10% of the profits....

 

Also - does anyone have / ever seen a 50 Cents 1987-92 with the fish, KM#36?

Interesting, thanks for the info, I got my info from Wikipedia, according to them at present all coins are currently in circulation. I have a lot more from this region on their way soon including the mentioned 2010 set which has another unique portrait for QEII (how many does she need, eh? )

I probably wouldn't even have noticed had it not been for my birth year set -- more than once I've sat down to add a few more coins and thought, 'Wait, don't I have that one already?' It doesn't help that the sizes and values of the coins are not standardized, even though the obverse is -- the 1963 British Caribbean Territories Eastern Group 25c piece is the same size and obverse and composition as the 1963H Hong Kong 50c piece -- though the latter has a security edge.

 

Definitely looking forward to seeing more!

Yes & it still seems to be a practice that happens today, one advantage to the size change (in NZ & Australia's eyes) was that the reduction in size of the New Zealand coins meant an end to the NZ/Aus/Cook Is coins all circulating together, however the new sized 10c coin is exactly the same size & colour as the British 1p

More soon hopefully

Tuvalu

Another set of lovely coins from an Island many will have never heard of, I consider myself very lucky to own this set as I have never ever come across any coins from this region since. The $1 coin is a unique 9 sided (yes that's not a typo, it is 9 sided) coin, the rest are a standard round shape. My personal favourites are the 10 & 50c coins although all are rather nice. Bonus scan of the card with the illustration of each coin included.

That's it for now, more soon

Tristan Da Cunha

As far as I know the St Helena & Ascension pound circulates on Tristan Da Cunha, so I'm not entirely sure on the status of these coins, are they a pattern set, are the a commemorative, I don't know myself (I suspect they're a fantasy pattern). The coins are in a rather odd denomination as well (1/2p, 1p, 2p, 5p, 10p, 20p, 25p, 1 Crown) & have an unusual portrait of QEII, unfortunately that's not to clear in these pics, this set is currently sealed, I am in the process of seeking out loose coins from this region.

If anyone has any further info on these coins, please feel free to share the information, as I say I haven't a clue as to their purpose other than been a pattern set of some sort.

EDIT: With thanks to AndyG for this info, it should be now pointed out that these coins are issued for collectors only and that Tristan Da Cunha uses the St Helena & Ascension Pound.

Here's an example of a crown of Tristan Da Cunha (possibly their first) of which the name of the isle is rather oddly abbreviated to TDC

Solomon Islands

One of my favourite set of overseas coins bearing QEII's portrait, the designs here are very unique, my particular favourite is the rather unusual 10c coin. Included here is the commemorative 50c coin which celebrates 10 years of independence. Sadly this rather lovely looking currency has declined in value rapidly, due to economic stagnation & the recent civil war, whereas back in 1979 $1.05 Solomon Island Dollars equalled $1 Australian Dollar, it currently stands at $1 Solomon Dollar equalling 15c Australian.

Hong Kong

The last of the "big colonies" that the UK owned, here are (I believe) a complete set of Hong Kong coins with QEII portrait. As can be seen above the 10c, 50c & $1 coin all changed size. Unfortunately Hong Kong's coins didn't go over that big an overhaul once Britain handed back the country to China & in some respects became even duller, design wise. If you're lucky however you may still get coins with QEII's portrait in our change if you ever get the chance to visit the country, I myself got five coins over there, although 13 years on these are becoming harder to find.