Diana Sterling 
Beginner Coin Collecting Mistakes and How to Avoid Them My grandfather kept a biscuit tin under his bed. Inside, wrapped in old newspaper, were a handful of crowns, a few Victorian pennies, and one coin he could never quite identify but refused to part with. He never called himself a collector. He just liked them. … Read more
The Treasure Act and Coin Finds: Your Legal Obligations A Find That Changes Everything Picture this. You are out on a cold November morning in a ploughed field in Lincolnshire, your metal detector swinging in slow arcs across the dark earth. The machine screams. You dig carefully, fingers cold and caked in soil, and pull … Read more
Metal Detecting and Coin Finds: What to Do with Your Discovery Finding a coin with a metal detector is one of those genuinely thrilling moments that keeps hobbyists going through muddy fields and grey afternoons. Whether you have just pulled a corroded disc from a ploughed field in Suffolk or uncovered a gleaming Victorian penny … Read more
World Coins for UK Collectors: Where to Start You Don’t Need to Know Everything to Begin Walk into any coin fair in the UK — the London Coin Fair at the Holiday Inn Bloomsbury, or the Birmingham Coin Fair at the National Motorcycle Museum — and you will see people of every age and background … Read more
Roman Coins Found in Britain: A Collector’s Guide There is something genuinely extraordinary about holding a Roman coin in your hand. A small, worn disc of bronze or silver, perhaps two thousand years old, stamped with the face of an emperor who ruled over a vast empire – and yet here it is, sitting in … Read more
Coin Fairs in the UK: Where to Find Them If you’ve recently caught the coin collecting bug, you’ll quickly discover that buying online or visiting a local coin shop is only part of the story. Coin fairs are where the real magic happens. They’re busy, sometimes noisy, occasionally overwhelming, and absolutely brilliant. Where else can … Read more
Coin Catalogues and Price Guides for UK Collectors Every coin collector, no matter how experienced, relies on reference material to understand what they own, what something is worth, and what they should be looking for next. For UK collectors in particular, the range of coinage history stretches back over a thousand years, covering Anglo-Saxon pennies, … Read more
Using a Loupe and Microscope for Coin Examination Why Magnification Matters More Than You Think The first time I picked up a loupe at a coin fair in Birmingham, I held it up to a George III halfpenny and suddenly saw a world I had been completely blind to. The hair on the portrait was … Read more
How to Avoid Fake Coins When Buying Online A Hard Lesson Learned A few years ago, a collector from Nottingham shared his story on a popular UK coin forum. He had been building a set of pre-decimal British coins for about eighteen months, and he was thrilled when he found what appeared to be a … Read more
Coin Auctions in the UK: How They Work for Beginners Walking into your first coin auction – or logging into one online for the first time – can feel like arriving at a party where everyone else seems to know exactly what they are doing. The auctioneer speaks quickly, paddles go up, and lots disappear … Read more