Investment potential ‘The King’s Shilling’

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Today we’re looking at the investment potential of UK KGIII 1787 shillings. Right off the bat this coin type is of interest to an Australian audience as it was listed on Governor King’s 1800 proclamation and is a definite early Australian coin and even if you take a narrow view of such things, is without doubt an ‘Australian Proclamation’ coin. The mighty PCGS includes this coin in its “Set Composition: Australian Proclamation Type Set, Circulation Strikes (1700-1826)”.

Readily Available

The bog standard version is Spink# 3743 which had a book value of around AUD 60 in Fine in 2014 [from Spink 49th ed]. The current book value of that kind of coin is around AUD 40 [ based on Tony Clayton’s wonderful resource at http://www.coins-of-the-uk.co.uk/ ].

The 2014 Spink value for EF coins was around AUD 320 and these days has dropped to around AUD 200, so it seems that these coins are relatively easy to come by and are quite well within reach for collectors.

Not surprisingly, my take is that this standard version – without the semee of hearts and with the stops – is really not the coin you’re looking for; it’s unlikely to significantly increase in value because there are plenty around and now is probably a good time to go shopping for one in the higher EF grade.

Varieties

There are a couple of known varieties, we’ll consider Spink# 3746 which includes a semee of hearts in the Hanoverian shield on the reverse (it’s probably the easiest to spot, the other varieties have no stops in the obverse design or at the date).

The news is a little better, but not great since the Spink 2014 value was around AUD 60 in Fine and more recently Tony Clayton suggests around AUD 70 for that kind of shilling. Still it’s holding its value which is the first step to an increase!

All this doom and gloom over value notwithstanding, it’s still ‘The King’s Shilling’ – a classic 18th century silver coin used all over the world and one that, for me, certainly looks like a proper shilling.

Happy collecting!