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Would you like to check out what you’re getting before you sign up? Absolutely fair enough! Please find below, a copy of our first newsletter, to give you a taste of what comes out each fortnight:

Coin of Note
Newsletter #1
17th August 2023

Hi everyone and welcome to the very first Coin of Note Newsletter!

History, or, What is Coin of Note?

I’m Q, I have been collecting coins, on and off since I was a kid (suffice to say, I haven’t been asked for ID when ordering drinks at a bar in quite some years). I started collecting circulated world coins. I loved the variety and the differences from the coins I was used to paying for things with. I then expanded my interest as I discovered new areas of numismatics (that is, the study of coins, banknotes, tokens, and medals). Now I collect a little of everything.

I originally started “Coin of Note” as a Twitter account back in May 2018 to share some of what I learn. With the general demise of Twitter, I joined Mastodon in 2022, and have finally created the Coin of Note website. With my social media postings, I have been posting photos and info about interesting coins, tokens, and medallions. As well as sharing the info, just the act of finding out about each piece, or where it comes from, has greatly increased my own knowledge.

The idea of the site is partly to create a more permanent record of my learning. And also, room to post a little more about a piece, without needing to go to three or four tweets (or toots now on Mastodon).

The newsletter is both a chance for you to keep up with what is new on the site, with occasional musings from me as well. The intention is to publish this newsletter fortnightly. It will include what is new on the site, and other things I find, but also to keep it relatively short as well. You’ve got better things to do than read my ramblings all afternoon 🙂

What’s new?

Everything! Ok, I better narrow it down a bit. For this first newsletter, I thought I’d expand slightly on the coins of the cover image of the site and why I chose them. I did include a little on the About page, but let’s have another look through why I chose them.

Firstly, I wanted a nice background behind everything. Australia seems to be the most prolific producer of Postal Numismatic Covers (PNC). Basically, a PNC is an envelope featuring a stamp, coin and overall design based on a particular theme. In some cases, it is just a nice theme, like birds or plants, and in some cases it is topical. As I write this, the FIFA Women’s world cup is on in Australia, and Australia Post released a special FIFA Women’s World Cup PNC to mark the occasion. In the case of the Coin of Note Doves and Pigeons PNC, I just liked the design. You can pick a collecting theme and acquire things which fit it, but at the end of the day, however you decide what to collect, you will be much happier if you like it.

With the coins and tokens spread over the PNC, I wanted to include a mix, both of countries and types. All six coin-issuing continents are represented. The time period ranges from before Christ (The ancient Greek owl dates to roughly 133 – 27 BC), to modern (the PNC is from 2021). The central piece is a medallion of St Eligius. He is the patron saint of numismatics, and so I feel it is important to keep him, and God in mind in a hobby which can otherwise be seen as a very worldly pastime. The other pieces include a railway check, one of my first tokens, a transport pass I once gave a talk on, another medallion, and seven coins. The coins range from one connected to my family history, one reminiscent of my numismatic mentor (Tom has a fantastic numismatic site, you should check it out!), to one with a nice pattern, a tactile coin, and one I simply like.

There are some other pieces on the site, but I don’t want to try to cram TOO much into the first newsletter, so I’ll cover those next time.

Something extra

Since you’ve read this far, you deserve a little extra. Here is a behind the scenes shot, from when I was setting up for the cover photo itself and deciding what coins to include (while that distinctive 100 Mon ended up being a bit large for the cover image, it is on the site). The trickiest bit was getting the lighting right to show off the pieces without reflecting too much off the plastic cover of the PNC. I used the room lighting at an angle, and a hand light from in front (near where that 100 mon is sitting). I ended up cropping so none of the folder it is sitting on is visible, but as you can probably tell, it did inspire the colour theme for the site and the newsletter, and made a good background to photograph a number of pieces on individually:

Image of the coins and PNC of the header image being setup on a folder on a chair. The cat is nonchalantly wandering through the shot

Miss Kitten of Note definitely didn’t want to be in the photo, which is why she just happened to be nonchalantly wandering through as I went to take the shot! (At least she didn’t jump up and sit on the folder – I wouldn’t put it past her).

Social media

I post a few images on the Coin of Note Mastodon feed which don’t make it to the site or which I haven’t researched too much further yet. Here are a couple of recent highlights you might like:

French ½ Sol of an Ecu.

Here’s a somewhat worn piece, issued under Louis XVI. Issued between 1777 – 1791, by 16 mints for 88 different year / mintmark combinations… but with the year and mintmark both unreadable I have no idea which one of those mine is 🙂

French Chocolat token:

Here is another French piece. This is a 20 Centimes token from Menier Chocolat company. Founded in Paris in 1816 as a pharmaceutical company, it was family-run until being acquired by Rowntree in 1971. The former Noisel factory later became Nestlé’s French headquarters

Walhalla Goldfields Railway

A local Australian railfan and coin enthusiast, Cale, makes large 76mm medallions of locomotives and trains under his “Railway Coins” brand. I recently picked up this piece depicting the Walhalla Goldfields railway in Victoria, Australia:

You can find Cale’s coins at his: Railway Coins site.

And you can find out more about the Walhalla Goldfields Railway from their site

From others:

Billon Tetradrachm

Still on Mastodon, here is one I quite liked last week:

From @Greenseer@Mstdn.social: “A billon tetradrachm from Alexandria, Roman Egypt, struck under Hadrian in 129 / 130 AD with reverse showing radiate bust of Helios”

I haven’t put any up on Coin of Noyet, but I do enjoy the amazing history of Roman coins.

What is it?

Finally for this week, I do like birds on coins, and here’s an old one. But what is the coin?

A bronze coin with an eagle, wings and feet spread (tail between legs). The year, 1794 is divided by the bird's body.

I’ll have the answer next time around!

That’s all for this first edition. Please do reply with your feedback

– Q

That was the first newsletter sent out on 17th August 2023. To ensure you don’t miss a future edition, you are encouraged to subscribe. You can subscribe to the Coin of Note Newsletter via email. Or, subscribe from the Google Groups page.