Coin guides
Grading and mint identification for English hammered and British milled coins, written from the reference tables this catalogue runs on — 187 initial marks, 944 legends and 273 mint signatures across 105 mints. Free to read, no account needed.
Grading
What a grade actually means, what wear looks like on each series, and how the four grading systems a British collector runs into line up with each other.
- HammeredGrading English hammered coinsHow to grade an English hammered coin: why striking weakness is not wear, what a full flan is worth, and what Fine, VF and EF actually look like on a hand-struck penny.
- MilledGrading British milled coinsGrading British milled coins from Charles II onwards: where wear shows first, how UK adjectival grades line up with Sheldon and CGS UK numbers, and what a slab label is really claiming.
Mint identification
Where a coin was struck, worked out from what is on it. The initial mark and the Latin legend are the two kinds of evidence, and they behave very differently on hammered and milled coins.
- HammeredIdentifying the mint on an English hammered coinThe mint is the answer, not the question. How to read a mint from the initial mark and the Latin legend on an English hammered coin, with the marks drawn and the legends tabulated reign by reign.
- MilledMint and provenance marks on British milled coinsMost British milled coins were struck at the Tower. The elephant, the plumes, VIGO, LIMA and SSC record where the metal came from, not where the coin was made — and the marks that really do name a mint.
Tools
Pick a mark, type a legend, get a mint and the reasoning behind it. Runs entirely in your browser.
Where these come from
YourCoins is a private catalogue for a group of coin collectors. To work out where a hammered coin was struck, it carries a compiled reference of every initial mark, legend and mint signature in the English series — and those tables are just as useful to somebody who is not a member, so they are published here. The grading tables are the same ones the catalogue grades with, generated from the same code, which is why they cannot drift out of step with it.