Tour of British History Through Penny Coins

Coins are a tangible piece of history that can illustrate the politics, art, and economics of a people and time. In this video we examine Penny coins from Britain and how these coins have recorded the history of Britain from 1797 to the present.
Some notes:
The coins shown do not illustrate all of the various Penny coins of Britain. Many other designs exist! This video simply uses one or two example coins from the reign of each British monarch. Penny coins from Great Britain also exist as small silver coins prior to 1797.
The coins displayed are often not the highest quality (given my budgetary constraints, sorry about that!)
The historical information presented is common knowledge and can be found on Wikipedia.
Also note, the statistics on the purchasing power of the pound sterling and French Franc come from www.historicalstatistics.org
Make sure to check out the “Tour of French History Through 5 Franc Coins” if you enjoyed this video.
I hope to make some more of these videos using coins to illustrate history, so if you have any suggestions for other coin series that are good illustrations of history, comment below.

[@mikegoblue68]

Excellent video!

[@rossi6113]

Very interesting that. Thank you.

[@dmcresins]

Great information. I'm from Ireland and didn't know half of that:)

[@willsnellius]

Glad you enjoyed it. I like coin collecting as a way to travel through history and to different places. It is a great way to learn!

[@bobbaldwin984]

Hmm. You might have included the last little silver pennies . They were issued for circulation up until 1800 ,

[@willsnellius]

I decided to stick with copper/bronze for this round. It'd be fun to go back further in time with the silver pennies, but that would also get pricey!

[@bubbabaker6244]

I like the date in your penny a DDO!

[@koleksiapasaja]

Very very Good... 👍👍

[@RC-wm7cw]

Great Video

[@kimcason8764]

Good Video. Being a Collector aka Numismatist or as my Partner Calls me "Numismentle". It was an interesting Video for those 'Not in the Know..!' Good work. Cheers kim in Oz. 😎 Ps. Australia started producing its own Penny from 1911. And they are worth collecting in their own right..! No Britainnia to the Reverse. Going with a ROO from 1937. Until our own Decimal day in 1966. If you want a couple let me Know. I have Bags of them..! Gratis obviously..!! Cheers 😎

[@willsnellius]

Glad that you liked the video. Australian pennies sound like an interesting set, I'd have to look a bit more into the history of Australia to see. What sort of story do you think could be told with them? Also thanks for the offer of some pennies, let me see if I can dig up a full set of Australian penny design changes with what I've got here already. I've been needing to do some organizing for quite some time!

[@garybailey2794]

That was an excellent presentation, I must say, and it gave me a close up look of the earlier large cents before Queen Victoria. Thank you so much!!! How about doing some of the large coppers and bronzes of Italy, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand? Please and lest not forget France andIreland

[@willsnellius]

Glad you enjoyed the video, and I've got a couple other sets in the works that I'd like to present. Next up will be 5 Franc coins from Belgium when I get my act together, but the other series you mention would be fun as well. Italy would be a challenge because I'd like to go back to before the Italian Unification. There's a whole bunch going on with the history and coinage of that period!

[@MilledSteel]

Nice video

[@carloslugo7450]

Great job, Loved it!!! But will they ever bring back that poor lost ship??!! Lol.

[@willsnellius]

I think it wandered off to the coins of other Commonwealth countries for a bit!

[@bubbabaker6244]

Your turning a coin show into a stranglet documentary. 😮 This may work if you could get a hook into thre audience! 😅

[@coinman7728]

Perhaps next time you could show the various portraits of Victoria (there is at least one, and I think two more you didn't show) plus the modern penny which no longer has the portcullis on it. Also, the penny from 1970 to the early 1980s was called "New Penny" before it changed back to "One Penny" after that.

[@willsnellius]

You are right, there are many variations that are not shown in this video, so I don't want folks to think these are the only British penny coins out there! There's definitely room to do additional videos!

[@chiragagrawal3960]

Great

[@Michael-Philip]

Thanks, I have four cartwheel George III pennies, but they're pretty beat up.. Amazing how large they are.

[@willsnellius]

The George III pennies are pretty awesome. Since the 1797 pennies were 1 ounce and the 1797 two pence were 2 ounces they were also used as standard weights for commerce. I imagine that's part of the reason they ended up in such rough shape!

[@vicreadies]

@@willsnellius Also being made of Copper didn't help. Post 1859 production of pennies was of bronze.

[@SensaiMan]

An excellent video, and very informative. I have a number of Victorian pennies, and other coins. Thanks for sharing :)

[@Dan-qu8qs]

very good video to watch. the Geo 1v penny is not bad at all and this the 1915 penny might be the broken tooth variety.

[@willsnellius]

Thanks for your thoughts. I didn't know the 1915 penny was possibly a variety. Good catch!

[@ronalddoyscher5466]

I have a 1900 King George the fifth.

[@javiermagdaleno8345]

very good brother I have a 1936 Penny and excellent condition what do you think it's worth .

[@willsnellius]

To get an idea of pricing I usually use the Numismatic Guaranty Company's (NGC) World Coin Price Guide tool. However, the prices tend to be very "optimistic", so I assume about 50% of the listed value. That year has a very high mintage, so unfortunately I don't think it would be worth too much unless in mint state. Hope this helps!

[@dianlleloparkiunson1190]

Dianllelo peruano tengo dos monedas de esa i además del tiempo de Roma demasiado antiguas

[@machielvandyk9547]

I have a replika 1797

[@PRXJECTVOID]

But... How did you get them?

[@willsnellius]

Some coins were from my grandparents with gaps in the series filled in through eBay.

[@PRXJECTVOID]

@@willsnellius oh

[@guillermofernandez3013]

Hola que tal tengo one penni 1918

[@priscillaapodaca5678]

Wow i have Gorge the 5th penny

[@hossainkhan5737]

I have a lot of 1 2 and 5 shillings coins I'm from sa

[@willsnellius]

The shillings would be a good set and go back much further in time than the copper pennies. They get pricey for the older ones though!

[@claudiodomingos876]

TENHO A ONE PENNY 1908 PARA VENDER.

[@neillamont1320]

What are they worth

[@willsnellius]

Prices fluctuate, but the whole set could be purchased for around $120 when I did this. The earlier coins were much more expensive ($20 -$30 each) than the later coins. Getting the earlier coins in the series at higher grade would be significantly more expensive.

[@samuelquarchey1945]

How can I sell my coins

[@willsnellius]

eBay has worked for me to sell coins in the past, but you have to do some research on your coins beforehand to know how to price them.

[@2msvalkyrie529]

Can we have our colonies back ? New England and New York state would do . You can keep Carolinas and Georgia !!

[@willsnellius]

Pennsylvania doesn't get a mention on either list? That's rough...the only thing worse than being talked about is not being talked about.

[@elhassaneajedid4907]

Je Hello Price Thx

[@willsnellius]

Prices fluctuate, but the whole set could be purchased for around $120 when I did this. The earlier coins were much more expensive ($20 -$30 each) than the later coins. Getting the earlier coins in the series at higher grade would be significantly more expensive.

[@moismailbhutawala6605]

I.hav.1.peny.co.1928.pliz.contek.

[@seye8eyes]

Justices of love in God we Trust love these billionaires trillionaire's can't afford to pay for one lucky penny Abraham Lincoln 1943 D made from copper brass and a 1933 British penny genuine a poor mouse 🐭 house of a church ⛪ with bad eyesight

[@rogblunt313]

Good content but your narrative talk is boring .

[@bubbabaker6244]

Wait, he didn't so much lose the American Colony as much as we kicked their butts for it!😮 Or not! 🤔🫣🤗

[@willsnellius]

There's so much more to all of these bits of history isn't there! I'm sure someone somewhere has an awesome colonial coin collection that could be useful for making a detailed history of coins, the colonies, and the Revolutionary War. There's definitely room for lots more nerding!