NumisTip evolved out of the Blue Sheet in 2018 expanding the Australian, Malaysian, Hong Kong, and Thai sites into a global catalogue of world coins. The Blue Sheet has been the standard valuation reference for certified Australian coins since 2008 when it evolved from the On-line Retail Price Guide which started in 2004. It has come a long way since then, starting out as a community-entered valuation site then turning into manually updated prices based on past sales and finally to its current form, automatically generated prices based on sales of certified coins. Learn more about NumisTip
By far the most common question we get asked is "what is my coin worth?" Perhaps you found a few old coins which is why you're here reading this article. Maybe you're a seasoned collector already looking to get more precise values for your coins than the printed catalogues can offer. Perhaps you're an investor looking to value your coin portfolio. This guide will cover all of that.
To start, lets discuss what goes into a coin's value. There are a lot of myths to valuing coins like a coin has to be made of gold to be worth something, or it needs to be very old. While being gold helps to set a minimum value as it can't be worth less than its bullion value, other than that, age and metal don't really come into it. Read more
Although Australia had been a nation since 1901, it wasn't until 1910 that her first official coins were produced. While the Melbourne mint was producing sovereigns and half sovereigns at the time, these were technically Imperial British coins. The first coins issued specifically for Australia were struck in silver and of the denominations threepence, sixpence, shilling, and florin. These featured the Australian Coat of Arms on the reverse and the crowed bust of King Edward VII on the obverse.
These four coins represent the starting point of any pre-decimal coin collection and thus are highly sought after today. Read more
The discovery of gold in the colony New South Wales in 1851 prompted a surge of immigration among prospectors seeking wealth in the new colony. This lead to the production of half sovereigns in Sydney as of 1855. Only 3.3 million half sovereigns were produced from 1855 to 1869 resulting in individual years being very scarce and valuable. To add to this, the high bullion content of Sydney mint half sovereigns, which were alloyed with silver, compared with their British counterparts, which were alloyed with copper, meant that countless half sovereigns were shipped back to England and melted to profit from this difference.
As a result, Sydney mint half sovereigns are now highly coveted and valuable in any condition. Read more
