When you get right down to it, the urge to collect seems to be a deeply ingrained part of British culture: whether it's stamps, china, postcards or ticks on a bird database, most of us have collected something at some stage...
Many years ago I helped run a coin and stamp shop in Romford, Essex: this gave me access to some incredible coins at bargain prices. I look back wistfully on the Roman Imperial type-set I put together: sestertii, denarii and aurii of every Roman Emperor, from Augustus to Contantine. I even had denarii of Julius Caesar, Mark Anthony and Pompey. As often happens, a divorce thirty years ago necessitated their sale...
Although I still have a few interesting pieces, the only set of coins that remains is of British pennies from 1902 to 1966. This includes all but one of the rarer items: 1902 'low tide', 1912H, 1918 & 1919H & KN, 1950 and 1953. (H - Heaton - and KN - Kings Norton - refer to tiny letters to the left of the date on some pennies of those years: a shortage of coinage in circulation forced the mint to outsource production to two other metal works.) There is just one missing from the set (not counting 1933, of which only a handful were struck) Ironically, the missing date is 1951, the year of my birth. This is quite rare, having never been circulated in the UK - the entire production of 120,000 were sent to the 'colonies'.
The usual cost of a 1951 penny is in the region of £50 - £80 depending on condition. There's no way I can justify spending that sort of money, just to fill a gap in an album.... Or can I? 😉
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