Silver Coins for a Gift: Where to Buy?

Collecting is a popular passion among lovers of interesting or rare things. Perhaps the reason for this is the very fact of owning an item that only a few people on the planet have, or the excitement of collecting all possible related curiosities that exist. Among the various collectibles, numismatics has almost the most serious reputation - coin collecting.  

Understanding thousands of different types and denominations of coins, up to studying archaeological finds – is a real science. And each individual coin – is the subject of fierce debate and volumes of research. Today we will talk about a silver coin – a welcome addition to every collection. 

Silver coins of the world 

Perhaps the oldest metal for minting coins was silver. This metal is soft and malleable enough to give it the desired shape and apply images. The first coins appeared in Lydia, then spread to Greece and its colonies. Each city-colony minted its own coins with the image of the local ruler - thus the art of relief portraits and symbols began. And to bring all these various coins to a single dimension for trade relations, the minting of silver coins of a certain weight helped.  

With the empire of Alexander the Great, coin minting spread throughout Europe, and even parts of Asia and Africa.  After the decline of the empire, colonies turned into kingdoms, and the right to mint coins passed from cities to kings. Thus, sovereign mints were formed, many of which are still the centers of the financial systems of their states. Buy silver coins as a gift with a thousand-year history – The task is almost impossible, because most of the ancient finds end up in museums around the world. 

The value of silver coins depends on the mint, the denomination of the coin, the circulation volume, and the number in the population's hands. For example, silver coins from China are very difficult to find. Simply because traditionally Chinese coins were made from bronze and copper, or their alloys, and much less often from silver. One such exception is the Silver Dragon coin, which was minted in China, Japan, and Korea for domestic needs and trade in the region.  

From about the 16th century, coins began to be assigned a denomination that differed from the real value of the silver from which they were minted. This was due to fluctuations in the price of precious metals, the excessive burden on world economies that could not spend so much on banknotes, and the reluctance to carry and transport the real weight of bags of coins. And already at the beginning of the 20th century, most countries in the world switched to cheaper metals to replace silver to reduce production costs.  

Nevertheless, silver coins continued to be minted. We are talking about special anniversary coins and investment coins that are not used in circulation. For example, silver anniversary coins of the USSR - in fact, the most popular silver banknotes made in the Soviet Union. After all, circulation coins were minted from a copper-nickel alloy, except for Soviet silver coins of the first post-revolutionary years. Tsarist silver coins were withdrawn from circulation with the ambition to replace them with similar Soviet ones, but the mints could not cope with the load.  

As we have already noted, most coins over time have become more of a symbol for their denomination. That is, the weight of a coin made of a certain metal no longer determines its value. But there is an exception to this rule - investment coins. Someone invests money in bullion of precious metals, and someone buys investment coins made of pure precious metal such as gold, silver, platinum or palladium. This type includes specimens minted after 1800, which have a fineness of not less than 900.  Interestingly, some of these coins have a denomination that is much lower than the real value of the precious metal. Among the silver coins of England, the most popular for investment purposes is the «Britain». Coins of this series are exempt from taxation in the event of profit or sale, and new mintages have extraordinary elements of protection against counterfeiting. 

To choose silver coins as a gift, it is not necessary to go to the National Bank. In particular, the Fama online store presents original copies of silver coins from Ukraine and foreign mints. Choose an interesting and valuable gift for your loved ones. Or look for something else on our website, where you will find out, for example, how much meteorites cost.