HEADS YOU WIN

IF TAKING UP A NEW HOBBY IS AMONG YOUR RESOLUTIONS, FOR THE NEW YEAR, WHY NOT GIVE COIN COLLECTING A GO?

- CHARLES HANSON

As regular readers of this column may know, my love of the past, and everything related to it, started with a coin.

I was 12 when I first unearthed a Charles I silver shilling, dated 1630, using a metal detector on my parents’ farm in Derbyshire.

Even then, as I stared at its muddy face I tried to imagine how life would have been centuries ago as it was passed from palm to palm.

What had that coin paid for? Which rowdy scenes of tavern life had it witnessed?

So I am heartened to discover as we moved into 2026 that coin collecting in the UK is seeing a renaissance in interest.

It's not just among gentlemen of a certain age, like me, but among a whole new generation with a passion for history - even the TikTokers are getting involved. It seems as coins become less common in daily life, older and more unusual coins are becoming more desirable.

And, aside from the cultural and historic interest, there are the tax breaks. Because coins such as sovereigns and Britannias are legal currency, they are exempt from capital gains tax allowing investors to make unlimited tax-free profits on them.