British Silver Coins

British silver coins are an excellent investment for the future. The quality of British silver coins is high and they are always very much in demand.

First introduced by Great Britain in 1997 the proof Britannia was struck with 95.8 percent purse silver and is one of the worlds heaviest silver coins. The British Royal Mint strike just 100,000 of these coins each year.

The name comes from he days of the Roman Empire when the Emperor Claudius, who had the title Britannicus, decided to inscribe his coins with, “De Britannis”. And so England was named Britain and the word Britannia has been association with Great Britain and the coins.

Acquiring a brilliant Uncirculated 2 pound silver bullion Britannia contains one full ounce of solid fine silver. This coin is a ‘must have” for collectors of the larger silver coins. Many will collect each year from 1997 onwards.

The 2006 edition of this coin is now available and will continue to attract keen interests from collectors world wide. The 2006 coin is issued in the same original design being 95.8 percent pure fine silver and with the usual 100,000 limited issue is sure to be snapped up by collectors and dealers alike.

Since 1582 all British silver coins have been made up of 925 parts of fine silver and 75 parts of copper. This gave the silver an additional hardness and has been known as Sterling Silver. Although Sterling silver is still used for silver objects in 1920 it was decided that the silver content of coins would be reduced and the British silver coins such as the half a crown, the florin and shilling would be struck as fifty percent silver alloyed with 5fifty percent copper.

From 1921 to 1946 therefore all silver coins were only half silver content. The silver content was further reduced to nothing and all silver coins were made with ‘cupro-nickel’.

Proof coins continued to be made even up to today for sale to collectors and to commemorate special occasions and the silver proof versions of the 1999 and the 2000 millennium crowns were struck in .99 fine silver.

British Silver Coins are considered some of the finest silver around and are always in demand and if you can add some British Silver Coins to your coin collector they will certainly enhance your collection.