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1967 Gold Britannia Penny
1967 Gold Britannia Penny

London Mint Office

Obverse of 1967 Gold Britannia Penny
Obverse of 1967 Gold Britannia Penny

London Mint Office Golden Britannia Penny Certificate
London Mint Office Golden Britannia Penny Certificate

Changing Face of Britain's Coinage National Emblems Edition
An unbelievably naff coin set offering by The London Mint Office
Nice box, shame about the coins. There appear to be at least 2 editions, 'Golden Edition" and 'Gold with Rhodium-Platinum!'.

The Golden Britannia Penny
Most people who end up buying one of these collections probably start with the "bait" of getting the first coin (value £29.95 according to LMO) free, except for £2.50 postage.
London Mint Office hope that once you have taken their bait by responding to this "free" offer, they can reel you in to paying for the rest of the set. They seem to do this by a rather questionable, but probably just about legal form of inertia selling. Their adverts state:

Further benefits: Successful applicants will be sent further coins in the Changing Face of British Coinage Golden Edition, a collection of our coinage that is no longer being struck, layered with pure gold and with its design accented in full colour. These coins will be dispatched at our regular release price of £29.95 at approximately monthly intervals, the first of which will be dispatched with the Britannia penny.
In other words, when you "apply" for the free coin, you are agreeing to receive at least one other coin, allegedly without obligation, for £29.95. We guess that if you strike this part out, then your "application" will be unsuccessful. No angler wants smart fish who take his bait, but not the hook.
We also reckon their assurances about "no obligation" are dishonest and misleading. Once you receive it, you are expected to pay for it, otherwise you have to telephone them to get a returns reference. How long this entails waiting on call hold, we do not know. You are under an obligation to pay for it or return it.

Misleading Photographs
The photographs on their website, and in their TV adverts shows the coin to be in mint condition, gold-plated, but with garish red white and blue paint or print.
The reality, on all example we have seen, is a circulated coin with bagmarks, scratches, and other signs of wear and circulation. What London Mint Office describe as "layered with pure 24 carat gold", means gold plated. They also state the main design motif is "accented in full colour". We think a printer would call this spot colour. Full colour printing is different, and much better. The colour printing does not coincide exactly with the design, which in our opinion makes the coin look very amateurish.
All the example pennies we have seen so far have been 1967 which was the last date issued. It would have been possible for LMO to acquire mint bags of uncirculated 1967 pennies, and other dates, for not much more than the cost of circulated ones. Spending an extra few pence per coin would have made significant difference to the quality of this offering. It would also have meant that their advertising, or at least this part of it, was not misleading.

Factual Errors by The London Mint Office
On the impressive certificate card which accompanies this coin, there is a photo of how the coin would have looked if they had used mint condition coins, but there are also other errors.
"...although this exact design first used in 1937". We disagree, the exact design was first used in 1953 or 1961, depending on whether one considers the legend as part of the design. A 1937 penny would have borne George VI's head.
"Britannia first appeared on our coinage in the reign of King Charles II on the copper halfpenny.
Wrong again! From August 1672, farthings were issued from an office in Fenchurch Street, London, known as "The Farthing Office". Halfpennies were not issued until after Christmas of that year. The coin experts at LMO could have found this out if they had read our "Britannia Story" on this website.
"The obverse side of the coin carries the portrait of Queen Elizabeth II created by Mary Gillick for her Coronation in 1953. It was last used in 1967". Wrong again. Not only were coins issued for circulation as late as 1970 using the same portrait, although these were dated 1967 to deter hoarding, the 1970 proof set issued by the Royal Mint also used the same portrait. All Elizabeth Maundy coins issued to date also use the same portrait.

Smoky!
We have noticed that most boxes, along with certificates, and other material, originally bought from London Mint Office or Westminster Collections, is smoky. We often have to quarantine them in a well ventilated room for weeks or months before the stench wears off, and we can handle them with our eyes watering, and nose running. This helps to create a mental image of the typical LMO customer as a male septuagenarian armchair bound smoker, with too much money, and nothing worthwhile to spend it on. When he dies of lung cancer, or COPD, or some other smoking related disease, his family flogs all his coins, stamps, and other ephemera to the nearest dealer. Most people now realise that smoking is not a very sensible thing to do, to understate the case somewhat, but this seems to typify LMO's target audience.

Our Original London Mint Office Page

Buying Coins
We also buy coins, please see our We Buy Coins page.
We even buy crap like this, even if it is just for the laugh, although we do also find it educational.



...at the Lowest Possible Price

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Chard(1964) Ltd