When the premium version has been purchased values for each coin in ‘As New’ and ‘Used’ condition are revealed.
A ‘Used’ coin is one that has seen normal circulation and has normal wear for its age and the duration it has been in general use. A used coin from circulation that has been damaged, has extreme wear or is in any other way compromised will only ever be worth face-value, or in the case of the currently higher priced coins it’ll probably be worth less than the value shown in the ‘Used’ box.
‘As New’ coins are coins with full lustre and no scratches or marks visible to the naked eye. Very minor imperfections may be tolerated, as long as the coin was made that way and is exactly how it left the Royal Mint when new.
In the vast majority of cases this will be coins that are still sealed in original packaging. The Royal Mint call such coins ‘Brilliant Uncirculated’ or ‘BU’ for short. It did used to be possible, 15 or so years ago, to get mint sealed bags of very high quality coins and in those bags (if you were lucky) were a few flawless coins with no scratches or marks. The app also classes such coins to be ‘As New’, although some people do insist that ‘BU’ means still sealed. In fact, the way the coin grading terms have evolved over the years is very confusing, even to experts!
Recently, due to the way the Royal Mint make and distribute new coins, there are very few (if any) perfect coins ever found in circulation, even fresh from their sealed bags they are usually very shiny, but in a sorry state in terms of the number of scratches and marks. The Royal Mint seem to take less care making coins for circulation and ‘BU’ is increasingly becoming a term used for the coins made to higher standards for sets etc, rather than what it used to be, which was a coin grade to denote a coin with full brilliance (lustre) and this potential confusion is why the term ‘As New’ is used within the app and not ‘BU’.
The Check Your Change admin is Mr C H Perkins, publisher of numismatic publications in printed and eBook format. Author of "Collectors' Coins - Decimal Issues of the UK" and other books on British coins and related subjects.
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Lorna massie
9th February 2019
Brillant site how do i up grade
CYC-Admin
10th February 2019
On every coin page of the app you’ll find that option, above the back button.
James moon
29th June 2019
V good app
CYC-Admin
30th June 2019
Thanks very much.
rf.harris@talktalk.net
27th February 2020
Why does the app not show the latest 50p coins now out
CYC-Admin
27th February 2020
It’s because we always wait to physically have the coins to do pictures of them (instead of stealing them from google or wherever) then we compile other changes, more than one person checks it all, suggestions are made, often more changes and then it gets rolled out. I believe it’s better to do things right and properly rather than to rush just to be the first…. and frankly with the number of new coin issues on pretty much a weekly basis, it’ll probably never be completely up to date for more than a few days! Priority is given to values and data, rather than new issues.
Parky
12th March 2020
How come you don’t do other coins like the old 1933 pennies and all other types of coins I’ve got an intense coin collection and it would be good to check the value of them as well.
I’m sure you could collect all the information needed from sites on the internet and put them on here.
Maybe do another app that helps more collectors like my self. (Maybe il look in to this myself)
CYC-Admin
12th March 2020
Mainly, because: 1. The demand for such an app is lower, while 2. The work involved would be much higher as you’d have to get into and cover all of the recognised varieties for each date and just sourcing pictures of each of those would be an absolutely massive undertaking – to do it proper justice would be a lot of work. I have the information and make it available in a book on pre-decimal coins (and I refuse to steal other people’s internet images). You’ll have to make do with this: https://www.coinpublications.com/product/collectors-coins-gb-2020-1760-1970/ (it’s also on Amazon).
Frank Hart
20th June 2020
Hi,
I’m still a little confused on coin values.
If I understand it correctly the striking process provides increasing quality of coins in the following order:
Circulation
Brilliant Uncirculated
Proof
I would have thought a BU coin would be of more value than an unused circulation coin or does it depend on mintage/scarcity e.g. the Kew 50p….
and following on from that, a proof coin would surely be worth yet more?
Most of my coins are proof so I’ve no idea of the value.
It would be great if your app showed values for unused circulated, BU and Proof.
Thanks
CYC-Admin
5th July 2020
Yes, I prefer to call them different ‘products’ as any of those can be in excellent condition or not. Earlier circulation coins were just as good in terms of quality (or in fact better) than what the Royal Mint call BU nowadays. And when it comes to value it’s really the demand for a specific coin that makes it expensive or not. Most people collect from circulation and the odd BU coin (for ones not made for circulation). There tends to be less demand for proof coins, but there is sometimes an illogical knock-on effect too, e.g. the circulation Kew is expensive and due to that, so are the BU versions and proof versions even though they are different products and exist in about the same numbers as many other BU and proof coins. The term BU used to mean a coin in near-perfect condition with full lustre, but it has changed over the years to instead denote an RM product, which is why, to prevent confusion, I have ‘used’ and ‘as-new’ in the app. Proof coins are usually sold in sets and still exist in complete sets so I see little point of including them in the app as most either have the set or not and very few people attempt to gather single proof coins.
Gareth powell
12th January 2021
Can I move coin valuations from mobile phone version to ipad?
CYC-Admin
13th January 2021
If you use the same Apple ID you will see values on both devices. The coins marked as got will not be visible on the other device though.
Julie
5th April 2021
I have paid for this app
But it hasn’t transfered over to my new phone
So I’ve lost all my data and the prices aren’t coming up either
Please advise
CYC-Admin
5th April 2021
Hello Julie, I replied to your email on the 3rd (check your spam folder!) with this:
“If it’s the same phone and same login/account details, all the values you certainly be there.
Is it an Android or Apple device?
I assume Android from the email address?
Chris
https://www.checkyourchange.co.uk“
David Williams
23rd May 2021
If you pay for up grade does do all coins or just the one coin??
CYC-Admin
23rd May 2021
It shows values for all the coins, including new additions (for a year).
Roger Charlesworth
24th November 2022
I note that you place a lot of coin specification thinking on old minting specs, which confuses us newbies as there is today a very real difference between Brilliant and Circulation, also known as Bullion, in the number of strikes. It is obviously only possible to have BUNC left and the whole gamut of circulated circulation (bullion) quality, including ex-bag, to the right: nobody subjects BUNC to traffic.
There is also a vast singles market for proofs and this niche is in no way dedicated to sets afficionados.
CYC-Admin
30th November 2022
What the Royal Mint call bullion refers only to precious metal coins that are not struck to proof standards. Proof coins can be struck in non-precious metals (usually in year sets) and in precious metals (usually ‘superior’ versions of circulation coins) and proof coins are very different as both the dies and blanks and specially prepared, strike force and number of strikes is different and the resulting coins are handled differently. Personally, I don’t think the number of strikes plays much of a role in quality where non-proof coins are concerned. Earlier decimal coins of the 70s, 80s and beyond that were struck for circulation were only ever struck once and can be of astoundingly good quality. BU used to imply a coin that was in as-new condition with full mint lustre. Nowadays it means the same essentially, but it’s also marketing-speak, perhaps in an attempt to elevate the BU sales product above that of a normal coin struck for use* and the whole thing with the number of strikes is too, IMO. Either a coin is a quality as-new coin – i.e. was struck with good dies and has full mint lustre, or it isn’t. Coins that are sold as BU these days are usually pretty good and seem to have been struck with good dies, but to me the older ones (that have seen no use) still look sharper. *And as for the circulation coins made these days, they are often of very poor quality because they over-use the dies and the results are often coins with clear signs of having been struck with damaged/worn out dies.
Roger Charlesworth
26th November 2022
Hi
Since you do not provide data on proof coins can you please explain the meaning of your values of say the 50p Britannia from 86 to 96 where only Proof coins were minted? I need to know what your values mean as I often have coins in Bullion as new plus BU plus Proof. Thanks!
CYC-Admin
30th November 2022
50p’s of the 1986 to 96 date range were not proof only, they were ‘sets only’, so were included in annual year sets but did not go into circulation. 50p’s from 1971, 72, 74 and 75 were proof only and are included in the app for the date collectors, because the proof coins are the only ones for those dates. Within the app the description states that they are ‘proof only’.