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Tucked away in my collection are two well-worn pieces of British history: a 1921 one shilling and an early 1900s one florin (the date sadly lost to time). Both coins are long past the point of being “fit for circulation” — in fact, even if they were still legal tender, no shop would ever accept them. Their face value of one shilling or two is meaningless in today’s world.

But that’s the beauty of coins struck in silver. Their worth was never limited to the number stamped on their face. Long after their days in pockets and tills, they carry intrinsic value in the precious metal locked within them. Unlike modern coinage, which is ultimately just token money, these pieces are fragments of silver that have weathered a century and still hold purchasing power.

This is the very reason coinage was once made from gold and silver: because people trusted it. A coin’s metal gave it true value, not the decree of a government. Even today, collectors and stackers can look at a worn old shilling or florin and know that, regardless of condition, they still represent wealth preserved in metal form.