The Ken Elks Collection of British Coins
Ken Elks
Although perhaps better known for my interest in Roman coins and, latterly, 78th century tokens, the genesis of this collection of British coins was in the 7 9 70s, when I bought a mixed collection of coins just to get my hands on the Roman material contained in it. Although I had no real interest in British coins at that time, the whole collection did not stand me in for very much money, so they were retained and used for showing mostly young people about our numismatic history. Eventually they were put away in a cupboard and ignored for the best part of 20 years.
In 1996 I acquired access to the internet. One of the facilities offered was my own website so, for want of anything better, I decided to illustrate some of the coins in my collection, among them these British pieces. One thing led to another and I started to collect the coins for their own sake. Many of the better specimens were acquired from the late Patrick Finn, Baldwins and Granta Coins of Cambridge, the latter because I often had cause to visit Cambridge at weekends. Unfortunately my work in colleges from the 7 980s onwards largely precluded me from attending auctions, usually scheduled during term time.
The time has now come to relinquish this collection, partly to free up space in my cabinet and partly to enable me to return to my old love of collecting Roman coins. My website, on which many of the pieces here offered are illustrated, will continue.