Expert: Jim Lawniczak - 11/9/2006

Question
I have an H 1919 brish penny - what does the H mean and is is worth anything?

Thanks
simon

Answer
Hello, Simon, I don't have much knowledge of non-U.S. coins, but I do have the Krause catalog of world coins after 1900.  Turning to Great Britain, it says that H is a mint mark for the "Heaton" mint.  There were a little over 4 million GB pennies minted in 1919 with H mint marks and the values listed in this book (this is way out of date as the book was printed in 1990 ranged from $1.25 in fine condition to a couple hundred dollars in Uncirculated (just as minted).  Please keep in mind that you can't do anything to improve the condition of your coin, so don't try cleaning or anything else, you can only lessen the value.

To get a feel for today's value (which could be markedly different from that of 15 years ago -- I only gave you that to give you an indication of what this was once worth), try going to www.ebay.com and doing a search for 1919 H English penny (or substitute Great Britain) and other variations and see if anyone is selling one of these.  Also try a similar search on www.google.com.  Hope this helped, Jim Lawniczak