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"This listing was ended by the seller because the item is no longer available."

It isn't so simple these days because the web has increased the availability of auctions and nowadays you have to organise on-line auctions. The back-up required should not be underestimated. There were half a dozen or more people involved to make it work, and even that looked stretched at times. Without premises you are going to have to take a table at the fairs to get people to drop things off. London Coins are already there. To have what is basically a coins only auction means you are competing in a fairly crowded market place. Filling the catalogue would be the difficult thing. As for moving on stock, I would presume that collectors are already scouring the web for material, so this would just be an alternative outlet for items that are already available. There have been several dealers cum auctioneers who have tried such as the one in Kendal, Birmingham Coin auctions, the woman near Derby, Bucks Coins (Westminster Auctions) etc, but only the last seems to have been remotely successful and that was because everything was illustrated. He said it was enjoyable, but hard work and very time consuming. So, without offering a full service I suspect you are likely to be on a hiding to nothing. You then have to consider availability of material. Everyone is struggling to get decent coins which is why prices have rocketed at the top end. The world is awash with middle/lower grade material, but that market is in a deflationary phase with everyone hanging on for a better example. For many issues there is a point between VF and EF or sometimes higher where there is a gulf in prices, with little material selling at the expected intermediate price for this reason. Of the four auctions above, only one was illustrated. That was also successful because he sold his own collection as part of the two sales. Anyone can sell their collection to get off the ground, but 'what next?' is the difficult one. There are already too many auctions for the number of quality collections coming up for sale. I don't think that many people would be willing to invest the time and effort into a business that might only last two or three sales. Probably the best way forward is as done by Neil and Lee where you are already geared up to produce catalogues, you have the eyeballs via the existing website and the method of auctioning doesn't require it to be alright on the day at 11am precisely. But this only works for whole collections and not the occasional vendor.

That's an unusual London example of the 1919 - presumably because of the wearing obverse die (quite apparent from the lack of hair detail and flattening ear, and common enough in the years 1915 - 1919), the reverse has been fully struck up as can be seen from Britannia's face and breastplate. It may well be that even a minute reduction in the obverse profile - in this case due to die wear - could lessen the 'sucking away of metal' problem so often seen in the general mushiness of Britannia's upper.

Picked up this 1919 penny. Sorry for the quality of the pictures -- the slab is scratched all to heck.