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1.For me Eye appeal comes first. 2. I am not overly concerned with the amount of lustre but rather Tone & Strike - 2nd 3 - would be grade 4. Rarity And price would be determined by a combination of the above

In order 5 3 6 4 1 Number 4 can mean 2 things, rare as in not many struck etc, or an exceptional high grade for a hammered coin.

The popular but relatively expensive coins have a much higher price proportionally for low grade coins relative to those in higher grades. Therefore it makes sense to spend a little bit more as this may well equate to a fairly small percentage increase over the base cost for a low grade piece. A price range of less than an order of magnitude for say the Gothic Crown between Fine and Unc is dwarfed by that for a 1904 penny where the difference is between pence and £100. Everyone has to start somewhere. Get a copy of Derek's book on grades and absorb it. Buy a loupe and get a range of cheaper 20th century coins and compare them. Try to grade them before you buy and then bite the bullet with a few purchases to see if you were right. The members of this forum can't teach you to grade as this only comes with experience and you need to see a full range of grades under magnification to appreciate the minute differences between UNC and gEF or EF which can mean several multiples in terms of price. You'll get things wrong, but are only going to gain competence by making mistakes and being self-critical. Buy the odd cleaned coin if only to see what they look like. If you are intent on having a coin graded, then a cleaned one will fail, though the cost of submission will still be charged. Never forget that a TPG grade is still a subjective opinion and nothing more, despite their claims to the contrary. See the many discussions in other threads regarding this. Going for things that tend to be popular is not a sure-fire way to see something appreciate. Their popularity ensures that prices will be high when you buy them, but it doesn't follow that the price will automatically increase. Every dog has its day, and so things that are currently unpopular may well be tomorrow's star performers. If it is absolutely top-notch then it doesn't really matter what the denomination is - it should always be relatively easy to sell. A good example of something bucking the trend of expectations is the last coin on your list. The 1951 penny was priced at £8 VF and £14 EF in the 1970 Seaby Standard Catalogue (an earlier version of today's Spink) which would suggest a price of around the £30 mark in UNC. Today the same values are £12 and £35 with Unc given as £60, though you could probably pick up one for £40-50 or lower on eBay if you are lucky. i.e the price has remained roughly constant for the past 40 years. The price of a postage stamp in the meantime has gone from 3p to 63p. Nothing is certain in terms of future pricing.