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Hi Weaver I make my living from buying and selling coins, and I'm always happy to enter a dialogue with a potential customer - and I see the haggle as the opening of that dialogue. My business is built on my repeat customers, some of whom have been with me for many years - they kind of came with me as I advanced, which is rather nice. I consider many of my regulars to be friends. People do ask me from time to time whether the coins they have just bought will appreciate over time or not - I usually tell them that they will probably retain their value, rather than gain in value - and that coins are a store of wealth at best. My experience is that it is really difficult to make money on coins by sitting on them. TomGoodheart is right, you have to flip them fairly quickly to make any money. I like to think in terms of "velocity of money". It's not my term, but I like it - the more times the same money goes around in a year, say, the healthier your business. If I spend £100 on a coin, the release of that £100 to make it accessible again for reinvestment is more important to me than pure margins, and the more times I spend that £100, the more stock I am generating, the more customers I am attracting, and the more knowledge I gain by having more coins pass through my hands. So very often, and don't tell anyone , I'll surprise a customer by accepting an offer they never thought I would accept - because I want that money back so that I can buy more coins.

Coins of all grades have a place in any collection. Sometimes it is Hobson's Choice with one date from a run only available in low grade whilst being able to fill all the others with minty examples. A run of mint state coins can be just as uninspring as a box of washers when they are uniform in colour, differing maybe only by a small change to the last datal figure.

Without hopefully boring you I phoned a dealer up and explained i wanted to buy a few coins to put away for my grandaughter. I had spent a few months reading and decided i was going to buy some pennies to put away for 18/21 years. Explaining my requirements and asking for help i then bought a few . I was told they were nice and high grades and had know reason to doubt him and spent £1,000.00 Approx. Before going any further and having nobody else to check them decided to send them to cgs to be graded really for my own peace of mind. The six coins came back rejected and two in much lower grades When i phoned the dealer i just got excuses (they dont have a clue e.t.c.) i told him two were cleaned and was told i must of done it. Taught me to learn a lot more and not to trust this seller again...........i wont and have spent thousands over the last three years a customer he lost. Neil paisley at Colin Cooke has looked after me well ever since so i am happy to keep buying from him and a couple of others. I dont want the coins for nothing (although would be nice) just at a fair price and as described Be lucky and take your time. Pete.

Buying a coin for investment is a risky business.I have both failed and succeeded ,luckily more the latter.I have done well with favorable exchange rates and in depth knowledge of a series.Eye appeal is a big factor,if you like it the chances are others will. Colin of Aboutfarthings will be publishing a book on farthings soon (won't you Colin ? ) This will ignite the 1/4d market and make me a copper/bronze multi millionaire. I only have 1 sovereign at present because I flogged the lot when gold peaked,I could not ignore nearly 400%.I've still got pre sovereign gold (not much) but the coins are not so tied to bullion I also prefer them.Flipping coins is a skill which Declan has mastered.At one time in the Thatcher period I joined a syndicate of fellow Q.S's who gambled their VAT £ or surplus funds on the stockmarket.It became common place to take a 15% profit....lets not talk about losses. I also follow my unit linked pension funds and have gambled with these. Investing for profit in any field IS a gamble.With your own knowledge gathered from various sources you can increase your chances of getting it right. Before Coin news there was a publication called Coin Monthly and I remember they did a Top 10 of coins to invest in...Boy did they get it wrong. Coins I can honestly say I collect for pleasure and financial benefit is a bonus.

I think you have a starting point. If you like that one, you'll like a better one even more.

Sounds like my collection. My Grandfather was stationed in Sweden during the war and 'collected' as many Ore coins as he could. But then...the collection just grew and grew! lol. I need to sell most of my collection because I am running out of space and would rather own a small collection of high grade coins than a suitcase full of worn coins.

At a guess I'd say 6-700, they're in a tin under my bed separate to my main collection. Inevitably they'll remain there, I havnt got the heart to get rid of them, I should think he'd been picking them out of change for years.

Thanks Chris. I will spend the next couple of months sorting out the huge collection of largely fair to fine coins and hopefully sell the majority on Ebay. With the proceeds I may well ask for your further help in acquiring a few choice coins for me Chris ok?

Halfpennies are the way to go.. always undervalued. as for bulk buys on ebay.. they seem to be going for a lot then what i deem the value of the coins, but its always worth having a look through bulks, sometimes the odd bargain is too be had, but that's getting rarer now.

Token arrived today, thanks Chris, nice grade and great price. You know where I am if you "chance upon" any others Ian..

As well as the excellent photos in the Guide to Grading book, there is a really useful list of descriptions on page 5 where it gives estimates of years that a coin will have been in circulation to be a particular grade. For example, an EF coin will, on average, have been in circulation for about 1 year whereas a Fine coin could have been around for 30 years or so. Your coin would seem to fit the 5 years of circulation that describes VF . By picking coins out of your change, you should be able to get a good feel for wear as there will be decimal coins in your pocket up to 45 years old, and there should be a good range from F to Aunc.

Since I joined this forum at the beginning of February, I've pretty much dropped a grade across my whole collection. I didn't think I was generous either, but they're mostly pretty mean on here. "Oh look at all that wear where the wind's blown across the obverse". It does get you to be realistic, and to have higher expectations. Which is a good thing, I think.

Thanks Charlie. I agree with you as the reverse is a whole grade or more better than the obv which lets it down sadly. I expect most dealers and experienced collectors experience my situation all the time right? A newbie like myself comes along thinking they have a nice collection, only to realise that virtually every coin is low grade. Thanks for the encouragement my friend. I won't get too down...my plan is to set aside the silver coins from the collection and check the remaining for any rarities and then bulk sell on Ebay. Hopefully with a few 99ps in my pocket I will then start afresh and find a reputable dealer to work with and build up a proper collection.

Interesting thread Weaver. Returning to the original topic, I kinda feel that unless you spend serious money or have a good eye and knowledge it' difficult to actually invest in coins. A £70 coin that puts on 50% over 10 years still becomes a just-over-£100 coin. Allowing for inflation that's probably not going to feel like much profit by then. To make investment type money I think you need to buy cheap and turn around quickly for a profit. Which is needless to say, not simple or everyone would be a coin dealer! It's taken me over five years to make money back on some coins and to learn to buy better coins that will hold their value. Largest loss? Nearly £180 on a coin bought on impulse and sold too soon. It would have taken a lot of good 'investment' to make that back had I been collecting for profit... A fair price for a fair coin is my principle. But to echo everyone else, a bit of a haggle is very rarely a bad idea. Just don't expect dealers to do much more than 10% on the majority of coins. Or that's my experience at least! An offer can also work elsewhere. I saw a coin in an auction listing, thought "that doesn't look too awful" then realised the auction had actually been that morning! Curious to see what it had fetched I checked the prices and there was none. So I sent an email asking if it had sold and making an offer quite a bit below lower estimate (though for a coin I'd not inspected in person I thought acceptable). Lo and behold I got quick reply saying the consigner was prepared to accept my offer! OK, a bit of a risk and I've yet to see what I've actually bought, but here's hoping ...

Weaver, I'd probably say around good Fine. The reverse is better than obverse. If you look at the obverse, there is a lot of wear to the ear and the side of the face appears quite flat. The reverse, note the wear of the letters in the garter at 9 and 3 oclock and general wear to the four sections of the shield. Please don't be disheartened, feel free to post more. It all comes with practice.

Please do! Be glad to give an opinion on any, as would many of us. I for one don't know much/anything about world coins however ... Your photos will be better if taken with the coins out of the flips Overall GF on your 1915 halfcrown imo (from those pics)

Think you might end up like me Weaver and not pass any exam

If they're going to be worth more for their silver content than the grade of the coin, I'd just put it aside in a silver pile and list all of the silver at once. The rest will probably still sell, even if it's just at 99p, but you'll definitely get your money's worth for the silver. Don't forget to list what you have, so weigh all the .500 silver and write down the weight, then the .900 etc. So the listing says, for example, you've got 50 grams of silver which breaks down as 20g @ .500 and 30g @ .900. Take a look at a few bulk listings on eBay and get a feel, what would you be more likely to bid on, a listing of a pile of silver coins that just says 'silver coins', or one that tells you exactly what you're getting in terms of weight and silver content.

Oh, I could. Just didn't think the time and effort was worth it. I'd rather have the coins than the aggravation. Was fun sorting out the arabic ones though, and I learnt a bit lot. I've even got a few of those swedes you like.

Hi Weaver Good thread! I collect predominantly milled English silver types, with sidelines in Conder tokens and broad copper and bronze type examples, I've been branching back as far as Tudor hammered a little, and starting to dabble in proofs too. Excellent advice given above, they key distinction will be that between buying English coins because you like them, or because they interest you, as opposed to buying for investment. EBay or a Facebook Group for world coin collectors may be the best way of selling the world coins you do not want. Have fun out there and ask anything you like on here (with pictures) before making big buying decisions

Definitely the best advice out there. Best way is probably going to be eBay. If you've got the time, list them in groups, perhaps by country.

Thanks, 'tis but a humble assortment in comparison to many others. I highly recommend you check out Richard's wonderful site - https://headsntails14.wordpress.com/ Impressive to say the very least.

Anything worth having is worth haggling over, in my opinion. The worst that can happen is they say no.

Greetings Weaver. If I had 10k to invest I'd probably buy gold - sovereigns etc. Can't see them ever losing much value (not that I know about such things). If I had 10k to spend on coins I'd have a full set of wreath crowns which I'd probably buy at auction as there are lots of fakes out there and I don't trust ebay. I use it, but I don't trust it. Why? Because I like them. With luck I might have enough change left over for a 1905 half crown.

I can only speak from personal limited experience but there are three dealers I always make sure I check at the coin fairs, Rob, Colin Cooke and Ian. Most of my purchases at fairs have been off them. As for online dealers there are a few I keep an eye on mainly because their grading estimates are normally decent and I know that I can do a deal with them in bulk or they will run auctions with no reserves. So, yes, I suppose I tend to stick with dealers, but I am always looking for stuff from other sources. I am pretty sure most people here will have one or two dealers they use on a regular basis but will also be looking elsewhere