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Oh dear, it's a single man trial.............You've already lost.......Serma Cetin awaits (the Spanish Inquisition type chamber) awaits.......Hello...Hello.....is anyone there at CGS......HELLO!!!!!!!!!!!!!

You could save £400 if you just want to view graded coin, an ABSOLUTE bargain if you just want to see them for 1 year. I'm tempted personally

Haha everyone's at it, all of you've posted since I started doing one too. Here are mine anyway, single on top in both pictures.

You have more chance meeting the Pope than getting anything from these lot these days. If you are a member of the Illuminati you might get through (Eventually)

....and both are 1940's by the way

I attach some exergue line pictures which I believe confirm what Richard has posted, one attached to this post and another to follow on immediately, both from UNC pieces.

Hi Iain I'm off on holiday very soon and my lounge is packed to the rafters with fishing gear. On my return I will sort a pack for you,PM you ETC. A donation to charity is always a good thing and that is an individual choice.Helping others is always rewarding.

Thanks guys think it's out shopping for some olive oil and acetone tomorrow, I shall post the results for your appraisal and comment/laugh/cry in a few weeks.

Wow! I seem to have stirred the pot, no bad thing I share everyone's frustration with the 1940s. I have a heavilly circulated "single" that I've been trying to upgrade, having bought several which looked good on the pictures, all turned out to be "double" - I couldn't understand why the double exergue was so obvious to see on later coins but not on 1940; 1944s were not on my radar due to the date spacing difference. So I started looking to see if other pointers existed and came to the conclusion, to my satisfaction at least, that die C is only used for late 1940 and early 1944, and may be regarded as a transitional stage between B and C* (my D) David

all getting confusing Bob ......look at the waves on Terrys four pictures No 3 they touch the ex as in Davids pictue B in the first thread. They merge in and flat rather than rounded and a gap

For a number of reasons I decided to start having my coins certified and graded by NGC. That is not a discussion I want to get into here. However, I did want to share my first impressions based on the batch of 20 coins I sent in. First, cost. I chose the elite level of membership because of the ten percent discount. Cost per coin is $35, less 10% plus shipping for the standard turnaround time. So probably around $40/coin. You can do an economy grading tier which is $20/coin less the 10% and I will use that for a number of my coins. Second, turnaround. I sent the coins by US priority mail on the 24th August and, according to their system, the grading has been finalised and I should get them back towards the middle or end of next week. So approximately two weeks door to door. Third, grades. I am both happy and unhappy but I completely understand where they get the grades from. 11 of the 20 were graded MS62 or better with a high spot of MS66. There were four AU 58 and one AU 53. There were also four 'details', one for a scratch and three for hairlines. While the grading is strict, when I look closely at the coins I can see where they get that from. Conclusions. Where you buy your coins matters if you cannot see them 'in hand'. Coins I bought from Glendinning's in the past and DNW in the past few years consistently did better than coins bought elsewhere (not counting Heritage where they are already slabbed). Three of my four 'problem coins' came from London Coins. Not to beat about the bush, their photography flatters to deceive and their descriptions are, shall we say, 'economical'. Unfortunately, my bids are already in for this next auction but that will be the last one of their auctions that I buy from. Clearly, DNW has a more rigourous and professional approach when it comes to grading and describing coins than LCA. Furthermore, buying from a named and known collection also gives better results. My MS66 came from the Late Neil B. Todd Collection which DNW sold. Provenance does matter. The other lesson is to examine carefully the coin before I send it in. No point paying good money for grading a coin that has problems. I did not send my best or most valuable coins in this first batch as I didn't know what to expect. However, I think their process is pretty good and I am comfortable sending other coins to them.