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I agree with you, and dont think the photos are the worst either, though certainly not the best. Issues with lighting and poor white balance , even good focus seem endemic in the numismatic trade. For this reason I always try to see a coin before buying, and to that end LCA are the easiest as they are out of the centre of London and you can view even during the auction. I made a 300 mile round trip yesterday purely to view a few coins at DNW, spent 4 hours in traffic getting home, but I found verd on several of the coins that was not visible and not mentioned in the catalogue, and got a far better idea of lustre and toning. This is the reality with auctions, caveat emptor if you dont examine the wares first. Jerry

I spent a day in the Tower of London recently and was impressed by the coins they have on display. Firstly, the Petition Crown. Simply an amazing coin.

Trial plates were used to test the purity of coins. These are the Commonwealth and Charles II Plates.

There is an important difference between the green waxy material that can look like verd initially, but will wash off with acetone (or more easily petrol, provided any oily residue is washed off with acetone after), and true verdigris, the hard green or powdery light green corrosion that has removed metal in its formation. The latter can never be removed invisibly, it will always leave pitting or worse. Unlike some, I have actually found Verdicare rather good, provided mechanical 'picking' at the verd with a cocktail stick is done as per instructions, and plenty of time is taken for it to soften. The verd I saw on several coins yesterday was true corrosion. Jerry

Auction houses are in business to make money. But in business, reputation matters and when an auction house starts to get a reputation for being a bit dodgy then their business is going to suffer. Some of the coins, acquired at LCA and that I sent to NGC were fine and got decent grades. But some did not. So the results were a bit hit or miss. But when you are paying out good money for a coin on the basis of the auctioneers photos and description then 'hit or miss' simply isn't good enough. Fact is, none of my DNW, Buckland Dix and Wood (remember them) or Glendinning's coins came back with problems. So, in the confidence stakes, I now perceive buying from LCA as being high risk. Will I buy from them again? Yes, but only if the coin has been slabbed or graded by NGC or PCGS. That, for me, takes most of the risk out of buying from them. I will not buy CGS slabs because 1) there is a conflict of interest with LCA, hence risk, and 2) they are not generally accepted in the marketplace. However, I will continue to use DNW and Heritage. I am also happy to buy from Spink and Baldwins if they can get the user interface right and have material I want. But confidence is a fickle mistress. Hard to win and easy to lose. Businesses take note.

The irratating fact of modern life is people have forgot how to talk. Everyone sending texts and emails is my big ............