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I thought that I was losing it !! I was about to eat my hat !

Managed to obtain a Freeman 25 from Dave Craddock for just £45. It's only about fine, but despite the rarity 12, you see very few of this type for sale. For example only 2 in the LCA during the last 13 years. There was a UNC in the Workman sale a few years ago though.

The guy was lucky in that he bought some sovereigns that made a profit, even coming from LMO. 3 or 4 years ago I received a call from a woman whose father had died and spent a 5 figure sum on LMO things. e.g over £1K on a 1791 guinea in a pretty little box with a cert of authenticity and product description showing a picture of a PAS 1791 guinea. Sadly, the contents of the capsule graded fine. Two other boxes held a selection of low grade Roman and middle eastern coins with a retail value of 150 to 200 on a very good day. Cost was over 1200. Lots of other overpriced LMO goodies(?) were also purchased together with maybe a dozen sovereigns. Luckily for me she had done some homework before calling, and indicated she was prepared to get back only a fraction of what he had spent without me appearing to be the one doing the rip-off when my face dropped on opening the boxes. I wish all were like that. The day before yesterday I had to give similar bad news to someone that had spent a few hundred on gilt modern coins - pennies, 20p's, 50p's etc. Again, the resale value is a few pounds at most per item - if you can find a buyer. He will get back approximately 10-15% of his outlay. It goes back to the point I put to the BBC researcher. Nobody would spend £10K or more on a car without looking at it, taking it for a drive, and generally satisfying themselves it was reasonable for the money, yet people hand over similar sums to the LMO and Westminster etc without blinking, i.e. the consumer has to take at least some of the blame for their predicament. Possibly more than half the blame considering the amount of money these companies have to spend on marketing and advertising in the national press. Whether you like the LMO or not, they have to charge over bullion to cover their costs. The problem is the self produced tat they market, less so the overpriced collectable items. Let's face it, every one of us routinely pays a massive premium to intrinsic value, but we are generally saved by doing due diligence. Caveat emptor every time.

Thanks for the support Paul! I am having a bit of an auction session over the next couple of weeks to kick the coin business back into action, starting this Sunday night - there'll be a fairly wide range of material - some standard stuff that I use for visibility, but some little beauties too....might be something there for someone http://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/declanwmagee/m.html?_sop=1&rt=nc&LH_Auction=1

I'd just add that my girlfriend suffers from Rheumatoid Arthritis, and the methetrexate she needs to take all the time, plus occasional steroid course, is prescription cost exempt because her condition is chronic. But those are not especially expensive drugs. Some cancer drugs are incredibly costly, and it's a lottery as to whether the NHS here will fund drug treatment for those patients affected.

Now that is an F-25.....

Jesus Christ, Bob - $11,000 per month is off the scale. I am so sorry to hear this. Hope your wife is OK. God bless.

Are you sure that this coin is obverse 4 ?? can you see L.C.WYON below the bust ?? the outer ribbon also appears thinner. The toothed border is thinner. Are you sure it's not obverse 5 ??

Geeeeeezus $11,000 for a months supply is obscene, medical companies that care, yes sure, about profits. I remember the guy last year who bought the rights to some aids drug which was selling at $1 a pill, then proceeded to increase it to $750 a pill if i remember correctly, he was one smarmy bar steward, his attitude when being questioned at some congressional inquiry into his price hike was 'he couldn't give a damn" We don't pay for the oil bOB, it's under prescription and is free to us, it's the health insurance who has to foot the bill. I think the drug companies just bleed people dry, cannabis grows out in the wilds and is a herbal medication, or obviously can be taken for other uses, it's not like it's crack cocaine or crystal meth. Governments needs to get a grip and see its benefits for certain health problems. I hope your wife isn't in any pain Bob......Best wishes

My son has just been prescribed cannabis oil, 400 euros a pop

I agree Mike, if a natural item like cannabis will help a person who has pain, that can't otherwise be controlled, I think the prescription of the product could be a effective answer to the problem. I think it should be by prescription only though, so the distribution of the product could be controlled for the intended purpose only.

When I was a rookie collector, I made mistakes and forked out on some overpriced coins. But I never whined and complained about it, as though it were somebody else's fault. I simply observed, learned, did more reading, researched my field and improved my expertise. As time moved on, I even started to pick up some bargains. When building my collection, I've even taken the hit from the money spent on an earlier coin, by upgrading that specimen. It's because our interest tends to override the cost. Indeed, most coin collectors are in it for the actual coins themselves, and have no intention of actually selling them anyway. Or would only do so if they genuinely needed the money for other things.

Recent purchase and one for me to cross off the list. You may of seen the picture before . F1...........Not the easiest to find in a decent grade. Pete.

Another gap filled - Freeman 148

I see Gary, just rubbing it in

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.

Charles II portrait punch. It was used as a master tool to make dies. Reverse punch of Charles II.

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.

I am slowly getting into Pennies, I picked this up fairly cheaply from Spain! Still working on the photos.....

I just acquired a quite reasonable F15 from flea bay. Would have ideally liked to have bought Steve's, but had other priorities from that collection, which didn't leave sufficient money. They're not especially scarce, but it's yet another of the 1860 series, I hadn't got. Got the coin today - my pics below. Unfortunately there is a tiny patch of verd just under the second N of PENNY, almost invisible to the naked eye, but doesn't majorly detract. Freeman 15 reverse Freeman 15 obverse e bay link

VERY good suggestion ...

Hah, CGS, this'll be popular! Now, where does one start? Actually, it's a good reason to stick with hammered, though I believe they are now attempting those too! Basically, WHY? And then after that, all that's left is about turning the same coin into the same coin, but for someone else, which means we're only talking about the commercial aspect of slabbing? So, slabbing coins under the value of actual slabbing fee + extra profit made through inflated prestige of a slabbed coin just isn't viable! Slabbing higher-value/grade coins, yes, believe it or not, someone will pay a fools random for it! I sent off around 20 some time ago, of which 3 or 4 came back unslabbed! An 1887 jubilee coin, declared a fake, which tested for high-grade silver composition, and I still to this day don't get it! A G4 farthing with 'active' verd????? didn't get that either! And a variety C2 farthing, which they graded SO low, it wouldn't financially stand amongst its peers, so I broke it out, and sold it amongst its peers! Big thing, I'd only slab to sell to those who don't know their coins, for hard bucks, so I can understand why you need to find all this out, as it's a bloody great waste of time (long, long, time!) and money otherwise! Ohhhh, TPGC's what have you done to us?