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Not coin related but anyone else notice the similarities with a Mr Christie of Rillington Place? He kept some things in a wallpapered off alcove.

Sorry, I don't have the book. What are the 5 issues listed for Ae2 and which one is Saewine missing? I'm guessing it is Helmet following the sacking of Wilton in 1003 and the relocation of the mint to Salisbury? It surely has to be three generations involved. Ae2 ruling for 37 years is compact enough to be a single person, but with a break until EdC type 7, you have a gap of 40 years, so grandson seems more likely (if relevant). Locations in the interim (Cnut to H'cnut) with a Saewine listed are Bristol, Exeter, Leicester, London, Lydford, Oxford, Shaftesbury, Totnes and Winchester, so one moneyer located in the west and travelling around. with only Leicester and London as outliers suggesting a second person. The two EdC issues involved imply a considerable increase in mint output if the number of moneyers was increased from 2 or 3 to 6. From the table, EdC hammer cross to W1 first issue, you are looking at a gap of only 4 or 5 years before returning - assuming we are talking about the same person. For the period from Sov Eagles to William 2 type 3 is another 35 years. It must be the grandson if descended from the first. North only lists 6 mints with Saewine during EdC. Wilton, Winchester, Bristol, Exeter, Leicester and Northampton. This almost certainly refers to 2 moneyers, with one located in Wessex and the second on the Mercian border. The locations listed in North with S(a)ewine during Williams 1 & 2 are Exeter, Gloucester, Leicester, Northampton, Wilton and Worcester. The continual employment of Saewine at Wilton from William I type 1 to William 2 type 3 might imply a third person of that name doing the rounds. The only missing one is Sword type which is a rare issue in any case. Although North is dated as a reference, the list is complete enough to give a reasonable view of who worked where and when.

Probably handed down the trade to his son. It was fairly common then.

Blimey! That does seem a little excessive ...I'm sorry but I wouldn't have paid over 200 quid for that specific coin.

Night hawking someone's lawn ?. Seriously though they could of been from an ancient hoard. Years ago there wasn't much of a market for old coins and somebody may have ploughed them out and just bunged them in a jar. The suspense of not knowing would haunt me for the rest of my days. What if..... I got told a story years ago and given a map of where some rhodium or platinum bars were buried. This old guy told me had apparently stolen them out of second world war search lights he said and buried them at this location. Turned up shovel and detector in hand there was a motorway right over the top of it. ?

Think you'd have to know where it was buried to the inch. How about knocking on the door and offering them half if you tell them what & where it is?

Everything sells and everything has a value. If they are lead tokens from grain sacks etc the commercial value will be small. The real value is in the story and the mystique is it not?

If it were me and that's only because I laugh in the face of danger (not) I'd be loading the van with shovels as we speak

That's a mighty assumption re Roman. They could have been anything from ancient to Foreign (not forgetting tokens as mentioned by Pete). The most probable answer would be GB copper coinage as any bag at any auction always has the ubiquitous 1806 halfpenny, 1797 penny etc in it. Copper coins became obsolete in 1860 with the switch to the smaller and lighter bronze coins.

Think your dad would of kept them if Roman. Maybe farming tokens but not a clue.......Maybe go and dig them back up

Grrr, can't upload the cropped close-up! Nice coin though! Edit: I can now upload! ?

This 1c surprised me too!

The future of collecting as we know it is coming to an end. I've only been buying hammered recently as it's the only thing i can be certain of in myself that it's real. I'd struggle to ID some of these new milled reproductions. I did hope one day that my young son would take up the hobby but I think now if this trend continues I'll sway him to save him losing out in the future. It's becoming a lottery.

Problem is they are making new ones every month and will only get better at it , the book could end up almost weekly . IMO will only make new collectors pissed off as when they buy one and fnd its a copy will lose interest. These in the years to come could of been the people buying forum members coins when they come to sell and can only damage the future of coin collecting. There are people buying decimal coin copies for £50-£100 every day kew gardens ,lines on face etc. Its not just the rare or scarce coins but the ones widely available that people dont look at twice that could cause a big problem.

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We may be getting towards the situation where Chinese fakes become so technically perfect that it will be near impossible to tell them from the real thing, especially if the dies are 'corrected'. In which case we would need some way of dating the production of coins, for example some future equivalent of Carbon-14 dating. In numismatics, unlike record collecting or books, 'first issues' are of no importance in themselves, only that 'first strikes' can be of higher quality; if a second strike was of higher quality then they would attract the premium instead. What we may have to come to accept some day is that 'originals' are regarded as 'first issues' and command a price X times higher than a 'second issue' (a later fake). Thank goodness we haven't reached that stage yet, but I fear it may happen. After all, the number of potential collectors per original coin will grow and grow. Technically perfect fakes could be regarded in the same way as - for example - those Gothic Crown repros of a few years ago, and which went for around one tenth of the price of an original. And if that day comes, China may become the world leader in 'reproduction' coins and sell them openly for a profitable fraction of an original.

I don't profess to be an expert on coins, but I sat in a saleroom last week and pulled a 1933 crown and an 1893 £5 that were both fakes. I even managed to ID the £5 purely from the auction house website pictures. Dave is sort of right, handle coins as regularly as you can and in as many states of preservation as you can. Peck mentioned weights earlier in this post and that is one of the very best methods of determining fakes. Another top tip (that nobody other than a zombie should need) DO NOT BUY ANYTHING FROM CHINA, CHINESE SOUNDING SELLERS, CHINESE SELLERS REGISTERED IN OTHER PARTS OF THE WORLD or any ebay seller that you cannot get a decent feel for via feedback. The China thing isn't rocket science, high grade, cheap and relatively common (Gothic Crowns included) = BLOODY FAKE I have said it over and over again, lack of knowledge and greed (the thought of getting a £200 coin for £20) will lead to financial ruin for many. There was no response at all from the ebayer (squirry I think) when I pointed out that the high grade coins he had bought on ebay from China were all fakes. Draw any conclusion you like from that but the obvious ones are 1) he did not want to admit a mistake or 2) he is going to pass them on to some sap on ebay UK at a huge profit.....