Leaderboard

Money speaks louder than words. Where have I seen that before? Less experienced collectors please note. At least the main auction houses will listen and pull things if they can be shown to be iffy. By main auction houses I mean those that have specialist coin auctions with a team of in-house experts capable of doing the due diligence referred to by Declan. By that I mean places like BSJ, DNW, LCA, Spink etc in this country or the big ones in the US, though they may hide behind the TPG label where applicable. The T&Cs of all auctions will inevitably state that all items are guaranteed genuine and that refunds will be given for those proven not to be, but the cost of proof and the time element is likely to put people off. It is incumbent on collectors to help identify coins that don't pass muster, as nobody is infallible and not every seller of an iffy coin has a broken moral compass.

Bloody Catawiki operate out of the Netherlands, and you can certainly be held accountable there. This was the closing statement of the report I did for them: " It is my professional opinion that we do ourselves serious and long lasting reputational damage by not carrying out basic due diligence, and that allowing ourselves to be used as a conduit for the forgery industry is the biggest problem we currently face. " As this issue was highlighted to them eighteen months ago, they can no longer claim ignorance. In my view this borders on complicit. I am so glad I got out when I did!

I produced a dossier detailing Hibbs' activities while I was working there, but a lot of it covered fakes that had already passed through Catawiki unnoticed, so it didn't go down particularly well, politically! That Newark siege piece was one of the first to alert me that there was something fishy going on - he attempted to submit it (or an identical one) for auction in April 2016. It didn't get past me, but many of his coins had been approved before I started there. Sadly, I'm not surprised that he's at it again. Although he has registered under a different name, many of the coins he is selling are, like the Newark, identical. The Edward the Elder penny in the recent Catawiki auction was rejected by me in May 2016.

Heritage is a agent for both NGC and PCGS....

I meant to add a questionmark to the title, but my keyboard skills lack somewhat. I wondered why I hadn't seen much in the way of responses, but given a statement like that for a title, it doesn't lend itself to much of a conversation starter, does it? Given that Peter has taken the time to provide some (rather harsh but accurate) critique, is there any other opinion on how much of a disaster this one is? Should I get even a glimmer of hope from the large 1over small 1 in the date (1/1861) and what very much appears to be a larger V over an inverted A for the V of Victoria? The D of D:G is clearly a die-fill issue, and the offset colon after F:D: is already noted but for a different year. Looks to me like an A1+1A, as always please feel free to correct me here. ESC is not exactly brimming with info for the 1861.

"Value: As a rough estimate of this coins value you can assume this coin in average condition will be valued at somewhere around 35 cents, while one in certified mint condition could bring as much as $5 at auction." So he lists it for $15. Doh. Clearly, buggered and cleaned is more desirable than slabbed mint state.

Typical I got zilch. Last time I sell on that craphole lol I was going to get this https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/1940-Lincoln-Wheat-Penny-Cent-BU-Uncirculated-RED-LUSTER/122682846893

It's definitely the thought that counts. It's an heirloom!