mint_mark

I wonder if Kylie can do that thing Ermintrude used to do with the daisy in her mouth... or maybe I'm not remembering that quite right :/

Actually, every image is copyrighted, from the moment it is created. This is true for any creative work. The copyright is owned by the creator, but they can explicitly give up their rights by declaring the work to be "public domain". So, in the absence of any other information, any image (or words or music or film etc) is copyrighted by someone and there is no permission for anyone to copy it... although some limited uses are allowed. If you want you can read it from the horse's mouth at http://www.patent.gov.uk/copy/definition.htm

Well, I can see that... but imagine if you wanted to spend a similar amount and invest in, say, a jewel encrusted brooch, a first rate antique pocket watch, a rare original letter or a piece of early porcelain. Would you lock them up in a protective box that you couldn't open and then just keep them in the bank? I wouldn't... it's my stuff and I want to play with it! If you have a valuable coin and you want to protect it then I think capsules would be good... actually, that gives me an idea... I'm off to the capsules page!

"slabbing" is popular in the US. Briefly, companies offer an authentication and grading service. You send them a coin and pay a fee, their experts identify and grade it for you. You get the coin back encased in a plastic "slab" which includes the grading information and acts like a certificate of authenticity. The idea is that from then on the coin is permanently in the slab and protected so its condition can't get any worse. The information is always attached to it and the reputation of the grading company means that everybody can respect the grade and we don't have to mess about actually looking at the coin any more. Slabbed coins can then be treated more like commodities and prices are set by type and grade. Of course it doesn't work perfectly... Chris' story shows that the grading doesn't take everything into account that you might think is important. There is a problem of "grade inflation"... recently graded coins tend to be given higher grades than earlier graded coins. Coins can be broken out of slabs... grade inflation gives an incentive to break a coin out and send it for grading again, hoping for a higher grade and therfore a more valuable coin.

I have been looking at Celtic coins for a long time and I think that dealer, Chris Rudd, probably has the best reputation around. If I bought a coin from him I would have no worries about authenticity or incorrect identification... of course, you do pay more for that expertise and reassurance. I have yet to persuade myself to buy a Celtic coin... in fact, spending more than £50 on a single coin makes me uneasy... So anyway, stick to dealers called Chris and you can't go wrong

Forget the software... I think a set of graded example pictures would be incredibly useful just as part of a website. It is difficult to do for British coins though because we have a more qualitative approach to grading. It is basically subjective with room for manoeuvre around each grade... I often thought about posting images here and saying "vote for which grade you think this is", but I suspect we might only learn who could shout the loudest... maybe I'm wrong. British grades are usually defined by short descriptions, and if you've seen a lot of one design you get the feel of which parts wear first, so then grading is about how well your interpretation of the description fits with everybody else's interpretation (for example, how much wear is allowed for it to still be EF) The problem I have is when I'm faced with an unusual design... is this a good one or not? What does a new one look like? Was there more detail there or has it worn away?

Ermintrude was the classiest cow ever!

It is probably the same situation as the British mintage figures... the figure shows how many coins were issued that year, not how many were minted bearing that date. So, 1946 10 øre says 460000 and $8.50 unc whereas 1947 says 1292000 and $220 unc. 1948 was the new design for the new king. If most of the 1947 issued coins were minted the previous year that explains why the 1946 price is low... at some point in 1947 they ran out of 1946s to issue so they started minting 1947s, presumably expecting to use them into 1948. The king must have died before they made many, or near the end of the year. They knew they would have a new design for 1948 so they stopped making 1947s and maybe even destroyed the unissued stock that had been made. That explains why 1947s are scarcer then the figure suggests... and the high price shows that they must be very scarce indeed!

Thanks for posting the list Chris! You might as well stick it on the website now between British Colonial and Roman I think a lot of those German States coins count as pre-decimal too!! I will check through the list to see if there are any types I need... I love collecting Germany... so much variety in last couple of centuries. And with all those mint letters, several of each date to collect!!

Well, in the book it is 39mm, so that seems right. Unfortunately the book doesn't give the weight for those thalers. The closest I could find was a Brunswick-Wolfenbuttel thaler of 1821 which was 28g. Although the thaler was a fixed weight of silver, it did change over time, getting smaller due to inflation. So, if you're sure it's silver and not lead or something then it seems to be the right size and weight.

Good find Steve! That is a very similar Thaler... in my catalogue it shows the two different designs. The ebay one is George II. When George III became king, the titles were rearranged a bit and that's what you've got. The only reason to weigh and measure would be to satisfy yourself about authenticity. I don't know if it happened with German thalers, but with British coins you can get a whole range of replicas... from similarly designed counters and gaming tokens all the way to well executed forgeries in a different metal (and plated).

What about the two pronged trident? Do we think that is just a more obvious case of a blocked die? I'm sure I have read of lettering being recut as the die is used more. Maybe after the die stamps the design onto the blank, as it leaves, a trace of metal can stick to the recess in the dies leading to gradual blocking. When it gets too severe they have to repunch that letter or digit... perhaps leading to another variety. Eventually dies can crack, leading to a raised line on the coin. I know I've read that after 1860, when they used bronze, they experimented with chemical hardening processes to make the dies even stronger, presumably lengthening their life. This is what the die numbers for silver and gold were about. I think they must have used greater striking force too though, because you still get die cracks on later Victorian coins...

You have to imagine an old man sitting in the square with his scales on a table measuring out small quantities of precious materials... gold, spices, salt... by balancing it against a carefully counted number of seeds... that's where grains come from, and the whole system after that! On second thoughts, he'd probably be inside if it was windy :/ With things like sovereigns it's harder because they are not pure gold... just mostly pure gold. So they have two weights... the weight of the coin itself and the (slightly smaller) weight of the pure gold.

It looks like a thaler of (deep breath) Brunswick-Luneburg-Calenberg-Hannover... but it should be more like 39mm, They did have some 2/3 thaler coins of about 33mm, but not with that design. If you can weigh it that would help...

There are four A varieties within the 1856 E/R Farthing which is extremely rare. Why strike it more than once? OK, I know nothing about how dies and minting machinery actually wear and are maintained, let alone how that was done in the 1850s, but humour me... Each time a coin is struck from a die there is potential for the die to change... The bar in the A must be a little groove in the die. The triangle of the A would be a little triangle sticking out of the die. I could imagine that little triangle breaking off at some point, but that would give you a "filled" A, which you're not seeing... so that can't be it. The little groove that forms the bar might fill up with crud... which would give you a missing bar. You can imagine that one bar might fill up and then another might fill up, so that over time you get progressively more unbarred As. The fact that you see different combinations of unbarred As means that either several dies were in use or that they cleaned out the crud now and again. The other thing that might happen is that the surface of the die gets worn down, so the depth of the letter A in the die (and the height on the coin) is reduced... if the bar is shallower than the rest of the A then it will disappear first. I think we should all experiment with potatoes!

Finally seen the book in WH Smith Southampton... didn't buy it though because I've ordered one direct! It's bigger than I thought

Hmmm, too big for a silver threepence as well... about the same size as a maundy fourpence though Surely the reduced weight and thickness indicate that it is not a complete brass 3d blank, and there were no other nickel brass coins made at the time so it has not been struck on a blank intended for another coin. That just leaves the possibility that they accidentally made nickel brass blanks of the wrong size and struck it without the obverse die in the machine ? I have seen pictures of modified brass 3d coins that have a secret compartment inside... the coin had been sliced in half and there is a join around the edge. Maybe this one was modified to fit into something?

I think we need someone familiar with minting machinery... otherwise we're just guessing what could have happened. But since we are guessing, is the smaller side exactly the same size as another coin, say, a sixpence or a farthing?

I binged on ebay just over three years ago... got caught out a couple of times, got a few refunds and learned some good lessons. I only bought cheap coins, so not much to lose. Still going strong... most of my collection has come from there. As others have said, look at the pictures, look at the seller's feedback, look at the postage charges! If you can't grade the coin from the picture don't bid. You shouldn't trust an unknown seller's grading. Decide on your maximum bid when the price is low and stick to it... try not to think if it as "yours" and get caught up in the frenzy... whatever it is, another one will come along. I found that good bargains often come from new sellers... but it can be risky. I have about a dozen sellers that I follow, but as they get more customers the prices get higher Sometimes I sell my duplicates there... usually you can sell stuff that would be hard to dispose of otherwise. Of course, when I'm a new seller then people get bargains from me, but that's OK.

Same for me.... although I have found a (slightly shabby) 2004 ordinary 50p. I suppose in theory we should look out for the 2005 issues too!

If the shield is a plain cross (like St George, but taller than it is wide) and under the "10" it looks like "APAXMAI" (the first A is a triangle) then it's Greek, 10 drachmai, $4.50 in perfect condition less than $1 otherwise.

And, don't buy from the Royal Mint assuming it's a good price because you're buying direct... they charge a substantial premium. For a military connection, someone on ebay sells 1925SA sovereigns (SA means minted in South Africa) saying that the date was issued to British commandos during the war. It reminds me of that James Bond film where he has a strip of sovereigns concealed in his briefcase

Well, I guess only you could answer that... There are only two basic types (one penny and two pence), although there are two main varieties of the penny (10 and 11 leaves in the laurel wreath). Maybe there are some other varieties? Don't know... So you might have a collection of three coins... which could be a bit pricey for the best quality. There are pattern (like prototypes) cartwheel style halfpennies and farthings, as well as proofs in various metals... but that would be a very expensive collection indeed! You might extend the idea to include other coins minted by Boulton at the Soho mint (first steam powered mint!)... so that could include the later halfpennies and farthings of George III, as well as some Conder tokens (some look like the cartwheels), some Isle of Man coins and a few colonial issues (also quite expensive I expect). Would you be satisfied?

I guess my collection is like Kuhli's... I collect Britain becuase I started by picking out shillings and florins from my change. I collect Germany because I'm half German. I collect Scandinavia because I appreciate the modesty of their designs. As for the rest, I think of my collection as an illustrated history of the world. It's supposed to be a type collection but I can't resist a bargain (and with world coins you can find many bargains!), so I will need to go through some refinement phases too as I get it all sorted and catalogued. It's mostly in albums except for some special coins which are in my own hand made trays. I don't like the commercial trays and cabinets because you can't rearrange the coins in a flexible way... you're stuck with the compartments they give you. Maybe I'll write to each of Chris' tray suppliers with the suggestion for selling the compartments in strips, where (say) four strips fit in a tray and you can buy strips for different sized coins (e.g. 4 large, 7 medium, 14 small on two rows), basically mimicing the current album page technology.

I'd buy another book instead... let's see, we've got Collectors Coins, Spink, Coin Yearbook, that Coin Market Values book (never tried it) and a Stanley Gibbons offering that looked terrible when I leafed through it in a bookshop, so maybe avoid that one. That's just for British coins... I collect the world to I have those big Krause books to buy too. It seems that a large proportion of listings in any one book remain unchanged from year to year. Plus it's good to see the variation in pricing between books. Spink always has higher values than Coin Yearbook for example. Some coins also vary more than others between books... for example there is marked difference for Irish coins between Coin Yearbook and Krause. Some books will give you different background information too, like mintage figures or snippets of history. If you collect varieties then you'll need them all because they all seem to have some that the others don't!