TomGoodheart

My father had lots of Victorian pennies in his 'collection'. However these were picked up in change since such coins continued to circulate as acceptable currency until the 1970s. They are consequently well worn. Sadly well worn coins are mostly valueless. So unless your coin is roughly in the same condition as a 1998 or newer penny in a handful of change it is unlikely to be worth much. A picture will allow us to establish grade (condition) and therefore value. But don't get your hopes up yet. I have silver coins from the 1600's. Some cost me as little as £15 so age does not necessarily mean value!

Nothing I can see I'm afraid. I have one of these 1994 'coins', along with the regular three legged issue along with Guernsey and Gibraltar issues I've picked up in change. As with all of these, they aren't legal tender in England, which is presumably why Spink's Coins of Scotland Ireland and The Islands does not list them at all. But they do circulate just because they are similar in appearance and people aren't that bothered. My favourite change 'oddity' is a Swaziland 1 Lilangeni I was passed in change. Same size and colour as £1!

Yeah. I got a safety deposit box at the bank specifically to store my coins. But since I have accumulated them I like being able to look at them frequently. Sometimes a pic just isn't good enough. Besides it costs a few quid for access each time I want the bank to let me see my stuff. So now the bank just has my Dad's medals and some small pieces of jewellery. And my home insurance policy covers the rest. I had to provide valuations (which I got from the local BANS Numismatic Society for free) but the cost was OK. In fact after changing insurers I saved £100! As for a walk-in safe - I'd just like to be able to get into my garage!

Just to clarify, my coin wasn't one of the slabbed ones. Just a coin that passed through one of London Coin's auctions a couple of years back. They may have tightened up since then. I've dealt with Alex Anderson. He sells on ebay and seems to have an eye for the interesting, though I tend to feel he's paid over the odds sometimes. Since I only look at hammered I don't know what his taste in milled is like. As Rob says, making a business sounds like it might be a struggle and as for Utah.... funny but I always thought there were one or two British coin collectors this side of the pond too. Rather suggests nobody in the UK was keen to get involved doesn't it?

I think the bottom line is that in the US people consider the professional grading and slabbing of coins to be useful. They think it offers them a degree of protection and so there is a market for such things. There is therefore a reason for buyers to leave the coin in the slab, particularly if they plan to resell it in the US in the future. In the UK such a market doesn't exist, at least amongst numismatists. While it may interest investors (although I suspect any sensible investor will research the market and see that there are many unslabbed but 'investment worthy' coins around) it remains to be seen if anyone else will be prepared to part with their money for such a produce. Particularly since, by implication (since grading and slabbing has a cost to the slabbers), there will need to be a premium over the cost of an equivalent 'raw' coin. I suspect that buyers will continue to use their own judgement as to whether the asking price is good or not. And for the most part I suspect buyers will liberate their coins from the slab. Whether this operation can both create and maintain a market for slabbed coins remains to be seen. But I think the 'premium' may put many people off, especially if they aren't bothered about the slab in the first place!

No - it's not fake. I had it straight from the horse's mouth

Yes, though I guess there are reasons for not naming names, there are none for no prices!! I'm glad they are sticking to milled though. Particularly since one of my more obvious counterfeit Chas I shillings passed through their doors without being identified as such! It's a shame there aren't any 'representatives' here on the forum - it would make the debate (even!) more interesting.

Just goes to show - there's good stuff out there if you keep your eyes open!

Just took a while to come up for me.

But then, slabbing doesn't = selling! I see at the last auction most slabbed coins sold for the lower, or just below, estimate with only a couple of exceptions. That doesn't suggest to me that the slabbing has made the coins themselves any more attractive to buyers..... Ah, well. We'll see.

Oh, I don't know. Washers is a bit cruel! That Chas halfgroat is virtually uncirculated in ebay terms!

Here you go josie! For everyone lese, please see IS THERE A CERTIFICATION COMPANY BASE IN EUROPE thread in Lots of British coin related discussions

I presume the slab is damaged in the process? Otherwise expect a rash of coins being swapped for lesser grades and then those lesser coins relabbed and sold on! I think you're forgetting it's a hobby here josie! While there are quite a few collectors around I'm not sure the demand or profits would be high enough to interest the government (otherwise they'd surely have done it before!!)

Quite so. Well, I think it's funny....

I guess the proof will be in the proverbial pudding. There are plenty of grading services in the US but it's well known that some have rather better reputations than others. The reliability of such a service over here remains to be seen. They haven't said anything at all about who will be doing the grading as far as I can see, nor who these dealers and collectors are. Anyone here want to admit to being involved? The whole thing seems to rely on someone providing coins for them to slab. This is presumably where the dealers will come in, since I can't see a real rush of collectors who want their coins slabbed going to an untested set up like this when PCGS or NGC could do it. Particularly as they have also introduced a brand new grading scale which is different from both the accepted US and UK standards! Who's going to want that?! Finally, Colin makes an interesting point... If slabbing existing coins doesn't take off, what's the betting we see attempts to create an artificial market (in that one doesn't exist in the UK, unlike in the US) for 'perfect' modern coins? If they can create a demand for something only they can provide maybe they might just make money after all!.

There you go Chris. Time to start working on 'Collectors Slabs 2009' I have a nice pic of an NCGS MS64 you can have at 300x300.

Yay! Congratulations Scottishmoney! When you get back from work(?) that is!! Zap that spam! Zap that spam! Zap that spam! etc....

Recently posted on englishhammered: We are pleased to announce that the entire series of The IBSCC Bulletin on Counterfeits has been incorporated into Forgerynetwork.com with permission from the copyright holder. Included are all the coins photographed, published and condemned by the IBSCC - the International Bureau of the Suppression of Counterfeit Coins. These all have been classed as "Forgery - Published" as they have been condemned by a recognised institution and will be the first to be displayed in any search. The database now contains almost 6000 records - 3000 of these being published counterfeits. The database is by far the largest public counterfeit coin database in the world and is now an essential tool. All purchases made should be checked against this database to help verify authenticity. The database also contains are large number of english hammered counterfeits We wish to expand the database further and encourage participation, whether this be contributing items, commenting on contributions or sponsoring or making donations so we an incorporate more published counterfeits. This has been a huge undertaking, thus we hope you will take advantage of this essential resource. Best Regards Mark Naber..

A pretty penny! (Which is no doubt what it cost you too!) Congratulations Rob. A perfect example of dedicated numismatic perseverance and study!

Those who use ebay may be interested to know that a recent decision means that on items where bidding has reached £100 the bidders IDs will now disappear. They will be replaced with anonymous IDs such as Bidder1 etc. For those of us who use the bidding history for items as a check for sellers who seem to have an excessive number of non-winning bids from the same people (shill bidding) this seems a terrible idea. If anyone else agrees please post on the ebay Q&A Board **Safeguarding Member IDs Workshop 24/11/06 2-3pm** For the policy itself please see Cr*p decision Surely the only safeguarding will be for shill bidders who will now run riot on ebay! Not that ebay will take the blindest bit of notice. But I feel a bit better for getting it off my chest. Richard On second thoughts I take it ALL back - I've just remembered my wife has an ebay account - expect to see lots of my really expensive coins listed soon!!!

The workshop on ebay effectively explained that the underlying problem was bidders receiving fraudulent Second Chance Offers. Many (presumably) responded to these, losing money. While I can see it's a problem I still remain to be convinced that ebay's policy change is the correct way to address this. But maybe it's because I'm intensely irritated by shill bids whereas (so far) I have't been caught by a scam. As for feedback - I think it's right - most of us are tempted to wait and see what the other person says before posting. I have only posted less than positive feedback once and that was to a buyer who waited three weeks to pay and never contacted me in the meantime. I guess therefore I'm as guilty as anyone else....

Hi RCL35. Indeed the decision only applies to ebayUK and to 'motors' listings in the US. I understand it will also apply in Australia and a few other places. So unless you bid over £100 (? US$) on an automobile (as I understand you quaintly call them over there) the bidder1 etc won't appear. Oh, and shill bidding is apparently illegal in the States, but not in Europe. Perhaps it isn't therefore a problem there? Possibly that's why there are different policies...

Yes. If ebay were less interested in money and more interested in 'security' it could just get rid of the 'Second Chance Offer'. If sellers were then required to relist items and everyone was told this quite clearly these 'offers' would surely die out. Unfortunately this isn't in ebay's interests. Shill bidding increases the final bid and therefore the fees ebay receives for the listing. I see this now that the three shill bidders I reported have been 'dis-membered' from ebay but the seller who received the shill bids continues to sell. With a 'feedback' of over 2000, why did I expect anything else...

Artemis with her quiver Me too!!!!!

You didn't say what period you're thinking of but if you're interested in any of mine please just pm me and I can email you the original pic. Good luck! Richard