TomGoodheart

Only you can decide (of course) Hello. But if you're still enthusiastic about coins then it seems a shame to get rid of them all. I'd say pick the nicest and keep those as surely they shouldn't take up much space? As for the rest, I presume no other family member has an ebay account you could sell through? Alternatively, you mentioned visiting a local coin dealer a while back. Maybe see if you could sell to them. Or list here under 'for sale' Or of course, there's always car boot sales and the like, but I'd doubt you'd get much as everyone wants a bargain. But most I'd stick in a box or tray under the bed and keep for later.

This help? Calendar.

I don't know where there are easily available photos but here's a guide with pictures.

Oh, we've all done that. Especially with nested comments. Just remember you can edit a post for a few minutes after posting (there's a button at the bottom of your comment). Or if you really mess it up, re-post and either delete the original or ask an admin (like me) to do it. And welcome to predecimal!

Oooh! L@@k! Not often you see a nice shiny BU 1965 crown.... but, .. hang on a minute .. ???? Aren't they meant to be matt? Unless this is the specimen? On ebay?

LOL That's ridiculous!

how thick are some people, the casting bubbles on the obverse are as clear as a pint of stella. They are indeed. But people are buying these things. And at some stage they will no doubt want to sell them and quite likely will be V Disappointed. And while I slightly sympathise with the old caveat emptor, a rip off is a rip off. And a particularly annoying one given that ebay, while clapping on about replicas, counterfeits and certification, have consistently done precisely nothing about such listings. Even when told.

Make a copy of your photo so it's not lost, open the copy in MS Paint, reduce the size to 40%-50%, save it as a jpeg and upload it to Photobucket. When you link to it here it will display in a reasonable size but clicking on it will enlarge to the (reduced) size of the photo you uploaded. A 1.6MB photowill drop quite quickly to a managable 200-400KB on reduction in dimensions. So where's this hammered coin then ... ?

Not me. I was after something else entirely .. Nice penny though.

I'm now wondering if it's Pitman shorthand. Anyone know someone able to read it? I had a look, but the differences between the symbols (particularly those for whole words (known as grammalogues)) are too subtle to guess at unless you have some experience.

To do it yourself, search sites such as CoinArchives.com or mcsearch.info can be helpful. And of course, many international auction companies use hosts like sixbid or liveauctioneers.com to host and store auction information. For ebay just click on 'worldwide' under location and search for completed listings or search via ebay.com or ebay.com.au

A guinea is 21 shillings, so that's 12x21 = 252 pennies. Four farthings to a penny, four quarter farthings to a farthing so .... 4032 1/4 farthings to a guinea. I think!

Some nice coins there! I don't remember seeing the 60/- but I've just been admiring it. If ever I get into Scottish ...

I think it depends on the coins .. for, say, really nice modern (post 1700s) silver I get the impression that American buyers pay more than we do over here. I think there will always be a lesser interest in 'foreign' coins than US ones, but interest is increasing as American collectors realise the disparity between prices in the US and Europe. But if your collection is somewhat specialised, as mine is, it will need someone with a bit more than average knowledge to recognise the rarity of what would otherwise appear to be a bog standard coin in none to brilliant condition! In such a case you might do better here, since the action houses are more likely to have the contacts to make a succesful sale. Similarly there will be specialist dealers here with knowledge of British coins most won't have in the US. But that's to be expected really. EF coins will sell worldwide. Where rarity dictates that you will never find better than nVF, you need someone who recognises that to get the best price. That of course sets aside the appeal of keeping British coins with British collectors. I'm not saying someone in the US won't appreciate the history or the coins. And if there's a huge difference in what could be realised in a sale ... but somehow I like the idea of my coins passing to someone else here, rather than disappearing abroad, perhaps for ever.

Gosh. I think that just underlines either how ridiculously overblown prices are in the US or how unrealistically low ours are. I just can't decide which! I wouldn't expect to pay much more than a thousandth of that for a Charles I shilling for which less than 8 examples are known. In fact most British silver or base metal coins, irrespective of how rare, could be had for, what, under £50,000? I know that a) there are probably fewer collectors of British coins than US ones and that there are probably fewer really wealthy British coin collectors than in the US, but even so ... .. not that I'm complaining! I have no wish to be priced out of the hobby and while there are still quite a few near-unique coins lacking from my collection, long may the madness continue!

I presume you've spun it Debbie? I wondered if when put on a table and spun, the two designs would match up to make something more recognisable, but I can't see what! I'll ask around ..

Happy Birthday! Hope it was a good one! Surely he'd have get one of his friends to send it on his behalf?

No problem. And do come back and post a few pics of your sixpences for us to admire!

Shilling at (nominally) 24mm. Sixpences are 19mmm but often (particularly on ebay) you can't tell from the photo or the seller doesn't know. The weights incidentally if you have some reasonable scales are 5.7g and 2.8g so the coin should feel quite a bit heavier too. As to the 'upside down' that I seem to remember is normal. Some coins (George VI or Elizabeth II sixpences for example) are struck what's called 'en medaille' (like a medal) with both sides the same way up. Others, en coin with the reverse 180 degrees rotated to the obverse. Why? Dunno! Whim of the mint I think! Not a bad coin, though sadly cleaned at some point. And welcome to the forum!

And unless ebay want to shoot themselves in the foot I can't see how the certified grading requirements could travel outside the US. As for the fakes, well, as I said earlier, I think there needs to be a distinction between contemporary pieces that are of interest to collectors and modern reproductions intended to deceive collectors. Most replica items that are sold as souvenirs are so obviously copies I don't see them as so much of a problem, but I guess they are another area for consideration. The main problem I see is that, once again, ebay is listeining to big (commercial) concerns rather than their own members. I see no good coming from it.

As far as I can see, this only currently applies to ebay US. And in fact, I can't see how it could do otherwise since neither of these companies has a comprehensive coverage of non-US coins. The US site also says that replica coins are not allowed (but they seem to be listed on the UK site) small, dark or unclear photos are banned (yeah, right!) and that counterfeits are not allowed. The latter seem to me to be a major problem because contemporary counterfeits or evasion pieces are perfectly reasonable numismatice items with historical interest and significance. I suspect the problem is that ebay has for too long ignored the modern replica coins and has now introduced this sledgehammer to crack the nut. But then it's ebay's own fault. A few years back it was easy enough to check the IDs of bidders for shilling, or to contact a bidder to warn them off dubious items and members regularly reported fakes to ebay. Then they introduced anonymity to the listings and it became impossible to identify the rogues so the only recourse was for members to report dodgy items direct to ebay. But in the UK ebay never seemed to take any action and I for one have stopped reporting and have even stopped posting replicas on Forgery Network because .. what's the point if they keep appearing on ebay? As Generic says, it's not really good for buyers and is certainly inconvenient for sellers. I also believe it's bad for the hobby as more and more people will stop deciding their own grade and come to rely on one of these two companies. Of course, when ebay tried this a few years back (restricting the term 'certified' coins to only about 5 graders) they got sued (for implying everyone else's coins were counterfeit). It might be interesting to see if someone like ANACS decides to sue again, this time for having their reputation and professionalism called into question.

For me it would be either Banbury or Northampton. And while the journey time for either would be under an hour, both meet on evenings I'm working. That's the problem with working anti-social hours. And even if I wasn't working, on Tuesdays when the Northampton society meets, daughter does her Red Cross training .. though that will end in September. Oddly Bedford seems to have dropped off the list, though it presumably was active a few years ago as the then Secretary did a valuation of my collection for me. What's really needed is an internet based Society. Somewhere you could post at any hour convenient to yourself, show off your coins, ask questions ... hang on a minute! Anyone think we could get predecimal registered as a BANS member? We certainly have more members than say Banbury "seven with two or three floaters" That was a serious suggestion by the way, since I know it's sometimes difficult to tell if I'm joking or not ..

Not sure if he's more Harry Potter or Zorro there ... And thanks for the answer Debbie!

Now you mention it Peck .. it might be a sense of humour. In your case at least.

It's an interesting question to which I don't have an answer. It'd be useful to know the proportion of the population that spend time on internet forums and not just playing games on facebook and the like. Personally I only tend to be active on one or two sites at a time and I spend what I'd imagine, by most standards, to be quite a lot of time on the internet. I do know of a few (older) collectors who just don't 'do' forums. One doesn't have the internet I'm told but the others are certainly active in their local numismatic society and could contribute. Youngsters nowadays can use an ipad before they talk, so it might be assumed there would be some on here, however it's also apparent that fewer kids seem interested in coin collecting than when I were a lad. My daughter is in her late teens and I don't know any of her friends that have expressed any interest in coin collecting. And if you look at the member list the vast majority come here to ask one or two questions and then go. Which again, sort of makes sense as if you discover a coin or are given one by a relative, you want to know what it is it's worth. But to actually collect requires some disposable income and commitment. I guess comparison with some philatelic sites might yield some answers, or perhaps comparison with sites for US coins. But really the only people that can tell us why they don't join in when they could .. aren't here! In the meantime, maybe Debbie can answer this one. She's a newer member and .. unusual in being female (I mean here of course, I seem to remember quite a few other females around last time I ventured out of my cave to visit the 'real world' ;P) She could like many others have dropped in, asked a question and gone again. But she stayed and contributes. Any particular reason Debbie? Apart from our charm and good looks of course ...