Sylvester

Look at the bulging eyes for a start on the Geo III ones nothing like the Geo IV ones.

Funny cos my grandfather claims to have done just the same. Bearing in my mind my grandfather had to my knowledge not seen a coin book until the 1990s (he's probably never read a book come to think of it cos he can only just read and he cared little for anything but cars). He told me a story back before i showed him the picture in the coin book. He told me he'd once seen a funny threepence coin when he was young, it was brass like the George VI ones but it had Edward on one side instead of George and the plant on the back looked different, and the date was in a different place. His father had sent him to the shop with it to buy a box of matches. Which i though was odd. Now i'd have no problems believing that. But i wonder about the creditbility when he claims to have had a 1933 penny which was kept back for him cos his birthyear was 1933, but i figure that was probably a halfpenny or something and he's just confused the details. But the threepence has got me wondering.

I used the have a Geo IV penny like that but they'd scratched a pipe on, it amused me heartily when i first saw it, infact that's why i bought it in the first place! (nothing like a good political statement!) I sold it Chris i think...

I tend to grade much the same as Andy, i've done business with him on several occasions before... i agree with AF. One thing to watch for though is cleaning, sometimes he doesn't state it as being cleaned when it has (usually he does), perhaps he thought that 1750 sixer i bought from him had cabinet rub rather than cleaning, i disagreed. The price was right though for a cleaned specimen so no qualms there. I kept it and then resold it when a better one came along, but i wasn't exactly happy about it.

Yes have fun! Happy B/d.

I think Master JMD is being pulled towrds Early Milled...

Personally if you want a good collection and you want quality then i'd say you should aim to have all you coins in UNC. My own preferences though are slightly different, but not all that much. I like coins with a bit of toning (not on modern UNC coins though as a rule), but more than that i find most coins grading around EF to be suitable for my wants and needs, they still have exceptional detail but you also know they've been out there in circulation not just sat in a drawer for 200 years. So i like high grade circulated coins anything GVF to GEF and i'm happy. Anything lower than VF and i shun it. (Usually unless i can't afford to do otherwise). I generally follow these rules; 17th century = GVF-GEF (These always look better circulated, lightly circ'ed EFs are the nicest) 18th century = GVF-UNC (as above) 19th century = AEF-UNC/BU (Victoria onwards UNC) 20th century to 1920 = GEF-UNC/BU (UNC preferred) Post 1920 = UNC/BU only. I like GVF/AEF the most though, but in the crazy world of high grade Early milled they are the grades you see most of. UNC coins just don't exist for some of the years, sometimes the highest grade is that elusive good Extremely Fine possibly sliding to Almost UNC.

I'm the other way with the books... Silver Coins of England; 1841 Spinks; 1985 Collectors' Coins; 1992-3 Seaby; 1993 Coincraft; 2000 English Hammered Coinage; 2000 Collectors' Coins; 2004 (Thanks for sending me that Chris! Well i had to know what i was working on didn't i?) The Redbook; 2004 (English Hammered by North was the last one i bought for £90, i also splashed out on a Redbook). But generally i only buy a new price catalogue every 7 years.

Edward Hawkins' Silver Coins of England, 1st Ed. 1841. (Something about me and first edition books).

£28 is on the high side for that, but are those really scratches on the obverse? (formerly cleaned?) Leave it...

Anything after 1815 is modern in my opinion.

Well that's a very interesting question and it depends upon the person to a large extent and their interests. (Prepare for a whole load of dates) I could answer all these things for the point at which coins become uninteresting to collectors; 1) 1799 [that's my own personal preference] 2) 1837 [that's about as far as i go into late milled] 3) 1887 [generally that's where the prices start going down] 4) 1901 [some would answer that, end of Victoria] But many collectors collect things after this point, some state 1910. Edward VII silver is hardly cheap... so lets go further. Personally if i view it from a silver collecting point of view i'd state 1919 as the the cut off date, cos in 1920 the silver was downgraded from 92.5% fine to 50% fine... the prices drop further here. From a gold collecting point of view possibly 1932 which saw the end of the circulating sovereigns. Most would argue 1936 as the reigns of George VI and Elizabeth II are pretty common, the latter very much so. Some go forward to 1946 with the end of silver. Others would stretch to 1952 with the demise of George VI. Many collectors on a tight budget would say 1970 and the end of predecimal currency. And then you get those that would say 1662... It's a very individual thing, mostly i'd cut off at 1919 for most coins, rarer ones like Wreath Crowns and of course the ubiquitous gold sovereigns through to the proof of 1937 would still be of interest to collectors. Some coins of George VI reign are quite scarce and collectable though. Copper collectors would tell you 1860, bronze collectors might say 1936. It all depends what YOU want to collect. I'll let the copper/bronze fans deal with that area. But if i was collecting late milled i'd finish at 1919 with the end of sterling silver and take gold as far as 1932. My own collecting preferences as they are though would see me probably cut off the silver at 1787 and cease the gold in 1873 (with the end of the London mint shield reverse sovereigns... well the affordable ones anyway!)

Ha ha... yes i've donated alot of stuff over there, (don't look in the sixpence section whatever you do!) if i still had it i would have sold it to you, but i sold it to Chris on here i think. It was only F in my opinion (this is without looking at the pic, i really should go and have a look), it was 1834 a common year and thus they are quite cheap, i'd say about £20, i think i paid about £15 for it. The coins from William IV through to Victoria Young head wear mostly on the obverse with not too much on the reverse. I like William IV coins myself half crowns in particular, you want to see a post 1826 Geo IV halfcrown with Garnished Shield though, now they are quite something. Dunno i still prefer the W4 ones though!

Looking good, here JMD you don't fancy trying to do the cover for the late milled one, i mean i got a 'sort of copy' on mine but can i email it to Chris? can i heck as like!... it's just too big and i'm afraid paint is just not upto the job of getting it smaller size wise. So i'm a bit stuck, i've tried zip i've tried everything, i was going to send it in two parts but getting it into 2 is near impossible due to the size... There is a better picture of the florin now on coinpeople (with a digital camera) by it's new owner Stujoe... I can direct anyone that wishes to go over there and have a bash. Someone on here must have a decent software package to pull of a good front cover?

I dunno there's something about a BU 1684 farthing if such a thing exists!

I dunno i've got a thing for GVF... why do i like that grade? AEF is another grade that i'm particularly fond of... For modern i like GEF, but i like my GVF 1992 10p!

Funny so do i!

Enormous... you wait till you see the halfcrowns!

Well NBU is a useful grade to have actually, cos some coins particularly copper can be like 95% or more orginial lustre and are only missing the BU designation due to the fact that they have a slight deficiency of lustre in say one small place, but the coin overall is superior to most UNCs.

The whole of Charles II? Hey if we're gonna do it in monarchs then i want James II and William and Mary! (But NOT William III!) So it's gonna be 1656-1760. I'll do the sixpences too 1658-1758 plus William and Mary and James II coins. But first i've got to finish of the 1816-1837 run of sixpences and the Liz II, I've got Geo III done and i've got Geo IV and Will IV set up awaiting the prices to be entered. I haven't even started the groats.

AS? for As Struck... i spent about 2 minutes just trying to work that one out and as for that AS90/50 stuff i was puzzelled, Bearing in mind i've been spending far too much time with US grading lately so i'm getting AU58, MS63... So i was thinking where's 95 come into it? The top grade is MS70!) Sure this would be better; UNC 40% Lustre UNC 90% Lustre BU And i really don't like those question marks. I'll stick with the; G, VF, AF, F, GF, AVF, VF, GVF, AEF, EF, GEF, AU, UNC, BU, Gem UNC. I rarely use N although i do browse through some dealer's catalogues and they use NVF, NEF all the time. (Actually it looks better, but 'almost' sounds better than 'nearly'! )

Why F? that makes me think, why what's wrong with it... it's Fine but it's been cleaned, or it's fine but an ex-mount? Wouldn't F- suffice?

When i get my Spink 2005 then i might go and get some Early Milled prices for you should you wish me to (mind you i've still got to finish up these sixpences... i hope i get round to doing the Britannia Groats too). For an Early milled book i take it, it would be a non-gold one going upto the end of George II's reign, seeing as you don't want to loose the George III book.

Aussie eh? Cos if you're in Australia it might be an Australian penny rather than a UK one... (i presume they had them, i know they had their own sovereigns, shillings and whatnot).

Manchester Museum on Oxford Street, they've got a load of hammered gold nobles in a pil;e and a few Chasser 5 Gn pieces. I don't think they had a Una though, but possibly an 1826 proof? There's some gorgeous coins in there. (Presumably they are real ones and not museum copies of real ones that they've got locked away)