Sylvester

it was me it was me i tell yer!!! Alright it wasn't really... but you almost believed me didn't you? what you didn't? hmmm <_

Who said she was sending you one? I know i wasn't...

i'm not far off 20, 19 at this present moment in time.

yeah some dullness is unavoidable, but 1 mill or so is nothing to worry about, as i say pretty unavoidable due to the way they are stored (in a cardboard holder). PM me with your addy and i'll get £2 off to you probably tomorrow. At least then you've got rid of one of them and i've got a replacement for the one i lost... Honestly i put anything down for a minute and it's never seen again

I'm sure he'd manage that without much trouble. (Sorry mate... Now look what happens when a pretty face shows up. Straight away friends can become competitors, and slightly nasty posts are exchanged. Sam, at this stage I think it's probably best if you email me to save us offending each other ) well was thinking of putting an offer in for the 1968/71 specimen set since i've lost the one i had, but i'd need to know what the coins in that look like. Are the 1/2p, 1p and 2p coins still bright and shiny as they were when new, or have they gone dull like the regular 1971 pennys etc that we see in our change?

Chris i hate to say it but that chat up line is almost as good as 'get yer coat you've pulled' What's wrong with 'Get yer coat, you've pulled'? The subtelty is astounding Chris... (i've probably spelt that wrong and Oli will perpetually show me up for an idiot)

Chris i hate to say it but that chat up line is almost as good as 'get yer coat you've pulled'

I'll not lie, they are pretty common coins but there is a market for them... it's because they are common that the grade is ultimately important [not that it's not important anyhow] it's just more so with modern coins cos there's just so many of them, only the best will sell. And they are alot better than some of the stuff people have tried to ask us about before... e.g "how much is this battered 1969 old size 50p worth?" [well erm about 10p in that condition, but vending machines sometimes take them as £2 coins... and they do! ]

Good for you!

Ah the Coincraft didn't state... oh hang on a minute... bugger i would be looking in the wrong section, yes apparently they do exist... well blow my theory Chris! I'm afraid modern coins aren't really my area so i'm swimming a bit out of my depth here.

i didn't say they weren't worth anything, i just meant they are silver if all else should happen to fail... not that it did.

I make it about £27 based on the values my catalogue quotes. Those are however the higher end dealer selling prices, the dealer buying prices are lower possibly only £17 or so, £20 on a very good day.

Right the 1953 ones aren't bad actually! Quite good the usual weak strike for the 1953 issue... (for everyone else... see here) http://asksam2.tripod.com/Scan0002.jpg I'll have to figure that 1953 average price out by going through the catalogue and adding them all up... The shilling is a bit dark to see but it is lower grade than the ones Chris has for sale on here. My grading skills on Edward VII coins are not fantastic, so i'll let Oli or someone figure that one out... Needless to say the shilling does have it's silver value though cos it's a pre-1920 coin which means it's sterling silver (92.5% silver). Coins from 1920-1946 are 50% silver so are worth less than the earlier ones in the lower grades but will always have some metal value unlike the coppernickel post 1947 issues.

hmm i'm not sure about that maybe, maybe not...? shrug?

Although there was someone on RCC (Rec. Collecting Coins) who actually did like Churchill Crowns and he had a fair few.

if it was Bakeded he was just winding me up by posting the pic over and over again. It worked... <_<

1937 2/6d is condition dependent. The 1960 5/- likewise... they are common but not as common as most of the crowns. 1977 25p or 5 shilling in old money, is worth 25p... i'm afraid these things were minted in the millions for the Silver Jubilee i had a few knocking around, i really should take them to the bank. 1953 will be worth a few pounds, anything upto £5 or £6 if in top condition. The 1986 is worth £2... actually you can technically spend those. If it looks brand new and has a case or something it might be worth anything upto £5.

Well if it looks like this one... http://www.predecimal.com/forsale/es/shilling1910.jpg The i think you've got a good coin. The 1953 coins may indeed be worth something but only if they are high grade examples that look absolutely brand new (like they were minted this morning) and have not been cleaned. Whether they are in a set or not is coincidental as it's an unofficial one. (There are many unofficial ones of all years, doesn't mean they aren't worth anything though). The 1937 stuff likewise would have to be in top condition to be worth a great deal, which i'm afraid is the story of most coins since 1911. (Or even 1887 if it comes to that, with a few notable exceptions). I'm not being funny or anything but i've answered quite a few of these where people have said coins are in good condition (too right they were, 'good' in a numismatic sense = terrible, worn, polished etc). High grading coins in Good Very Fine and higher are where the money is, which translates to a coin that has seen limited wear, has alot of detail remaining in the hair on the heads side of the coin and hopefully original lustre and is totally problem free. If you can figure out a way of posting pictures i can give you accurate quotes for whatever coins you want valuing. But from experience of doing this before, i must stress don't expect them to be worth a fortune as alas they usually aren't.

what condition is that 1910 shilling in?

I like it! Straight to the point... Well i don't think the 1953 one is an official one as the crown is missing (and i don't think they issued them without the crown), thus i dunno the value of that cos it would depend upon the grades of the coins. The 1968/71 decimal set though i bought one of these last summer from a market for a whole of £1 so there you go. You might get £2 for i if you're having a good day. I dunno about the other one though.

like the late Ms Amstell then...

So will you be collecting half pennies or farthings? or perhaps both to the same level as Dr. Nic? And actually now i come to think of it i have a near complete date run of US silver Washington quarters 1932-1964 (ignoring mintmarks), why? Well i just really like the design... it's the only coin i have actually just taken to without having to try. The vast majority are low grade specimens, most of the earlier dates grading Good-Fine. Wow i've just gone through them, only dates i need are; 1938, 1958 and 1960! Excellent, i though i had more to get.

I dunno, you'll have to see about that! I know i'm not alone in saying this i've heard many say it before; but i find when trying to put together a date set (or even a type set), once i actually have the coin it gets put in the cabinet i rarely look at it (well except that Mary groat i really like that), usually my attention turns to the next coin to get... the thrill of the hunt is what does it for me. I soon get bored once i have the coin and the novelty value has worn off (but i'm like this with everything). I think if i ever did manage to finish a set i'd probably sell it the next day and turn my hand to another set. This is perhaps why i pick sets that are actually just about achievable but they will take a long time to complete, like 30 years. I could try a set of 1937-1956 farthings but i'd probably have it finished within 6 purchases before the end of the year all in BU. I tend to like coins for their history connection (hence why i love the Stephen and the Mary so much), or the eye appeal (gothic forin, sixpences, Mary again). As for the tin farthing, well i like that cos it's tin. And you can never have enough tin! I think in 30 years when the sixpences are done and the the monarch one is done, i hopefully so are the other two small sets. Then i think i'll turn around and specilise in collecting tin coins, just lots and lots of tin farthings and halfpennies. That's if the hammered coin bug doesn't drag me into collecting Quarter Nobles or Stephen Pennies. Oh there's so much out there, how can you specialise?

I'd much rather have a small select few high grade expensive coins than a full date run of cheaper ones. I did have a near complete set of BU Sixpences 1930-1970; If i remember rightly i had 1934, 1936-1940, 1942-1950, 1953-1959, 1961, 1963-1970... but i got no real pleasure out of it. Even if i had a full set of 1901-1970 sixpences i don't think i would have been too overjoyed. Oh yeah i liked em but i much preferred my one off hammered coins. (Hence why i could never really specialise to just one series). I reached a happy medium of having two really expensive obscure challenging serieses supplemented by several shorter ones just to relieve the monotony. I've only ever been sure of one approach in numismatics and that was, not copper, and that's about the only thing i've stuck to since i started 14 1/2 years ago.

I think that would be an interesting one to have! And a gem of a coin too no doubt. I almost fancy putting together a small date set of farthings 1684-1692... C2 1684 (GOT) 1685 EXTREMELY RARE J2 1684 VERY RARE 1685 1686 1687 VERY SCARCE WM 1689 RARE 1690 1691 1692 SCARCE I suppose i could give that small set a bash, but it'll be on low priority with those half guineas. Sixpence collection has been reduced a little so that i just have to get one main type of each date (so i might still get all the obverse/reverse variants as well as the overdates, but i'll not be bothering with overlettering and transposed shields ansd spelling mistakes and what not)