Sylvester

Well i can't make it out very much, but it's definately not a real half sovereign... i can tell you that for nothing. Could be fake, could be a gaming counter, a model coin or anything really.

there's nothing quite like the feeling of spending real money and not this base metal junk we've got these days. I've spent silver before i just want to spend gold now...

The US collectors could probably tell you exactly what it is, afterall it is an error and errors are pretty well followed over there. Hazarding a guess i'd say it started life of as a 5p, cos it's in cupronickel and all. But this struck 5p somehow fell into the wrong place and wound up between a pair of penny dies. It does happen believe it or not. I've seen many a Lincoln Cent struck on dime blanks by accident.

damp and humid... Basically if you live in a house that just happens to have alot of water vapour in the atmosphere, or even the hot weather over the past few weeks was also very humid... i had some low grade German zinc pfennigs in a plastic envelope they were sweating and leaving patches on the flip, i removed them sharpish... (kitchens and bathrooms are particularly bad due to the steam), anyhow the humidity will react with the copper sooner or later and result in a copper oxide forming... verdigris. Best conditions are dry, so either cool and dry or room temp and dry, probably even hot and dry. The main thing is no water vapour. Unfortunately as my house is Victorian and the insulation is naff as soon as it gets humid outside during summer everything in the house goes much the same. There is a dehumidified down the cellar which has to be emptied daily cos of the water it extracts... but cellars usually are damp. If we had one upstairs i should imagine it would pull out just as much water. (Even drying clothes over radiators causes water vapour). So if you live in a humid house then my suggestion is collect gold, you'll never have any problems, you could even leave them out on the side uncovered and nothing much would happen. Silver is not as good as silver coins can develop verdigris but it's not easy for them to do so. Copper/Bronze/Nickel Brass/Cupron Nickel... all have a high copper content so they are high maintainence from a storage point of view.

infact i nearly quit coin collecting altogether i was that annoyed.

i wouldn't be too bothered about having to put them in the halfpenny trays, the main thing is preventing it happening to any more of you coins... I've been there, i lost a fifth of my coins to PVC damage and a fifth to verdigris, including some my BU 1937 coins. So i cleared the lot out some time since, the damged ones went, all the copper went, all the cupronickel went and most of the .500 silver. (And latterly i cleared out all the remnants of the collection that had survived unscathed, i.e the other half of the '37 set) The only coins that escaped and damage totally were the .925 silver coins and the gold. So i know exactly how frustrating it can be...

What would happen if you put the coins in capsules then put them in your cabinate? (i've done this with that tin farthing of mine... seems alright to me)

This is eaxctly what happened to me, this is why i refuse to buy any copper coins now, or any cupronickel ones... There are presumably methods of controlling humidity like a dehumidifier... Hopefully the dehunmidifier will help prevent it. If it doesn't and your house (like mine is a humidity box), then you'll either have to have the coins in airtites... (if that even works), slabs would i presume work, otherwise if the worst comes to the worst ditch the copper. (I hope it doesn't come to that)

Yep a sovereign is legal tender for £1 and a half for 50p. I actually want to spend one...

From that info then they are most definately half pennies, as the pre 1860 copper coinage was bigger than the bronze that followed it, so they are both halfpennies. We'd need the condition of each to ascertain any prices though. Hopefully they will be uncleaned, unholed and problem free. How much detail is still present? Or to put it another way do they look like they've seen a substantial amount of circulation?

Well one is William III and the other is George IV. The George IV one is probably 1826. Are they pennies or halfpennies or farthings? The William III 1695 one will either be a halfpenny or a farthing (i need to know the size though) The copper fans on here will know more than me as it's not my area.

i don't think it's that well known, no catalogue distinguishes between them yet... long may it stay that way.

yep i do... it was in there somewhere on another music thread probably! Dance music is the best stuff that's in the charts now... But with Dance music i never left the 90s. (not often i say that).

the dot to dot ones. I've got a few of the between/between variants too.

I've got a solid VF one somewhere, possibly GVF. Oh don't tell everyone about this cos we want plenty of them to get circulated to death and destroyed, so that the ones we have are worth more.

Gentlemen, gentlemen lets get this in perspective... Not extremely rare by a long shot, possibly only scarce but... 1) The dot to dot ones as i can figure it out are less than 1% of the total 1992 mintage, which = about 10,000,000 (which doesn't seem low, cos it's not, but it's lower than alot of George V silver) 2) These dot to dot 10p's seem to be from the last batch of the 1992 mintage production as they share the later milling type and they are similar to the 1995/6/7 10ps. If they are of the later mintage stage, then how many of them do you think exist in UNC sets? 3) Proof sets are not the dot to dot type. 4) They're not worth anything now, but think 50 years from now, many will get melted (except the ones we've kept back), those that don't will probably be in conditions less than fine. Hopefully in 50 years time decimal coins will get some recognition. If i were you i'd just keep them back, if nothing else it'll help you save money.

The Powerslave album! I really like that song Powerslave, and i'm partial to Rhyme of the Ancient Mariner (it just lasts an incredibly long time!), but as they say it's two minutes to midnight... [actually it 9.09] But i always liked Remember Tomorrow and Charlotte the Harlot too.

i'm at about 9 dealers with my sixpence collection, i need to find more if i'm going to get it anyway near a quarter complete.

I thought he overpriced if you ask me. I get my sixpences cheaper elsewhere from a very good dealer... but when it comes to my area of collecting you can't just stick with one trusted dealer otherwise it'd take forever, you have to go with as many as you can find, so i don't tend to be too loyal to any one.

hmm i like Material girl cos it's about money... but Papa Don't Preach, Cherish and Live to Tell are good uns. I had the albums somewhere... somewhere I haven't listed any classical cos i'm just getting back into that after a 5 or 6 year absence... But i always like Edward Elgar and Tchai... okay i can't spell it but i like the 1812 overture. And Vivaldi and Mozart are good. (Must listen to more of this!)

oh no, very little... Actually i think i've got the 80s covered for most genres... from Salt N' Peppa to Metallica... I'm tripping over the stuff. There was a time when i was 60s mad, so i've got that lying round too, haven't got much 70s though, didn't take to that decade as easily for some strange reason... I hate 50s. If there's one decade i definately avoid it's 50s and Rock and Roll. Elvis, Buddy Holly, Little Richard, you name it i tried to avoid them all.

I dunno if i have a fave group as such but Iron Maiden comes close. I always had alot of respect for Madonna cos she's done many different things, hmm Michael Jackson. Well i have to hand it to him he does actually seem to be talented, even if i'm not keen on him personality wise. Thriller was always a pretty decent song, but my mother was Michael Jackson mad so i have listened to much of his stuff over the years. She also liked Simply Red, now that was taking it too far... arrrghhhhh save me. I like some of Eminem's stuff too, strange as that might seem. Did someone say eclectic?

ow Eternal Flame! I remember that the first time round. Mind you i preferred Manic Monday. And I like Queen too, my favourite is one of these three; 'Killer Queen', 'It's a Kind of Magic' or 'We are the Champions' Fave songs... hmm? Well... no particular order here... (notice any similarities?) 1) Europe - Final Countdown (1980 something, 1986?) 2) Alice Cooper- Poison (1988) 3) T'Pau - China in Your Hand (1987) 4) Testament - Electric Clown [1992] (but i like The Ballad too) [1989] 5) Madonna - Like a Prayer (i liked that as a kid) [1989] 6) Metallica - Frayed Ends of Sanity [1988?] 7) Depeche Mode - Everything Counts [1982 and 1989] (or Sacred) [1987] 8) Flock of Seagulls - Wishing i had a photograph of you [1983] 9) Adam and the Ants - Stand and Deliver [1983ish] 10) Deep Purple - Black Night [1968?] 11) Clash - Rock the Casbah [1980s] 12) Iron Maiden - The Prisoner [1983] (or Can i Play with Madness?) [1986ish?] 13) Transvision Vamp - Baby i don't care [bet it's 1988/9] 14) Duran Duran - Save Prayer [1986ish] There's so many others i like...

Well for the Early Milled stuff i was ideally looking at F or higher for the lower denominations, and the gold as cheap as i could get it, but if you miss the gold off you've only got 4 coins to get for all of the years... unless you want the copper too? (I have a feeling you might) For the later stuff it varied, for 1818, 1826, 1837 and 1844 ideally VF or as near to, if anything better came up then i would get it, obviously with the gold or crowns i'd drop to F. From 1887 onwards i got stricter, 1887 it was GVF (EF more than anything) or better, 1893 VF or better (EF preferable), 1902 VF or better, 1912 GVF or better, 1927 top grade (except for the crown), 1937 BU, 1953 BU, 1970 BU. Although i expected i would be able to get quite a few of those post 1887 ones in UNC or betterfor the most part, but i was allowing for gold coins and crowns remember. If you had no desire to get the gold or copper then i think a year set from all those years could be managable... (except the first three, 1679, 1688 and 1693). Dunno you could go through the price guide and see the following; Crown, Halfcrown, Shilling, Sixpence; 1697, 1711, 1723SSC, 1739 Roses, 1818, 1826 (cos it's cheaper than the earlier design!). Crown, Halfcrown, Shilling, Sixpence, Groat; 1837, 1844 Crown - 3d; 1887 & 1893 (Won't go further cos you said not 20th century), you could add the copper/bronze if you wished, so it'd be halfpenny & farthings added on to the pre-1826 stuff for the most part, and pennies-farthings for the rest. Buit bear in mind having different heads on the Victorian ones makes them look slightly odd as a set.

Oh i like Rudie can't fail too! (yep i have the same album too), i like Train in Vain too. Two too many too's in there...