Sylvester

Remember the number one rule in numismatics, Quality not quantity! Think; 1) Which coin is most likely to maintain its value with little effort, (in case you need to sell in future), note i said maintain its value, not appreciate in value, getting your money back is the key not a profit. A profit is a bonus. 2) Which coin will maintain popularity in future? 3) Which do you prefer? My method of collecting differs from Oli's, Oli's approach is to buy coins that are managebly within his budget with a view to completing a series. My view is to collect a small amount of the highest quality coins i can afford that i find eye appealing, whether they fit in or not. So a Queen Mary Groat does not fit in with my sixpence collection but i like the coin, i like it's history, i find it eye appealing, it is in a decent grade and thus i bought it, even if it might look out of place. Numismatics is all about approach, i find the best approach is your own approach, and the more experience you get the more you adapt it and wisen up about what's the right thing to do, you never know until you try, but it can be fun. I don't collect copper coins and they'd look totally out of place in my collection but if i saw a full lustred extremely high grade Victoria Farthing that caught my attention enough, i may just buy it. I nearly bought a high grade Vicky Shield reverse sovereign the other day, just as an example of one (cos i love em!), that wouldn't fit either but so what? (And to be honest if i had stuck to collecting shield reverse sovereigns i would have had half a collection by now! and it would have been cheaper than these EM sixpences!)

That's what i do Oli, i buy coins that i really have to save for... I can sustain the collection at present but in 2 years time when i've left uni and more important things will come into play, and lack of student loan means my active collecting days of these high floating coins will grind to a halt. But at least i will have been there and bought the t-shirt, and i'm sure it'll take me seven times as long to get just one in future but if i can knock the most expensive ones off now whilst i'm in a position to do so i'll make it easier on myself in future. If he wants to buy just one expensive one now i say go for it. My motto is start with the hard ones and work your way through them, and save the easy ones till last.

It was last month, AEF for £525 (that's the non inverted three one)

that goes in contradiction to coincraft! The invert 3 is cheaper? Coincraft states it's dearer which in all honest is what i would have thought! It sure has appreciated some way, i'm dreading the 1694 one! Wow i got the sixpence at a bargin then! I've made a profit already. They say to make a profit you make the best ones when you buy, not when you sell!

oh and a 2004 Spinks/Seaby would be best too. Actually what's the difference between these two catalogues, aren't they really the same?

What's the value acoording to Seaby of a 1693 sixpence (common varient, i.e three the right way around) in VF and EF grades?

i can't see it either...

Desani was nasty, it tasted worse than any tap water i've had to drink... and it did taste like tap water.

we have lead pipes... So i drink more bottled water than tap water.

But tea is also renounded for conquering free radicals that cause it! More evidence against it causing cancer than for, so i'll keep drinking it. Anyhow i drink green tea quite a bit, which is caffeine free anyhow.

you should they really are terrible. Especially coke! My biggest sin though is chocolate, i demolish the stuff, bags of malteasers by the crateful, and i always have the chocolate desserts. First thing i do in a restaurant is take the dessert menu and look for the chocolate... I'll have no teeth left by the time i'm thirty! Sorry but it's the Homer Simpson in me... chocolate.... *drool*

Actually with regards to email i'm very surprised i've embraced the internet so easily, i usually hate all new things, but i took to the internet and minidiscs for some strange reason with no problems. My main problem is i don't like change, i never had a phone as a kid, and they were still pretty rare the other side of 2000 in classrooms, so why change now? Old before my time? Probably... (I dunno i just like old stuff, i've always wanted a candlestick telephone, yes a real rotary dial one from the 1930s, not a modern replic piece of junk) But what do you expect from someone that walks around in a three piece suit and with an 1880s watch?

i don't drink pop; terribly bad that stuff, have you seen all the awful additives in there?... i just have water or tea. And not Volvic either cos that is thought to be cancerous...

email or letter. My mates all play hell cos i'm so hard to get in touch with, and they never know where i am... (which is exactly how i like it! Freedom! independence!)

i avoid most things that could potentially cause cancer, it's just my little phobia...

but i do have a phone in the bedroom (it's always unplugged, unless i have to ring out, which is rare), it takes a while to dial though, if you follow my gist?

I don't have one, and never have... I've escaped getting one yet. My uncle did buy me one but i refused to take it under any circumstances... What would you want one for they cause cancer anyhow? And they're's always one ringing every five bloody minutes, if i hear the Nokia ringtone one more i'm gonna ram the god damn phone down the stupid big idiot's throat ... God how annoying is that ringtone! Oh i could scream... Never did like technology much, oh and iwhen i'm at home i never answer the phone, i just let it ring off.

The pair of you are actually doing it now... Oli counts useless off topic banter about who does do something and who does not, to be spam too. He'll tell you just as much himself.

i kinda like enammelled coins, what upsets me is it ruins such a good coin, but overall quite often they look pretty decent despite this. Especially the Geo III ones. I still shook my head with dismay when i saw that enammelled James II Half crown.

Then just type the numerals out and i'll translate, They'll be somewhere between MDCCCLI and MDCCCLXXXVII

Dates for the Gothics would be nice.

they will be if you don't tell anyone for a few years and let them get more hammer in circulation. Then announce it, and once demand goes up, it should appreciate a bit i should imagine. (more than 10p at least!)

Could Colin Cooke be classed as a 1952 half crown expert? I mean he's studied them/it all...

just the 10ps William, the 5ps are all common to my knowledge.

no what i meant was there is no such thing as a coin that is good for its age, i've seen Ancient Greek coins in better condition.