Rob

I still have 5 or 600 boxes to tick, what else can I do but make hay while the sun shines?

No, there is a finite number of coin varieties.

Good news, just picked up a 15th lot which I shouldn't have stopped bidding on yesterday - another one I've not seen before

I got 14 lots this time, which was better than the first three sales. Some were above book, others below. I managed to tick 7 episcopal issuers which I was very chuffed with together with a few other criteria. To put it into context, I have spent the last two and a half years at York, Harrogate, Wakefield and the Midland trying to get decent examples of specific medieval bishop pennies from provincial mints and have picked up precisely none. The Stewartby collection might not be the highest grades in many cases, but is comprehensive enough for the nerds amongst us to fill our boots. There are significant numbers of issues that simply don't exist in better than VF or sometimes even lower grade, so you have to take VF or below. The book might only give a price in VF of 100-150 for a given coin, but very often it's a case of you try and find one at any price It would not be unreasonable to say that a lot of the coins in the collection have never been seen by even specialist collectors. Roll on part 5

Too much wasted space and only 5 trays with holes for less than 300 coins. Cheap and cheerful I guess, but not enough capacity to be of practical use for squirrels.

Guess who's back! Bank details available for anyone wishing to scam him. res. sir, if you are not deposit security amount pleasse infirm me. i have consignment on ready position. and if you have no faith on me. i can give my i.d.d proof ( adhar card). i didn't get your deposit, please infirm me that where you send money or security deposit (80,00,000/- pounds). please let me know which bank, from which city and when i am get that amount in my account please infirm me as fast as possible. RES.SIR, PLEASE HURRRY UP OFFER RUNNING GOES CRAZY, I DIDN'T GET YOUR SECURITY DEPOSIT OF 80,00,000/- POUNDS. IN THIS DEPOSIT I WILL GIVE YOU 2000 ANCIENT COINS, LOTS ANTIQUES , AND GOLD AND SILVER COINS. IF YOU ARE DEALING WITH ME IN FUTURE (AROUND ABOUT 6 MONTHS) I GIVE HUGE DEAL LIKE 100,00,00,000/- POUNDS DEAL ( ANCIENT GOLDEN HORSE CART). first you want to deposite 80,00,000/- pounds in my account (ADVANCE CASH) BECAUSE OF SAFETY CONDITION OF BUISNESS. herewith i sent you my bank routing no. and account holder name:- chintan bharatbhai tank bank account no. bank name:- state bank of india. bank routing no.:- 360002082 bank account :- 31220416951 bank IFSC CODE:- sbin 0060072 branch code :- 60072 THANKING YOU, YOURS TRULY, CHINTAN BHARATBHAI TANK MOB. NO.:- 00918469466030 DHORAJI, DIST. :- RAJKOT, STATE :- GUJRAT INDIA Please pay fast advance cash. ( 80,00,000/- pounds) trust once to get lifetime trusty business relationship. I didn't get your security deposit.

Sorry, no spare, nor Spink 62 or the other sales listed

I think it is a function of metal flow when struck. If you look at the 'straight' exergue it also shows slight deviation at the same points, as do all bar one 1960s penny from a dozen or so in front of me. Not a variety IMO, just an accentuated feature on the coin above.

Not sure how it can be worth 2K if it is listed as being worth 2K on the CGS site. All the prices on there are inflated to provide a premium for being slabbed Either that or the more likely scenario is that they ran out of decimal points. Let's be honest. That coin has zero eye-appeal.

All four digits have been entered twice. Considering the size of the characters, it is remarkable that there is not more double cutting seen. The 6 is a little strange as it appears to have been made using two different punches, there not being any apparently rotated loop at the bottom corresponding to the divergent arm at the top.

So people are still buying the little piece of paper rather than the coin............. Some things make you despair.

Depends what is being rejected. If you have a unique coin or nearly so that they are unwilling to slab, it doesn't reduce the value to zero, in fact it could still be worth tens of thousands.

In their defence, I suggest that they do have a genuinely heavy workload, not filled with questions from the numismatically inclined but rather the general populace who find a heavily corroded disc of metal in the garden and then question what it is. We live in a bubble, floating around in an ocean of ignorance.

Weak at the bottom right and left of the 8s respectively and also at the linear circle. Couple that with a silly price, a vendor with baggage and the whole thing is a tad unappealing. It's a pity that he only states 'slabbed by CGS' and doesn't include the attribution given on the label. Could say 1882H for all I know.

I'd go for a minting flaw. A defective flan with lamination will transfer the design to the layer below the lamination break, so you would still see some semblance of what it should be like, even with the missing top skin.

Which probably stems from the spat with PCGS a few years ago on this forum attributing one as a mule.

Given this has now reached 7 pages, is there any way of indexing, or having sub-folders so that similar areas are grouped together? e.g. British Milled, British hammered, European, Tokens, Rest of World - obviously not exhaustive.

I had one once that was brass plated copper

I've noticed that rim nicks are not marked down by the US TPGs having seen and bought an MS64 in that state, as with the NGC slab above. However, in the former case that may have been a function of out of sight, out of mind because the plastic hid the edge defect and I didn't know until l got it out of the plastic. It was far more obtrusive than the nick seen above.

The US interest is probably pro-rata to the number of slabbed items. Many US coins in high grade are slabbed because the market dictates it. The bulk of British coins are not slabbed and so many Americans will not take the 'risk' of buying an unslabbed coin. Long may it stay that way, as it keeps decent quality at an affordable level. Another consideration is that Americans are collecting their own coins, but the market is just as healthy over there for Spanish American or other regions on account of their diverse immigrant populations. Relatively few are of British ancestry, and even that is ignored to be divided into English, Scottish, Welsh and Irish from conversations I have had in the past.

G over sideways G on an 1848 groat obverse die. A quick perusal of past auctions came up with one other example of this obverse - DNW 107, lot 849, but that was paired with an 1848/6 die according to the description. So two new varieties unless anyone knows otherwise? Nick, Vicky?

Says it all. The secret to any successful business is to have happy customers. When you return goods, the customer has already wrestled with the decision of shall I/shall I not return it and is likely to be less than happy at this point. I know I haven't bid with one auctioneer since they refused to accept the profusion of jewellers' rouge as evidence that it had been cleaned. And the person making the decision does know better

Found it.

There is a picture of them side by side somewhere on the forum, but I can't remember where I posted it. I'll have to see if I can find the original. Maybe 5-10% are straight 8s. They aren't that common.

You could if it was described as mint state or unc when it was manifestly worn, but graded anything less and you would struggle as it is a matter of opinion. I've rejected a coin for that reason, but it would have to be clear wear and not just loss of toning to the high points. At the end of the day we will all allow a bit of leeway, but a handful of auction houses do try and test the limit.