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Rob

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Everything posted by Rob

  1. Just found out that I came second to the Fitzwilliam. Somewhat depressing really as it is yet another coin that has been saved for from the public to be locked away in a cupboard and forgotten. If I had known that I would have carried on bidding because god knows where I will find an acceptable example now. At least collectors pass them around amongst themselves.
  2. That happened to me a few years ago and is something I don't like. I went down for some gold lots which mostly had their estimates upped by around 1K on the day. I didn't bother bidding on them, bought one other lot and went home feeling a bit miffed. But, the person consigning is within their rights to do so just as they can withdraw the lots in advance of the sale.
  3. Rob

    BBC one - fake Britain

    Or as has happened on more than one occasion, given up as the acquisitions slow to a trickle. Most compulsive collectors will struggle if only adding 1 or 2 coins each year. The first half of the collection might come easily, but the second half can be difficult, verging on the impossible. That's why I deliberately reset my collection criteria to be as diverse as possible. I can easily look for a sovereign and buy a sestertius or whatever instead.
  4. Rob

    BBC one - fake Britain

    The guy was lucky in that he bought some sovereigns that made a profit, even coming from LMO. 3 or 4 years ago I received a call from a woman whose father had died and spent a 5 figure sum on LMO things. e.g over £1K on a 1791 guinea in a pretty little box with a cert of authenticity and product description showing a picture of a PAS 1791 guinea. Sadly, the contents of the capsule graded fine. Two other boxes held a selection of low grade Roman and middle eastern coins with a retail value of 150 to 200 on a very good day. Cost was over 1200. Lots of other overpriced LMO goodies(?) were also purchased together with maybe a dozen sovereigns. Luckily for me she had done some homework before calling, and indicated she was prepared to get back only a fraction of what he had spent without me appearing to be the one doing the rip-off when my face dropped on opening the boxes. I wish all were like that. The day before yesterday I had to give similar bad news to someone that had spent a few hundred on gilt modern coins - pennies, 20p's, 50p's etc. Again, the resale value is a few pounds at most per item - if you can find a buyer. He will get back approximately 10-15% of his outlay. It goes back to the point I put to the BBC researcher. Nobody would spend £10K or more on a car without looking at it, taking it for a drive, and generally satisfying themselves it was reasonable for the money, yet people hand over similar sums to the LMO and Westminster etc without blinking, i.e. the consumer has to take at least some of the blame for their predicament. Possibly more than half the blame considering the amount of money these companies have to spend on marketing and advertising in the national press. Whether you like the LMO or not, they have to charge over bullion to cover their costs. The problem is the self produced tat they market, less so the overpriced collectable items. Let's face it, every one of us routinely pays a massive premium to intrinsic value, but we are generally saved by doing due diligence. Caveat emptor every time.
  5. Rob

    BBC one - fake Britain

    It certainly seems a little 'un-British'
  6. Rob

    BBC one - fake Britain

    He is saying if you want to see the money in your bank account grow, then get some coins. Presumably he is going to pay you to take his crap off his list, as buying them would deplete funds. I was going to say that's a win-win situation, but on reflection, maybe only a win- as you would still end up with the coins.
  7. I only bid on one lot and came second - 206. Ed.III class XVd penny of Durham ex RCB and the BNJ plate coin in Purvey's article assigning the issue to Bp. de Bury. The best(?) of few known examples, though still doesn't make VF, and went for 1400 hammer. By and large the prices seem to be reasonable at this season's sales. There are always a few things that will fly whatever, such as the lightweight B1/1 shilling with negro's head mark at Baldwins yesterday. That made 1350 hammer against an estimate of 250-300
  8. Rob

    BBC one - fake Britain

    Thanks Nick It didn't tell us anything we don't already know. However, it might be useful to send 'Henry' a link so he has an appreciation of what his employer does to allow himself such opulent surroundings. Interesting as well that LMO offered to refund him in full. Hopefully a lot of other people will make the same request. The person in the library was our own GeoffT
  9. Rob

    BBC one - fake Britain

    Was this the one on coins and if so how do you find it?
  10. Rob

    Adjustment lines or not?

    The die axis on these is fairly consistently inverted as far as I can establish, but the lines do not always follow each other on both sides, which you would expect if it was a mechanical process associated with the strike, suggesting the two sides were scraped separately. It is unlikely to be just a feature of Briot's machinery as you get lines across the bust right through to G2's coinage, though during W3 there is a greater tendency to have the adjustments made at the crowns on the reverse. The prevalence of marks on Briot's coins also appears to be greater on full or overweight coins (based on a sample size of about 40). Very few marks were seen on coins weighing 5.80g or less suggesting they were done to reduce the weight. I read somewhere recently that Briot's coinage was frequently rejected as out of spec weight-wise leading to a large amount of scissel, but can't remember where I saw it, The only question therefore is at what point in the process were the marks made? Logic dictates that to be more efficient, you would reduce the weight before striking to negate the wasted time.
  11. Rob

    Medieval Belgian Seal Dish!

    I had a really tasty seal dish in Newfoundland in 1982. Thankfully the seal wasn't medieval.
  12. Rob

    Helping hand

    Just like LMO and other nefarious businesses, it relies on people who are too lazy to do due diligence. As I said when I refused to go on the rip-off Britain programme, the people who get ripped off wouldn't buy a car without driving it first, yet happily hand over similar sums to someone who tells them they have a good way to make lots of money. 1. If it is that good, I wouldn't tell anyone else about it. 2. It probably is a good way for someone to make money, just not the person funding it.
  13. Rob

    Helping hand

    One and the same? http://www.complaintslist.com/coins-gold/rosland-capital/ Age old problem I'm afraid. People confuse collecting and investing. We have dubious companies over here of our own who sell 'investments', but continually get away with it because people are essentially greedy. However, the UK isn't like the US where people have a greater tendency to buy the little plastic/paper insert rather than the obtrusive lump of metal below. Anyway, this is a collector's forum, not an investment board.
  14. Yes it does. 6 or 8 years ago I received my won lots next day and then I paid. Doesn't usually happen, I might add.
  15. Rob

    My Latest Acquisition

    I use a 2 point grading system - acceptable or not
  16. Do you have any idea of the rotational play in the locating parts? Anything from the RM museum for example on this? I can see +/- 5 being achieved just on basic tolerances, but 30 degrees or more play suggests other factors come into play. Is there any indication of the collar opening during use on those with large offsets?
  17. That's informative. You rarely see pennies or anything else with that amount of rotation, which suggests that the top die possibly worked loose and fell out to produce the clash rather than it being a simple case of no blank between the dies but the equipment otherwise functioning normally.
  18. Rob

    problem posting

    Luckily, these ads don't appear to be compatible with my steam powered computer
  19. They have to be low to get competitive bidding. As long as the price to be paid offers the chance of someone to make a few quid, you will have multiple interested parties. Set them too high and your bidder will be the person who is actively seeking an example and is willing to pay book price.The alternative to low estimates is to set them at retail and hope. You see it time and time again at Baldwins where the estimate is about retail price, the coin opens at 20% below (which equates to low estimate once the juice is added) and there is usually one bidder only. The same could be said for the St.James's sale. The estimates in this case being OTT in a quite a few instances (highlighted elsewhere on this forum), but it only requires one person to bid and commission has been made. If the vendor puts a high reserve on it, unless there are no sellers' fees, he will have to pay a fee for the unsolds, so money is still made.
  20. Came second on the only thing I was interested in
  21. Rob

    Malcolm Iv cut half

    What you don't have you can't miss. Anyway, wanting to make an offer is not the same as putting your money where your mouth is
  22. Rob

    Malcolm Iv cut half

    Best bet is to put it into auction. Rule of thumb is that cut halves go for about 10% of the value for a full coin
  23. Rob

    Catawiki

    It is like every business. Costs have to be covered in one way or another. Either it goes on postage, or it is included in an elevated starting/reserve price. There is no free lunch.
  24. Rob

    Catawiki

    They also say that you are not allowed to include expenses as part of the costs. When they stop charging fees and Royal Mail give a free delivery service, I would be quite happy not to include these overheads too.
  25. It isn't aimed at you per se. It's just a recurring theme that has raised itself on this and other forums ever since it began. People everywhere seem to get quite exercised about not as described items, but these are par for the course on eBay. Obviously eBay is the place to go for most casual sellers and the quality of offerings is in line with the numismatic competences of the various vendors. Listings range from the clearly tongue in cheek £1m starting prices to a penny and see where it goes, but from past experience I've seen numerous examples of shill bidding, received not as described items, not all of whom would take things back and these from people who did know better. As a seller, had a number of returns where the item was around the market price and as described. Nothing wrong with the item, just not a bargain. Similarly I have seen numerous examples such as with that seller where the picture indicates something it isn't. A seller of coins with a feedback of nearly 25000 will know that a 1946 dot penny is going to be worth more than a couple of quid. They will also know that a worn ordinary 1946 penny isn't worth diddly and won't sell. The phrase 'If it seems too good to be true, it probably is' usually applies. it wouldn't take more than a minute to write that the item you see is not the one you will receive. Both sides to my mind are people being greedy. However, the point that David raised about many people not knowing what they are selling is correct and you do have to make allowances for these. Sure I don't like eBay very much, but I'm not averse to buying from there and in fact have done so in the past year and many times in the past. I only stopped using it once it became too much like the wild west and in practical terms, overloaded with tat, 10 years or so ago it typically had 2-3000 listings in the British coins section. Now it is over 100000, and numerically no richer in terms of quality. The inability to convey the truth in feedback also didn't help.
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