Rob

Buy a set of weights. They only cost a couple quid for half a dozen different weights up to say 100g. Alternatively take a new sovereign and use that. A RM error in the weight would be a bit of a curveball, but that can be eliminated by weighing two or three sovereigns to check for consistency.

Sam Sung's takeaway.

Golden rule: If in doubt, leave it out. You can't go wrong then.

Newcastle started striking during the reign of Stephen. These coins are rare. Rather more were produced during the Tealby coinage, but nothing during short cross, and then it reopened during long cross through to Edward I. The easiest of these is the later Edward I coinage, with everything else at least scarce. There's nothing in the BNJ specific to Newcastle, but Allen's book on the Tealby conage refers to Askew's article in the 1941 Numismatic Chronicle pp.77-87. Sorry, don't have a copy. During Henry II, the mint was run by William FitzErembald who also ran the mint at Carlisle. He was lessee of the mines at Alston, but eventually got into severe financial difficulties from 1170 onwards and this is the reason for the mint closure by the end of the Tealby coinage. At the end of Henry II's reign in 1189, he owed over £2150 to the crown. During long cross there were four moneyers at Newcastle - see The Brussels Hoard book pp.164-165 Edward I coins are mentioned in the Galata guides for pennies and small change.

This is a risky way of collecting, which will come back to bite you at some point. The price difference between a gold sovereign and a plated copy is approaching a couple hundred quid. The best advice would be to buy books and read up before potentially wasting a lot of money. By all means ask questions, but before the event and not after.

I thought it was added, but obviously not.

and the reverse. Thanks.

I thought it was a staple.

That's another vote for leaving Europe then...............

Pictures are too small to decide if it is genuine which means the first question is impossible to answer.

I got blocked for no reason nearly 10 years ago. If the same happens to anyone else, make sure you fight them as they may well give an ex-gratia payment as they did for me. I assume that you are still required to talk to Paypal in India, thus conveniently avoiding anyone capable of sorting out problems.

Bizarre and a tad cheeky. It doesn't cost £29.96 to drill 5 holes.

Nothing at the moment. I've got a box of goodies waiting to be arranged.

No, first one he has made. It took him a while, but I think he made a good job of it.

And the internal view. He wanted to put a map of England on the top with the Saxon mints, but this was impractical. http://

I needed another cabinet and had a couple dozen trays lying around, so my eldest made one from from scratch to use the trays. Brownie points were earned by him from me, and by me from the wife for clearing the pile of trays off the floor. http://

Not R3, there is no S on the breast and there are marks to left and right of bust, so Ed.IV, but the marks are a bit indistinct.

The obverse looks uncirculated, or very close to depending on what the tops of the hair strands above the ear and on the bun look like under a glass. The reverse is too bright to say, but is probably similar. You need to see things in hand to make a reasoned assessment.

Sorry to be dense, but how can a representative of a TPG, a business whose stated mission is to grade coins correctly and consistently in order to give the collector reassurance, then tell you the grade will depend on how good a day it is? I've no problem with Steve, Paul or Semra, but this contradicts their alleged business objectives.

Koin Industries logo?

FYI this ticks the 'example of a coin struck from blocked dies' box - no.508 on the list of criteria for the collection. For an example of a poorly struck coin, I can thoroughly recommend just about anything from the first 80 years of the 12th century

I was in my usual place. In the middle of the cross aisle with me facing the entrance. Can't get me wrong as the guy on my left is shorter and fatter, whilst the one on my right is shorter and thinner. I'm the large hairy object in the middle.

Wondered where you had got to. Life must have been busy not to make the Midland either for the past half a year or so. Welcome back.

Some are certainly going to be rejects. It works quite well for hammered in particular as they may or may not reject Saxon for peck marks. It is a world of difference between cleaned and rejected, and wear and tear from circulation. For some reason a light scratch is deemed to be worthy of rejection, yet most coins will get scratched at some point in their working life. If they wanted to be consistent, the TPGs would have to only slab uncirculated mark free coins.

Yes it is, but I'm not sure why Bull (or Davies or anyone else) considers a pair of misaligned correct digits to be worthy of it's own variety number. Surely this is just crap workmanship as opposed to a genuine error or overstruck date to extend the die's life? All it does is beg the inevitable question as to the displacement required to make it an 'official' error. I can see that 'over an inverted' is also a bad day at the office, but at least it is unambiguous.