Rob

looks good to me.

We have already communicated. Needless to say there is a divergence of opinions, but hey, that's why these things are so fascinating and the subject of much discussion. I suspect it will be a bit of downer if we ever resolve the issues.

I must be repeating myself too often.

To which can be added, that with letter rate postage which appears to be the maximum that buyers want to pay, it doesn't allow for any protection to be used if you want to keep within the 5mm thickness limit. So small parcel rates (which if signed for to protect your own backside), push the price up to about £2. Add on the VAT if you are registered and that is £2.40. Add on ebay and paypoo fees takes a £1 coin to £4+ for a coin that may or may not be worth a quid assuming you want to realise a return. It does beg the question 'why bother?', but the answer is of course, because you can get free listings and every so often people buy. The only winners are eBay. Royal Mail have also shot themselves in the foot with the 1" limit for large letters.

I have a problem with there being one or two examples known of most denominations in penny increments from 6d upwards. If you are going to have a garrison that needs paying, you will make coins of nominally the same value for the same type of soldier - that's why the majority of provincial coins are shillings and halfcrowns, this being the nominal daily rate for a foot soldier and cavalryman respectively. These sums were not cast in stone as the infantry rates varied from about 8d up to 1s3d per day depending on who was paying and at which point in the war for example. It is not beyond reason to expect that approximately the same size pieces could be produced. i.e. you would expect to see large numbers of one denomination or possibly two to reflect that the garrison was effectively composed of foot soldiers. Of possibly far more interest than the silver is the quantity of CARA copper farthings found at the bottom of the castle well. There isn't a problem with the attested provincial mints, but those with a question mark after them definitely need a lot more investigative work, particularly Ashby(?) and Bridgnorth(?). Boon's theory and attribution to these places I believe will one day be proven to be wrong. B is dependent on A, yet according to the theory, in the month long siege of Bridgnorth you have approaching 30 dies to serve a garrison of 120. The bulk of the garrison (including those who came from Ashby) left Bridgnorth on 12th March 1645/6, a fortnight before the year end and were subsequently defeated at Stow on the Wold on the 21st, so you would expect the 'B' coins to be dated 1645 - but they aren't. You have documentary evidence of coins struck at Aberystwyth mills in March 1645/6 which would fit nicely with the A coins as Aberystwyth fell on the 14th April, and given the die linkage to B, suggests that it must relate to one of only two areas where Royalist troops were concentrated in 1646 - N W Wales on a line drawn from Barmouth up to Denbigh, or at Raglan where there was a garrison of about 1000 and a very wealthy owner. Silver was in short supply at the end of the war.

It's a problem for most sellers. The majority of items don't sell because there are too many listings. As I write there are nearly a quarter of a million listed under coins of which 110,000 are British. There isn't time to look. So unless you find two people searching for the same item you find that most will sell for opening bids at best. That's why so many are on BIN now. Personally, I don't bother looking any more as I don't have the time to plough through hundreds of pages and only look when given a heads up these days. What used to take 20 mins is now a full time job. The fact that most go to the same person suggests that he/she is happy with what you have sold, but as long as they start at £1, then that person will continue to acquire at that price. 10 years ago or more you only had one or two thousand listings and the %age of quality listing was better.

Dream on

Probably die damage. When a letter/number is punched in you have small outlying areas of metal level with the field alongside a significant depression. This would be a preferred place to have bits of metal breaking off. notice that the blocked letter retains its external profile.

Not only the name, but possibly more important was the fact that the material had been off the market for over half a century. There can be very few collectors who were actively collecting at the top end in both 1945 and 2015, so all of this was a refreshing change from the material that goes round on a regular cyclical basis. An 'old' collection almost invariably does well. Look at Chesser, 18 months ago, or the William Boyd sale at Baldwins in 2005. Also the Neville-Rolfe sale went well. The gold patterns at Plymouth in 2008 got the market talking, though the venue probably restricted the final outcome. Wow that's over 70 years of collecting. He has put some serious effort into his collection and it showed yesterday how appreciative the collectors were of his efforts It wasn't one person collecting over 70 years. Looking at the acquisition dates, a bit of digging has showed that it was assembled three generations ago with the collection being passed down to the grandchildren.

Generally speaking it isn't worth keeping 500 in less than EF for the smaller pieces or VF for the larger ones. Even the so called rare dates in low grade need to be melted to get a sensible return, witness the 4000+ 1925 halfcrowns in Noble's sale a few years ago that were bulked up into 10 lots, with only one single coin lot. 500 doesn't easily sell on ebay unless it is labelled unc, so the best way to realise any value is to scrap it, given the hefty chunk that disappears in eBay fees.

looks like it - the hair turns up at the ends.

It's drowning in a sea of blue and too small. Bigger image please.

Which is why it was a no-brainer. £1K for 100k of pennies, weighed in is about £2K profit from the scrapper even after the cost of picking it up. No need to list them, just bin them and cash in. £2K daily income on an annualised basis will buy me that Henry VII sovereign, even after tax.

Got a link? Did it sell?

Buying that would have been a no-brainer

I wouldn't bet on it, 400kg is only just over 40,000 in total.

Oh, ok. I got it the wrong way round. I thought the one you highlighted was the ja.

Ta. I think the back of the helmet is the most obvious. It just wasn't called ja in 1986.

Thanks chaps. My Gouby penny book is by appointment to Queen Victoria - 1st ed. (1986). Interesting point though, is that what you now call ja is in fact illustrated opposite reverse j to demonstrate the bulky drapery attributed to die fill. The convex/concave helmet and the straight/wavy hair are both blindingly obvious when blown up.

That's a lot of pennies. I weighed in over 60kgs last year and sold about the same again.

Give us a clue. What's special about it?

I picked up a load of 500 silver sixpences for the pot today. As they were pulled from circulation by a market stall holder at around the time of decimalisation I thought there may be some value in counting the populations before going for melt. The total no of coins is 400. Results as follows 1920 4 1921 11 1922 5 1923 - 1924 3 1925 5 1926 6 1927 6 1928 19 1929 21 1930 18 1931 11 1932 5 1933 15 1934 5 1935 10 1936 27 1937 15 1938 9 1939 20 1940 19 1941 10 1942 36 1943 34 1944 34 1945 27 1946 25 The 925 was nowhere to be found, so figures are unavailable before 1920. The highest grade was a bit better than VF.

I concur with Paulus. I never take up second chance offers because I don't like being taken for a ride.

More likely a better luck next time given the amount ebay/paypal will receive

Presumably the description Nicely toned and with a superb portrait this 1562 Milled Sixpence weighs 2.85 grams, measures approx. 27 mm and has Mintmark Star. Super coin and scarce in such nice condition. was a direct copy from an auction/website listing?