Rob

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?

Oh dear. Do you have the original listing link? Who is the seller?

If in doubt as in cases such as this, just remember that a few million people play the lottery, but rarely more than one person wins it. People with relatively little knowledge on the subject have a great tendency to be the proud owner of a numismatic rarity, usually after studiously ignoring any one of many pointers to more likely (i.e.common) candidates.

The problem for dealers with decimals is the volume of sales required to make a living. 20 Saxon, medieval or early milled coins on a tray might have a retail value of 5-10K. With few exceptions, a decimal coin will retail under a tenner, with the vast majority selling for a couple of quid at the most. Even at the heady heights of a tenner each you would still need 25 trays of coins to match £5K retail value. Little wonder then that most dealers don't carry this huge mass of coins around to fairs. Logistically, the only way to make a sensible living and not get a hernia is to leave the lowest value items out.

It's always a difficult thing to speculate on future values. The 20p mule had a mintage which put it in the same ballpark as 1950 or 1951 pennies, the early euphoria rapidly died down to produce a similarly priced coin - a not unreasonable outcome. Crucial to the observed pricing data was the availability of examples to the public, which immediately resulted in a speculative bubble before settling back once common sense gained the upper hand. The 20p error coins found their way into circulation, whereas I'm not sure the aquatics 50p did. All the examples known to this forum came from the early packaged sets, so there is no easy way for the public to gain exposure except for those sets that have been spent. This is not going to be a very large number for the forseeable future given the £60-70 loss an original owner would incur. Maybe future generations will spend them, assuming they are still circulating, but I don't think this would happen for a few years. That would support the price at the current level because there is no evidence to support a large population - people are too greedy to pass that one up. Therefore I'm not so sure that prices will drop so low as £300 if only a few hundred examples come to light. I have to confess that I have tended to look a little dismissively on decimal coins, but given decimal coins are approaching their 50th anniversary, then it is clear that many people know of nothing else. This was forcibly demonstrated at the Midland yesterday. Along with at least two other dealers in the immediate vicinity, I didn't sell a single discrete predecimal coin. What I did sell was hundreds of pounds worth of decimal sets, 50p's, £2s, modern silver proofs etc. Everybody wanted modern stuff, with 50p and £2 coins the most popular. I didn't see that coming and was fortunate to have bought a full run of sets only a week before, but had I not done so might have taken less than £20. The demand isn't restricted to UK 50p's either, as I am regularly asked for Channel Islands, IOM and Gibraltar 50p's too. The market for decimals is much healthier than many might imagine.

Somewhat appropriately, when I clicked on the link, a pop-up appeared advertising an update to CCleaner. Computers are more intelligent than I imagined.

Fair value never willingly or knowingly paid.

It isn't worth grading a £30 coin. There is at least 100,000 of the buggers out there. Just get a capsule and that will readily identify it as the one not to be spent.

Adjustment marks, flan flaws and die fill.

That isn't a proof. The rims are too narrow and it's been polished to ********

No idea what they are doing. Didn't get a catalogue, so didn't waste a day looking at the lots one by one. i.e didn't bother bidding. Plenty of other auctioneers that do send out catalogues.

I think it might also be due to wear in the fixing point for the die. If the die isn't firmly clamped in place then the die will wobble in the locating hole which would open out the hole long term. 5 degrees would be easily achieved and presumably more in the longer term. I think this is why you often see the early Soho pieces with very weak legend suggesting the die has been filled. Highly likely given that swarf would be produced where the die cuts the blank, and if combined with rotational displacement you would rapidly fill the incuse areas of the die i.e the legend and the design. This would be exacerbated the further you are from the centre of the die face because the angular movement is proportionally greater the closer you get to the rim.

Not my experience. I have quite often been below my max in the past several years. I concur.

Correct. But it didn't stop them printing some and sending them out FOC anyway. Allegedly they were given to customers without the internet, but then that doesn't make sense for an internet only sale. A few people I know got one, but they want to keep them.

not the same coin

No idea, some sort of token or jetton possibly?

I'm surprised they didn't say consult your union rep.

Does anyone have printed versions of the sale last December that they don't want - the first of their non-saleroom catalogues. I'll buy or exchange if anyone wants. They didn't send me one, which was a pain. And they haven't sent me the one for next week.

I wonder how the mint workers enjoyed themselves.

I suspect they are trying to bracket them as 'investment coins' given the way Stanley Gibbons are developing their rare coin indices and pushing coins as an alternative investment. Keeping the prices high would be an integral part of this strategy.

You can only do this once or twice because the large libraries will inevitably focus on the same important sales. As a one off event though it is a very sensible way to form the basis of a decent library because adding catalogues piecemeal is quite frankly a pain in the a**e, and relatively very expensive.