Rob

Some of them have gunports going out into the sea in front of the ship, so must be done after the ship was punched in. Also, 1799 proofs have different gunports or ship designs to the currency pieces in most instances, e.g. KH10 - flush deck and 6 relief, KH11 - poop and 5 relief, KH13 - poop and no gunports, KH14 - poop and 6 relief, KH16 to 19 & 25 - raised line, KH20 & 21 - poop and 3 incuse, KH22 & 23 - 3 or 4 relief. Make of it what you will.

I'm not sure about the die id argument. You could say it holds up because there are a number of varieties, but in terms of the numbers produced, the number of discrete varieties is minimal. The ships can only be used as an identifier if there is some sequencing of a feature which doesn't appear to be the case.

Any nice bronze 5 cents in that lot? Nope. Just a 2c.

You need a copy of Peck for Christmas - an invaluable reference. 5 incuse, 6 raised, 9 raised, Plain hull, Raised line on hull cover P1248-52. There is also a 7 raised gunports, not seen by Peck. Nicholson had one, I have one and there will be others. The raised varieties could obviously have been put on the die by the engraver punching a row of holes, but the incuse gunports would have to be raised on the die and must therefore have been on the ship punch. There were many ship punches, with Peck noting at least 50 varieties of ship.

I've got about 240g of Seychelles coinage on the desk in front of me. Plus some Australian, New Zealand, Canada, South Africa, loads of other African countries.

Could be anything, I melted a load.

I have a few kilos of Commonwealth lying around, but it's only low grade stuff up to gVF. There are very few EFs or UNCs

It depends how much you want to spend. If you want high grade material, you will have to use a dealer. There will be someone who specialises in the field, but nobody I can put a name to at the moment. If you just want cheap things, then eBay is probably as good as anywhere else. Go to coin fairs. Wakefield is on the last Sunday of every month except for December, The Midland at the Motor Cylce Museum just off the M42 is the second Sunday of each month. London, I haven't got a clue as I avoid it like the plague. With the vast majority of people collecting English, you will have to do the hard work. With the esoteric nature of foreign material, many things do not sell for a lot, but are difficult to source because dealers are unwilling to carry large quantities of things that are not going to sell

So have I.

Yep. Finished the bottle of Linkwood a few days ago. Better get in some urgent medical supplies before Christmas, otherwise it will have to be Black Bush.

Could be silvered?

Lunch?

GC gave a lot of pictures because a lot of people wouldn't contribute. Apparently they were worried that somebody might know what coins they had!

Do you mean the red blob on her forehead? Are the coins stored on felt? Is the red 'fungus' actually felt fibres?

I would suggest bagerap might be a better bet. BRG does regular tokens whereas these are definitely medallions. They could be restruck from tokens as these could be considered throw away items if outside the period when they circulated locally. The surfaces look a bit tin-like, which would exclude most genuine coinage flans.

Not a clue what they are apart from the obvious inscriptions. It would help to know the metal, size and weights. My initial reaction was they might be struck on old coins given the possible trace of legend (3 dots) at 10pm on the last image. If so and also contemporary, these would more likely be foreign given the scarcity of silver in Britain at the time. It is possible to eliminate English silver as the edge graining is leaning slightly to the left whereas on shillings for example it is either upright in the case of early Chas.2 or diagonal leaning forward in the case of subsequent issues up the the 1816 recoinage.

It is a nice coin if you are willing to ignore the reverse stress cracks.

Fine. I accept your word on that. I was just commenting on the US TPG propensity to slab a lot of things as proofs when they aren't. The trouble is that you never know if it is a genuine cock-up or misguided belief. I have no reason to think that the true US mint definition of proof is any different to the UK's, France's or Germany's etc.

And I got a reply. An employee of Heritage auctions claimed of course, that this particular coin IS a proof coin. He refered to certain literature (eg Krause Mishler and the Austrian coin magazine Money Trend), which claims that the 100 Euro coin was minted in proof only. I told him that this statement is wrong in my opinion and advised him to consider references published in Germany and specialized onto German coinage (mainly Jaeger or Schön respectively, additionally I could have mentioned the magazines MünzenRevue and Münzen & Sammeln as well). In addition I adviced him to contact the official issuing office in Germany. I got no response after that of course. I do not expect any further or changed answer. The short-term financial concerns are too important I guess. I did not tell him, that I am working in the coin business as well and handle that kind of coins on daily bases. They all were business strikes of course and I never had a proof in hand. I won´t change their mind anyhow. At least I know where I can buy the coins of my personal interest. There are probably more coins slabbed as proofs than the mints have ever combined. Prooflike and proof are frequently confused by the US TPGs, or at least they have difficulty with British coins. I suspect this extends to many world coins.

Linkwood, i believe.

Pffft. I'd like to destroy HIM at a public showing. One can only hope that he subsequently gets burgled.

See what I can do.

I suspect Rob might be able to come up with a few suggestions there ... It depends on what ER1 refers to. Early Roman, Edward, Elizabeth or Ethelred? I can do a lot of things on the above lists such as Burstal, Osborne, Peter Mitchell, Shuttlewood sale and SNC, Mack, Bridgewater House, Cuff, Rostron, Shepherd, not to mention others such as Willis, Doubleday, Elmore-Jones, Adams halfcrowns etc. BNJs tend not to be too useful for deciding which is a good example of a type. Authors will use their own coins which may or more likely not be the best example. The point about having a diverse library of catalogues is that it allows you to compare different coins and see where they come in the pecking order. Anything in the top 5 or 10% is likely to be in demand, though that can only be determined through knowledge.

Bizarre. Presuambly when he has taken all the rarities off the market and people have walked away from the hobby, he can at least sell them to his other self. That smacks of a rather peurile attitude to collecting. When people start to get greedy and there isn't enough material to go around, the enthusiasm (and demand) for the subject matter wanes. Equally strange is the fact that he isn't shouting his 'achievement' from the rooftops. Wanting the best available example is something most could relate to - wanting all the pieces available is not. Hear hear. Well said. It's just an ego thing. I need a Lavrillier to tick the attributed designer box, but if none are available, so be it. I haven't a cat in hell's chance of ticking every box, so one gap is as good as another. Just move on.