Rob

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

Shame about the sword 3d reverse.

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.

Any quality in the above, and if so is there a link to save me ploughing through a few thousand hammered lots? Thanks. Is that an Ed.VI or Eliz.1 half sovereign?

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 to be honest, re unique bidders, knowing the number of assailants doesn't help one little bit in whether you win the coin or not. Or, for that matter, how much you bid as, in all reality, you only have your top bid, and the top bid of one other person to contend with!Once eBay ok'd shill bidding by hiding identities, knowing the bidder or not became somewhat irrelevant.

Most proper auctions will have 3 or fewer active room bidders, with an unknown number of book bids.

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.

Another imponderable which sits happily alongside questions such as 'Why do people lose all reason when bidding on eBay?', or why do people ask if they paid too much for something? surely they should have an idea of approximate market value even though we all know they don't.

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.

I suspect there will not be any breakdown of individual denominations to be found. Although the value of of coin struck at the individual mints is known, I am unable to find any indication of apportionment. Roughly 25% of silver coin produced in the period was from the provincial mints. Provincial silver was tried at the pyx of July 9th 1697 and subsequently on Aug 3rd 1699, with all 5 mints passing the audition on both occasions.

I presume you mean scraped rather than scrapped. Adjustment marks were a common feature on the silver coinage of James II through to Anne, though quality control on either side of this period seems to have been better. Basically, all they did was to file off a small amount of silver to reduce the weight to the correct value (or possibly to eke out the silver ).

A universal feature of early milled is that the reverses tend to wear evenly and without obvious loss of detail. The bust has a lot of relief and the height of that varies across the flan, giving the viewer a rough indication of wear based on say the degree of wear to the hair curls. There is usually no such 'in-your-face' feature on the reverse unless you have a plumes or roses and plumes variety. The interlocked Cs have straight sides, but do not broaden appreciably with wear. The various central motifs are typically not large enough to make an impression and neither are the heraldic devices. Plumes on angles silver is relatively scarce, but gives the best indicator of wear. This is why early reverses always look so good compared to the obverse on a worn example.

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.

Better go on a body mass reduction course then.

Pick up a better one cheaply. They aren't expensive and supplies are plentiful.

Yes, the only things that are very attractive are equally unaffordable. Unfortunately the dragon mark is one of those gaps that is unlikely ever to be filled.

Uh, halve that number or less. Crown closed on 14/2/1636. Tun was operative from then until it was pyxed on 8/5/1638. Charles raised his standard at Nottingham on 22nd August 1642 - the date which is usually accepted as the outbreak of war. I've just noticed that the date given in Brooker (SCBI33) for the pyx trial is not stated as being OS or NS. Based on the mintages for gold and silver, Bell lasted 1 year, and roughly 90% more in both metals was struck during Crown, so I assume it was OS and therefore a 20 month striking period. For the duration of Tun, gold was struck at approximately the same rate as previously (approx. £100 or so in the pyx), but the quantity of silver ballooned to 2.5x the rate seen for the two previous marks - this presuambly a reflection of Thomas Bushell's mines near Aberystwyth coming into production and the subsequent coining at Aberystwyth in addition to the Tower.

He does say any questions welcome. High on the list would be why he doesn't submit himself to one of the TPGs and get himself certified...............