Rob

The ticket doesn't look like it is in Whitton's hand. The attached is the 'Cost me' column from the catalogue of his own sale in 1943. The lower case m is distinctly different as is the 2. It isn't the ticket style used in the 1959 sale via Seaby. I have a coin from this and will see if the ticket is imaged anywhere.

Struggling here. There aren't many sceptre shillings listed. 1949 and the surrounding years saw two examples which appear to have stayed in the trays for a while. One less than fine for 8/- to 10/6 and a gFine to nVF at 21/-. However, neither had stock numbers that were remotely like the above. TBH, without knowing what the coin was and its grade, there's a fair amount of p***ing in the wind. Fair Tower shillings were still selling for 6/- in 1960, so it could be any time over a 20 year period. Unfortunately I'm missing 2 issues in the 1940-1960 period, so a complete check wasn't possible. Sorry.

It looks like a Seaby ticket from when RCB's collection was dispersed post-mortem. I'll have a look a bit later.

It's the only bit they needed to fill in. With die corrections, however well it gets filled there is almost invariably a shadow of the filled digit if in high grade. The filler sometimes falls out too, so you see a 'flaw' where this happened. Sometimes they don't bother filling in the previous digit if it is similar enough to the new one, such as converting a 5 to a 6, or say G1/G2 coppers where the font used enables a 2 to be superimposed on a 1 with minimal evidence. At this point you need a high grade coin to look at the relief to establish if it has been recut.

I can't see any trace of a 7

Why? There's no mention of collection in person only. They have a postal service too.

Thanks Rob, postie's just delivered it Great. Thanks I had 2 copies if anyone else is looking for one.

I don't think anyone will argue with that. The question is how?

That is the kind of uncertainty I want to avoid. I need reproducable and stable results under constantly the same conditions in order to have the possibility to compare. The easiest and cheapest way to achieve that is a scanner I only had to find a setup that I like once. I now use the same setup for all coin images and therefore have reproducible and comparable results. How do you cope with differences in toning? Some can be nearly black, whereas others have none.

Finally, this is a camera image of the second coin. http://www.rpcoins.co.uk/c15%20pics/01857.jpg

This is a regular currency strike of the same type.

I find the scanner much better for proofs than currency which are invariably featureless with a monotonous tone. However, it also appears to differ between scanners. The images below were taken using my old scanner which subsequently died, but I can't replicate this with the replacement which gives really flat and lifeless images. This is an image of a proof/specimen depending on whether you back Freeman or not.

It was in the last Downies sale

Large boxful just arrived. Please PM if anyone is interested. I haven't sorted a list out yet, so you would be asking for specifics probably. Plenty of other books and catalogues too. 2 car loads in total!

Although a dull thud is a good indicator of a cast, you would also get a less than perfect ring of varying quality with a defective flan where there is a crack, say, or an inclusion which would lead to a laminated flan.

Clearly a bad time for computers. My accounts computer has just gone on the blink. Just as I was printing off the nominal ledger for my year end. If it could be persuaded to print just 90 more pages I could start with a blank sheet for the new financial year.

I have never bought from them and sold them one coin about 6 years ago. It is still on the list. The 1861 halfcrown now priced at £750 (wt. 12.88g.). I sold it for £200 at the time which I thought reasonable. The current 3 pieces of this date listed are 750, 850 & 950. Unsurprisingly, all have been there a long time.

You and Peck brothers? Good lord no - heaven forbid!!. We're poles apart politically, dimensionally and in sporting affiliations. but we still get on alright. Her beard is not on the scale of yours Rob Dimensionally? You mean we're not on the same TARDIS? Or do you mean you're a fairly big rugger type and I'm a scrawny runt? Something like that.

You and Peck brothers? Good lord no - heaven forbid!!. We're poles apart politically, dimensionally and in sporting affiliations. but we still get on alright.

Yes. James I and Charles I farthings. Richmond, Lennox, Maltravers, Harrington etc

It's a difficult one to pin down because the question is asked of an average across all dealers. i.e. are there are more dealers who are generous with their grading? Equally valid is the question 'are there are more dealers full stop?' In an age when everyone can set up shop on the internet, the explosion in people who can and do use this option means there is less practical resistance to becoming a dealer. If it was necessary to travel to the fairs and do the circuit (with large expenditure on fuel and hotels), then there would be far fewer dealers, but the virtually zero cost of being on-line means that goes out of the window. It would be a fairer question if you took a couple dozen people at random from then and now who only ply their trade as a fully fledged business and attend fairs, issue lists and deal across the board etc as these are likely to be more experienced and you would expect consistent in their grading.

Just had fun and games with BT. Couldn't even log in today. They are still convinced it is working fine. I'm not. I suspect the emails were given to someone on the last redundancy list and they've left. The woman I spoke to checked the email/forwarding settings, but nothing is blocked apparently, so it looks as if Peck's sister and myself are two of a kind.

thanks Nick. I'm sure it has to be random BT filtering, because there is no consistency to it and no signs of attributed junk. Just a shame that it isn't possible to use the outlook settings to tell BT what to block or remove.

I think that the same inconsistencies existed then as now. Some dealers would grade higher than other and others lower. Actually, not a problem for the experienced collector as long as there is consistency, but a nightmare for the novice when they want to sell their overgraded material at a later date.

Thanks folks. Looks like mine might be too old a version (2010) for the above. Sadly it says email settings have no filters for preventing junk mail and there's nothing in the bad address list which still leaves the problem of those that go awol. I never get junk mail in the inbox or junk box as it always disappears before getting to me.