Rob

I have to confess that I haven't looked at any auctions since Davisson's sale in November, so I couldn't tell you. Too busy tied up renovating a property, so funds are a bit tight at the moment as I have to buy a new roof, kitchen, CH boiler, windows and all the internals such as plumbing, plastering, wiring etc. Not to mention a couple lots of university fees and accommodation due this month. On the plus side, many repossessed properties (as this is) have the contents trashed and gutted by the evicted party so there is relatively little clearing out to do.

Notice how the bidding went from £255 to £333 in one leap? No-one is going to tell me that's not suspicious! No reason why a leap of that magnitude should be any more suspicious than small increments. If I bid on a coin at £200 and put a max of 400, then it will go to the next bid up from 200 (205 or 210 or whatever it is). If a second person puts in a bid of £450, then it will go to £400 + one increment with the second person winning. Far more suspicious is the anonymity issue where a shill bidder can beat the high bidder repeatedly without third parties being able to identify the person responsible.

Despite having done my homework by finding out which pieces he had struggled to find and which were the best examples he had found, I still dropped out too easily and came second on far too many in that sale - sometimes you need to be bolder because you will certainly regret it later on. Pieces that spring to mind are the pair of numbered field YHs, the 60/59, a few 1797 Soho pieces, a couple of Moore patterns, one of the 1806 currencies and the P1299 was another I really should have pursued being the only one available(?) to collectors. :( :( :( :( :( On the plus side, I picked up Adams 36, the P1133A with raised dots on the rock for £200 incl. in 2008 from London Coins against a sale price of £500 incl. in 2003. That's because it couldn't satisfy those who pray to the number god, only being a CGS 78. Personally I couldn't give a s**t. Having never seen better in the hand, it'll do.

Begs the question why he quotes the VF and EF price, calls it EF and then prices it just over VF book. Could ask the question, though you are unlikely to be given the correct answer of 'I've overgraded it to make it sound more attractive than it really is and underpriced on the quoted grade to give the impression of a bargain.' Honest grading on ebay mostly results in no sale and pricing correctly at around book means sellers need to buy really cheaply to make any money. Both conspire to produce listings of overgraded and overpriced crap.

Around VF, but looks a bit water worn to me and too weak in the middle of the reverse for my taste.

The blurb says he doesn't know whether it's an 8 or a 9 which explains the description. Might be worth bidding on below melt if he throws in the attractive pink background to hide the coin in the tray.

Stacks don't have a monopoly on this sort of behaviour.

Firstly, I'm not sure how you could use the picture in a way which would add £6395.99 to its value. Secondly, £100 for a new one is a bit extortionate for any image of a TV person. If they want the exposure they should pay people to take them off their hands.

That would sure fool me! Any clues? It would fool most people! Looking closely at that, I would say one clue would be the Tyrannosaurus Rex head on the Scottish lion, and the 3 English sheep instead of leopards. But seriously, if you got that in change, you wouldn't look twice at it. Despite the looks, the rampant lion is still a passing resemblance to the real thing.

A Happy New Year to all.

Graham is a very nice man and extremely helpful, gives a good talk and is willing to share knowledge. He does spend some time at the Mint even though retired as he passed on some information about the Weyl patterns whilst looking through their material doing research. The Mint didn't reply to my initial enquiry, though he did having been the referee for the paper and remembered after the event! That is someone with a consummate interest in all things milled.

It's in the Spink archive section, but the image is only 41K so doesn't tell you much.

I still think Colin's was better. The right breast was better struck up and the fingers crisper. Also this has a couple of small marks. But the other one had a couple of small spots in the obverse legend. Even after nearly 10 years I still regret not carrying on.

Murdoch III, lot 529 partt(2) £7/17/6d Bt Evan Roberts Plymouth Auction Rooms 18/4/2008 lot 35 sold for £16500 St.James's 15, 30/9/2010 lot 554 sold for £114000. All prices are hammer. Hope this helps.

Freeman gives virtually all the G5 & G6 proofs as R18 and all the E2s (bar 1953) as R19, which is patently wrong. As always, it is a case of guesstimating rarities because readers demand a number. Spadework is required to establish the relative rarities and numbers for each year. So where is your more accurate source ? On my computer. Spadework produces information. e.g. Someone on the PCGS forum collected 1958 VIP halfpennies who almost reached R18 on his own. Knowing full well that there were other identifiable sales that were not his, the conclusion is apparent. As always, some rarity numbers are overestimates and others under. Whilst you can never achieve definitive numbers from catalogues, you can make a pretty good stab at relative rarity based on images from sales because most will be identified for what they are. At best, Freeman's estimates are taken from auction catalogues with only some of these illustrated because his work predates the internet making any number more unreliable. Inevitably some rarity estimates will be correct, but only by accident and intuition.

Freeman gives virtually all the G5 & G6 proofs as R18 and all the E2s (bar 1953) as R19, which is patently wrong. As always, it is a case of guesstimating rarities because readers demand a number. Spadework is required to establish the relative rarities and numbers for each year.

It was introduced by the TPGs to suggest the coin has a portrait with greater contrast to the background i.e. it is like a cameo picture. Often frosted as this gives the best contrast, but essentially is another term for people to aspire to or bump up the price. You should still buy the coin and not the label. It is a lottery whether the label is applied or not.

Can rarity be determined from any other source other than experience and present Heritage market prices? Use the first, ignore the second.

Interestingly "no defevcts", unlike the description. There's your added value.

Numbers don't exist and they are omitted on space grounds. You could include proofs of most silver and bronze from Victoria, together with the above period. It was only from 1893-1926 that the year sets were the only ones.

They exist for all years from 1927 up to 1964ish. Some are more common, others are decidedly rare. A few year/denomination combinationss exist in greater numbers than others, the reason given by someone being that a group visiting the mint had a coin struck for each of them.

Indeed. The link works only for those with a Gmail account or the like. You don't need a Google account to view the pictures. You can use your own email address to login in. Doesn't work - my email address isn't a Gmail address. Nor is mine. It's a btopenworld address, not even a btinternet one.

Looks like it. The diameter of 17.5mm is slightly too small though - should be 19. I assume the ruler is nearer the camera than the coin, hence the discrepancy.

I had mentally corrected the list you put up and was looking for images of each obv & rev. Now the errors are put into perspective it is clear that you can refine the pairs to six categories as follows- obverse/reverse obverse/obverse reverse/reverse obverse uniface reverse uniface blank metal disc The last is the commonest variety.

Many thanks for doing the spadework. Our daughter has just informed us that we have two extras for Christmas dinner who are doing the same on-call shifts as she is- one Omani muslim and an Indian vegetarian Double pigs in blankets all round. I've been told my next task is not to do a 'Duke of Edinburgh' Merry Christmas everyone. Hah, send them down to us, I'm making a warm-spiced nut roast, wrapped in plaited puff pastry, even as I write! I take it she's a health professional? They are all doctors. Best call of the season. Resuscitation on tap while we keep on drinking and they can't.