Rob

LOL If I had that sort of money I couldn't bring myself to spend it on just one coin! I think if you had that sort of money to throw around your attitude would probably change. There are more than a handful of £50-100K cars, which by definition are 'in your face' as they don't fit into a coin cabinet very easily and certainly won't be around in 500 years time - but people buy them to keep for a few years in the full knowledge that they might get back 1/4 of the original price when they get rid. Hopefully the new owner won't run it into the ground so that it is only worth scrap 10 years from now. Anyway, he only paid $35K hammer for it plus 18% premium and presumably 5% import, so there is plenty of room for negotiation. Give Roddy his due, as he does have top grade coins available for which he will pay handsomely if you are selling, and obviously it works both ways. I know of a few coins that have been sold pre-auction on the basis that what was offered was way in excess of the expected price at auction. If he has a customer willing to pay much higher prices than me or thee, that isn't his fault.

That's a rather precise number which should therefore have a singular reason for its existence - what is it?

Don't confuse collecting bullion as an investment with collecting coins as a hobby. Buy bullion for a few pounds (literally) under value and sell it for closer to bullion value if you can, preferably within hours whilst at the same time being grateful for the pound or two profit made (if successful). If you think you know where the market is going in a given time frame, there is scope for a longer view, but do not anticipate a fat profit. Bullion dealers make a small margin on quick turnover. Bullion coins are sold across the world for more than their value, because once they have left the mint, very few issues are desirable as collectables and so are repurchased on a price related to their bullion values and nothing else. If you want to collect coins whose value is not direcly related to the bullion price, then there is far more material available than with bullion and a good depth of knowledge available on this forum.

The line of bagmarks(?) running along the middle of the truncation looks wrong too. I would have thought that was almost impossible to achive in normal handling. It's almost as if the raised portion of the design is cominaway from the surface.

It is.

That's a very good point Rob. Though I don't buy 10k coins, I have bought several for £1-2k+, which means that when I spot an example on eBay that would perhaps be a nice upgrade for a relatively common coin worth only perhaps £100, I might nevertheless stick in a bid for £150 just to be sure of getting it. This doesn't mean the coin would generally be worth more than £100, just that there's a fool out there (me in this instance ) willing to pay over the odds to save the time and hassle of finding another such example. I did this very thing the other night, buying an UNC 82 grade CGS slabbed upgrade for over the odds. I can't be alone in ocassionally acting this way! You're not.

Even the sharpest get stung there occasionally. The most successful strikes on e bay fall into two camps, in my experience:- a) Nice coins with a high initial bid price, which nevertheless is still nowhere near their true value. Would be bidders are strangely put off by the high start price, and often by-pass it completely, leaving someone else to make the only punt at the original price, thus bagging a real bargain. b ) Really high end coins which would be better off in a proper auction. They will sell, for sure, but usually end up at between 55% to 75% of what they could potentially realise elsewhere. It's a real mistake for high quality expensive coins to be put on e bay. Gambling strikes which may or may not pay off, are on those with poor photography, where the coin cannot properly be seen. This often puts buyers off, leaving the speculator room for a potential killing, or to get their fingers burned. I'd agree with this analysis apart from the one factor you missed out - certain key dates that somehow seem to do far better on eBay than elsewhere, I'm thinking of things like 1903 and 1905 halfcrowns. Regarding the above point b I absolutely agree with the percentages, but I'm not sure which auctions outside of eBay are being talked about for better prices? I spent a few days, six month's back, looking at the realised prices for a number of major auctions...I didn't find that many there that were making Spink book prices either, and sellers premiums aren't any better than eBay (mostly). I know minus 5% has been mentioned before but, generally speaking, eBay aren't off the scale at 10%, and they know it! Does anybody know how often nice coins make their book price in major auctions? Would it be more often than not? I mean, the book prices are set according to the major auction results, so one would think they must more often do, it just doesn't look that way. Do you think books like Spink attempts to 'drive' the market, rather than be an honest reflection OF the market? Out and out raities, best known or way better than average pieces you can disregard the book. Just below that will try to push the boundaries, but not too much. Mid-range pieces will probably make around book after you have added buyer's premium, low grades won't sell unless an acknowledged rarity. Spink doesn't attempt to drive the market prices. As a rule, there will always be a specific coin that goes way over the odds and the reason for it doing so filters into the market gossip. Consequently the yearly price revisions will not reflect a high price in full. We all notice the lots that sell for more than expected, but rarely comment on those that mark time in keeping with the estimate. The latter is a truer reflection of where the market is at and will probably go in the future. The top end is driven by a larger number of people who recognise relative quality and have sufficient funds to not worry about overpaying on occasions. If you are happy paying £10K or more for a coin, it doesn't really matter if you pay £300 for a £100 coin in the overall context of the collection as the overpayment will be a praction of a percentage point of its total value. The problem with overpaying on ebay is that most culprits are doing so out of ignorance with respect to the general market, what dealers have on offer (usually at substantially lower prices), have a reliance on the quoted grade as gospel, and mostly have never seen a high grade coin with which to make a considered judgement.

Yes, both are last small cross. It would be easier to read if the pictures were smaller and not pixelated, but the second is a London coin. I think the moneyer is Lifinc.

Die 10 will only refer to the reverse. The obverse die could have been made the day, week, month or year(s) before, though obviously within the time constraints that the obverse design was current. The profile of the underlying bust is different too which suggests it might be older. Does it match any other portrait styles? Postscript: Willie was let off without any action being taken.

Looks it bearing in mind you have three sizes of H for pennies, halfpennies and farthings. One of the 1876H halfpennies has a 6 over a farthing 6 and one 1856 halfpenny die has the 6 over a penny 6. I think these punch varieties are more common than people might assume with some taken for a displaced underlying letter rather than a larger one.

Who is paying the crazy prices we are seeing at auction? I only won one lot today and felt I had to call it a day when it got to 4x estimate/book on a few that I wanted. The Edward I pennies were selling for hundreds, and that's for common varieties. Even the Aberystwyth halfcrown that I thought(hoped) you might have picked up for £3-4K hammered at £7500. I'm not going to pay nearly £10K+ for an Aberystwyth 2/6d, or the James I Britain Crown which books at £675 in VF in this year's Spink, you would think it shouldn't be beyond expectations to get an EF for somewhere around the £2K mark, - that hammered at £3600 or nearly £4500 with the juice. I can't help feeling that someone is going to get badly burnt in the near future. For the record, the big bucks pieces (all hammer, so add 24% for the real price) - £32K for the Eliz.1 mm.2 crown, £58K for the Scarborough, £42K for the 8 testerns, £22K for a Briot Unite and £70K for the triple unite which is a bit less than some have sold for recently.

Yes. One is generally flat, the other is extremely flat.

Other than playing the part of an erotic car accessory, does she have any other public persona - porn star, royal correspondent, model? Sorry, I'm not familiar with her.

Only 7 weeks It would take me longer to establish I couldn't get out of Kelly Brooks bed. Am I missing something here? Link Just kidding. I'm sure I'd recognise her if I saw her again. In fact I'm sure I saw her sister today, and I'm sure the wife saw I saw her sister too.

It's worth breaking my rule not to get two coins of the same type if possible. I have a Cissbury last small cross as a Hobson's Choice piece because all bar one of 39(?) coins for the mint are of this type, but Warminster is sufficiently difficult as a mint to justify doubling up on the type.

Excellent, which sale?

Round here we have a rhyming word for spade, it's called.............. spade.

Is it for sale?

It seems to share quite a lot of the same characteristics as the fakes that were discussed last time. With this sort of suspicion associated with them, I would only consider buying one from a top auction house or reputable dealer. Or a verifiable provenance which pre-dates the appearance of these copies. There were few copies around prior to 2003 2004ish, and those there were tended to be quite recognisable, and crucially, documented.

True, the overhang from the Bole collection is going to influence the market for a while yet.

Don't be tempted. Things could get horribly expensive when it comes to siege issues. A decent Newark will set you back a couple grand, a Pontefract at least double that, a Carlisle at least seven or eight times and if you are seriously thinking about a Scarborough you might find you have a lot of friends.

Does anybody have a low tide halfpenny with the fingers well struck up? Never seen a good one, that's all. Mine also has no wear, loads of lustre but no fingers.

Collect both. You aren't going to be able to complete either denomination. Unless you win the lottery it will be a financial non-starter and you wouldn't be able to fill all the holes even if you had the money available due to the number of unique items, something that applies to all denominations.

You'll do well on eBay ;-) If your coin's as good as the one you've posted, I'll buy it! I rather suspect it isn't! Good luck with the collecting, you'll never come to the end of it! Here is an effort, hope it works, I think it is good and this has not been cleaned, any comment appreciated. Very nice, have you got a photo of the other side, and how much are you looking for? Not sure about this side, I forgot what size I made the last one here goes anyway. I dont know what I want I am open to offers, I only started a couple of weeks ago and I collect shillings this was in a pail of coins I got for the shillgs contained in it. I would not be offended at any offer. Dont think this is a good pic. If you only started a couple of weeks ago I'd be tempted to hang on to it. It's actually quite a nice example and suggest you will find worse before you find better. The reverse looks a bit weak but that may be due to the picture quality, the obverse however looks good - well struck and centred with no weak bits, bends, chips, digs or scrapes. Not bad for Carolean copper which can appear in fairly dire condition if dug.

Did we really have 30-40% deflation in the early 80s?