Rob

Most coin fairs cost a pound or two to get in. Exceptions are the big London ones on the first morning when they know big spenders will be in trying to get the most desirable pieces. York is free, Harrogate is a couple quid. Wakefield is this weekend at the Cedar Court hotel just off junction 39 of the M1, opens at 9:30. There are regulars who come from further away than you. Ditto for Birmingham at the National Motorcycle Museum which opens at 10. Both wind down by 2-2:30.

Yes it is.

Without wishing to proscribe how we should all collect, if you intend collecting back in time then doing so from the beginning alongside modern coins is not such a bad idea. It is easy to say I'll get the modern ones and finish them off before going backwards, but even in this area there are relatively expensive pieces to acquire. Go back a couple hundred years and identically graded pieces sell for an order or orders of magnitude more. We all suffer funding constraints, so if you are in for the long haul buy yourself a mixture of cheaper and more expensive pieces. If you get all the cheap things immediately (and there are a lot of them) you are likely to find that you have already spent a considerable sum making the acquisition of the next group a daunting task when you discover it will cost multiples of the first stage. Unless you intend restricting yourself to a finite and relatively narrow band, this problem will raise it's head earlier than you think. Very few people are fortunate or affluent enough in that order to even get close to completing an all encompassing denomination collection, short run oddballs such as quarter farthings excepted.

A VIP proof is one of a limited run struck for the chosen few. A regular proof is struck for the masses e.g. 1937, 1950, 1951 etc. They may be frosted or not depending on the issue and fill in the gaps between the common set dates.

sale 56

Laminating flan

I need an optician. Norweb did have a 1935 proof penny and halfpenny - as part of a full year set (Part 3, 19/11/1986 lot 1131, bought by Spink on commission for £1200). Doh. More importantly, your penny was from that set so you have a provenance confirmed by the fingermark and spot on the reverse. My halfpenny is from a different set though.

There wasn't one in the Adams and Parry collections either. Thinking out loud, I'm wondering if there are a few long sets tied up in private hands given the special crown issued that year in conjunction with George V's Silver Jubilee.

Err yes that as well... I think that the sexual trend in the younger generation ( so I am told !) is for there not to be much or any hair around the bits!! That requires a genetic mutation. Blame it on E numbers.

1935 proof halfpennies are equally evasive. I notice that Peck listed both penny and halfpenny at Baldwin's, though there wasn't an example when they cleaned out the basement 5 or 6 years ago. I bought my halfpenny in London Coins March 2006 sale, but there wasn't a penny to complement it. Interestingly graded in that sale as nFDC as in reality it's brilliant and virtually as struck. It's also noteworthy that Norweb had neither denomination of this date, because she had most other years.

I think the size of bedroom is irrelevant. The bedroom is where all the naughty people go.

It's a sixpence, but unless you can read the date or identify the mark that's it. On the assumption the last datal figure is a 6, the mark for 1566 would be either a lion or a portcullis, 1576 an eglantine (5 petal flower), 1586 is a scallop and 1596 a key. Disregard the last one as the obverse is clearly not a key, as rubbed as it is. I'd say it is probably a portcullis from what I can see.

The variations seen in flan weight would be too great to determine the composition. A few years back we had a thread on farthing weights and the variation was 2.69g to 2.93g if I remember rightly. Certainly 2.6 something and 2.9 something. Leaving aside the 10% variation in flan weights, the densities of brass and bronze would be roughly the same anyway because zinc and tin have roughly the same densities. You would need to carry out an XRF analysis. A visual assessment of the material based on colour would be more informative than a weight.

I've added my hand shilling reverse for comparison. Hand tends to be quite a large mark relative to others.

My initial response would be yes based on the small lumps seen on the left side of the tun, but this would require the underlying mark to be unusually small. My hand marked shilling has the mark fully half the width of the shield top bar in the second quadrant. Yours would be barely a third of the width, so unless it is a punch from a smaller denomination I would say no. I don't have a shilling of either mark from this reverse die.

A bit late. Happy birthday, or if it's closer, for the next one.

Difficult question. The guinea was originally issued at 20s, but fluctuated over the years up to 30s before eventually being fixed at 21s. As they were replaced with the sovereign in the recoinage of 1816, it isn't clear if they were demonetised or not. Presumably a full weight example was still worth 21s, but if actually demonetised, then it had no fixed value and so the answer is an irrational number because the two denominations were never circulating concurrently.

I'm not sure why there are upper and lower case Ys and I'm not convinced about . The dies appear to have been cut in London and shipped out to wherever they were needed, hence the unusual overcut mint ids such as Y over E or E over N for example. Nobody really thinks the dies travelled the length of the country when there were closer mints that could have supplied a die in an emergency. The overcut marks were probably to solve the problem of no useable dies at the various locations. Mr. P. You are a practical man. It's imperative that city come second as this is clearly using the right tool for the job. You cannot change decades old habits at the drop of a hat. They need to come second to reassure themselves that they are still up to the task.

:D :D :D :D :D :D On a more serious note, send me a list of what you have with grades and for how much and I'll see what I can do. An excel file would be ok.

Below the Irish society (the one which doesn't have a link)

I did say small collection Rob.........My only KN, and am sure its not up to what you're looking for.. Correct I do have a 1940 BU Single Extregue Line Bugger. If it had been a single exergue line I might have been interested.

Any Lavrillier - uniface or double sided would do; a Minton - any date or metal and a KN would finish my modern pennies off.

Thanks for the link Rob. However it seems that the nearest club from me is Birmingham which is still a good hour plus away. Nottingham?

Mmmm I’ve often asked myself that question – especially when you lot seem to want to talk about vintage cars, pies and topless teenage girls… I had been reading the forum for a while before posting and as I have said before was impressed by the knowledge and expertise of fellow members and moreover the friendliness and willingness to answer questions. It was aZda who said he hoped that I would post again sometime, so I thought why not. I have also mentioned before that it is easy for me to keep up with the forum as I am sat at my computer / tablet most of the time with my work. I also think its great that there are contributions from members all round the world. Coin collecting has got a bit of a nerdy reputation and I don’t know any others that collect coins male or female outside this forum. I must say that with now concentrating on collecting engraved coins and love tokens that I have probably opted for the most “romantic and girly†side of coin collecting, but I’m still enjoying myself and I have to say that more so for being part of this online community. You could try joining a numismatic society. There's one not too far away from you. BANS website

Mine did and I have to say that life was far from antisocial. Daily comparing of notes and sharing libraries made for a very sociable existence. Lots of head ups and two brains are always better than one.