Rob

Not sure why anyone would copy these. A mintage of 15 million will price them only a bit over melt at best. Krause lists them at $18 for MS63, which surely wouldn't be worth copying. The 1969 is noted in Krause as frequently found altered (presumably the shape of the 9), but the total mintage here is a million.

There are numerous varieties of patterns, but the only currency 5 ports is quoted by Peck as a proof (P1253). You can get proof-like currency pieces. I have my suspicions though as Peck notes they are all from different pairs of dies. I had one 10 years or more ago that was described as a proof, but wasn't convinced.

Less desirable for a collector, as they usually try to obtain examples in a suitable natural condition - which gilded certainly isn't. Coins are gilded for fun, or for use in jewelry.

It looks to be gilded, but I'm not sure how you can be diddled when something you have bought for £6 has £6.70 worth of silver in it with some free gold on top? Please elucidate.

Nothing to do with individuals' viewpoints, but I'm not sure what useful function easylive provides in the case of '3'. Why would anybody place a commission bid through them with their fee on top compared to sending a list of commission bids directly to the auction house. When you employ a dealer or whoever to bid on your behalf who then charges a commission for any lots purchased, you can at least say that the lots have been viewed in advance by the dealer, who has acted on his reasoned opinion. Easylive are not providing this service.

Trump is the archetypal narcissist and in good company along with most autocratic dictators that have ever existed. Putin, Erdogan, any number of leaders of former Russian areas, most South American and African countries, even this country. Politics or other forms of leadership breeds people who think highly of themselves - it is a real chicken and egg scenario. Confident people are rarely wrong (in their view). The masses should be grateful that he is only going to be President for one term or possibly two because the system is designed to ensure nobody can have an indefinite monopoly (that's a good thing) - unless he does a Putin, that is. His basic problem is that he seems to be in permanent campaign mode - and we all know that politicians say what they feel they need to say to be elected. Just treat it like any other soap opera on TV, i.e. something you switch off when the intro music comes on. We all have a big friendly off button on the remote.

I think the 1816 sixpence and shilling are going to win, as Peck suggested.

I've had it suggested it is Joe Linzalone of Wolfshead, a US dealer. Can anyone confirm? 25mm card.

When were guineas demonetised? We know they stopped making them in 1813, but as the weight was 5% over the sovereign i.e. pro-rata, there was no need to demonetise them. The sovereign of 20s was more convenient than the 21s guinea. The fact that the new coinage in 1817 was reduced pro-rata, suggests the guinea continued to be legal tender. In fact there was no case for demonetising these other than on account of their odd value.

Covering all bases there. Elizabeth I - maybe; medieval - maybe (but mutually exclusive with the first part); silver - best chance of being right; threepence - maybe; coin - maybe

It's only really 1920-22 which are the erratic issues. Once you get to 23 they seem to have the metal mix and striking parameters under control and for some reason there seems to be a good number of well struck up 1925 shillings in particular, i.e. no flattening of the nose.

It's a table that has been compiled by Ian as he indicates. Invoices would be headed either SB or FEDEX, not given as a summary with exchange rates etc.

Reduce it in size. It only has to be 1% smaller to be within the 500kb limit.

I was following Lockdales sale today and couldn't believe the prices paid for some of the bulk lots. Blue proof sets working out at £24 a pop delivered, or the early sets at over £13 each. Who is paying this much for them? If for resale, where are they selling them? Who is buying them at an even higher price? And finally, please could I have their address because I can't sell them for £25-30 each, nor much over £10 for the early sets, and that's on a good day. Prices seemed to be at or above retail for everything. e.g. A gVF Cnut PH penny of Stamford at £360 hammer! People have too much money, or maybe someone just wanted to pay extra for the crack.

It looks clear to me. There's the sum payable to SB which is £184.55, then there is the FEDEX bit which is VAT on the SB total less the wire costs leaving a net £156.49. Then the import VAT is due plus their handling fee of £12. The only debatable point is the rate of VAT applied, but something extra is payable because the SB bit of the invoice doesn't have an import VAT component. If you buy from CNG then you pay the import VAT at the time you settle up leaving nothing else to pay. This might be because they have a London office and UK bank account, so do all the VAT accounting through it. I presume they import a number of lots on the same consignment and settle up the VAT that way. Saves a lot of hassle.

Yes they do. That's one thing that is consistent, but usually at 5% instead of the expected 20%. It all seems to get lumped under the VAT rate for the item.

It depends on what you want. As a general reference North is still ok. If you want specialised books, then you have to look at specifics such as The Coinage of Offa and his Contemporaries by Derek Chick; Coinage in Tenth Century England by Blunt, Stewart and Lyon; for specific mints, The Lincoln Mint by H R Mossop or The Ipswich Mint (3 vols.) by John Sadler; for Scandinavian copies then The Anglo-Scandinavian Coinage c.995-1020 by Brita Malmer is good. There are an increasingly large number of detailed volumes, but any volume encompassing all info for all reigns would be impractically large which is why North is still worthwhile as a good general guide, giving as it does the basics plus variety info. It's a bit dated now due to finds since 1992, but covers most of what is out there. If you want to find out how knowledge has developed down the years, then Ruding, Hawkins or Greuber together with papers from the Numismatic Chronicle and BNJ will all form part of the story.

Not if it is shilled. I've lost count of the number of second offers I have had on pricier (and cheaper) items. The number of people who it is claimed haven't paid when I have come second seems far in excess of the percentage of buyers who haven't paid me for items won.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-australia-52843846

Could also have been withdrawn to relist them under a £1 listing fee offer. A 10% fee on anything listed for hundreds, suddenly becomes quite significant. £1 is not the end of the world.

I think we have all missed out on a withdrawn piece at some time on eBay, as it's something that has always happened and is quite frustrating. Having said that, the near complete absence of competitive bidding with items frequently selling for opening bids is a huge part of the problem. As nice as it might be to let the market find its own level, it is fair to say that the platform is too congested to give widespread exposure and hence generate interest in a particular item. If someone then makes an offer that is acceptable, the only issue is a moral one. You might test the water every so often by listing an item with a value higher than a £1 starting price, but if the result is a say £30 coin going for a quid every time, it isn't surprising that people take things down having received an offer. The alternative is to list things at a starting price you are willing to sell at. Then you have a guarantee of no competitive bidding, leading to perpetual re-listings because eventually someone will buy it if the price is within reason. If ebay had a facility to make a higher offer on items starting at a quid just as they do a lower one for a BIN, then there could be no complaints. The simple truth is that ebay has got too big and is unwieldy, satisfying virtually nobody.

I don't have anything more at the moment other than to say that Lloyd bought it in Spink 240 on 26th Sept 2016 for £620 hammer. As for prior to 1985, I suggest you might be on a hiding to nothing. York halfcrowns are too common to be extensively illustrated in old catalogues and even in good grade tended to be made up in bulk lots of 2-4 coins of the type until the last 30-40 years. Occasionally you get lucky, but even in this grade it's not a given. The only civil war halfcrowns that were routinely imaged were the W/SA and Chester issues. These two are more hit, whereas the other provincial mints are more miss. Unfortunately Besly's article is too late to be of use as it was written around the time when your provenance starts, so it won't be pushed back using a die pair description. It's a good coin and the same die pair as mine (2F) which is one of the scarcer combinations. I have 7 on the list including one with EBOR erased and one in the BM. Yours is an earlier strike than mine and possibly the best available. The flaw which develops below the horse's hoof through EBOR is barely a discolouration on yours. Whatever, for comparison see below.

Oh dear. Why do people bid on these things? You should be paid to take them away. https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Hammered-coin-Unidentified-Thick-coin/124199957432?hash=item1ceae4f3b8:g:ZOYAAOSwWBVezBvw

A different era, but the same principle applies. This selection of Ns on a Soho pattern shows considerable variation in the state of the remains of a double cut N on what could not have been more than a few hundred strikes (also includes a recut N).

Yes, but things can get filled/degrade through use, so that in itself is not conclusive.