Rob

Thanks to Jerry for the December catalogue. Just the May 2024 sale now. Ta.

Thanks to David Bordeaux for the March catalogue. If anyone has last December's or the sale just gone, I'm still looking.

The milled was graded to appeal to the US/Asian markets. The hammered not because many things would come back as details if graded consistently (not a given). e.g the Oxford City View crown should be graded details due to the scratches in the field, but most of us would ignore them and grade relative to its peers

Given the evidence that they are still sending out catalogues, if anyone has copies of December 2023 or later they don't want, my library would be grateful. Please PM me if you can help. Ta.

That looks like a bit of rim that has squeezed past the die, but being thin has almost detached. That would do as an explanation for the other one also. Next question is - Same dies?

1st thing is to establish the variety rather than a maybe. Use the link in Secret Santa's signature for a comprehensive description of penny obverses and reverses.

Looks like a bit of trapped swarf. You can't tell from the picture how well adhered to the surface it is.

A bit tight there. I paid over £3100 for mine in 2010, Geoff paid around £3600 for that one in 2013 and the Sanders piece sold for nearly £4K all in in 2023. 5500CHF will work out at just over £6400 delivered, so given it is possibly the best available and in the context of the buoyant sale and the current market, not really out of kilter.

I've never had an issue with winning bids as some have come in low, some at max and some lost or not met the reserve - i.e. what you would expect. It's the combination of picture quality and the inability to view in hand that's the killer for me.

Does anyone receive them any more? I've not been sent one since last September and as a consequence haven't bid on anything either. Since they stopped having the sales at Bracknell with the ability to view the lots in hand, I have tended to work on the principle of if in doubt, leave it out. The pictures never have enough fine detail visible and tend to flatter the item, meaning viewing is even more important, but there is none. The breakdown of the online catalogue into sections rather than having it viewable from lot 1 though to the end also does my head in, as does the habit of listing by denomination in alphabetical order instead of chronologically, which is what most auction houses do. Am I the only one who thinks this way?

The 1806 wasn't there in 2013, so didn't have it on the list. I do know the 1797 gilt penny lot 1434 is wrong. Should be P1124 instead of P1127. That was a balls up all round as I listed it in 2013 as gilt and got the Peck type (KP18) right, but then wrote down the copper reference (P1126) on the ticket. Someone must have picked up on it not referring to a gilt piece and 'corrected' it to a P1127. Has to happen occasionally as none of us are infallible. I did not call the 1860 TB/BB mule a halfpenny on the ticket!

You just missed one in Zurich last week. Lot 1372.

You'll be disappointed.

It was a bit mad at times. If you wanted to bid on anything you had to hit the button immediately. An awful lot sailed into the distance. I was underbidder on the Morton halfgroat, having made a mental not not to spend more than 2K on it. A mistake. I did get the Chester declaration halfcrown and the third on the must buy list was the 5 Farthings. Now I really regret giving him dibs on it in Stack's in 2006. I would have paid 3-4, but 7.5 hammer was a bit rich. It cost him a grand or so. As for what will be coming up, there will be more Nicholson including a few of the Annes. He outbid me on an awful lot in that sale. The silver Anne in St. James's was bought for him by Ras, who I was sitting next to. I was underbidder, followed by a profuse apology. Geoff asked me to catalogue the collection in 2013 and see what needed upgrading - not a lot! I will be interested in a few, but it's going to be kid in a sweet shop time - again.

The good news is that the remainder are unlikely to produce the same sort of results. Ok, Reddite crowns and triple unites aren't cheap and there's plenty of other desirable material especially Chas.1, but there's also a good number of tokens, Gunmoney and other oddball material. I could see another sale of British and then a third to sweep up all the sundries.

Won one, underbidder on three, blown out of the water on about 20 and didn't get out the starting blocks on a couple. The Roman sold for just under £2m and the British for just over £4.5m hammer prices. WOW. And there's somewhere close to 600 pieces to come. Edited to say sorry, should have been CHF not £s. Reduce the totals by 10% or so to give pounds.

WOW, so far.

Thanks. I think that's the same dies as Nicholson

Thanks. This muddies the waters even further as it looks like there could possibly be 2 GVLIEMVS dies. The alignment around S and the stop plus TER looks different, unless it is optics.

No, that reads GVLIELMVS. I'm looking for a GVLIEMVS obverse die paired with a stop after BRITANNIA reverse die where the date is visible. A die match for the reverse die alone would be good too, but still preferably paired with the error legend obverse.

I've got a William III first issue GVLIEMVS halfpenny which is a healthy 10.93g, but struck on a dumpy flan meaning the date isn't visible. Peck 642 has no reverse stop and is the only variety listed, but this one clearly does have a stop by the edge. Does anyone have an example with a reverse stop that shows the date. Odds are that given the rarity of the type, it would be a die match. It's probably 1696, but I'd like to be certain. Ta.

Is it the plain edge obverse uniface? If so, I would be interested.

For the past 25 years or more, nonsense descriptions have been the norm. So how would you differentiate AI from the usual garbage? Indeed, you could argue that up to now the descriptions have predominantly been made by people with artificial intelligence and that eBay is only now catching up. Literacy or accuracy have never been a strong point of eBay listings.

Proof and pattern florins have gone through the roof in the last 5 or 6 years. I only want 3 'Godless' pieces to show the 3 obverses and 3 reverses and I have two, but when the third one on the list appeared in a sale last year, it made nearly 15K, or 10 times what I paid for the other two in 2010. At this level I'm a yesterday's man.