argentumandcoins

The second seller has no coin feedback at all as either a buyer or seller. Account jacked?

Yes, it's Stephen Fenton, aka St.James's Auctions. Bought himself a new Bentley last I heard!

What date is it Colin? Nice find!

I wasn't having a pop at you Declan and apologise if it came across that way. I know how you operate and that is exactly how I started. I was lucky that I started out with a lot of capital and a very well paid job. That is how I have the stock that I am sitting on now. I am in no way a large fish, more mid level in the scheme of things, but it builds every year, just as yours does. The main thrust of my post was aimed at the ignorant masses who still spend way over the odds on common dross because it's old. 1787 shillings I can sell at stupid money on there and 1758's and the sixpences.... none of them are even scarce never mind rare. It never ceases to amaze me how I can get double or treble what I think a coin is worth just by putting it on an ebay auction. That 1827 penny was awful and £50 would have secured it in virtually any auction room in the country, that's where you have to buy if you want to get bigger. It takes a lot of time but you will find the odd gem among the boxes of crap, we all do or we wouldn't bother buying in auctions ourselves!

Not more than £50, or bugger all if it was my money! I don't think ebay will slow Declan for the simple reason that there are too many buyers on there with too little knowledge, or who are too stupid, or too idle to try and source better quality coins from sources other than ebay. And far from "Oh they will get their fingers burned when they come to sell", they will compound the vicious circle by selling on eBay where the same ignorant, stupid and idle crowd will get them their money back and more, thus confirming them in their view of having paid the "right" price in the first place. What chance have genuine dealers, selling good quality stock, with overheads, trying to make a living, got? I suppose many of them will end up selling on eBay... A lot already do, in very high volumes as well. I use it predominantly to move on lower grade stuff, foreign coins and the odd rarity that should do well in a huge worldwide market.

Sorry, started to read the article on the link, then I saw the top totty on the right hand side, then I forgot what I was supposed to be doing Oh, just been back on. Split the cash or bang their heads together. Root of all evil and all that....

Not more than £50, or bugger all if it was my money! I don't think ebay will slow Declan for the simple reason that there are too many buyers on there with too little knowledge, or who are too stupid, or too idle to try and source better quality coins from sources other than ebay.

Ah, but you're confusing ebay with the real world Declan, fatal mistake!

Shocked! A couple of hundred! I'm glad I posted that little survey now, I had no idea. Like I said Micheal Freeman has it down as an R5 which although rare is by no means unobtainable. Sorry to doubt you Gary but does anyone else concur with this valuation? You need comparable auction results or dealer prices to give estimates Gary. The only one I knew of was at London and both myself and the old man missed the lot when scanning the catalogue. We only saw it post sale http://www.londoncoins.co.uk/index.php?searchterm=1908+164a&searchtype=1&page=Pastresults Cheap, very cheap. The 164A is probably as scarce or scarcer than the 169 so £200 may be on the low side.

I didn't bother with them Colin after my last 2 attempts at buying there ended in 65-80 negatives! I didn't bother. I looked at the catalogue, felt underwhelmed, and decided to find something better to do. If by normal service you mean lower prices, then that would be expected because any initial weakness is likely to be in the mid-tier coins. Did you not like the copper Pennies Rob? Yes, you can taste a large slice of sarcasm The old boy put a couple of bids on so we'll wait and see if he got them, I doubt it though because they were the only things of decent quality/scarcity in there.

I didn't bother with them Colin after my last 2 attempts at buying there ended in 65-80 negatives!

Nor was there a 1548 sovereign in the Schneider Collection.

I'd rather pay a fiver for that than the bloody awful £5 coin thing, a damn sight more useful too!

So its best to stick to the top grades at the moment until i get my bearings? do you have any ideas on what coins to start on? predicimal hammered etc...? Thank You. Danny the obvious answer is come to me and I'll take £10k off you no problem at all! Do you want to collect, invest or try to turn a profit? Collecting; buy what you like the look of in the best grade and condition you can find/afford Investing; High grade scarcer items always increase in value over time (1905 halfcrowns, 1869 Pennies etc). Buying to sell; Learn the subject first. If you live in an area with a coin club go along to that, go to fairs/dealers shops and pick their brains (do spend something while there though or you will seriously p**s them off), read books, read the Coin News magazine, visit the forum regularly and handle as many coins as you can so you get used to what they should look and feel like. As to how to make a profit......if you find out could you let me know please?

The metal content isn't given in the description , just a weight of 5 ounces. Assuming they are troy ounces and it is 0.999 pure the current silver content is £125.10. Of course to assume anything with that lot is a risky business as it could well be Cu-Ni or Virenium, Linoleum, bitumen etc etc etc I would therefore agree with your £350 ish price, although considering it is so special and so limited it may well be £550.

Looks more like a 1 if you compare the 1 at the start of the date. More than likely chasing shadows though!

I was fairly recently out at a house to view a collection for sale. It had been left to a couple by an old gentleman. 2 of the lots were London Mint office collections. The first was a load of coloured and enamelled pre-decimal coinage, typically costing him £14.99 to £19.99 each. The second was a cased set of 1953 currency coinsage and a 1971 proof set. All of the coins had been encapsulated and fitted in a specially made case at a cost of £229 (actual coin costs from a dealer would have been £15 to £20) I did not make an offer on either lot as they are totally unsaleable. I think that answers any questions regarding London Mint "investment items" Just as an aside, the William and Kate/Catherine coins are the most hideous designs ever to appear on a UK coin!

18???? At your age you should be spending your cash on women and beer

Lie the coin on a non-reflective flat surface in natural daylight or use a halogen light shining across the coin rather than onto the coin. Hold the camera in a horizontal plane above the coin and use macro setting on your camera. That should give you a decent result. It's very hard to grade from a poorly lit and angled picture such as yours. The detail looks quite strong and although the shield looks flat that is entirely normal for the 1869 penny. There are forgeries of this date however so it would need to be examined in hand by any potential buyer anyway. £4000 is top grade Uncirculated with lustre area and yours is certainly not that good.

Poor picture and no obverse picture won't sell the coin for you, nor will your £4000 price tag.

You're right John. I never noticed that! The coin I received was the 1911 pictured on the left then. I wonder what the other coin was then? I've not had a chance to check but didn't think any other George V pennies had Gouby X look-alike obverses? I'm really not that upset. The purchase was more about saving a scarce coin from further ignominy According to Michaels website it is only KNOWN on the GoubyX. I suppose that means that it could exist on other dates and not have been discovered yet (I don't even check my 1911's never mind any others). Having just seen that he wants £85 for a Fine example maybe I should start though!!! The other thing to consider is the camera used in the sellers picture. It is clearly a cheaper model that struggles to focus in a flat plane gving the picture a strange curvature, this could distort our perception of the coin? I have bought many coins over the years under the impression they were rarer types due to camera autofocus failures (mainly 1863 open 3's).

As far as I can judge, you are quite correct. That sad and sorry specimen is indeed the Gouby X or hollow neck type. In that condition for wear, worth £30 -£40 based on recent sales. As it is, well £0.99 looks about right if you can live with it. Well, I bought the penny for £3.20 and guess what? It arrives and it's clearly not the same penny as in the photo! The received coin is so worn/buffed up with a wire brush that the majority of the teeth on the obverse no longer exist. So I emailed the seller (a Polish gentleman it would seem) and he states that there can't have been a mix up because he only had the one coin dated 1911! Yeah right! Anyway, he eventually refunded my money and, even though I told him the coin was one of the worst I had ever seen and worth nothing more than scrap, insisted on having it back! I should have known he was a waste of space. My search for a Gouby X continues. Just an observation Steve but they are clearly 2 different Pennies in the same picture (the lines in the background are unbroken as is the light reflection), so the obverse you were looking at did not belong to the 1911 reverse.

Danny I do this for a living and the best advice I can give you is try buying and selling something that you know about. Most dealers (the good ones at least) started off as collectors. You need the knowledge you gain as a collector to become a half decent dealer. As a novice you will not have the first idea about grades, rarity, state of preservation (cleaned, whizzed, tooled etc), value, desirability or authenticity. You need to know all of those to stand any chance at all of even breaking even. Ebay is already cluttered with people selling coins that they know nothing about and the auction rooms already have far too many novices paying silly money for boxes full of unsaleable crap. Sorry to put a dampener on your plans but if you are serious you need to start a collection first.

I just had a 1916 go off crapbay tonight unsold at 0.99p! low grade but good enough as a gap filler.

I'd like to help Declan but I have enough trouble trying to keep on top of my accounts never mind trying to report on what I have sold. I can tell you that the rarer coins are few and far between though. I view thousands of coins every year and seldom come across many of the types mentioned (I don't however take any notice of anything post 1922 unless it is the 1956 1/2d or 1953 proof coinage). Of the 1956 halfpennies I have only found 1 F474 (sold years ago to a member of the forum), 1 F473 and 2 F475, although the old man did buy a lot recently with all of the coins in it via auction.