VickySilver

You know I had to have a second look at this auction. Lo and behold, there smacking me in the face was an exceptional 1838 Shilling with "no WW" to base of bust. Not a huge deal but this is not even mentioned in Spink and apparently is quite rare as I have seen precious few about; it was estimated at 200-300 pounds which seemed laughable and went for 1700!

TBH, I think many of the issues with this coin are in the planchet and are pre-strike, and surfaces such as the fields are quite nice actually. Not here to defend the price and also that they frequently seem a bit more than simply "subjective" in their grading.

Yes he is quite defensive about his practices as well, and yet they are right out there like "The Emperor's New Clothes".....He's quite the predator as you've pointed out. With some coins that come up for auction that are rare enough, it has forced other collector/buyers to higher levels as once he gets it, its a wrap as the price will escalate quite a bit. 1925 halfcrowns in truly mint condition and well struck are much scarcer than most people admit. The 1930 seems to be nearly everywhere at GEF and better condition.

I was looking over some of the values (and I suppose in this day and age they mean less than ever), and mused a bit about the Vicky silver - can you imagine? One big example in the halfcrowns was the value compare between the 1839 currency and the 1862 and 1864 proof coins; the latter were valued at 1/4 higher whereas IMHO, the exact opposite at higher preservations should be true & that a truly uncirculated specimen of the former might rightfully be valued at double Another was in the sixpence series where in Unc., 1848/7 AND 1848/6 were valued the same as the 1854! Absolutely again IMHO not so. The former is much scarcer in Unc. than the 1848/6, and both likely pale compared to the 1854. Another weakness that likely can not be tackled would be a coin such as the 1882 shilling in a slabbed "66" which along with the 1889 SH in like grade would probably have to be unpriced. In any case, values are relative and in any give sale or auction coins obviously may go higher and lower as we all know. Pegging values is nearly impossible but possibly comparing rarity to some degree might be moreso...

I bring this up from time to time, as I have only seen the individual crown on ebay a single time (2002 $25 With the World Junior Track and Field Female Runner). I admit to being a collector of these somewhat hideous "National Hero" series of coins in the minor denominations but have never seen the set or any direct evidence & the Royal Mint and Bank of Jamaica (BoJ) don't seem to want or be able to help. I'd like to see some confirmation of witness, a picture, or best case an actual set for sale.

None!

Update? Nope! I have not seen the proof set of 2002 to show up again, and this is subtended by the elusive 1984 Jamaica specimen set. A couple/few are out there but where? On another forum I saw that "allegedly" there were at least struck - and possibly released (or not?) - 113 sets of the 2002 proof set. This supposedly from the Royal Mint who never did respond to my queries via email or Facebook site.....

Agree generally, however I have seen some VERY nice coins occasionally buried in these lots...

I have gotten some nice coins from them, mainly in the distant past however. I would imagine that many decent coins have been lost in those "hoard" lots as listed by Master JMD. I still look at them when they first come out but then forget to bid, and am put off by their odd idiosyncratic methods of auction as have been alluded to. Sometimes I would receive a lot and it looked better than the sorry pictures, and other times worse (more commonly the case). They also now have HUGE runs of sovereigns that really tire me out and scroll through as rapidly as possible. Blah, blah, blah.......Well they are their own.

LOL When you see it on eBay:

LOL, that was on Brit ebay and went today off at 100....Couple other real errors by the same seller but I just put up token bids and lost, no big deal...

“Double Reverse”!! Oh well, not too well done….

You didn't ask for it, but grading by the pictures I [sort of] would say this: I don't see a lot of hairlines but even a bit of angling to the light may reveal such. They can be VERY hard on those. Assuming none other that what is seen, that bit passes muster for lower mint state coins but the friction along the neck and base of bust might lever it down just a bit. I would be tempted to put it in the 61-62 category....The reverse is fairly nice with a bit of softness at bottom of crown at shield.

I just spotted this upcoming auction and was drawn to the usual suspects: lated milled pre-decimal copper and silver. One coin that amuses me as far as grading is the Proof 1935 Jubilee crown. Lots 73-75 are just this: the 73 is graded 66cameo and the following two are 63cameo. Maybe it is just the pictures but they just do not look of that grade & don't measure up to others I have seen. Not much else of interest and these are not, certainly....

A lot of friction at the base of the neck and that yellowish oxidation on the Atlas coin. The above sadly cleaned and the first with some of the yellowish oxidation it appears that is so frequently seen on this vintage of G5 halfcrown. Mine is alright but then again gotten 20+ years ago from a source I do not remember & keeping it raw as I have it in the Capitol Holder I had made that covers 1911-1936. I had the 1925 florin which graded out as MS64 at PCGS and IMHO not generously at that. It is even less loved than the 2/6!

Ah, no, sorry about that.

Won’t let me post even low info obverse file

I have a bit of bias in any case as I do not at all care for the Weyl and other private non-RM patterns. The silver series of 1863 drive me up a tree. I once bought an 1860 "penny" struck in silver that was a Weyl - and still have it. I think I will sell it one day but probably as I am in America slab it up and put it in Heritage.

What did that one grade? If I had to grade from pictures alone, I would personally go higher than VF certainly - maybe AU53 or 55? Of course the 1925 date comes very softly struck and often without a lot of lustre, but as you will note the sensitive cheek, brow, mustache, hair look to be virtually free of wear, with a very nicely [for issue] struck reverse. Main concern: base of the neck truncation that probably has to be seen in hand to judge severity of friction IMHO. On second thought this may be at the 58-61 level. I will see if I can show a picture of a "raw" 1925 that was hand-selected 20 or so years ago later today.

I remember that Baldwin's sold an 1863 (!) proof florin about 10 years ago for 1250 quid! That coin was subsequently graded Proof 63+ cameo.....Maybe 8-10x that now?

Yes indeed. I don't imagine it is collectors purchasing these coins.

Yikes....And what about the prices fetched in the St. James's February sale of proofs (silver) - I am out on purchases in these venues at these prices even though this [was] my forte!

The bits up through halfcrown of 1831 in proof seem to show up more frequently than the 120 mintage would infer....

Upcoming in the 16 April Noonan's auction is a superior 1893 Jub. Sixpence (NOT mine!). This coin demonstrates the sorry strikes for this coin as the hair detail, etc. looks to be aEF but inspection of the rims shows very little wear & the topmost details of the leave on reverse wreath also suffer... This would be difficult IMHO for the TPGs to grade as technical with very little wear might be AU50 or maybe 53. Anyway, this coin not far off the graded MS61 but all so far short of the PCGS64 specimen that I believe was ex-Colin Cooke.