Mat

hmmm might be stuck with them for a little while then, I figured at face value I cannot go wrong but then again the modern velvet encased coins...... certinally not my cup of tea but should be someones I my life time haha

Hi just a quick one, did any of you notice the 1863 penny that recently sold at London coin auction? It was the slender 3 type, it fetched £19000! Spink lists it as £800 in fine, and it was only about that condition, I am amazed!

Hi I recently acquired a proof fdc 1868 farthing (to sell) peck 1882 Obv 3 Rev B I think? I dont actually have a peck or freeman book, I rarely would ever need to refer to them. Please could anyone help me out with any more details on this coin, anything that it written in the peck or freeman books that I could include in the coin listing to enhance its sale? Thanks for your help on this one. Mat

I believe the last issue was 1970. I think you would be lucky to pick one up for £70 although you could have mine for that when the rumoured reprint arrives Lol havent bought one my self hence me posting the origional question. I have seen 3 or 4 advertised for around £70 and there in fairly used condition.

Thanks for your help guys! The one london coins are selling is expensive! I am only looking for upto £400 for mine although it does have slight staining, but it does have one of those farthing specialist envelopes with it that was probably done in the 1950s. How old is the last version of peck? I was thinking maybe I could remake one and have it printed if the copyright has expired, then we wouldnt have to pay £70 to get hold of one! Mat

Just a quick warning for you all, I guess most of you that look at dollars on ebay.com will be aware of the fakes out there all over the place, however this is a warning for the UK ebayers that arnt too hot on US coins. There is a current bulk US dollar listing on ebay UK: 260486731676 The listing looks legit and the pics look good, even the extra ones the seller sent me. The 101 coins in this condtion would be worth about £2000 or £700 bullion value. How ever the seller has slipped up, there are 1885 trade dollars included in the bulk which is not possible as only 5 were ever minted and are worth $4m each (one sold in 2006) Dont get caught out most UK ebay crawlers will the listing is already on £155.00 Mat

Hi Peckris sure... The auction has finished now it sold for £433..... so obviously most people realised they are fake but some poor guy out there thinks he has got a real bargan at £433! http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vie...e=STRK:MEWAX:IT Mat

Opps didnt mean to submit the above.... Hi Vickysilver, i am guessing we probably share the same view on this coin. I never look to hold on to a coin to make a profit, I always try and get rid of the coin asap, even if I achieve less profit than I might do in the near future. I honestly would have capped my highest bid at £1000 on this coin, in the hope find a buyer at maybe £1250 for £250 profit or maybe a bit less. I guess a couple things we need to look at now, see how much spink amend the value in their next catalogue, how many others suddenly turn up on the market, or as you assessed some one really has too much money to play with, and so must another person as it takes at least 2 people to get it up to £19k! I am going with the last assumption, and I will honestly tell you if another was to crop up in that condition, my highest bid will still be only £1000 because despite the 19k sale I still believe I would only be able to sell it for no more than £1250. Unless we see more slender 3 sales I am going to put it down to a fluke on this occasion. Mat

Hi Vickysilver, i am guessing we probably share the same view on this con. I never look to hold on to a coin to make a profit,

Hi Vickysilver, is it just me or have I missed somthing in the description? Lot 1643: http://www.londoncoins.co.uk/index.php?PHP...age=Pastresults Also take a look at lot 1325 which is another 1863 penny with a die number: http://www.londoncoins.co.uk/index.php?pag...amp;searchterm= If you look back in the 1980s spink \ seaby coin catalogues there are no variations of any of the bronze pennys, just straight through dates 1860-1901, any of us may have had some of the rare ones and we would have never known!!!

High 1949threepence, the PO Box is pretty much the answer if you often have a lot of high value stuff sent to your address because Royal Mail will always let us down I think. I would advise that you choose the option to collect it your self though instead of having it delivered from your PO Box to your home address though, reason for that being you can encounter the very same problems that you are trying to avoid by having the PO Box address which defeats the point of it! The guys that deliver from your po box address to your home are the same regular postmen! Something else I also found out reciently, Royal Mail never use temporary postmen but with the changes they are making I have discovered they are starting to use temps which always means a lack in precedure. Mat

Hi, I cannot tell you the amount of times this has happened to me, I keep a very tight record of each event because of the amount of high value coins and notes I receive with constant buying and selling. All of the following is since 7th June 2007: Recorded delivery: 11 x put in my recycle bin with "sorry we missed you" slip put through door stating the item is in the bin (as it wont fit through the letter box). 2 x they actually removed the red signed for sticker off the package and posted it through my door like it was sent via just 1st class. 8 x just posted through my door with no attempt to get a signature. 1 x on my door step on full view!! 28 x to 41 Warrington Road opposed to my address which is Werrington Road Special Dlivery: 5 x with the next door neighbour (even though thats wrong of them I dont mind that because I know its safe there) 2 x just posted with no attempt to get a signature 1 x left on the windowsill a round the back of my house, and I didnt spot it for 3 days! Thank god is was a coin and not a note. 4 x to 41 Warrington Road opposed to my address which is Werrington Road Result: Luckly I am now friends with 41 Warrington Road as I get loads of his mail as well, and we just phone eachother up each time somthing arrives at the wrong house. I lost interest in reporting the same thing to Royal Mail through their usual complaint process, so I kept reporting the incident to the depot manager, and the guy that removed the stickers off the package got sacked as a result. I built up a solid file and managed to report with solid video evidence to postwatch of the postman leaving stuff in my recycle bin, Royal Mail compensated me with £100 and 1 book of 1st class stamps after postwatch recommended they issue the compensation. I never saw that postman again after the complaint was raied with postwatch. One of the Special Delivery packages left with my neighbout contained a c1 exeter mint half pound and a c1 castle mint crown with a combined value of £12'000, I went to postwatch after the royal mail offered me another book of 1st class stamps, and as a result (and with the already appauling history I have with them) Royal Mail offered me a free PO BOX address for 1 year. When the PO BOX address expired after last xmas and post was to be delivered to my house again, within a month SD stuff with being left with my neighbour again, I complained and due to the long history of crap, the postman was asked to come to my house and explain his actions, he told me it will never happen again, and it hasnt to date! 6 months problem free. Off the record when I saw the postman the following week to sign for a package, he explained to me that they have halved his team making them redundant, but effectively doubling the remaining postmens shift, he said his 7 hour shift is now 11-13 hours, and he said not having to go back to the depot after his run to drop off none signed for post etc just makes life so much easier. My advice is as follows: Complain to Royal Mail in writing (you have to before going to postwatch) If the response is not good enough which is never is... DO NOT go back to Royal Mail as you have to wait another 28 days after re-escalating the complaint before you can go to post watch. After the first Royal Mail responce, go straight to postwatch which now has to be done by going through consumer direct on 08454040506. I have always got a decent result by going through postwatch, they are kind of the ombudsman for postal complaints. Mat

When the mint darkened their coins to stop the ghosting from happening... maybe its related to that? I cannot remember the dates which they did that off the top of my head, but maybe during certain periods they tried different methods of darkening and as a result the streaking lusture occured? Or after reading this site on morgan dollars: http://www.coingrading.com/lustre1.html maybe its the dies. Apparently different dated morgan dollars tend to develop patterns of lusture. Mat

Just thought I would share this with you all, while gathering info for my masters I found a a US based text extracted from an annual report of an auction house outlining the average age of their buyers. (I think they were trying to predict their future) Pottery 67 Stamps 64 Post cards 61 Cigarette cards 61 Bottles 61 Paintings 50 Coins 49 Vintage cars 44 Exotic fish 41 Rocks and fossils 37 Furniture 35 So were not doing to badly really!! I am only 23 and sell more than I collect for a second income, but I feel there were more influencing factors to collect stamps when I was 8-12 years old. This was a US based article so I don’t know how much we can apply it to the UK. It would be interesting to see how old all you guys are on here. I believe the age of coin collecting is becoming younger which is influenced by the investment power behind coins.

That list is not complete by the way, it was very extensive, I just noted a few of the obvious collectables.

These 20ps are really annoying my now on ebay, I usually search for the high end coins on ebay by clicking the coins category under british coins and then searching via "highest first" but all the high end listings are cluttered up full of 20ps right up to £10,000,000. There is only about one other coin in the first 200 listings which is not a 20p. Come on people as if anyone is going to buy one for over £500, while many appear to go for that I bet their not actually being paid for. On top of that your wasting £1.50 listing it!

Hi everyone, putting aside the golden rules of cleaning coins.... I have acquired two proof half crowns 1935 and 1936. These rare VIP proofs command a price of around £1000 in mint condition, however these have been lightly circulated... They were both stored in the same pvc flap together for years, and then maybe left to bake in the sun light somehow. The obverse has horrible tack black marks and even a little of the melted plastic residue from the pvc and oils stuck to the surface. What a way to store a VIP proof! Then again the fact they had entered circulation demonstrates the owner probably just thought they were shiny currency issue half crowns. I’m a trader not collector, what would you do? Clean to enhance the value or sell on in its current form.... also I have no idea how I would clean a proof. Mat

The crucial thing to look at to determine proofs is the edges of the rim : on proofs they will be sharp. It will be a little difficult here as they have had either some circulation or some frequent handling, but they should still be even, regular and fairly crisp. However, the same would be true of specimen strikings, and as these are a long way from FDC it may never be possible to tell the difference. The edges are very sharp, both on the rim and edge serations, would you know if the known proof specimens are plain edges??

Nope no extra curls :-( .... used this as a comparison: http://grahamjamescoins.com/images/photos/LIMA_crown_obv.jpg

Hi again folks, could anyone help me out with this one this time. Next to the last 'A' on the obverse side there is a flower type mark, has anyone seen this before? Or is it just some sort of damage which coincidently looks like some kind of minting mark, or even a die problem. Please give me your thoughts Mat

Thanks guys, As Rob says its would seem unlikely they could be proof issues are they are so rare but in all the years I have been doing this I have never come across a currency issue half crown with real mirror images like you have in proof coins, the fields in the design are so proof like I can see my reflection very clear even tough the coin is warn. If they are not proof issues, they cannot be normal currency issues, surely they are some sort of special strike... Please excuse the pics.... and the camera

I didnt notice that! I need to find another to compare to... Ill get back to you on that one, ill look in some of the older spink books to see if they have used images of my version Mat

Thanks coin hunter, its a tricky one, the A actually lookes like it is striked on top of the mark when the coin is in hand, I think I might take this one to auction...

I cannot believe the news has gone and spoilt it all for us dealers and some collectors, the mass hysteria has made the ebay market for these increase by 10x fold! Last few weeks the price finally settled for these at about £35 on average, they were going for £300 at the start and eventually worked down to an average of £35 until today, check ebay and now the school boy erroneous public are bidding £200, £300 and as we speak there is one at £620 at the moment. I cannot see it being paid for though, do some research people! In 2 weeks they will be going for £50 again max.

Hello guys, I have come across this 1940 florin, please tell me what you think. I do know one sided blanks appear now and again but I have never come across a blank florin. I cannot see any signs of abrasions at all, even though a loupe. However the weight is 10.5g opposed to the standard of 11.3g??. Is it possible for an error in this format to be lighter than the standard for some reason or another? Please let me know your thoughts on this coin. ....and please look at my other recent posting and unlisted Varity which I need help on. Mat