1949threepence

Maybe some were designed for advertising. Quite a neat way of advertising when you think about it - for the era. Coins, especially pennies, would be very widely circulated and go through a lot of hands.

Some of these marks are interesting, but you do wonder why they got stamped on in the first place. What exactly was the point, unless for pure amusement - as with trench art. Maybe pennies were just sometimes taken out of pockets to test punches. It seems to be largely a preserve of 19th century coins, predominantly pennies, together with drilling holes through the coins. Not counting "votes for women", which apart from the odd genuine one, is a wholly 21st century initiative. The two above are unusual inasmuch as they are neater and cleverer than usual. Blake's maybe (possibly) meant as a representation of a zulu spear. JLS's is anybody's guess. Not only as to whether the apparent B's are meant as B's, some other lettering/numbering combination, or in fact a pattern which has no relation to letters/numbers. Moreover, what's the significance of the larger V to the lower right, or the word "sense", which might have been added later or earlier? We'll never know.

That's a nice issue free specimen, Ian. The F106 is scarce. Mine is ex Michael Freeman, VF, but not quite as nice as yours.

I'd say definitely <20: in all probability <15, and none of the known ones in especially good grade. Even virtual washers go for very high prices. For example this one went for £3,600 hammer at LCA in March 2018:-

Well worth the car journey and any other inconvenience to eventually secure it though, Richard. Presumably the seller was in ignorance of what it was, and might easily have fallen for the first decent approach. Although to a suspicious mind that might well have prompted further investigation as to why someone should suddenly privately offer a largish sum on a 99p starting price auction, for a seemingly commonplace coin. You definitely did the right thing IMO.

Just thinking the same thing (as at least a possibility)

She can etch my pictures any day

Thanks chaps - that's exactly what I thought, but couldn't quite believe that London Coins would make such a schoolboy error.

Fake or real?

To be honest, I was so taken with the presenter, Julie somebody or other, that I wasn't really listening to what they were saying. That's when they weren't talking over each other.

Quite a decent one as well. As 164A's go.

It helps if you are knowledgeable in your chosen field when shopping for coins on e bay. Then the world is your oyster in terms of finding bargains, as opposed to the bay of sharks it is to the greenhorn newbie collector. Let's not forget that e bay sellers are just as liable to make mistakes or omissions in categorising, as they are to offer a costly dud. How else did I get a F76 for next to nothing, and a few members here have nabbed similar bargains. Before we get too sanctimonious and judgemental on sellers, maybe we should equally ask ourselves whether we would notify the seller what they'd got, if they were offering a real 1877 narrow date penny as a Bin for a tenner. As Gary says the type of seller is as varied as the types of people you meet in life. Some are thieving little toerags and others ultra honest folk who would never knowingly rip you off.

That's an interesting one. I don't know to what extent a court would take the apparent knowledge of a specialist into account. It might depend on whether the seller said they didn't know the person who informed them they were wrong, was an expert, or merely someone who was trying to knock them down so the coin would be sold as an ordinary offering so they could get it at a low price. It might be very difficult to establish intent, and I'd bet that most such cases would be chucked out by the CPS for lack of hard evidence before they saw the light of day. By hard evidence, I mean evidence of deliberate attempt to deceive.

Very good ! To be fair, the majority of e bay sellers are reasonably honest, if occasionally misguided. But sellers like this guy and lifeasas-64 give the rest a bad name. Tainted by association, as it were.

Like many people these days, I use internet banking, mainly from my desktop. For the most part, I've had no problem with it, and have found it an extremely useful and convenient resource. Recently my own bank has been pushing for me to download their mobile banking app, apparently in readiness for when the additional security measures are introduced in September this year. That is explained here and is a whole other discussion in and of itself, in terms of inconvenience/annoyance to the customer. But as for the mobile app, I decided to give it a go - thinking, well you never know, it might offer a wider scope of operation in some way. But I'm afraid it was a disappointment. It actually doesn't do anything that can't already be achieved employing ordinary internet banking, and what's more, I found I still didn't need the mobile app when using mobile devices such as a tablet or smartphone. Was still able to, for example, transfer money using a smartphone and accessing internet banking via a google search for the bank's website, in the usual way. As for the new security measures, nowhere do they explain why the app will help in navigating them. From what I can make out, it would seem that for a much larger percentage of on line purchases than at present (42% compared to 2%), the additional security measures will be needed, typically consisting of a unique 6 digit reference being texted to your smartphone, which you then insert onto the relevant part of the screen in the website you're trying to make the purchase from. Still can't see how the app makes it any better. Of course it's tough if you don't have a mobile, or, possibly even more pertinently, if the text is delayed getting through, as often happens.

Very nice too. The 1904 is a harder one to get especially in such a high grade. Not far off BU with no issues. Neat acquisition.

Restrictions like that are why I always use Android devices.

It's this kind of inconvenience they don't take account of before deciding to push ahead with these mostly unnecessary initiatives.

Seller told me it was - although it's of zero importance to me either way. I'm just delighted to have bagged the coin for a very reasonable price.

I was aware thanks. Also Ex Dr A Findlow (hall of fame)

Pleased to have located and bought a decent F164 specimen, now freed from its NGC slab (MS64, No 1754587-007 slabbed 25.7.07). They're actually quite tricky to get, especially in decent grade.

Could be die fill - just a thought.

"That is just the way that system works"

That's ridiculous. It might get £7.50 on e bay.