1949threepence

I've seen quite a few well circulated 1953 pennies on e bay. There were just over a million minted, so there is no reason to suppose they didn't circulate in a similar manner to say, the 1951 threepence, or the 1952 sixpence, which are of similar mintage.

It's the new design from 2008. They're all like that I'm sorry to say. Not a fault with your coin.

I'm always buying coins from both e bay, and dealers. I don't sell at all. There has never been an occasion yet when I've actually failed to receive an item that I've ordered. However, recently, I've noticed that Royal Mail are increasingly leaving recorded delivery packages in my porch, without making any attempt whatever to get them signed for. This is despite the fact that the recorded delivery orange sticker actually says, "signed for" on it. Undelivered recorded items are supposed to be taken back to the Post Office and a card left, so the recipient can go down to the Post Office with ID, and sign for them later ~ as I'm sure you all know. I shall be opting for the insured Special Delivery where at all possible from now on, despite the extra cost. I think e bay require all items over £50 to be sent this way anyway. Anybody else experienced this problem ?

Somebody might correct me ifm wrong, but I don't think ther double florin has ever officially been demonetised. It was only ever produced between 1887 and 1890, as part of an early attempt at decimalisation, and as such would have been worth 20p in 1971. B

With what looks like the Star of David on it, I'd have said it was Israeli. But as Israel wasn't founded until 1948, and the coin is dated 1885, that is not possible. Even so, it might be Middle Eastern in origin.

A diary of coinfairs can be found here

Interesting & informative link, josie. Thank you

I've received one like that. Buried under mounds of sellotape. It was like breaking into Fort Knox just to get at it. Let alone survey the damage.

I can never understand the value of advertisers spamming private forums. They're never going to sell anything to the members. All they do is annoy them.

Leave them the way they are !!! To be honest, you are best not to clean them. Cleaning coins is an art, and after one or two negative experiences, it's not something I would ever undertake again. Cleaning can easily damage coins, and thus reduce their intrinsic worth. In addition, never ever polish coins. You will immediately render them almost totally worthless.

It's almost certainly a proof set, as they appeared in red boxes. One is shown advertised here Obviously, it will be worth something, but the tarnishing you refer to may detract from its value. If you could upload an image, we might be able to give you a more defnite idea of its value.

Wow, yes that sounds truly heroic - and should definitely be an award. On the subject of "actions", I heard an interesting interview with an Arab commentator about the whole "release of the Lockerbie bomber" thing. It seems that governments, diplomats, secret service, etc (but not us, the common or garden mugs) know certain data. To summarise : 1. The USA shot down an Iranian passenger jet in 1988. 2. As a "tit for tat", terrorists sponsored by Iran blew up a plane over Lockerbie. 3. Libya knew about, and sponsored, the Lockerbie atrocity, but it wasn't a Libyan who did it. 4. Libya in the 1990s sought rehabilitation with the West, for economic reasons. 5. As part of a deal, Britain and the US demanded Libyan accountability for Lockerbie. 6. Libya handed over two suspects, though everyone involved knew these were not the guilty parties. 7. There was a trial and one of the men was found guilty. We know the rest. It all puts the hysteria and muck-raking of the last few weeks into a different perspective, doesn't it? There's a lot going on behind our backs, Peckris. I suspect that the release of Al Megrahi, for example, has much to do with lucrative trade deals involving Libyan oil. In his case it doesn't really matter, as he is close to death anyway. So I'm not sure what all the furore is about, especially as he's probably not a guilty party at all. He was just a fall guy. The true culprits are almost certainly Iranian.

The NHS is undoubtedly a huge national asset and does extremely well under great daily pressure. That said, they are beset with all manner of time/money wasting problems, not to mention ridiculous targets and political correctness, which is irritating for all concerned. Personally, I have free membership of BUPA through my job. But by great good fortune, I've never had to use it, or the NHS, save for trivial complaints. My Father, however, had triple by pass surgery last year, at the age of 65 ~ all free, and it's given him a new lease of life in terms of increased energy. I think that a mixture of public (NHS) and private is the best way forward. The USA would do well to emulate our NHS with something similar, free at the point of delivery. Let's just hope they pay their nurses better than we pay ours

The jet stream has been further South for the last three Summers, including this one. Hence the increased rainfall. I don't know about the weather events of several centuries ago, but I do know that this country has always been liable to flooding, given the right conditions. Many houses were built on flood plains during the relatively dry 70's, 80's and 90's. Their owners got a shock in recent years. It is also bad news to live near a river. The West country is especially prone to serious flooding. The cause of the floods at Boscastle in August 2004, closely mirrored those at Lynmouth in August 1952, when many lost their lives.

Paying right away for stuff then their taking two weeks to ship when I paid via payPoo immediately. Poorly wrapped items, no communication etc. Poor, surly or non existent comms, really gets up my nose. I rarely return to the same e bayer again ~ it would have to be an exceptional item for me to do so. "Paypoo"

Thanks for the vote of confidence guys. I'm going to have to be prepared to give up some heavy cash if I am serious about getting it, as the price is already £155 with over 4 days to go. Not sure what it will end up at, but it will be a lot

Thanks Mat ~ yes, it's the first thing I thought of when I read Historic Coinage's reply. I like the idea of picking the items up personally from the sorting office. At least that way there shouldn't be any problems (he said, somewhat optimistically, but with slight reservations) Declan, I knew I'd seen your name somewhere as soon as I saw it I've had stuff off you in the past, and was always impressed by your courtesy, attention to detail, very pleasant feedback and the sprig of lavender with the coin. Good to see you here

I have had more problems with sellers in the USA than anyone overseas. In fact I have had no problems with overseas sellers. I buy mostly from Ukraine or Russia now, usually not coins though - usually music, art etc. My more interesting purchases have been from countries like Indonesia, Hong Kong, China etc, but everything arrived just fine and I was a pleased camper with the goods and shipping. I do buy banknotes from a seller in Thailand about 3-4 times a year, he prices stuff fairly and ships securely and I have gotten very nice stuff otherwise difficult to find. That's interesting. I don't buy from overseas, not necessarily because I don't trust the seller, but because of possible difficulties and complications with the post. What particular problems have you had with USA sellers ?

Just very occasionally you encounter a bad 'un on e bay. It doesn't happen often, fortunately. But it is one of the reasons I pay by credit card through e bay, rather than debit. Doing that, at least you won't have parted with any money at the time you raise the dispute. I also never buy off anyone with less than 99.5% positive rep, nor anyone based overseas. Colin, may we ask you to name and shame the seller, so that we can avoid him in future ?

£62.85 for a year. If you want your PO Box mail delivered to your home address it costs £62.90 bringing the total to only £125.75. See here: http://www.royalmail.com/portal/rm/jump2?c...ediaId=52100710 OK, thanks for that, HC

Just as a matter of interest, Mat, do you know how much a PO Box costs ?

Yep, I'd say Sally was worthy of a VC for such heroic and courageous actions, above and beyond the call of duty. Well done her !!!

Indeed. Nearly all coins come in small PVC packs, often stapled shut. I suppose they are just about OK for transporting and therefore short periods, but I don't like them at all. I did receive a coin recently which was inserted between two glued pieces of cardboard, with a coin sized hole in the centre of the two, so you could see obverse and reverse from either side. Keeping the coin in place were two pieces of a sort of gauzy linen stretched tight across the holes, with the coin lying loosely inside. Not sure what the substance was, but it seemed to be inert, as far as I could tell.

I'm not sure Mike, as I'm not an expert on notes. But for referece I did once have a Lowther £20 note, with the serial Number (I think HA85), but the numbers following were all sevens 777777. Spent it as I was short of dosh, but now wish I'd kept it. Was virtually new as well.

Quite recently a fake 1905 shilling was well documented on here, and now another quite high grade '05 is up for sale on e bay. It can be seen here I'd like to make a bid for it, but do any of you folks think it might be a fake ? I can't see any obvious problems with it, but I might be missing something. As the date is notorious for fakes, I'd strongly welcome your opinion.