£400 for a Penny ?

I think a major contributory factor to recent and hard to fathom price inflation, is that there appear to be a growing number of folk with spare money in their pocket, who are perhaps more familiar with internet transcations, i.e. buying without seeing, and seem quite happy to shell out significant sums on trust and perhaps without 360 degree vision. Whether these people learn from their experiences and go on to become seasoned (and more sober) collectors remains to be seen. They may disappear, they may be replaced by a conveyor belt of new talent, or it all might die down a bit. There's no doubt that it is all very inflationary though, and maybe not what the established collector would like, but market forces are market forces ? What do we do, welcome potential new interest ? Deplore the brash invasion ? Belt them with fish ? Trouble is, the sensible one's come on places like here to further their research, but there's always another one who doesn't. My opinion is that anything that has happened before, trend wise, can be forgotten. The internet has changed everything.

Can I just bump up Petition Crown's post of a few weeks ago ?

Yes, well said Sir. I add my voice to the rising clamour for a photograph. Show and tell, show and tell.

See how easy it was to trip me up with just a minor technical hurdle ? Welcome David. Ultimately, this is down to you - the coins you have aren't demanding in terms of their storage, go for what you like the best. Remember, it's supposed to be fun. I use Slabs, Acid free paper envelopes and 2X2 Flips and store them in the long thin boxes specifically designed to take them. Best wishes.

Good evening. There is such a thing as tactical pricing. If you are running an auction, what you want is competing interested bidders - good for you, good for the seller. So maybe what they do, is 'estimate' the price very close to the 'bargain' region, in the hope that watchers will think they may have finally found that elusive El Dorado, because let's face it, hope springs eternal doesn't it ? My opinion, for what it's worth, is that if you think it's a good price at catalogue estimate, you haven't got a prayer of winning it because it's priced to create interest and there will be someone, somewhere who always seems to take it out of your reach.. BNTA member ? Only doing his job - remember, his job is to sell it for the best price he can - as long as he doesn't mis-describe it, caveat emptor. I don't need to go and buy a fish do I ?

It wasn't going to be a slap, I was thinking a big, heavy fish, BOSH - a single catastrophic knock down blow. Interesting side story to that one, they used to call it the Barmaids ruin. So easy to be taken for a crown and then fired at the end of the night 'cos the till roll (or whatever they used) didn't add up. Lovely period though, great designs.

I don't know anything about the trades description act, but if you look at his description carefully, he doesn't make any statements in terms of grading at all. Uses words such as 'average' and 'lovely'. The thing about ebay is people see what they want to see and nothing else. Still love it though, where would we be without it. I've rang the fishmonger James - told him to stand down.

The one that is up for sale 'no returns accepted', which may or may not have been mounted (the edge knocks) and may or may not have been cleaned ? Got to be careful what one says these days, this is only my opinion. If, James, this early in your collecting experience, you pay that amount of money for something you haven't seen, from someone who won't take it back and you don't know, I will hunt you down and club you about the head with a large fish. A Salmon or Cod perhaps. But you weren't going to were you, which is why you posted. Oh, and dig the highly unbelievable sycophantic question..... No returns ?

Erm... The Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers ? 27th Regiment of foot ?

More sophisticated apparently, in terms of security measures. I did read somewhere that there were a silly amount of forgeries of the Elgar note found in circulation.

Alas, I have moved them on. Now if you think shifting a 1787 Shilling in EF is a challenge, try getting rid of half a dozen Lee Enfields... Psst, Mate, wanna buy some rifles......

Can I just at this point, introduce the concept of having one's packets sent to work ? I had a consignment of de-activated Lee Enfield rifles sent to work once - "there's a very interesting package arrived for you, we've all been prodding it, we'd love to know what it was?" Trust me, you wouldn't understand.... Coins are easy though, no need to wait until dark and then furtively dart to the car boot and emerge looking like Chuck Norris, you just walk in the front door whistling with it in your pocket, free as a bird.

You are not entirely unlike the faintly sinister 'Riddler' from the Batman stories. Not from Gotham City are you ?

Looks a little more promising. Eye watering background though, what on earth is that ?

Another way to come at the problem is to weigh it. It should be 24mm in Diameter and weigh 8.35 grams. There are many Brass imitations of these coins in existence. Let us know how you get on ?

I have to disagree with you. Pope Leo bestowed the title Defender of the Faith specifically as a result of Henry VIII writing against Luther - a reward if you like, for defending the faith ? Whilst one could argue that Luther was the catyalst, he didn't bestow the title, wasn't in a position to bestow anything, therefore the person responsible remains, IMO, as Pope Leo X. The faith being defended is Catholicism, but as we know, that didn't suit Henry's libido, so he parted company with Rome etc, etc, etc and so it became a cornerstone of the Protestant Religion and it's coinage. Every man is entitled to his own relationship with his God, whoever that may be and if that doesn't go to show that organised religion is all Bollocks, then I don't know what does. Love and respect to all, as always.

1. Massive fan of the humble Spud myself, in all of it's manifestations. 2. Technically, it was a Catholic I believe, Pope Leo X who bestowed the title on Henry VIII. He subsequently tried to remove it when Henry 'went feral' but by then he wasn't listening and kept it. 3.If you haven't already looked into it, the 1935 Crown is interesting from a military standpoint. It's a very common coin, but it's design, it's story and it's antecedents might fill an evening. 4. When I go down to the garden shed, I take a picture of Mary II with me....

His Lovely wife.....

Are you sure you don't drink ?

You're very welcome Sir. Congratulations on one of the more colourful introductory posts in recent times. If you follow this link to a catalogues and check lot 30, you will see that Engstrom is referred to. I suggest you source a copy of this as it would appear to be the standard reference for material of this nature. The more so if you are going to collect in this area. http://www.wscbooks.com/pdf/Cat_123.pdf There are those on this board who would refer to them as 'Tat', but I would never be so rude myself...

No, doesn't work like that. When pension simplification was introduced several years ago, everyone got very excited because it looked like all bets were going to be off with permitted investments, including residential property. Once evryone sobered up, they realised that you can't regulate 'emotional' investments so they pulled back from allowing it. I worked in that area for a while and there's a tale to tell. Supposedly, somebody wanted to put a dinosaur museum into his pension fund. The ruling was, that the buildings could go in, but the dinosaurs couldn't because they were portable. This ties in somehow (no idea) with the portable antiquities scheme, but the issuing point is that if you can move it, you can't put it in your pension fund. So no coins. If you're running a pension fund, you have to be able to account for a value and liquidate the assets within very quickly. How can you do that with coins ? You can't have art either, although once upon a time you could, 25 years ago before they woke up to what was going on - yachts too. I think I'm right in saying that HMRC have to be notified of every yacht purchase - it's what all the best crims buy first... Maybe after a Bentley

Difficult James, very difficult, but if you put a gun to my head, I'd say high end copper and bronze - there seems to be a lot of interest. But only the very very best and it can take a bit of patience waiting for them to show. I haven't bought anything for 6 months + That has been the hardest thing for me to learn in the hobby, focus and patience. I've made many costly mistakes along the way, what's that quote; "Experience is a marvellous teacher, but she sends such terrific bills" Now, when I buy a coin, I write the moeny off and forget about it. If, somewhere down the line, I, or maybe one of my sons has a pleasant surprise, well, happy days. Keep going though, if you want a wreath crown, go for it, why not ?

There are a million and one different ways to answer that question. What budget/spend are we talking about ? £100 a year, £1,000, £10,000 ?

Given previous volunteered information, I think the name 'Perkins' must be considered quite seriously ? Reference Mary's portraiture, I actually think it's not a bad likeness ? Scrabbling around to recover Anne's dignity, IMO, we numismatists can thank Anne for three things; 1. The 'E' mintmark and the act of union with Scotland - although not ratified by parliament for nearly a century. 2. Stealing a huge amount of silver from the Spanish in Vigo bay. 3. And ending the run of colossal noses that had been going on since the advent of milled coinage ?