Peckris

Yes, that looks a distinct possibility, probability even.

Port and kippers? Euwww.

Not in a month of Sundays.... A 1949 silver threepence? I would!! Actually, at less than half the advertised price it would make a good choice for someone looking for a high grade example. The obverse is more or less unaffected, and there may be something that could be done to 'treat' the red on the reverse.

The Royal Mint's standards have really slipped in recent years. But if it gives you a theme for a collection...

What about the bicenntial quarter? got one of them as well, probably from a roll. Extremely common. They made over a billion of them. For Bicentennials (quarter, dollar, half dollar) the only ones with value over face are the proof/silver uncirculated ones. You can tell this because they have an "S" mintmark. For US coins, there aren't many true rarities after 1955. You've got a few condition rarities but that's about it, the silver coins are worth silver scrap (1964 and prior halves, quarters and dimes are all 90% silver, 1965-1970 halves are 40% silver) but the rest of the intended for circulation stuff is really only worth anything in high grade. There are a couple of varieties (1970 no S proof dime) that are worth quite a bit but most of those there are only a handful known. However, with US coins there are varieties/rarities aplenty when you go back a couple more years. For example the 1955 doubled-die penny, the 1942/1 Mercury dime, the 1943 pennies struck on copper planchets, etc. are all truly scarce coins and command big bucks. If you really want to get into collecting minor varieties, pick up some Morgan dollars and look for VAM varieties. The Morgan dollar is essentially America's bun head penny in that there are so many documented varieties with near date, far dates, die breaks, etc. some which are so tiny that no one notices to others that can turn a $40 coin into a $400 coin. I asked about them. unfortunatly (for me) he sold all of them at a fair). he also didn't have any 1966 pennys except a few in the scrap which were YUCKY You won't find it difficult to get a decent 1966 penny.

I just checked the Royal Mint website, which lists 2011 mintage figures for £2, 50p and 20p, but none for the £1. It may be that it was a late mintage, and therefore they have suddenly started flowing onto eBay?

I agree. But good spot!

Nice bit of wheeling and dealing I think you should have got more than £15 for an EF 1854 penny - but it probably was a bit short of EF?

Thanks for the insight into US platinum coins. It's all a complex area. However, the point I was trying to make was to do with coins whose numismatic value (usually from scarcity) will always exceed the BV - to give an extreme example, the value of a 1933 penny will never be affected by the price of copper. There are sometimes exceptional circumstances - your reference to platinum is nowhere near as extreme as what happened to silver in the abortive Bunker Hunt attempt to corner the market in 1980. For a few months, BU George VI florins went from £2 - £5 to £12 across the board. I can't remember if prices were quoted for EF and VF also, but by the end of the year, prices had reverted much to what they were. Gold has risen six-fold? seven-fold? over the last fifteen years, which is also extensive but not extreme (remember too that gold went DOWN considerably in the 90s); plenty of time for the numismatic market to react. Interestingly that didn't happen to your platinum series, but maybe that is a more specialist market? And perhaps the US market is different in these respects than here in the UK? Your reference to VF 1931 halfcrowns is interesting. They would, I feel, react to changes in the price of silver, as any numismatic value (not that much!) is borderline in relation to the BV. You will note that EF/UNC 1925/1930 halfcrowns don't leap about as the BV changes, which is the point I was trying to make.

Didn't Ray Stevens sing about that in 1975? There's only one thing to say about that coin - "Don't look, Ethel!" "But 'Twas too late, she'd already been mooned!" "Flashed her right there in front of the shock absorbers"

Hi Penguin, welcome to the forum! With reference to your original question, I never upload pics here, rather I link to my Photobucket pics, you can do the same with all similar online photo sites, many of which are free I believe ... Do you specialise in any particular area? And sorry to be ignorant but what or who was HB?? Thankyou Paulus,no specialist area it used to be gin and tonic!HB is a grade of pencil when i started school if you had one you were classed as rich!I have afair few british coins that need a proper appraisal lots of pennys so i try and concentrate on mistakes flaws of which i have a fair few.I also have amixture of euro coins my oldest being a 1877 dos centavo peru coin no gold but plenty of silver.My oldest penny 1899 wide date haven,t checked with mr freeman on the details but its one of the widest 9,s i,ve seen!I will endevour to get some photo,s posted don,t expect wonders with my coins but you decide!Look forward to hearing your area cheers mate! Where on earth did you go to school? I remember HB as the bog standard grade they handed out! If they were B or BB etc, they smudged like crazy and were really only for artists; if they were H or HH etc, they didn't smudge at all but got progressively fainter to see though they would sharpen to a very fine point (I think they were for mathematicians). H stood for 'Hard', while B stood for 'Soft'. No, I never understood that either... B = 'black', as I recall for my O level in TD (technical drawing). We drew feint construction lines in 6H and then drew the finished lines over them in 3H (chisel point). We were told by our TD teacher that HB pencils were for writing (he would throw them out the window if anyone had the temerity to use them for drawing - the pencil not the pupil, that is!) and B pencils were for 'girls'. Very sexist back in the 70s, I know. I'm just quoting. So he was saying "Girls prefer blacks"? Very non-PC in the Noughties

Didn't Ray Stevens sing about that in 1975? There's only one thing to say about that coin - "Don't look, Ethel!"

Other than as a blocked die variety you mean? What I mean is that no stop varieties are usually associated with no date vaieties. i.e there's b***** all detail in the first place. Blocked dies are the usual reason. You might, but it depends on whether the variety was incorporated as a result of someone informing them. Every year I put in a few suggestions, some are used and others not. You have to give the reason so the claim can be verified by a second opinion otherwise you can imagine what the result would be if all the claimed errors/varieties were included (The Elizabeth II brass 3d dated 1952 from another thread springs to mind). Whether they would keep details of the informant is another matter. Informant! Makes us sound like a copper's nark..

Oh p-p-p-p-p-please!

Hi Penguin, welcome to the forum! With reference to your original question, I never upload pics here, rather I link to my Photobucket pics, you can do the same with all similar online photo sites, many of which are free I believe ... Do you specialise in any particular area? And sorry to be ignorant but what or who was HB?? Thankyou Paulus,no specialist area it used to be gin and tonic!HB is a grade of pencil when i started school if you had one you were classed as rich!I have afair few british coins that need a proper appraisal lots of pennys so i try and concentrate on mistakes flaws of which i have a fair few.I also have amixture of euro coins my oldest being a 1877 dos centavo peru coin no gold but plenty of silver.My oldest penny 1899 wide date haven,t checked with mr freeman on the details but its one of the widest 9,s i,ve seen!I will endevour to get some photo,s posted don,t expect wonders with my coins but you decide!Look forward to hearing your area cheers mate! Where on earth did you go to school? I remember HB as the bog standard grade they handed out! If they were B or BB etc, they smudged like crazy and were really only for artists; if they were H or HH etc, they didn't smudge at all but got progressively fainter to see though they would sharpen to a very fine point (I think they were for mathematicians). H stood for 'Hard', while B stood for 'Soft'. No, I never understood that either...

It took me a few years of contact before I got Spink to recognise the 1920-1926 obverse as a new obverse, and to include the 1946 die flaw penny. And even then, it took a reproduced Coin News article and photographic evidence for the former (they still got it wrong!), and a scan of Gouby for the latter. I believe they will act, but it could be a long slow process for which you will need persistence.

Hi Penguin, welcome to the forum! With reference to your original question, I never upload pics here, rather I link to my Photobucket pics, you can do the same with all similar online photo sites, many of which are free I believe ... Do you specialise in any particular area? And sorry to be ignorant but what or who was HB?? I don't wish to confirm Dave's impression of my antiquity but I think HB refers to a pencil - in other words Penguin is admitting to being someone unused to "this 'ere modern technology" (my apologies if I've read it wrong, Penguin!)

Don't you mean "peanuts for penguins", Peter? Oh wait, they eat fish

Do you mean uploading, here? You only get 150k per post, so either edit the size, resolution and compression of your photo to make it fit within that, or use a photo hosting web service such as photobucket or image shack and post the links instead. You can always post your obverse and reverse in separate posts to keep within the '150k per post' limit. I tend to find that making my pictures around 600x600 pixels in size, no more than 72dpi resolution, and using a compression just under halfway between lowest and highest quality, my pictures are less than 150k (or if they are a bit bigger, the forum software will cut them down to size anyway).

Traditionally guides have printed a '-' under grades where a coin doesn't have a value above bullion, which I've always thought was fair enough. It's coins that have a numismatic value where a problem creeps in - ideally one would like to see "BV * 2" (for example), but the market doesn't seem to work that way. Obviously the numismatic value will always be above BV, but by how much? In a rising gold market, collectors wouldn't necessarily see that as a reason to pay a vastly increased price just because the BV has gone up, especially as they will know that the gold price can drop again just as sharply. As a working example - let's say BV starts as X and goes up to X*4 over a few years; a coin's listing might start out as : F £(X*2) VF £(X*4) EF £(X*10) UNC £(X*18) How should it be a few years later when X has increased 4 times? Would a collector pay £(X*8) for a specimen in merely Fine? I doubt it. £(X*4+) would be more realistic. And VF perhaps £(X*6). EF certainly not £(X*40) when the original EF price was purely based on 'scarce numismatic' value and not BV. I think BV does skew the market, but when a coin acquires a purely numismatic value, it's less affected by that, but one would see a 'compression' occurring, with the lower grades rising to reflect BV more than higher grades. And that effect would reverse if and when BV dropped.

Wouldn't it be better to wait for 6.to ?

Yes, it does look a bit rough, like a casting. He also has a 1700 crown that has the same problem methinks. It could just be the photo but with coins of that price I wouldn't want to take a chance TBH.

Very well-written article - compelling reading. Does make you wonder though, if he planned to give it to the nation, why hadn't he already given the collection to a museum with the proviso of unlimited access for himself?

...

Welcome to the forums Sword You obviously have a good eye - those are two lovely crowns. And better, in my opinion, to have two like that, rather than a dozen in VF or less. (Post-1816, I mean - early milled is a different kettle of fish, for which you'd need VERY deep pockets! )