Peckris

There was a thread recently by Mongo on exactly this topic. Can somebody link to it as I'm on my way out. I'm not aware of such a topic; I can see no other threads in this forum for some reason (it's set to show all). In the thread index, there's a dark blue/green top and bottom line. On the bottom line is a tiny white 'Click here to show filter options' button. If you click that, you can set parameters for what is displayed. One of the defaults is 'From the last 30 days'. As this particular sub-forum doesn't get posted in very often, probably no-one has made a new topic in the last month, which is why you don't see any.

I have a nicely toned prooflike 1893, and I've long meant to look up which version it is, but as yet I haven't bothered.

Now what do we do? Presumably go into frenzied posting to make up for yesterday.................. unfortunately I've nothing to report LOL. I reloaded your first reply about 5 times yesterday Rob, as it seemed to be blank. Each reload took several minutes. NOW I see what you were up to!! Haha very funny.

Even if the "D" in DJMonty stands for "Dave", you're still safe with me Your chosen hobby is a good one, with a lot of enthusiasts. The small tub you have will hopefully kick-start your ambition to collect coins - you've had some good advice, I'll only add one thing : collect in the highest grade you can afford (and if you need any help in grading, that book in the advert above, "Grading British Coins", is a fantastic place to start, and well worth buying and perusing).

Very snarky. If he wants to guarantee a minimum price, why not put it on with a reserve? Sounds like he wants to have his cake and eat it. As for pulling it, what is the latest you can pull a coin on eBay before the auction ends? I bet it's a lot later than 24 hours to go! An auction is an auction, for heaven's sake - you have to take the rough with the smooth. If he wants to avoid the rough, he should put his coins up for sale as BIN only.

Very snarky. If he wants to guarantee a minimum price, why not put it on with a reserve? Sounds like he wants to have his cake and eat it. As for pulling it, what is the latest you can pull a coin on eBay before the auction ends? I bet it's a lot later than 24 hours to go! An auction is an auction, for heaven's sake - you have to take the rough with the smooth. If he wants to avoid the rough, he should put his coins up for sale as BIN only.

Or I have a sad vacuous life which I spend entirely on eating nothing but pizza while staring at a computer in my Mom's basement. Apple do an abacus app now? Sure! Excel started on Apple originally after all...

How on earth does the 'middle man' make any kind of profit? Considering the banks wouldn't be paying more than face value for coins they are handing over to the public at face value.

As Spink rates them extremely rare, I hardly think they're underestimated!

"Little actual wear"? Methinks the seller is a bit blinded by that psychedelic purple background

Wow, a range from GVF to a 'technical' mint state. We've never had such a wide range of opinion before! Just goes to show how particularly difficult the silver series from 1920 to 1926 is to grade accurately.

Here is a slide show that you might find interesting. http://www.usmint.gov/mint_tours/?action=vtShell Fascinating - thanks for that. For me, the most interesting part was how 'rough' the planchet looked after the rimming process and before being impressed with the design. Which proves that all the lustre comes from the die / strike and none from the planchet itself.

Do you have viber for the iphone Stuart? Freecalls to anyone and anywhere in the world if they also have it installed (like moi) also another good wee app is Touch (sounds all pornographic now) viber and touch lol Anyhoo Touch is like a free messenger and you can send small files/pics/sms/video etc to another touch user worldwide free of charge. 1926 GVF for me, wear to the Lions tail and nose as was poointed out. OBV being better then the REV I think you can set your iPhone to viber instead of ring if you're somewhere where a ring tone would be a nuisance

Yes, they were. And the word FARTHING is a bit of a giveaway as to the denomination! A few lustred examples seem to have slipped through for most years, but are sure it's genuine? There are many artificially lustred farthings.

Yes - a magnified scan knocks off up to a whole grade in my experience. So I'd say that was a clear EF. In hand it might prove even better.

I would guess it was done just after minting. I say that from the evidence of a W&W lot in the 90s that featured many UNC coins from the 1950s, in large multiples for each date, and clearly taken from mint bags - the 1957 halfpennies were all 'calm sea', about 30 or 40 of them, the most I've ever seen in one place.

A census of eBay? Why do I suddenly feel tired!!

I would regard the 1957 'calm sea' 'wavy sea' varieties hover between major and minor - yes, you have to look at just one feature (the waves), but it is a glaringly obvious difference in my opinion and I'd personally rank it as a major variety. What I would term 'micro' are the precise differences between the ship on the reverse of each date of Elizabeth II halfpenny. Each one is a minutely different size, but not interesting at all (to me, anyway). As for the precise position of the 7 in the date on 'calm sea' halfpennies, that seems the ultimate in 'micro' to me.

I know what you mean but am still not sure it will show anything other than the existence of the said coin. My rare (I've never come across another) 1935 proof penny is slabbed by NGC. What would this tell someone searching slabbed 1935 coins, beyond the fact that they do exist? It certainly wouldn't indicate rarity. I'm not trying to be awkward, just pointing out the hurdles to interpreting these figures in any meaningful way. Slabbed statistics are worse than useless. Different grades for the same coin counts as two coins if resubmitted; some slabbed coins don't exist because the variety is wrong (though there might actually be a genuine example in a different slab; many coins are removed from slabs and so may be double counted if slabbed and unslabbed populations are combined; NGC used to have several designations for the same generic piece (1797 pennies spring to mind) based on whether someone remembered to put a space in the label detail; slabs get crossed over from one TPG to another because their registry sets are only allowed to be in the host's slabs, so get double counted. All in all the statistics are highly unreliable and best ignored. All it says is that there is likely (but not guaranteed) to be a certain number of an item around. Something we already knew because the reference books included the item in the first place. Surely post decimalisation for UK coins mintage figures are no longer valid. What we should be consentrating on is survival figures, which will skew heavily in favour of rarer coins. That's what I meant when I spoke about a survey - nothing to do with slabbing. What we can safely assume is that vast quantities of low grade, common coins got melted down; and as you say, the rarer items got pulled out of circulation, especially in lower grades, and will survive in higher quantities in proportion to the commoner items, than before decimalisation. And we can also assume that people who kept some predecimal coins for sentimental reasons, will have mostly low grade common items (especially judging by the kind of lots that find their way to provincial auction houses). Finally, we can assume that most low grade coins with silver in, have been withdrawn and melted down for bullion value. The distorting factor is high grade items (AUNC+ from 1937, or EF+ before than). With the exception of mid-60s stuff onwards, plus a few anomalous dates like 1959 sixpences, 1957E and 1959E shillings, 1953 stuff, perhaps also 1936 and 1937, the rest of it is subject to the following factors : 1) they didn't turn up during late 60s collecting fever (in change) unless you were very lucky 2) they will always be more in demand which will push prices up even if they are proportionately less rare than they once were What we really need to know, in my opinion, is the true scarcity of high grade, non-rare dates. Some have survived in large quantities due to bullion reasons - silver from 1914-1919, and silver from 1942-1946, but what is the true comparative scarcity of everything else, especially in relation to known scarcities and rarities?

i think its fair to say 1 of the coins is on a par with your coin dave......the other 2 are not as bad as the coin mr platt is advertising.....maybe theyre between the two.......will get the camera out at the weekend and post some pics so that you can judge. I have decided to give it a go and have sorted out a couple of very low grade shillings. will post those results too, dave you recommend 10 secs of dip and then washing.......any minimum amount of time for the rinse? if the rinse is too short could the dip attack the coins surface? ski Yes, 10 seconds of dip is the maximum I'd try, to avoid damage. And yes, rinse it thoroughly - if you hold under a cold water tap for a good half minute, remembering to turn the coin slightly so the part of the rim you're holding gets rinsed too (or just immerse it in a jar of cold water for a short time then rinse off).

And this has been dipped to long 120985595521 someone insert url please Here: http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/120985595521;jsessionid=4058D5BB0C16E77C78265FC07B93800A?ru=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.ebay.co.uk%2Fsch%2Fi.html%3F_sacat%3D0%26_nkw%3D120985595521%26_rdc%3D1 Horrid. Hard to see that toning back, ever.

im sorry but ive got no stomach for that thought. Nor I, for a Hershey Bar!

Sorry, I thought your 8 were just referring to 1957 halfpennies. What are the 4 calm sea varieties? Freeman only has one. Calm sea varieties 7 points to bead 7 points to left of bead 7 points to space blunter 7 points to bead actually I have just consulted Mr Groom's book and there are 3 more 7 points to right of bead blunt 7 to left of bead blunt 7 to right of bead The initial 4 are mentioned in CCGB. So they are - as a footnote. I see they are also in David Sealy's 1970 survey. Not sure anyone who is after a 'calm sea' would be particularly interested in those micro-varieties? You'd have to be a heroic completist to go after those!

That circular patch to the left of the trident is an absolute clincher isn't it. Nice coin.

It's all about being a completist. As soon as a variety is found, everyone has a gap in their collection to be filled. As Peck says, they're not that rare (VR Court estimates 6:1 in favour of the more common variety) so can be picked up by the eagle-eyed at a very reasonable price. There's always a good feeling from paying standard money for a rarer variety. Just reading this thread and thought that, from the completist point of view, there are four 1944 penny varieties. The narrow date mint darkened, the wider date mint darkened, the narrow date not mint darkened/light hypo, and the wider date not mint darkened/light hypo. By 'narrow date' and 'wider date', I presume you're referring to the 'recut waves, clearly double exergue line' varieties? I think of it as top of the second 4 pointing TO a wave and, alternatively, pointing to the left of a wave. Am I wrong to assume the date is wider, is it just that the waves are cut differently? If you re-read this entire thread again (I don't have the energy!) you may well find there is a micro difference in date width - however, most references to the variety refer to the recut waves and clear doubled exergue lines.