Peckris

the last figure i heard of from the mint is that around 250,000 have been accidentally released into circulation. Hm. Similar mintage to the 1950 penny then? And we know how rare THOSE are

I agree with you Declan. I really would not feel at all comfortable selling one of those coins on E-Bay or elsewhere. To me personally, it is little more than profiteering. The same applies to me for the '20p Mule' as well. I am fortunate enough to have obtained one from my change. However, I could never personally sell it for a grossly over inflated price simply to gain profit. Hm. How about this scenario : you're an impoverished schoolkid in 1970. You've already been lucky enough to find a halfway decent 1926ME penny, and you get another one - not so good - in your change. Wouldn't you sell the spare any which way you can, to get some cash? Ok, eBay wasn't around then, but if it had been, are you saying you wouldn't have popped it up there? I'm not judging you, but I'd be interested in your reply to this!

That is a beaut How do you know that, az?

The problem with combining dealing and collecting is that you have or want the same items that your customers want. The very nice rare piece you can't bear to part with is the same desirable object in their eyes too. The easy to get pieces that you wouldn't mind parting with on the grounds that you can always replace them with another are consequently difficult to sell because as common items there is always a chance they can pick one up on ebay for 99p instead of wasting £2 by purchasing from a dealer. I never found this a big problem - such coins would be part of a larger auction lot and I would bid accordingly based on a mix of 'dealer / collector'. Then siphon off the coins for me, and list the remainder. Also, if I already had the coin, I'd either swap (if better) and list the older one, or simply list the newer purchase with no qualms. If I was buying single coins, I would know from the start if one was for my own collection, and potential customers for it simply weren't part of the equation. Then again, my dealing wasn't professional enough to be more than an extended hobby - I never relied on it as sole income. That would certainly have created different attitudes.

I'm fairly amazed you have a computer with an internet connection! Still, you obviously have your priorities worked out Wireless can be a bit flaky through 60 yards of wet trees sometimes, but it works. We'll have to get a bit more imaginative one day when we get our little piece of land. Then we'll have to learn how to make our own electrickery, and I think you can do something with satellites for internet. I have seen someone who made a dish from a wok. Wi-Fry? lol If I'm honest I would never pay that amount for a 5p Coin. Rarity or not. If I were to find one in my change then that would be a different matter, it could go with my other Decimal Coins in my collection, but I would never personally purchase one. I'm with you, RobJ. Me neither

Ouch. I bought about half a dozen from Paul Wincott for around £2 apiece 10 years or so ago. I'm sure I might still have a spare one somewhere. I'd love to buy one from you, Mr Peckris! I could put ex-Paul Wincott in my database somewhere... My memory was good - it WAS PW and it WAS £2 apiece. Now, the question is... where are they? I will have a look sometime but don't hold your breath just yet! Hold on, didn't you say you just bought one?

Your 1802 penny is a tiny silver coin, right? (Copper pennies, halfpennies and farthings exist but dated 1806 and 1807). To be honest, apart from great rarities, condition is everything and we would need to see some pictures. Pretty much all coins before George VI in top grades are worth something - some quite a lot - but that 'top grades' means coins that have barely circulated and look pretty much in pristine condition. However, many coins that have circulated a little would be worth something too, though a lot less (I'm talking about the Very Fine "VF" grade here). The vast majoritiy of coins you encounter are even more worn - Fine "F" or less - and only worth a modest amount. If you want to research most of your coins, your nearest reference library should have a copy of Spinks' "Coins Of England" which lists just about everything.

There is a national tendency to concentrate on the negative... But let's win the Sydney Test first before diving into clouds of despair

I think this is a classic example of where a microscope gets TOO close - the faint H is more visible on your original close-up (1st post)

I'm fairly amazed you have a computer with an internet connection! Still, you obviously have your priorities worked out

Ouch. I bought about half a dozen from Paul Wincott for around £2 apiece 10 years or so ago. I'm sure I might still have a spare one somewhere.

I feel I can just see a faint H - it's nearer the second 8 than the first.

Ah, by that time we'll all be using a version of Mondex cards and coins will be redundant. Though then, of course, like vinyl records, they will become the exclusive preserve of collectors.

(testing)

Yes, Happy Noo Year to all !

I joined briefly in 2005 before rediscovering these joys in 2009, and back then Master JMD was one of the leading lights here (quite a youngster wasn't he?). Whatever happened to the young fellow?

oh dear, that would be me then! Me too - there aren't many coins from the 1950s (1959 halfpenny, 1953 brass 3d and 6d, 1959 sixpence.. perhaps) that you can get that cheap.

Are you implying that we don't, you git?

Interesting. In Liverpool the myth (was it?) was that South Walesians - especially in The Valleys - were friendly, especially to fellow-working class Brits. But on the other hand, perhaps everyone hates the Scots

This thread explains the various varieties of small 10p. http://www.predecimal.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=4566&st=0&p=35535&hl=aardhawk&fromsearch=1entry35535 It's all a bit of a mountain out of a molehill - especially when you look at all the extremely scarce and rare large 10p varieties that don't make a ripple anywhere these days.

Beautifully worded. That's exactly what we got. A new design across all the denominations ... a bit on each (Jeez, decent coin designers must be hard to find these days )

But never fear - keep it for 50 years and you should get back more than you paid for it

My family variation on that was 'enough blue to make a sailor a pair of trousers'. Yes, we were told the sailor variant also - except it was 'mend' in both cases, not 'make' (perhaps it was a smaller patch of blue sky? ) My mother always said "It's going to be sunny if there's enough sky to make an Englishman's trousers" followed by "Bloody Englishmen". This was all in Welsh of course. She was North Wales I guess? As a Scouser we were always told that they were the "unfriendly lot" - mind you, putting up with scousers trailing through your country must be a bit irritating! Liverpool was never really an English town, before the great influx of Irish during the potato famine, it was known as "Little Wales beyond the Dee" Both sets of my grandparents were Welsh speaking Liverpool Welsh living in Walton. When I was a lad in Bootle, we had three churches with the notice boards in Welsh David :-) The accent is certainly an unholy mix of Welsh and Irish

I don't trust any software that they haven't created a Mac version of And oh boy - I'd forgotten just how plug-ugly the XP system is!! (Window design, fonts, colour schemes, etc - didn't anyone bother to tell Microsoft "Hey, people have to LIVE with this awfulness!"?) I will continue to use a bespoke database system designed and built up over many years Ok, it might not give me values for coin types I don't actually own, but for those I do, it lists valuations going back to the mid-60s. Not to mention a cunning algorithm that returns a valuation for all mid-grade coins

Good point. I don't normally collect non-coins but I liked that design so much I actually do have one large silver Britannia!