Peckris

The one that this thread refers to sold for 68 quid and looked in good condition Yes but it had no dust jacket. Pushes the value WAY down. No, I don't understand why either...

Bah. The pound is a johnny-come-lately, only 200 years old. It's the 2,000 year old penny we should be fighting for!!

"Yes folks, you too can pay five times face value, plus 4x face for postage, to own a former 20 pence piece, now impersonating a piece of crud!! Roll up, roll up..."

Possibly due to public sentiment Derek - like the decision to 'save the tanner' and get rid of the double florin?

DO NOT volunteer for VAT unless or until you have to!!! Keep your head below the parapet is a good operating motto. That's one agency you don't want to arouse. I have just one other piece of advice. If you've already decided on the value of your operating stock, then don't deal in low-value items. Yes, the profit margins can be good (after all you can buy such things for very low prices), but you will spend so much time cataloguing, photographing / describing, packing up and posting off, in the end it's just not cost-effective. I speak from experience! Better to make £200 profit on one coin you sell for £1200, than £200 profit on 50 coins you sell for £400.

First, I appreciate this is a genuine approach, unlike some of the spam we get, so thanks for that. But, it's not a question of "images not up to the standard we're used to" - it's just that as potential buyers we really do need to be able to "satisfy ourselves before purchase". Without good images (such as is nearly always uploaded on eBay for any coin worth its salt) we simply cannot do that. With good images of the higher value or better items, you might be surprised at some of the bids you attract. But most of us can't afford to bid on "the hope of a surprise or two"!

I really think that too much is made of the D Day February 1971 date. It's just one day out of : 1966 - announcement of decimalisation and all coins will be dated 1967 from now on 1968 - introduction of 10p and 5p and sale of the blue wallets 1969 - demonetisation of halfpenny and halfcrown, introduction of 50p, introduction of dual pricing August 1971 - D Day 2, demonetisation of penny and threepenny bits So February 1971 is just a tad overplayed IMO Youngster!! It was two bob (10p) when I started, though I believe mild was rather less. I could never get over the woeful lack of grasp of even basic economics that caused people to make such fatuous claims. Even if - as they probably did - shopkeepers 'rounded up' to the nearest 1/2p, that was for one month only, and you can hardly blame a few years of inflation on the fractions of one penny that occurred in one single month!!!

You're right, it looks interesting. But sadly the pictures are woefully inadequate for me to make any kind of intelligent bid, so I will pass on this occasion.

Or maybe WE imitated THEIRS? After all, those were the days of a pan-European culture, with every tinpot king or queen answerable to some pontiff in Avignon or Rome.

It was fairly dreadful at the very end of Alf Ramsey's regime. Failure to beat Poland and qualify for the 1974 World Cup was pretty grim. Going completely off subject, if you remember that superb goal scored by Bobby Charlton against Mexico in the 1966 World Cup, just cast your eyes up behind the goal he scored it in and you will see a small 11 year old boy picking his nose. That's me! Anyway, returning to subject, mediaeval Europe was not noted for its learning on anything other than ecclesiastical matters and the heraldic leopard/lion was probably just based on a folk memory of a big cat as almost nobody had ever seen one - especially a leopard. Wouldn't the 'leo' of 'leopard' indicate something to do with a lion anyway? Aye, but I am prepared to bet that the team that failed to score past "that clown, Tomasewski" (assessment of Polish goalkeeper by one B.Clough) would spank the pants off our present overpaid bunch of primadonnas. Just my opinion of course I will search for that goal on YouTube! There's one small fly in the ointment of that theory - the name "leopard" is not simply heraldic, it's the name of that particular beast! But yes - quite certainly named from Latin "leo" = lion. "Pard" being short for "pardner", i.e. from a similar stable as the lion (brought to you © Bullshit Publications).

I'm not sure if I'm honest with you Peckris. It is certainly a possibility that it may have occured in circulation. I did notice that the A in Victoria is not barred. I don't know if that is due to a die error or perhaps wear from circulation. It's not just the G - there is also damage to the linear circle at the same place, and to the field in between the circle and the border teeth, which also don't look as good as their neighbours. It is of course possible that some 'gunk' got onto the die and caused this damage at the time of strike, but this still differentiates the coin from one where there has been deliberate alteration to the die (which then becomes a collectable variety). On close inspection, the bottom bar of the E in REG is there, but it's faint - an example of a 'filling' rather than 'filled' die.

The 50p first went into circulation in 1969. Although if I'm honest Chingford I do not know if they were first made in 1968 or in 1969. I always thought that it was 1969. There is an interesting story here concerning the introduction of the 50p. In particular I liked the part about the 'Anti-Heptagonists' lol "Although a 50p coin will cost more to produce initially, it should have a life of at least 50 years" Make that "less than 30 years"!!

The first fifty pence pieces were dated 1968/9, as with the Coppers it wasn't legal tender until 1971, so probably would have only been included in the later sets. The 50 pences were introduced and dated in 1969, to replace the ten bob note which was withdrawn the same year. A much smaller mintage was done in 1970, and harder to come by in BU. There WAS a 1971 issue, but proof only, in the sets.

Are you saying our National team is falling to bits. Nah, that happened a long time ago - under Don Revie as I remember Been downhill all the way since then!

The damage to the G looks as if it could possibly be post-minting, i.e. during circulation?

yours is better than theirs though, Mike! Hey, I got the bishopy part right! Nowt wrong with an educated flail in the dark

Minting commenced way in advance of 1971 but they were not officially released until 15/2/71. Not so - the blue decimal packs were available in 1968 and included the 2p 1p and 1/2p dated 1971! (Mind you, you couldn't spend them yet..)

The way the England team is going, it should be 'Three Lepers On My Shirt'

How strange. Not genuine though and I guess pretty unlikely that it's gold. Looking at the patina, it looks like the same alloy as pound coins. Fascinating why somebody would go to that much bother. Given the date, unlikely that anybody would take it as a genuine sovereign. Curious. I've found a link that explains counterfeiting in the Middle East, including Beirut 1970 were to continue circulation of the sovereign because it were sought after and used in commerce, whether British mints produced or not, never mind if Great Britain used it or not and any date would do. Apparently locals knew which was which, including the gold content 40 to 92 percent, so very variable and therefore used for smaller or larger transactions. So, where someone is looking for an object with a nominal appreciation of which other commodities can be exchanged it seems they conclude it truly doesn't matter as long as the matter is agreed. Well, that seems to me to be a question of attitude rather than legality - presuming the locals were all apt at recognition or happier with that rather than standard currencies. Sort of, up to them. Soooooooh, I reckon for the moment that the french lady has received a souvenir of someone who travelled and thought it amusing. One can call it counterfeiting or nostalgia for the bad old days of Empire when the brits paid up, just like that. Well, that's my interpretation. Here's a more thorough description. http://www.coinauthentication.co.uk/newsletter2.html That rings true. I do know the Maria Teresa Taler (still dated as per the original issue!) was still being produced and circulating in Arab countries well into the 20th Century, as it was a known, tried and tested piece - everyone knew what they were getting. So the gold 1887-style sounds similar.

Broken or damaged lettering is very very common, especially in the copper series and the first years of the bronze series.

Spink only covers British coins - you need a specialist Polish publication (unable to help you there). Educated guesses / clues : It's a standard medieaval long cross reverse type probably common across the Continent. One part of reverse legend reads MONETA which is standard at that time. On the obverse, the chappie looks as though he is wearing a bishop's thingy rather than a crown.

Yes please peeps I have many thousands of coin I wood luv to sale.Email me at benttwat.com

If you use a photo editor, open your picture, reduce its size to (e.g.) twice lifesize for a largish coin, or four times for a smallish one, and then Save As... a jpeg - low to mid quality setting. Pictures straight off your camera, onto a computer, then here, will be far too big in all dimensions.