Peckris

OMG! Someone paid £5 for it?? "A fool and his money..." A coin with an identity crisis! A penny, a halfpenny, a farthing? 1852, 1952? FDC... or just F ?

1. Crowns are now worth £5 face (used to be five shillings). They are definitely legal tender, though most shops might refuse to take them. 2. You have the 'sealed in carton' example rather than 'loose from Post Office', listed in Spink about £2 or £3 more than the loose one. However, actually getting the Spink price is a different matter altogether. You might be lucky on eBay, you might not. At any rate it's not worth less than £5!

Good topic of discussion choolie! I started as a schoolkid, collecting stuff from change, then strayed away. Then when I returned some years later, I bought some things I never dreamed of as a boy, e.g. high grade Geo V and Ed VII, and filled in some gaps in my date series of pennies and halfcrowns. When I began low-key dealing, it led me to getting a few really nice coins, and completing my series of pennies and halfcrowns. That was when - like you - I became disillusioned with date series (after all, a rare date is exactly the same design as the others, so buying one in a high grade is not only hellish expensive, it's a bit of an anti-climax in the end). So I decided to concentrate on type collecting instead, and that's where I'm at : I'm a bit stuck on many types from Charles II to George II because given the choice bewteen low grade or nothing, I'd rather nothing! And most of those types are frighteningly expensive - there is NO cheap Geo I silver, and Geo II crowns and halfcrowns are ... gulp. I also have a small ancients collection, and a few reasonable 18th Century tokens. But I've never regretted moving away from date runs and into type collecting.

I echo what £400 and Huss have said. There's damage to the O in ANNO but it doesn't look like an error, ditto the A. And the G in DG looks odd, but not "variety odd" if you know what I mean. All else seems to check out : it's Type 2 bust, WW has stops, legend and design look right. You going to let us in on the secret?

Oh come on, be fair! It's not often you see the 18th century's most common farthing in such crappy condition, so "scarce" is a fair description

Yeah, but with a speech impediment; "J-J-J-James Bond, d-d-d-double oh-oh s-s-s-seven." Not so much a speech impediment as shivering with cold! ("Ain't you finished yet? How much longer must I sit here holding a pose?")

That is definitely REX - the bottom right part of the R is 'floating free' and detached from the main letter. As for the E you can just make out the three serif ends, each forming a tiny triangle which all touch each other. It does look rather like PUX but it is REX.

You need to be careful : look at the precise law on this - although predecimal coins are no longer legal tender, it may still be illegal to melt them down. Perhaps you could hold the silver in the form of unmelted halfcrowns? Your best bet is to find an auction house where there are some 'scrap' lots and bid for what you want. eBay prices are going silly for silver coins, so avoid that if you can. Or place an advert in a local newspaper of decent circulation, and offer to buy pre-1920 UK coins.

The main thing to know about UK coins is that before 1947 silver coins are actually silver : 50% silver from 1920 - 1946, almost full silver pre-1920. Silver prices are high right now, so those could be your priority.

Hi Fubar - Welcome to the forums If it's mostly modern, foreign, then it's unlikely to be worth much more than metal i.e. scrap value. But if you have any older stuff, or predecimal British, then by all means post it here. Pictures (photos or scans) would help a lot.

Sorry Josie, I never heard of PUX before. I heard of the Pyx and I heard of Dux, but not PUX.

I'd agree with the grade. I'd happily pay £50 for an example like that. But as Rob says, would you get that in Bulgaria?

The sharp corner 1949 3d is scarce? The example I bought from Colin Cooke (GVF/AEF w lustre) some years back, is that variety. I'm pretty sure Colin didn't know it was scarce, and I certainly didn't.

So that naked guy must be James James Bond Bond then?

I'm not quite so sure? I was a schoolkid in the late 60s when that madness was prevailing, and as a newcomer I took it all as perfectly normal. Luckily I'd collected from change rather than spending money I didn't have or the complete collapse of modern prices from 1971 would have made me as tragically sad as it did various 'investment' dealers whose hands were well and truly burned. Obviously it is very difficult to make firm & confident predictions (or we'd all be millionaires!) but I'm not sure that the current eBay trends will continue forever upwards : that's what people were saying about the housing market...

I'm afraid I'm no expert on banknotes, but from what I remember it's the series that is most important (the first 4 characters), & then the long number. Early series follow that, and low numbers follow that, so basically that's your 'hierarchy of interest'. In other words, the ideal note is one that's "first series + low number", while low numbers on their own would attract a premium but much smaller.

Wow, I don't think I ever saw one of those! They must be pretty damn small?

He's long gone, but never forgotten, I bet the rest of his coin collection is more valuable than this bit though. It does have alot of sentimental value, I think it's best I don't put photos up, it might make me very sick if I found out it was valuable before I damaged it. I'm looking to find a jewelery maker to encase it in glass so I can wear it again...without damaging it this time. Thanks for your help. x To be honest, although the coin is probably not worth very much (except to you), the story that goes with it is really vivid and interesting. You could do a lot worse than write it up ("A Decade in the Life of a Victorian Florin" or "Love Token" or something like that), then you could earn money twice over from an article : 1) Include all the relevant coin information emphasising it a bit more than the romance, and offer it to Coin News 2) Change the article to emphasise the romance more than the coin stuff, and send it off to one of those magazines like Chat or My Weekly - it will not be a subject they commonly deal with, and you might get lucky Make sure you get a photo or a scan to send with both versions.

He's long gone, but never forgotten, I bet the rest of his coin collection is more valuable than this bit though. It does have alot of sentimental value, I think it's best I don't put photos up, it might make me very sick if I found out it was valuable before I damaged it. I'm looking to find a jewelery maker to encase it in glass so I can wear it again...without damaging it this time. Thanks for your help. x To be honest, although the coin is probably not worth very much (except to you), the story that goes with it is really vivid and interesting. You could do a lot worse than write it up ("A Decade in the Life of a Victorian Florin" or "Love Token" or something like that), then you could earn money twice over from an article : 1) Include all the relevant coin information emphasising it a bit more than the romance, and offer it to Coin News 2) Change the article to emphasise the romance more than the coin stuff, and send it off to one of those magazines like Chat or My Weekly - it will not be a subject they commonly deal with, and you might get lucky Make sure you get a photo or a scan to send with both versions.

I can't see evidence of cleaning either. What I can see on the later pictures is what you call "green spotting" - it looks like a corrosion attack, but by no means the worst I've ever seen. I would therefore grade and value the coin as a VF example, though it's better than that judged purely on wear.

All varieties read NVMMORVM FAMVLVS then the date. It's what's between that differs. N . . F . 1690 . N * F * 1690 * N F * 1690 * N * F * 1690 N *+ F . 1690 +* N *+ F . 1690 * N *+ F . 1691 +* N *+ F . 1691 * N ++ F . 1691 + N + F . 1691 + N + F . 1692 + (1691 in exergue - your coin?) N ++ F . 1692 ++ No varieties listed for obverse or reverse. Listed as 'second issue'.

The George II halfpenny is VERY nice It looks authentic to me, if it was a contemporary forgery it would be fairly evident. That series wasn't widely forged anyway - there was a steady issue of coppers from George I through George II. It's only when you get to Geo III that the copper coin shortages become widespread and forgeries appear on a large scale. If the weight and size check out, then I'd say you've got a good example there. I would say that there is a little too much wear to say EF, but it's not far off (GVF+? NEF?) Thanks for the help. I want to sell the 1849 penny with "Buy it now" on US-ebay, coin is twisted but very minor and hard to seen. Can you help me with actual Buy it now price in similar low grade? Thanks. Hm, I'd get advice from more knowledgeable sellers in this forum. In UK-eBay, it is very difficult to predict the "right" price for a low-grade rarity, as eBay CAN exceed all expectation, and you wouldn't want to miss out by setting a too-low Buy It Now. As I say, others will have better advice perhaps.

Welcome to the forums Chris All I know about anchors on coins is that it was a mint mark used in medieval times (there were almost no copper coins then). We would need to see a decent photo or scan to help us, but it may prove difficult. Could be a token, I'm thinking. You can upload images using the Attachments dialogue below.

It certainly looks quite possible that it is a '2' punched over a '9'. The problem, as ever, is in establishing it as a variety. If it is currently unknown, your best bet is in tracking down a few people who also have examples. Or sending the coin to a reputable authority, such as the compilers of The English Silver Coinage, and get an ESC number for it. Ironically, unique specimens often have a problem arousing interest, as I've found with my 1887 wreath reverse sixpence, 8 over 8. You might have a problem adding it to ESC. Alan Rayner is pushing up the daisies as he died sometime in 2007. Has no-one taken over the title? After all, ESC itself was based on Spink's The Milled Coinage Of England. It is surely much easier to update ESC than Peck's meisterwork was. But then again, there is always Davies, of course - I assume he is still alive...?

Weren't those pennies chopped into 4 along the cross? Or am I remembering wrong?