Nick

It seems clear to me that the coin on the right is the sharper, better strike. The one on the left has lovelier tone certainly, but less detail. Am I alone in thinking that the coin on the right is acutally a matt proof and not a currency coin? The strike looks to me to be too good for normal currency (esp. in the area of St George's chest and strap). The grading would make more sense if that's the case. I think so too.

£750 Is it worth that? No. Will somebody pay that? Probably.

Becaise its up tot h Scots to decided David. That wouöd be like asking the Welsh to also vote Or the Irish. We're not splitting the Union, we're taking back what was once ours anyway and something which Westminster has tried to keep for over 300 years. Scotland is'nt Englands toy to Play with like they did with the poll tax where it was started in Scotland 1 year before The Rest of the UK. Scotland has been westminsters Guinea pigs for Long enough. What i find interesting is WHY Westminster are resorting to smearing the Scottish "yes" campaign. The sooner we rid ourselves of the bottom feeders that reside at Westminster the better. Ian Duncan Smith, don't even get me started on him. Stephen, we'd welsome England Voting but we'd be too afraid you'd vote to stay in a union. That's just politics nowadays. It just so happens that the three main Westminster parties all support 'No', but for different reasons. Labour and Lib Dems would lose too many MPs if Scotland left the union, so they won't support independence and the Conservatives would much rather have the North Sea oil income staying as part of UK plc, so they won't support it either. It's always about vested interests.

I have no issue with it. It should be the aspiration of every country to be truly independent (as far as that is possible). For sure, any split would cause some difficulties - constitutional, economic and political - but that shouldn't affect the choice of becoming independent.

That's true for the US I'm sure, but the observations I've seen here are that they are not so good with UK coins. That's my perception too.

Well I switched off the filters and took predecimal.com out of compatibility mode and ... I still can't see who likes what. I am just devastated. LOL But on the 'good' side, now I'm not seeing it in compatibility mode, when I click 'Quote' it does now pick up the text I want to quote as it should. In case that helps anyone else. Nor I - though I can see where I've Liked something, as the button has turned to "unlike". However, I can see who has liked my posts if I look in Notifications (top). But I can't see any case where Person A has liked Person B's post. Me neither. I suspect one needs to be in admin group to see who liked what.

I'd worry about that 1919 sixpence - "Country of Manufacture": Mexico - Yikes! It looks nice enough but £300 over the top. The 1935 halfcrown reverse is absolutely stunning, but the obverse has some bag marks and not enough eye appeal for it to be worth any more than $100.

Lot: 567 Anne, pre-Union, Shilling, 1702, draped first bust left, vigo below, rev. four crowned shields cruciform (ESC 1130; S.3585), toned, extremely fine Estimate £ 500-600 Sold for £1,050 Not sure whether the picture link will work. But try this.

This may be the article AC is referring to.

Nothing. It's the best piece of software I own.

Given that mux seems to be related to the cost, it might mean multiplexed ie that it was originally bought as part of a multiple lot and the costs of the individual items were estimated from the total.

Excellent picture, almost as good as the coin which is a beaut. If you were in Photoshop, it's an easy-peasy matter to also alter the colour so it looks as it does in hand. Photoshop offers at least 3 different methods to alter the colours. I concur. An excellent picture.

Not wanting to get into this again, but the act does say that the Treasury can grant licences to do so. In reality though, even without a licence, if you were caught with a crucible containing molten gold or silver - who is to say what form that metal took before melting. It's obviously not an issue though as Spink even quote BV (bullion value) prices for some lower grades of gold coins.

I do hope this isn't an empty threat.

CGS do the best job of grading British coins. If I had to choose between PCGS and NGC, it would have to be PCGS.

Where does one find a copy of these reports? The first four (1870-3) can be downloaded free from Google books as a single pdf. Others have been published by various publishers at various times. Search Amazon and you'll find a number of years grouped together into one publication. Usually around £20-£25 per group of years. They occasionally turn up on eBay too, but these are usually the much later years, which are not as interesting a read.

Sadly obscured by a coin. BTW. How can PCGS use the term "First Strike". Statistically, that's gonna be wrong most of the time. Unless it's a fake coin in a fake slab...

I find it fascinating to know where individual batches of coin were sent. Reading between the lines of the Royal Mint Annual Report for 1893 you can see that it is highly likely that most Jubilee head sixpences were sent to the colonies. It states that two shipments were needed before the new design dies were complete. These being: £29,000 of silver sent to the West African Settlements and £1,000 of silver sent to Halifax, Nova Scotia (Canada). Another interesting nugget of information shows that "only trifling amounts of florins were issued in the United Kingdom from the month of May 1889 to the end of 1892". The reason being "the superabundance of coins of that denomination" still in circulation. It seems to me that there may still be a number of those rare coins knocking around the ex-colonial parts of the world.

By MP, or the previous owner? Even with the field disturbance behind Ed's head, it's still the best 1905 halfcrown that I've seen.

Wow. That's something that us lesser mortals can only dream about.

I am watching this sale carefully and there are is some very over-the-top bidding. For example, a fairly ordinary Dritanniar sixpence which is now over $500. The good news is that I already have two which are quite a lot better. I have my eyes on a couple of coins but I am not going to pay way over the odds and that is the way this sale is going. However, you can get decent buys at Heritage if you know what you are doing. The fixation on slabbing and grading by many American collectors is also an opportunity. VF35 for that DRITANNIAR is looking rather generous. It looks much nearer to Fine than that. £200 absolute max in my book and probably a bit less.

Did anybody catch the uncirculated 1905 halfcrown that was fleetingly listed on eBay by everyone's "favourite" seller? I hate to think how little he would have paid the widow of said collector for such a valuable rarety.

Monty Python 1970 Yes, cigarettes. My hovercraft is full of eels.

The beer is way too expensive...

I'm thinking the same as you, Garrett! I'm definitely thinking cleaned, though! The tone of all his bronze coins is unnatural and too consistent, which suggests dipping. I may be wrong though. I'll bet you're not.