Generic Lad

One of the best Romans I've seen in a while. It always amazes me with Roman coins how much the portrait varies, some of them look amazing like that one while others look quite awful. I guess a lot of it had to do with the tastes of each individual engraver?

Yep, us Americans will pay $$$$ especially if it is slabbed. Quite silly really, for example a Mint-State 70 2003 US cent has a book value of well over $10,000 simply because it is slabbed as a 70. If the same coin was slabbed as a MS 68 or 69 it would be worth about $10 and you'd have a hard time selling it. Very little in American coin collecting is about the coin itself, but only if it can be slabbed and what the grade is. Really, one of the reasons I started getting into British coins is because of this silliness in US coin collecting about slabs and subjective numbers. To be honest, I want to get beautiful coins, I don't care if they are MS 70 or MS 68, and I'll take a really worn Gothic Florin to a proof state quarter any day.

I love looking back at old coin magazines and price lists. Nothing better than to see a 1977 dealer price list Barber and Seated dimes for 30 cents each (minted 1836-1916) but the US bicentennial coins NEVER TO BE MINTED AGAIN!!! were selling for well above $1 for an uncirculated quarter, $2 for an uncirculated half and nearly $4 for an uncirculated dollar! I guess people used to buy anything, even back then.

I actually saw that yesterday while browsing his site and thought it was fairly amusing. On a somewhat unrelated note, are the prices on his site reasonable for most hammered coins? His site seems to be about the only place that I can buy a large selection of hammered and I was wondering if they were fair or if I should hold off on buying some of his and try to score some on eBay or at a coin show.

Why not keep it as a curio? I used to keep all kinds of things like that when I was poring over bags of coins from the banks before decimalisation! I agree, after all, it didn't cost you anything! While it certainly isn't going to be worth a ton, it is still worth hanging onto.

The coin also might have been modified to allow the obverse of another threepence to fit in there and then they would glue it together to make a coin that was heads on both sides.

I found this on eBay: http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/ERROR-2-1998-Edge-reads-GIAVTS-GIANTS-/190563460041 since there are no bidders I don't think it is a rare error if it is an error. Since quality control in the Royal Mint is fairly high and the 2 pound coin is a target for counterfeiters do the rest of the details all match up? I'm not sure if it is an error or not myself.

Spink should be ashamed of themselves! I quite agree. I had 2 or 3 looking like that which went in the bin on the grounds that not even Scott would be interested in them. I didn't have the nerve to try and ask for money for them and at approx. 10p scrap value for the metal there wasn't any hidden value either. I agree, the coin is nothing more than a slug.

Interesting. Though I have to say, it must be sad not being able to find many coins worth more than face value over there for your collection. Over here, if you sort through enough coin you will find a silver coin here and there, a buffalo nickel for about every $200 in nickels and I've even known of people getting (real) silver dollars at the bank. However, I have to wonder if over there you are all bombarded with "Cash 4 Gold" advertisements on TV like over here. It seems like every place wants to buy gold and silver (at a steep discount from melt value).

I've actually bought a few coins from this seller and have been quite happy.Just ignore the grade and buy the coin. They certainly do come well packaged I have too, and have been similarly satisfied. Not delighted, but satisfied. It'd be nice if he took the photos before slabbing them, but I've opened them all and got rid of the slabs. Only because I don't have a nice and tidy way of storing slabs, mind. If I had more slabbed coins, and had sorted out the storage, I'd have kept the slabs but ditched the labels. You don't have to destroy his type to open them. Hm, interesting. Perhaps I'll buy some of his coins then if other people have bought them and found them to be decent. I've always had bad experiences with buying self-slabbed coins, usually involving either faked coins or nasty rim dings the slab concealed.

I love seeing these "graded" coins on eBay... http://www.ebay.com/itm/GR-BRITAIN-CHARLES-II-1670-CROWN-FINE-/380369725825?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item588fcd6981

What 2 pound commemorative did you get?

The problem is though, no one knows how much gold is in Fort Knox. It hasn't been audited for decades, for all we know there isn't much of it left. Since all calls for an audit of Fort Knox (along with the Federal Reserve) have been laughed at, it is quite possible that the US government secretly sold some of its gold.

I actually really like the halfpenny pattern, its a shame that there are so many lovely pattern coins that are usually ignored by most collectors due to their high prices. Its interesting to think about how the familiar coins in your pocket could have turned out quite different if it wasn't for bureaucratic processes at the mint. Though, I really hate attempting to find patterns online, because apparently now pattern is equivalent to "hideous fantasy piece" (like this http://www.ebay.com/itm/Ireland-1910-Pure-Copper-Retro-Pattern-Proof-Crown-/290544845673?pt=AU_Coins2&hash=item43a5d28369 )

I'm a bit mixed when it comes to cleaning coins. Of course, I expect all hammered and Romans to be cleaned since I don't really want bits of dirt stuck to the coin. For modern coins though, sometimes I think cleaning improves the coin but often it doesn't. For example, I have a "junk silver" US standing liberty quarter that was cleaned and polished to the bare shiny metal, but then developed a ring of orange toning around it and personally it is one of my favorite coins because of that contrast. There are a few blackened silver coins I've got (mostly US) that I'd like to clean if it wouldn't hurt the value because I think I'd rather have them cleaned than a black, spotty patina. I buy coins because I like them and like the price. A $40 difference between a cleaned coin and an uncleaned coin is fairly significant so assuming both coins would grade the same with wear, I'll pick up the cleaned coin, because it doesn't bother me all that much.

If it's Indian, then it's most likely the Islamic part (Moghul?) - if that script is not Arabic, then it's Urdu. It's definitely not Hindi. Yes, I'm pretty sure it is Arabic, it is just that most people call them Indian temple tokens even though I'm pretty sure they are Islamic. Just an incorrect name that has stuck on the coin.

Looks like an Indian temple token to me. http://www.ebay.com/itm/1800s-India-Temple-Token-C-/200485337584?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item2eaddb79f0 http://www.coincommunity.com/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=88776

I agree, those people who sell coins on TV give our hobby a bad name. I can't tell you how many people's collections I've had to tell them aren't worth what they paid for it because they bought base metal Franklin Mint and similar coins. The problem is that people keep buying them as an investment because the TV makes it sound like it is an investment when it isn't. I mean, if you like the coins and want to buy it for the coins, go ahead, by all means buy it, but it makes a terrible investment. I don't know if you have it as bad as we do in the US but we have people selling worthless junk on the TV all the time, my favorite being either the copy of the American Buffalo in 14 milligrams of pure 24K gold or the 24K plated $2 bill... Examples:

I love lot 1331, the 1825 error shilling.

I've always wanted to get some of the older "odd denomination" US coins such as the three cent piece and two cent piece and see what reactions I got when I spent them. After all, I get lots of funny looks when I spend half dollars (half the cashiers think they are quarters, others think they are dollars and still others think I'm spending foreign money!) and $2 bills, I can't imagine the looks if I'd spend 3 cent and 2 cent pieces. Unfortunately, even low grade examples seem to sell for $20+ for each of them, so as of yet I haven't had an opportunity to do it.

Anyone here collect Athenian Owls? I've been trying to find an example to buy but can't seem to find one at a decent price point or from a reputable seller. Also, what is a reasonable price to pay for one? Since there are few physical coin shops in my area that deal in ancient coins and no major coin shows nearby I don't want to overpay and kick myself down the road when I realized I paid too much for it. I'd also ideally like to find a Herakleia Owl with Athena on the obverse and an owl on the obverse, but I have yet to find an example for sale and I have a feeling it might be a bit out of my price range.

Nice! I've always wanted to go to a large coin show like that, but never have had the time/money to go to one as there don't seem to be any near me. I've always wondered though if big shows like that have a lot of good deals are are a lot of the dealers "infomercial" style selling lower grade coins for $$$?

Yes, and to think that it could have been a moderately attractive design, at least when compared to the final result. http://www.smalldollars.com/dollar/page04.html

If you guys don't mind selling it to American sellers, a -lot- of old coppers go for $$$$ if you say that they were of the type used in the US colonies. America has such an age premium for coins in the 17XX and the 18XX, well beyond the value of the coins.

I never looked at the Walking Liberty half like that, and now that I look at that it is rather amusing. And yes, the Coronet head Liberty has never been my favorite, and the Morgan dollar is decent, though I think I would have preferred one of the rejected patterns over the final design. But all that is behind the country now since we've decided to take hideous people from history and still keep their ugliness when transfered to a coin. I mean, sure, Susan B. Anthony was a great leader for women's rights, but do we really need her face in our pockets? Same thing with the presidents. And our state quarter and now national park quarters are turning our quarters into (geographically inaccurate) souvenirs (seriously, the quarter for Missouri shows the gateway arch spanning the river when it doesn't, it sits on one bank of the river. Yes, and even worse is the cent. While part of it is because of the shift from a bronze cent to a copper-plated zinc cent, the relief is incredibly high for dates in the '60s, then by the mid 70s it gets a lot lower, and by '81 (the last full year for the bronze cent) the design is hardly there. And today, even a mint state 2011 cent fresh out of a mint roll feels like a slug, the design simply isn't pressed into the coin. Of course, that isn't much of a problem when the coins will rot and decay upon contact with any moisture or any circulation. It is amazing you can dig up a silver coin from 200 years ago and after you wash off the dirt it will look like it was minted yesterday, but digging up a 2005 US penny will leave you with a corroded mess that won't even go through the coin sorter. And yes, some of the Olympic 50ps truly are awful, though I must say I don't mind the shooting one, and as a trap shooter I might consider picking up one if I can find one for a decent price. And some.... why are they even on coins? Like the Athletics 50p and the Cycling 50p. Of course, no doubt the Royal Mint will call it a "success" and you can look forward to the Districts of England 20p coin program.