DaveG38

I bought a couple about 15 or more years ago. They were very cheap - about £1-2 - on an auction site that was a rival to eBay, but which ultimately folded. Can't now remember the name of the auction website. I also got a small silver coin with the character with the Hapsburg lip on the obverse - the lip was very prominent on the coin, but again was only a couple of £s.

The poeple I use are Stamp Insurance of Exeter (not Dorset). Their insurance covers value at the Spink quoted prices provided that the conditions are met and individual items over £1k are listed. The problem I found with 'standard' insurance companies is that they regard the whole collection as a single item, and the limit (for me) for a single item was around £6k. Given the collection approaches £150k at Spink prices, household insurance simply isn't on. The only problem I have is that the coins are kept in safe storage at the bank, meaning they are less than accessible on a regular basis.

The other thing to bear in mind is that not everybody has a fabulous collection of top grade, superb coins. You could get that impression from reading the posts on here, and it is certainly something to aim for, but it really isn't like that for most of us. A few do reach these high standards, and good luck to them, but most don't - if we did then lower grade material simply wouldn't sell at auction and as you know it does sell perfectly well. Also, of course high grade coins are not always available and a lower standard has to be accepted, at least until a better one comes along - if ever! Many of us simply can't afford to buy in top grade, but if we are date collectors we either have to accept a lower grade for a rare date, or live with a gap. For instance, my 1854 sixpence is GF at best. It's a rare date and high grade specimens occasionally come along, but their price is astronomic. So, I'm faced with a choice. Do I buy a high grade 1854 for £2-3k or more, or do I buy maybe several more interesting, but less rare coins of other denominations? Choices, choices. Only a lottery win would take away the problem. My point is that you shouldn't be put off by not achieving the goal of perfection. As I say, most of us have lower grade coins in our collections, simply because it isn't always possible to do better. For me, I'd always have the lower grade than a gap. Gaps are like missing front teeth, whereas lower grade can always be upgraded sometime.

Rarity by itself doesn't necessarily translate into high prices. We all know about the fame of the 1933 penny and they do go for astronomic sums given that there are just 6 or so in existence. By comparison, I and a couple of others on here have one of the only 5 available examples of the 1695 DEI GRATIA halfpenny, so in theory fewer than the 1933 penny, yet the price for one of these will likely be a few hundred pounds. It ain't fair.

WRL = Westair Reproductions Limited. A copy and of no real value I'm afraid.

I wouldn't know if the item is fake or not, just by looking at it, although it does look iffy. The multiple sellers surely is the giveaway. In my view there's no way this coin has hopped around like this on ebay. More likely they are separate coins and each is a copy of an original. If it was me, I'd avoid the seller.

I can see a dot - it's just very weakly struck

In all the excitement (irony) about the 1963 wavy lines penny, I have a better look at my spare QE 2 pennies. None have wavy lines, missing waves or any other exotica. However, one does have a dot on the centre prong of the trident, rather like the other 'dot' pennies of the past. Pic below.

I doubt it was intended. However, it is clearly a symmetric, smooth oval shape and has no sharp edges or any other features, so I'm at a bit of a loss to explain it. It certainly isn't there on any of the others I have.

Given all the lustre, I don't think I can get it much clearer. In size it is quite small, about a quarter the size of a border bead, and is oval nor round. It's not in the centre of the trident, but towards the left edge of the centre prong. I'm not holding my breath that its a major find. It just stood out as different from the other 1966 pennies all of which have a flat face to the trident.

If the size and weight is roughly correct, be careful they aren't struck from depleted Uranium, followed by gilding.

My guess is that the relatively small customer base is about to become incredibly small if not non-existent. I only have one GCGS slabbed coin (not by me I hasten to add) and I'm inclined to crack it out anyway, so for me the problem isn't an issue. However, for those with large numbers of such coins the problem might be that the new LCGS fails fairly quickly, and if so, where does that leave all those with their slabbed coins? Not only would the coins not be checkable, but even the company that slabbed them wouldn't exist, probably meaning that the value of the slab (if any in the case of CGS) would be lost, on top of the slabbing fees themselves. If this scenario comes about, it won't be long before a CGS slab becomes a historical curiosity and quickly leaves the collective consciousness of UK collectors. That probably doesn't matter as there doesn't appear to be any premium for CGS slabbed coins anyway, but it would be a very poor deal for anyone with a large collection of coins slabbed by CGS. My advice would be if you want slabbed coins, as of now go to NGS or PCGS and forget LCGS.

I didn't know that when I posted this. £400 seems a fair deal to me for this group. Admitedly they aren't top quality because of the nicks and dints but from the point of view of wear they are pretty good, so £400 is quite generous from the dealer.

The grades are pretty good for all of them. As far as I can judge St George's lance seems visible along its length on all of them, meaning that these are all EF or better. This means that there is not much to worry about from a quality perspective. Are they really UNC as claimed by the seller? No, there are too many minor bumps and dings, but overall they are a very nice group, mostly GEF as far as I can judge, for the right price of course. £550 seems to be roughly the Spink price in EF grade. Spink are usually a bit too high on price, so knock the £550 down a bit, but bear in mind these are all (I think from the photos) better than EF. If you really want them then I'd try getting the seller down as far as you can, but I think, with some reduction, they could still be a decent buy. At the very least, I'd expect a dealer to offer say a 10% reduction, bringing the price down to £495, so if you counter offered £450 you might be able to do a deal. Best advice I can offer.

The problem with the coin is that you have paid a decent price for an uncirculated coin (Book price for UNC is about what you paid), but the coin isn't uncirculated despite what the seller claims in the listing. At best it is Near EF, meaning that a price of around £80-90 would be nearer the mark. How can you tell the grade? Examine the tiny St George and the Dragon at the base of the reverse and you can see that George's lance has been worn into the body of the horse, meaning that the coin has had limited but clear wear in its life. Therefore, it isn't UNC, and based on the wear I'd say that NEF is a better grading. Still a nice coin, but not worth £175 or anywhere near it.

Ali Baba can fake just about anything for you, and a 50p coin is very cheap.

I got my 1893 Jubillee head sixpence for 50p in a junk bowl! Don't knock junk bowls, especially those in non-coin dealer's antique shops.

What you say about English law and the EU is correct. However, even after we have left there is no need to have changed all the laws enacted since 1973, during the two year leaving period, for the simple reason that not all laws will need amending. Existing laws can stay on the statute book if we atre satisfied with them, until such time as we require change to be made in that area, based on reasons of our own policy.

I like Farage. He certainly tells it like it is. Pity other politicians don't do the same.

Boris Johnson isn't the government of the UK, nor is he in it, so at this moment anything he says is just his opinion.

Not entirely true. Firstly, the value of the pound now makes exports cheaper and more competitive, and that might play well for the UK at the expense of EU member state suppliers of goods. Secondly, although Sterling has weakened, the Euro is unlikely to fare well the longer we wait to trigger A50 - Italy has already had to sort one financial crisis out. It won't be long before Greece needs another bailout, let alone what then awaits the parlous state of the German banks and the Med states when things get worse. Then there are other states whose citizens might like a vote as well. With a number of European elections coming along the EU politicians want to get on with this, but that's basically because they want stability and to avoid contagion, not because they want to genuinely sort things out. They also, of course, need to sort out where they will get our contribution from in future. Put all this together and while the UK position is weaker than it was last week before we voted, its still got quite a bit of leverage there. It's key leverage is over triggering A50. The UK needs time to get its team together, get a new PM in place and to decide what its stance will be, what its red lines are and whatw e might be prepared to give in return. So, no matter how much Juncker stamps his feet, its up to us to decide and we should do so when the time is right for us. .

If you had worked for BT and lived in Portslade, you'd have needed a hell of a storage space for the business cards. About 25 years ago, when I last visited the exchange, there was one entire huge wall completely covered in cards retrieved from coin boxes - back then BT was actively going round removing these on a regular and sustained basis, basically because BT was concerned about its image and the message failure to remove the cards might send.

On the face of it, if you believe him, the seller has sold 12 of these sets at C$34.95, so I'd guess that's about the going rate.

With you there all the way on 'democracy'. As you say it trumps all else.

Megan did indeed have a shop trading as World Coins in Broad Street. The dealer was David Mason and as you say he emigrated (to Spain). I may be wrong, but I believe he may be back in the UK now. He did post on introductory basis on this site somewhere about a year or two ago - maybe with a list of coins for sale, in which case it may have been in the For Sale thread.