DaveG38

The numbers of the date are clearly less worn that the rest of the legend, so almost certainly a forgery. But then it's my old mate of 1882 no H penny fame. Given his attempts at fraud on both me and ebay I'm not surprised he's at it again.

I like the line stating you should avoid 1866 and 1871 halfcrowns, as these are forgeries. OK, thanks for the info..Quoting his eBay blurb here "Victoria's Half Crowns were struck from 1839 to 1901, none were struck between 1851 and 1873 because of the striking of the new decimal coin the Florin which was struck in its place. " Since when did decimalisation come into effect between 1851 and 1873? Here's another one - 'only' £29.99 on a BIN. Apparently it's now a pattern! Somebody's knocking these out somewhere. Strange thing is, they are worn to differing degrees, and the first one really looks as though it's circulated? I wonder if it did? The milled edge on the BIN one is pretty good isn't it? It's pretty obvious that the date has been 're-engineered' so I guess it's possible that somebody is using worn specimens of more common dates and is re-working the date. That's probably cost effective if you can sell to mugs at £100, but surely not at £29.99 - most worn Viccy halfcrowns will get close to that without too much trouble without all the extra work.

I like the line stating you should avoid 1866 and 1871 halfcrowns, as these are forgeries. OK, thanks for the info..Quoting his eBay blurb here "Victoria's Half Crowns were struck from 1839 to 1901, none were struck between 1851 and 1873 because of the striking of the new decimal coin the Florin which was struck in its place. " Since when did decimalisation come into effect between 1851 and 1873? Here's another one - 'only' £29.99 on a BIN. Apparently it's now a pattern! Somebody's knocking these out somewhere.

I happen to have 3 of these coins at the moment and each one differs, so there are at least 3 types. Firstly, there is the correctly struck one, with no 'blobbing' and with even lettering. Secondly, there's the 'blobby' type, which seems to have double struck, but even lettering. The third one is interesting as the two 'U's and the 'N' in the inscription are larger than the other letters and the 'S' is pretty much an '8.' Whether there is also a 'blobby' type with the uneven lettering and the '8' for an 'S' I don't know, but I'll keep an eye out.

Thanks for that. I'll keep an eye out in the shop where my other half works.

Which year is the WW2 variety and what am I looking for?

The perceived wisdom is that just about £150 worth of shillings were struck by the Duke of Northumberland, meaning there were only ever 3000 of these coins in existence. How many dies would be needed to strike this number - I'd say just the one, unless something went catastrophically wrong with the first die and a second die had to be cut. I'd have thought somebody would have found this in any records if it had happeend, so I'm of the view that anything unusual that deviates from the 'normal' is likely to be a fake. But, I stand to be corrected.

It's not just ebay that has its share of fraudsters. Here's a 1917 sovereign that's so rough I can't imagine that anybody willing to spend 3,999.99 Euros is going to be fooled by it. But you never know.... http://www.muenzauktion.info/auction/item.php5?id=2591372&lines=75〈=en

Ho, ho!!!

Interesting perspective on photographing a coin!! http://www.ebay.es/itm/20-pence-1983-/171660034493?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_186&hash=item27f7bc41bd

The purple dye used is called Methyl Violet and is a triple benzine ring molecule. As such it isn't going to evaporate quickly as its basically a solid at room temperature. However, pretty much all solids have some sort of natural vapour pressure, so it may well disappear over time. In the meantime, however invisible it may be, you will still have a slight purple layer on your coins. I'd avoid dyed meths if at all possible. Edit: Just noticed that Methyl Violet is green in powder form, so expect a green tinge to your coins, not purple. Also, the dye is quite soluble in water, so having removed any fingerprints etc. with meths, you can rinse off under the tap and that should then remove the residual dye. Of course, if you then drop it down the plughole........

You may be right - I'm just going by the angle and the apparent shape. In hand is the only way to say.

Personally, I don't like the curve on the cut. It doesn't look even to me, and it tends to curve inwards again slightly at both ends.

Presumably, they didn't like the mottled colouring, so reminscent of US 'natural toning' and concluded that it was the result of cleaning and artificial toning. Unless that is, your photo isn't an accurate depiction of the true colour.

I do my books direct at a discount on the RR price for forum members. The Silver one is £9.99 plus £3 P&P. If you are interested. I'll even sign it as a freebie, if you want!!!

I've just been looking at Spink's photos of the Obv 11 and Obv 12 and I'm going mad trying to spot the differences, and that's on two high grade coins. What's the clincher that even works for worn specimens?

Looks to me like the whole area around the date has been lightly ground, thus removing the H. Even so, I reckon I can still see the remnants of the H.

Completely agree with this. But to add one other point - in the case of those who have 'made it' i.e. started out with nothing and become extremely rich (Alan Sugar (?) and one of the men in the programme last night who started out in a caravan) it's highly unlikely that they gained their wealth by sitting around on their backsides doing nothing. In my limited expereince these people have had to both work hard for it and take considerable risks to accumulate it. In which case they deserve the success and good luck to them.

It's obviously the rare gilt over helmet variety.

I hope so!Anybody know defintively? I looked on their website and couldn't find much detail about the products. I'm guessing that they are so popular that its taken for granted that they are OK.

So, are Lighthouse adhesive coin flips OK for long term storage?

Does anybody have them regarding coins? Very occasionally, I make a purchase on ebay and right from the start I think to myself 'this isn't going to work out.' And sure enough it doesn't. In early December I bought a fairly cheap reasonable grade 1898 penny, and right from the start I had the idea it wouldn't arrive. Sure enough after a few weeks my 'premonition' turned out right. Not only that, but the seller doesn't respond to contact, so clearly it's a scam. The sum involved was only £5.00 plus postage so no big deal, and ebay will no doubt return the money, but I wonder why I get these feelings about the occasional purchases. I can think of maybe two or three occasions in the past 10 years or so when I have 'known' things wouldn't work out, and they didn't. Spooky, or just an unconscious feeling based on something about the seller or the fact that the item is cheap or what? With all due respects to any members on here, but could it be because the seller is called Darren or Wayne or whatever?

Rob, I have, very politely, asked the seller for the tracking number, so that I can take the 'loss' up with Royal Mail. Answer came there none. I'm not holding my breath. My initial point wasn't so much the methods for chasing up the seller, but more that for reasons I can't quite fathom, I 'knew' this was going to happen. All sorted now with ebay refunding my payment, all within an hour or so of raising the complaint. Negative left for the seller, who is now at 87.5% positive.

Rob, I have, very politely, asked the seller for the tracking number, so that I can take the 'loss' up with Royal Mail. Answer came there none. I'm not holding my breath. My initial point wasn't so much the methods for chasing up the seller, but more that for reasons I can't quite fathom, I 'knew' this was going to happen.

Back in the pre-decimal days, I got a 1866 Jersey 1/13 shilling in EF condition in change. Jet black but little wear. Still got it in the collection.