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DaveG38
Accomplished Collector-
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Everything posted by DaveG38
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In fact, the bi-monthly experiment (when it was just called "COIN") only lasted a few months, which is kind of odd when you think May 1980 was when the crazy prices were at their height and the Bunker Hunt cornering of silver was going on. This was the response of the editor of Coin News when I approached him for information re. writing a Wikipedia entry on coin periodicals and annuals : "Further to your enquiries I can confirm that the current COIN YEARBOOK is in no way connected to Coin Monthly – we started the COIN NEWS YEARBOOK in 1994 and dropped the word NEWS and adopted the blue pages in 1997 – after the demise of COIN MONTHLY and the other YEARBOOK. We have never been connected to COIN MONTHLY although were approached with a view to us purchasing the title, we declined." This seems to imply that Coin Monthly ceased between 1994 and 1997? That's interesting, as I have never come across any issues post Feb 1992 - has anybody on here got any? Could it be that the Coin Monthly business stopped producing the monthly magazines, but continued to produce the annual 'book' for some years later? And that had then ceased in by 1997. If so, again does anybody have any copies of the 'book' over this period and if so can they indentify the publishers?
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I'm not even sure when exactly they ceased publishing. The last copy I have is February 1992, by which time the pre-decimal gloss had rather worn off and there was little of interest or much original research being done. Decimal hadn't really thrown up much in the way of varieties or other matters of interest so the volume shrank down to I recall around 80 pages from 120-140 in its heyday. Circulation was probably a good deal lower because interestingly its more difficult to get hold of the later issues than it is the late 60s and 1970s. I have been told that it ceased around June/July time in 1992, but I can't verify that myself. Might be hard to figure out who the receivers were and where the copyright now lies, although if the Lintons owned it and are now deceased then it will reside with their heirs - presumably, but not definitely their children. If others owned it, then clearly it is more tricky. I'm not sure I know where to start to try and find out, but if anybody can suggest anything then I'm willing to give it a go. As I said earlier, I am happy to try and digitise everything I have, which is all dates up to Feb 1992, except May 1980, when it went from bi-monthly back to monthly, but its a big task and I'm not going to even start unless I am certain not to fall foul of copyright law.
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1924 Sixpence Specimen
DaveG38 replied to numismatist's topic in British Coin Related Discussions & Enquiries
You need to make sure that you are comparing like with like, when considering this sixpence with other denominations. During the early days of the new 50:50 silver, the mint experimented with different alloys for the non-silver content of the coins. So, you will find 50% copper used, 40% copper and 10% Nickel plus 45% copper and 5% Manganese. As far as I know, the sixpence was only produced in different alloys up to 1922, in which year there are two types, one dull and one bright. This is the same for the other denominations. However, the 'dull' types used either the Nickel or Manganese alloys and although both are classed as 'dull', they may in fact exhibit slightly different finishes. So, as I say be careful you are comparing coins of the same type, when looking at other denominations against the sixpence, especially when comaparing with dates from 1920 to 1922. -
Preventing Toning (especially of Silver)?
DaveG38 replied to Oxford_Collector's topic in Beginners area
Ferro Di-sulphate? (Just a guess - I did get my Chemistry O Level but that's as far as it went apart from producing bright purple dyes at home from potassium permanganate ) It might be if this compound existed, but it doesn't, at least not in a stable condition. The other Iron Sulphate is Ferric Sulphate, which is hydrated Fe2(SO4)3 and is an orange crstalline salt. -
Preventing Toning (especially of Silver)?
DaveG38 replied to Oxford_Collector's topic in Beginners area
Nobody has spotted it, but Ferrous Sulphate is FeSO4, not Fe2SO4. Embarrassing as I studied chemistry at Uni and that's an 'O' level mistake! Senior moment is my excuse. -
Removal of lacquer
DaveG38 replied to Colin G.'s topic in British Coin Related Discussions & Enquiries
As Red Riley says, this comes with caveats, but the probability is that any coating put onto the surface of a coin by a careful collector, is likely to be cellulose rather than polyurethane or french polish, both of which are akin to treacle, and would scarcely enhance the look of a coin. By contrast, cellulose forms a very thin layer and doesn't yellow with age. If cellulose, then it can be removed easly with cellulose thinners, or to put it more chemically correct, xylene and toluene. Another caveat here is to make sure that any thinners you use does indeed contain xylene and toluene, as some don't, and I have no idea what the basis for their solvent propoerties is! None of the metals or their oxides react with xylene/toluene, so the likelihood is that the patina/toning will be unaffected. What will come off is any finger grease and other assorted grot (note the technical term). The biggest problem, I suspect, is not the solvent, but the actual process of removal and the danger that it may lead to scratches etc. on the surface, so extreme care will be needed. Soaking and careful washing afterwards is probably best. -
Preventing Toning (especially of Silver)?
DaveG38 replied to Oxford_Collector's topic in Beginners area
I was told that coins being kept for any length of time in something leather such as a purse can cause this extreme toning effect. I'm not a 100% certain, but aren't sulphates involved in the tanning of leather? Yep, Ferric Sulphate, Fe2SO4 also known as Copperas. -
Buyer's Premium Croydon
DaveG38 replied to Coinery's topic in British Coin Related Discussions & Enquiries
Well done. I haven't heard anything from them, so I'm guessing I was unsuccessful. Pity as I left quite a few bids. You are quite right, my coins arrived this morning. However, I only won one lot, despite leaving a number of bids well over estimate. However, I'm undertaking a re-look at all my 20thC material and am upgrading where necessary, so the 1950 and 51 pennies that I picked up have nicely ungraded the GVF ones I already had. I'm not too disappointed, although I would have liked to fill some of the gaps in my early 18thC silver. Oh well, Lockdales at the weekend I guess and online bidding, which I quite like. Do you have the link please? Peckris, http://www.lockdales.com/ plus http://www.the-saleroom.com/en-gb/auction-catalogues?clientUrlName=lockdales Hope you get something you want, but don't outbid me!!! -
Buyer's Premium Croydon
DaveG38 replied to Coinery's topic in British Coin Related Discussions & Enquiries
Well done. I haven't heard anything from them, so I'm guessing I was unsuccessful. Pity as I left quite a few bids. You are quite right, my coins arrived this morning. However, I only won one lot, despite leaving a number of bids well over estimate. However, I'm undertaking a re-look at all my 20thC material and am upgrading where necessary, so the 1950 and 51 pennies that I picked up have nicely ungraded the GVF ones I already had. I'm not too disappointed, although I would have liked to fill some of the gaps in my early 18thC silver. Oh well, Lockdales at the weekend I guess and online bidding, which I quite like. -
Buyer's Premium Croydon
DaveG38 replied to Coinery's topic in British Coin Related Discussions & Enquiries
Well done. I haven't heard anything from them, so I'm guessing I was unsuccessful. Pity as I left quite a few bids. -
I know a lady named Nicky Diamond, who worked for them as a proof reader in the 1980s, but she doesn't know what happened to the company after she left.
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OK, so the company is dissolved and not sold. I wonder who owns the copyright - presumably whoever the owner of the company was? I believe the title was offered to Token Publishing, who turned it down? This would have been mid-1990s. That's why I suggest they might be the best people to ask. Peckris, I did ask them about this title some 18 months ago and they rather loftily claimed that it was nothing to do with them.
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OK, so the company is dissolved and not sold. I wonder who owns the copyright - presumably whoever the owner of the company was?
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I have now discovered that I have the article published in Coin Monthly February 1979 - "Survey of 20,000 Florins" by Ron Stafford. It runs to around 8 pages which I could scan and upload here one-by-one, if you're interested. All the 10p varieties known up to 1978 were included in his results, with illustrated examples of each type. Hopefully there are no copyright issues with doing this, as CM ceased to exist nearly 20 years ago? I'd quite like to know exactly what the copyright situation is for this publication. Somebody on here, a few months back, suggested that it would be useful if the entire series of CMs could be digitised as a resource. I have pretty much all of them right up to early 1992 and have a scanner plus the software and skills, plus time to do it, but it's a huge task and I ain't going to if I immediately fall foul of copyright. Does anybody know? My understanding is that copyright lasts at least 70 or 80 years, and presumably when CM went out of business it was sold to another publisher. If so then they and their descendent companies now own the copyright. However, if it just ceased trading then I don't know what the situation is.
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Interesting intepretation here. Is that intended for Mary Russell, or is it a token for 'Mary' and 'Russell'?
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Preventing Toning (especially of Silver)?
DaveG38 replied to Oxford_Collector's topic in Beginners area
Any silver collector needs to get to love toning, because there isn't much you can do to stop it. It's nothing more than a microscopic layer of silver sulphide forming on the surface of the coin, due to the interaction of the silver with hydrogen sulphide in the atmosphere. You could store coins in hermetically sealed, inert gas filled containers I guess, but that seems a little drastic. Equally less helpful suggestions would be to look at the neighbourhood where you live and assess any industry in the area. Downwind of coal fired power stations even hundreds of miles awy would be a no-no, as would downwind of almost any industrial burning process, since they all pretty much spew out some hydrogen sulphide, no matter how good the scrubbers are. If this is your neighbourhood, then move - Cornwall wouldn't be a bad option due to the prevailing SW clean Atlantic winds. Not very practical, so most of us have to put up with toning. I don't know if there have been any studies of this, but I would guess that most highly toned 19th century and earlier coins spent most of their lives in the industrial north, where sulphide levels were high, as compared to coins which circulated in the south. I've got a EF 1817 halfcrown, which is almost black and must have spent its limited circulating life in a drawer in a house next to a factory! -
Tips required for auctions
DaveG38 replied to Peter's topic in British Coin Related Discussions & Enquiries
I occasionally buy at auctions and in doing so, I have a simple personal technique which has served me reasonably well over the years. Looking through a catalogue I soon pick out anything I am interested in and then from the list of wants, I establish which coins I really want and which I can live without if unsuccessful. I then place my absentee bids and generally, I end up with something, but not everything. When it comes to coins I really really want then I will go in way over estimate and for the others, I'll maybe go a little over. As an example, last year, I bought a 1684 James II farthing from DNW. It was the last major farthing date/type that I wanted and so was a must have. It was in fine condition, quite nice with a very clear date, so I went in with a max bid of around £700, against an estimate of £350 or so. In fact I got it for about £450, well under my max bid, so it is possible to buy at a price well under a maximum commission bid. -
Interesting newsreel
DaveG38 replied to Gary D's topic in British Coin Related Discussions & Enquiries
"I'm Dave. And I'm a ... NUMISMATIST." Surely that makes them 'NA' meetings!! -
1945 Penny - Thin flan
DaveG38 replied to Accumulator's topic in British Coin Related Discussions & Enquiries
You don't seem to have read any of my posts? I suggested that acid has eroded away the metal to such an extent that the underlying stress patterns caused by the teeth area of the strike (normally invisible) have been exposed to view. I'm going with your acid theory Peckris. If I had some concentrated H2SO4 laying around I'd throw a penny in to see if I could replicate the effect on another coin. You'd need to boil it to get the reaction going. Copper metal doesn't react with either dilute or cold concentrated sulphuric acid. Better to use dilute nitric which will strip it back in no time. Sulphuric will react with surface layer of oxide or sulphide though, giving a nice shiney surface finish. -
Oh joy, Boxing day, the best day of the year. Why? Because we're now as far away from Christmas Day as it's possible to be!
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The insurer that many of us use is Stamp Insurance Services - see http://www.stampinsurance.co.uk/ Most household insurance companies regard a coin collection as a single item and so you quickly run into issues of value v insurance limits, once your collection grows. For me, the realisation dawned when I looked at my standard insurance policy and found it had a limit of £6k for a single item. A quick tot up of values using Spink showed that the total book value was closer to £60k and it seemed to me that I needed to take out more specialised insurance. It's not cheap and I have some sympathy for the view that the money would be better spent on coins and that maybe a policy of separating and hiding coins can make sense. However, it doesn't protect you necessarily from a targeted theft or from people who force their way in and attack you in order to find out where your coins are kept. There was a case of the latter a year or so ago and I am aware of several occasions where coin dealers and or my credit card company have warned me that they have suffered theft of data from their premises, which means that there are unpleasant people out there, who have knowledge that I collect coins. Having a safe is an option, but again anybody forcing their way in can easily overcome this problem. All this is the reason why I keep my coins at the bank. That too isn't cheap nor convenient, but if I am burgled, all the burglar will find is my decimal coins plus a receipt from the bank, and I can live without the decimal collection, even the undated 20p!
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What grade would you say this was?
DaveG38 replied to azda's topic in British Coin Related Discussions & Enquiries
It was a slender 3 that went at 22k So it was. Thanks for that Azda. -
What grade would you say this was?
DaveG38 replied to azda's topic in British Coin Related Discussions & Enquiries
This is the problem with being a date collector. In the end a number of gaps remain and no matter how good a grade your other coins are the likelihood is that the gap fillers will have to be in lower grades, unless, of course, you have got unlimited cash and a really good means of sourcing top coins. Doesn't apply to most of us and so we have to put up with lesser coins, but at least the gap is filled! That means my 1849 penny is Fine at best, my 1854 florin probably AF and the shilling and sixpence too. I still don't have a 1839 or 1841 half crown and I know that if I want one to fill the gap then its going to cost a hellova lot of dosh for a pretty indifferent specimen. Even so it won't be as bad as the £22k (was it?) paid for the Victorian penny washer with a die number on it. That's taking date/variety collecting to extremes in my view. -
Does anyone know anything about Briots coinage?
DaveG38 replied to unc's topic in British Coin Related Discussions & Enquiries
Are you sure this isn't a case of a coin that became a victim of 'on the nail'? Many, many years ago, I bought, quite cheaply a Charles II half groat S3326 from a dealer. The coin has a small four sided irregular hole through it, which the dealer claimed was probably made in antiquity and was a result of a trader piercing the coin with a hammer and nail and displaying it on a post above his goods to indicate the price. A sort of ancient form of bar code! Hence the price being described, even in relatively modern times, as 'on the nail.' Of course he may well have been bullshitting me as I was a naive lad at the time. Anybody know if this is a true process or just a story made up to lend some romance to a coin with a hole in it?