DaveG38

There is more material available than serious collectors of the series, though somebody with a fairly comprehensive British collection will probably get a few examples from Scotland, Ireland, and the islands to add a little diversity. They are scarce in top grades but not rarish unless you are talking mint state. I've got no idea of the quantities of proofs extant. The 1860s book at £2000 & £3500 compared to £350 for the 1839 in 2003. The BNJ index reveals no articles on Manx coinage up to 1999 which probably speaks volumes about the level of interest. The only reference to quantities in the 2003 book is to the 1733 copper issue which states that £300 in pence and £200 in halfpennies were struck. The bibliographical references for Manx coinage are P Nelson, 'Coinage of the Isle of Man' - Numismatic Chronicle 1899, and contemporary forgeries of the 1733 coinage in SNC 1901. Maud Lister's 'Manx Money' (1947); F Pridmore's 'Coins of the British Commonwealth of Nations part 1 (1960) and C Clay's 'On the Brass, Copper and other Currency of the Isle of Man' in the Proc. Manchester Num. Soc Parts I-V (1864-7) are the only other refs. Nelson and Pridmores areticle are likely to be the easiest to acquire, though there is a chance that the Lancs and Cheshire Society or Manchester Museum still have the last article. Keith Sugden at the museum or Bob Lyall who is into colonials might know. It won't be easy finding the articles, let alone accurate mintage figures. Coincraft quotes a total mintage for 1839 IOM halfpennies as 214,080 (£446!), but no figures for proofs. However, it must be a heck of a lot less. Coincraft also quote a price of £240 for a UNC Proof in 1999, so you could extrapolate from there. By comparison, they quote a 1860 proof at £1500.

Very good that! Nice voice! Thank you for that. She will be pleased. She likes to sing when she can and has had a few sessions in the studio recording some of here favourites. My personal one of hers is 'Nights in White Satin' or perhaps 'The House of the Rising Sun.'

Just got a 2008 Beijing London 2012 £2 coin - first I have seen in change.

If we are going to put anything up on here, this is my missus singing Fever.

What has always puzzled me is why the Mint didn't make anything of the diamond jubilee - after all they did the golden in 1887, but not a peep for the diamond.

Oh dear! My grandfather used to own a pub and he once got one in the till, he died in 1968 anybody want to buy it from me? From what I can see amongst the blurry photos (giveaway or what) this one looks quite nicely done - the date looks pretty good and the dirt etc on the obverse gives a nice 'real' feel to it. But if you are going to fake or replicate a 1933 penny in order to deceive, what's with the huge reverse border teeth? Looking at this, I'm assuming its one of the very nice recent replicas, which go for around £14.99 or so, and which has been dirtied up to look older. If so, then I guess the designer wanted to provide something good enough to look right in a collection, for those who want a date filler, yet didn't want to make them so good that they enter the food chain and genuinely deceive. Am I right, or does anyone have a different take on it? A fool and their money.. If you are going to pay £1200 for a bunch of coins with blurry pictures and no guarantee of them being genuine (or purchasing them from a dealer) only a story about inheriting them then I can't muster up much sympathy I'm afraid. The other interesting thing, which should raise an alarm bell, is the apparent difference between the coins. Looking at the very poor quality ones, I could easily believe that these were used to balance out big ben or whatever - they certainly appear to have been exposed to the elements, with a nice bit of verdigris on show. However, the supposed 1933 is clearly a much nicer looking coin and does not seem to have been exposed in the same way as the others. Another nice touch is the old looking background sheet with the dates written on - adds a certain ambiance to complete the idea that this is a legitimate set of contemporary coins. As you say, a fool and his money are soon parted. Could go even higher yet I guess.

Oh dear! My grandfather used to own a pub and he once got one in the till, he died in 1968 anybody want to buy it from me? From what I can see amongst the blurry photos (giveaway or what) this one looks quite nicely done - the date looks pretty good and the dirt etc on the obverse gives a nice 'real' feel to it. But if you are going to fake or replicate a 1933 penny in order to deceive, what's with the huge reverse border teeth? Looking at this, I'm assuming its one of the very nice recent replicas, which go for around £14.99 or so, and which has been dirtied up to look older. If so, then I guess the designer wanted to provide something good enough to look right in a collection, for those who want a date filler, yet didn't want to make them so good that they enter the food chain and genuinely deceive. Am I right, or does anyone have a different take on it?

I've just got my first 2010 coin from change, and its a 1p (as usual). Why on earth are the Mint producing pennies - I chuck all mine into bank bags and change them all at the bank as soon as possible. I've got no use for all these excess 'coppers' and I suspect many others do the same as me, yet the mint still keeps on making 'em! Rant over.

Recently, on the 'Coin acquisition of the week' thread, I commented on my recent purchase of a 1934 crown. It occurred to me yesterday that the purchase was even rarer than I thought because of the packaging. Basically, I bought a 1934 year set, which included all the lower denominations, which were mounted on a display card - obviously a 'birthday' set for somebody born in 1934. However, the 'normal' set doesn't have a cut out for the crown for the obvious reason that most punters for a 1934 birthday set aren't going to shell out for the crown as well. In the case of my purchase, the crown was mounted in its own cardboard cutout, separate from the other coins. The design of the two is clearly similar, so obviously came from the same company. I just wonder how many 1934 crown mounts were made, given the very low mintage of crowns. I mean how many would you expect to sell? From my point of view it must mean that the mounting for the crown is even rarer than the coin, although I doubt it will add to the value! Does anybody know who produced these mounts and when?

The largest "hoard" I was aware of was Roland Harris who had 6 sets of wreaths for his children. They were sold by London Coins about 3 years ago after his death. The printed cards are from a set of coin folders that could be bought in the late 60s early 70s. Bri-lining or something like that. I kept my collection in them at the time. You could buy the set one or more for each monarch Eliz 11 decimal down to Vicky. They held each year, all denominations except for gold. Depending on the number of coins in a given year you could have one or two cards, two cards to a page. Gary D Thanks for this Gary. I guess I need to look back through my old Coin Monthly mags, looking for the ads!

I'm sure you are right about the printing process. I was just amused at the idea that the packaging or mounting for a 1934 crown might be rarer than the coin! Yes it was a recent auction purchase - I've been looking out for a 1934 for a while and I got lucky this time. Occasionally, I get lucky in general auctions. The only one I am still kicking myself about was a local auction where I let a James II shilling, sixpence and farthing go at £650. The two silver coins were between fine and VF, but the gem was the farthing, which was not only in nice condition but was the 1687 with the earlier obverse. I've got one, but its nowhere near as nice as this one was. Owch - that's another kick by the way.

Here's the 'normal' mounting for the year set.

A useful link, but bear in mind that it isn't kept up to date regularly. For instance, World Coins (aka David Mason, aka MEGHAN) hasn't had a shop in Canterbury for about 5 years, ever since he decamped to Spain. Also, the last time I went to the Worthing Coin Shop was about 10 years ago and they had virtually nothing there and may not even exist now. The guy there looked incredulous when I went in and asked about his stock!!!

Carefully worded to avoid the term 'proof.' And technically correct as the edge is raised - just not the lettering! A very clear con, but as always caveat emptor.

There was a set issued by the Royal Mint when the bi metal £2 first came about,showing stages of the minting process, the final coin has 'Trial' on it, they were originally made to test vending machines, probably a set been broken apart to be sold, the set usually sells at around £20/30, where as the blanks fetch more as an 'error' Quite right. I've got a set and it has a sailing ship on the reverse and the queen's head on the obverse. It was dated 1994 and showed four stages of the production process for the £2 coin.

Andy, Probably my best eBay bargain was a 1842 currency threepence in GEF that I bought for £29 and sold, because I already had one, for £265. However, I think that the buyer may have had the last laugh, because after it was sold and before it was sent, I noticed that the '3' was over another digit, probably a '2', so the buyer may have got an interesting variety as well as a quality coin.

I don't disagree, but are there enough £x.99 sales each day/week/month/year to justify the sheer quantity of 1ps in circulation? And the production of yet more!! We have to consider all of the jobs that would be lost if the humble Penny was removed from circulation/production. The Penny man/men at the Royal Mint, the driver who delivered the metals for that quantity each year, the mechanic who worked on the drivers vehicle, the garage owner where the driver filled up every week and bought his pies/fags/paper/sweets etc etc etc hundreds, thousands of jobs even, all because we don't like £99.99 sales with a penny change! Do what I do and stick it in the Air Ambulance box, although I think they just keep them all in a massive bottle for a year before sending them back to the banks again You forgot to include all us coin collectors as well!!

I don't disagree, but are there enough £x.99 sales each day/week/month/year to justify the sheer quantity of 1ps in circulation? And the production of yet more!!

Damn, the profit on these has gone up a bit lately. You could get these (and other rare dates) from a guy in Essex for £14.99 each a little while ago. Quite good they were as well. Now they're £5k - not a bad profit margin on that price, provided you can find a mug to buy it!!

Hi Rob, Does this include any of the varieties, or is it just dates only?

PK, When you find that App, let me know... I want it for my iPhone also! Interesting point. One of the problems I have is with varieties. Despite having written the two books which members know about, I still can't always remember all the identifiers and dates, and lugging two books around fairs/auctions etc. isn't very practicable. So how about an app which brings up whether a date/denomination has any varieties and if so what the identifications points are? Very discreet and user friendly, maybe.

Mine was 50p in a Hastings junk shop for a 1893 Jubilee head sixpence in around fine condition. Not the best grade, but when do you see better?

I feel 90% certain that it's genuine but 10% of me says it could have been whizzed. Having bought a whizzed coin some years ago and I didn't realise until the thing started to tone a couple of years later, I'm always rather cautious about these things! What exactly is 'whizzing'? I understand dipping polishing but not the technique of whizzing.

A good argument with which I broadly agree 400. However, what about Hs and KNs?! Actually I think what happens is that the exergue is left blank on the master die but punched in on the working die. This would mean that every working die would exhibit different date spacings if only microscopically. Has anybody bothered to check the positioning of the H? No, let's not go there... Not sure about the positioning of the 'H' but the 1918 has different spacings for the 'K' and the 'N.'

Coin News does have a section entitled 'Diary Dates' which includes details of all forthcoming events, including fairs. The only problem is that the magazine only includes dates for the month of issue plus the next one. So the May 2010 includes May and June only. The current May issue shows just the London Coin Fair on 5 June at The Holiday Inn, Bloomsbury. All the others are well away from the capital I'm afraid.