DaveG38

BMC 2214. F 164A. Dies 1*+C. Near Fine, buckled. Rare - 17 bids and now up to £480 - anyone here ever seen one of these? Well its a fairly rare variety, although Freeman only classifies it as R5. The latest version of Freeman (2006) gives a price of £300 for one in fine condition, so allow a bit more for it now being 2009. However, would you pay £400+ for that coin in that state? I'm not even sure its as genuinely rare as is claimed for it, since Freeman R5 isn't exactly rare. There are probably a good many out there still in the boxes of unwanted well worn junk that nobody can be bothered to sort through. My recommendation would be for forum users to go through their boxes of junk - you never know.

Scott, Giving myself a plug here, but you need a copy of my book 'The Identification of British 20th Century Bronze Coin Varieties' for information about the different types!! Only £6.99 plus P&P.

Peckris The dot to dot type is the rarest of the 1992 10p varieties. I think about 1% in total. The identifiers are that the 'L' and 'I' in Elizabeth and the 1 in '10' all point to border beads. In total there are 5 types for 1992 with this one the most difficult - I'm still looking!!

the "1933" has gone for £500!!! I bet the buyer go a shock when he bid the reserve. 10-49 feedback, I hope they knew what they were doing. I think the second bidder had it about right £102 Another penny for our consideration.... One in a million? I am always surprised that the people who try this kind of stunt don't seem to realise that the sort of person who has a million to spare is the sort who makes shrewd and calculated investments. After all if they have a million lying around they probably have hundreds of millions to call on, so they are used to investing and earning fabulous sums. What they don't do is throw it away on nonsense - if they did they wouldn't have it in the first place!!

No arguments with any of the judgments made here, but I do think its quite nicely done. The '3's are slightly different, but otherwise its better than many similar attempts I've seen. Often, the tooling and scratching around the date is very obvious. This is of course, assuming this coin is real and it isn't a doctored image. There is a slight smudging around the right hand '3' which is slightly suspicious.

The Colin Cooke one still has a photo up on the site and its clearly not the same coin. On the face of it, the CC example has a definitely got a weak 6, whearas the one on eBay looks doctored to me. That 6 looks remarkably like the upper part of a 5. Its clearly angled at the top, so my guess is that someone has seen the CC specimen and has done a little creative work on a 1850's specimen to make it look like a 1860.

Don't know what the 'foreign' coin is. The Charles II is actually a Scottish 12 shillings. Looks like third coinage, possibly Falconer's issue, dated 1637-42.

I think you are quite right. My undated 2008 20p has several knobbles of metal on the queen's portrait - maybe this raises the value into the millions!! I wish. Also, I have a 2005 20p where the excess metal on the queen's head appears as if she is using a bluetooth. I've also seen several pennies with minor raised bits of metal which also suggests that they are not too careful about quality, although I suppose the sheer quantity being made means that some errors are bound to creep in.

Be careful and check that each coin is regarded as a separate item and that the limit doesn't apply to your whole collection. My company (SAGA - there's a giveaway) insure a single item up to £6000, but regard a collection of coins as a single item. It was realising this which led me to go for the bank option.

I don't particularly like storing them at the bank, although they are readily accessible. The upside though is that I only pay 0.2% insurance rather than 0.6% and that saves me £200 per year.

I've just changed mine to Stamp Insurance Service who us Sterling. Previously I was with Lloyds who again used Sterling. The main difference was that Lloyds and many others try and rap it all up with your house contens insurance under a specified item. I wanted the freedom of having the collection completely seperate from the house insurance although the total premium is very similar. Gary Further to this point, I too have just amended my insurance. I discovered as the renewal came round that the maximum amount for a single item on a general policy was £6000, but that a collection of coins was classed as one item!!!! A quick update of the re-purchase price using a 2 year old Spink, led to a revelation in terms of overall 'value.' In short I was way under-insured and needed to make sure that the cover was adequate. Since I don't have an alarm system or a safe, the insurance company were reluctant to increase the policy without security improvements. It ended up being cheapest to store the items at the bank. So two large steel boxes were obtained, padlocks etc. fitted, and were trundled off to the bank. My wife and I had a right laugh at the bank as we looked like a couple of gangsters in our shades, me in a leather jacket, her chewing gum, something that wasn't helped by us going on about the body being in one box and the head in the other. The upshot was that the bank now stores them in their vault and it takes a large burly man or two ladies to lug each box up for inspection. The weight of two boxes containing some 3000 or so coins is quite something - I'd guess around a hundredweight, including the boxes. The pity of it is that I don't now get to see them unless I make arrangements to do so, but I do have peace of mind about them. I guess I also came to the point of realising that what was a simple hobby had turned into something else entirely. i.e. a major investment.

I do hope that your book includes the 1946 die flaw O N E ' penny? I managed to get Spink to include it in the Standard Catalogue, but I'm still working on the less-convinced Chris Perkins to get it put in CCGB ! I also bought a 1966 penny a few years back that has an 'extra wave' crashing against the lighthouse, while at the same time I managed to get a 1915 'recessed ear' penny in high grade. I'm told there are two 1937 reverses, but as they both look exactly the same at first glance, and are both very common, I find them totally unsexy As are all the minuscule variations on Elizabeth II ship halfpenny reverses. ("Oooh there's a tiny difference in the size of the ship, but you should be able to spot the difference - one has 1958 on the reverse, the other has 1959" ) Hi Peckris My book does indeed mention the 1946 die flaw ONE penny. It also mentions the different shaped '9's and double struck dates for this same year. Yes, the 1966 extra wave is also described together with the incuse peak, missing waves and short helmet plume types. Got the recessed ears for 1915 and 1916 in as well as all the 1937 types. As for the 1958 halfpennies, you are right that they are tricky to differentiate, although it can be done by examining the border teeth and the width of the border. Hope this persuades you to buy a copy. For an independent assessment of it, you could approach Historic Coinage or Gary D.

Where can I get a copy please? Google not helpful David, Have sent you a message separately with the details. Daveg38

Scott, There are a number of identifiers for the two types of 1909 reverse. These are: Rev D • The waves to the right of Britannia are coarsely cut. • Britannia’s central trident prong points to a tooth. • The first ‘1’ in the date points to a gap between two border teeth. • Both legs of the ‘N’ in ‘ONE’ point to border teeth. • The uprights of the ‘P’ and ‘E’ in ‘PENNY’ point to border teeth. • Britannia’s fist, where it grips the trident is smaller and less spread. Rev E • The waves to the right of Britannia are more finely cut. • Britannia’s central trident prong points to a gap between two teeth. • The border teeth are arranged so that the ‘1’ in the date is centrally over a tooth. • Both legs of the ‘N’ in ‘ONE’ point to gaps between border teeth. • The uprights of the ‘P’ and ‘E’ in ‘PENNY’ point between border teeth. • Britannia’s fist, where it grips the trident is larger, and more spread out. Also, Rev D has 167 teeth whilst Rev E has 164. You should be able to use some of these identifiers to establish which one you have. From the photo, it looks like rev E i.e. the rarer one, as the pointing of the 1 looks to be to a tooth and Britannia's fist appears to be the larger type. However, you need to check it in the hand. This data comes from my own book 'The Identification of British 20th Century Bronze Coin Varieties', which attempts to cover all the major and minor types of 20thC bronze. You clearly need one, so buy it now!!!

Hi all, I've got quite a number of mixed grade and denomination foreign coins spare at the moment. Most of them are silver and some are in very nice condition. In a few cases the example is a scarce date or type. I've listed them below and graded them as best I can, with prices. If anybody would like to purchase any of them then please let me know via my email address: ukc801988231@btconnect.com. I appreciate that you will probably not want to take my word for the grading, so if you would like to see scans of any of them, please email me and I will forward them to you. Australia 3d 1940 VF - £1 Australia 1927 Parliament Florin – GVF £5 BWA halfpenny – UNC £2 BWA Two shilling 1913 – GVF £9 Canada 50 cents 1906 – F £24 French Indo China 1937 20 Cent – EF £8 French Indo China – 1907 Trade dollar – VF Cleaned £10 India 1917 1 Rupee – NVF £6 India 1903 1 Rupee – GF £4 India 1901 1 Rupee – NVF £8 Italy 1960 L500 – NEF £2 Japan 10 Sen 1902 – GVF £90 Mexico silver 5 pesos 1948 – EF £10 New Guinea 1938 1 Shilling – GEF £3 Panama 1/10 Balboa 1930 – UNC £30 Portugese India 1912 1 Rupia - NVF £45.00 Spain 1925 25 Centimos – VF £1 Straits Settlements 1904 1 dollar – NVF £25 Sweden 25 Ore 1930 – VF £1 Trade Dollar 1902 B – NUNC £15 USA 1964 quarter – UNC £1 USA 1941 Mercury dime – VF £1 USA 1935 5 cents buffalo – GF £3 USA Eagle $1 Bullion – UNC £12 DaveG38

Ooops , i meant to say , id rather the trade dollar than the eagle , ill adjust for payment , thanks Jake, Sorry to disappoint you, but I have sold the trade dollar already by other means!!

Sorry, I forgot to put the date up. Its nothing special - just a 1987. Its fine thanks , i tried putting a years set together , any chance you could sort out a price for me on shipping to Pennsylavania ? Id probably take the quarter too , im ok for buffalos and Mercs , finished sets for those.Thanks Hi Jake, Have weighed up both coins plus packaging and the cost to airmail to the US is £2.50, so if you wanted both coins then total would be £15.50. Unfortunately, this would be uninsured postage - insured looks far too expensive. The only other thing is that I have had another look at the quarter and in my view, its good EF not genuinely UNC - this might sway your decision about it. If you want to see scans of them both I can send to you, just to make sure you are happy with them. If so then let me know. So far as payment goes, you can pay me via Paypal using the email address ukc801988231@btconnect.com. Hope this helps. DaveG38

When I get time I will go through my Coin Monthly mags from the 1970s. There are articles in there regarding ghosting, die faults, varieties and other errors and from memory, ghosting was never entirely eliminated on the George V series.

Just to put the other side of the coin, so to speak, there are a number of modern commemoratives that I do find rather attractive. For instance the 2008 Elizabeth I proof crown was a very nicely executed piece of work and with the frosted relief looks good. I also quite like he useless commemorative 50 pences, if only to relieve the monotony of the britannia reverse. After a few years I think we'll all be thoroughly cheesed off with the latest business strike offerings, which are a novelty at first but for me are already beginning to become monotonous, and will be much more interested in seeing some variation.

The other thing to watch for are the (hundreds or even thousands) of Chinese fakes of these early dollars. And don't get me onto the 1763 shillings fakes which are excellent, but a nightmare for the unwary. And even for the knowledgeable, they are that good.

You are quite right, so it looks like a deliberately false image. I can't quite see why anybody would bother though. I mean, at best its a £5.99 sale, not a million!!

My 1993 proof set only includes a 'small' ten pence, not a large one, so I think this is either a con or more likely its a mis-description.

I have seen some 'amateur' research carried out on the George V pennies concerning colour and the composition of the metals. Part of this if I remember right included a letter from the chairman of the Kings Norton company confirming some composition aspects of the metals used. Quite where this came from I am not sure, but I suspect it was an article in Coin Monthly from the 1970s. If I get a chance I'll see if I can find it. Alternatively, Aardhawk seems to be well up on the contents of Coin Monthly and might be able to enlighten us.

For £500 I would want something a good deal clearer and better condition than this. Indeed, I paid less than this for my 1689 Halfpenny which is in better condition (and that isn't good!) and is a much more interesting coin than a threepenny bit.

The first coin is a Charles II 1672 farthing (or halfpenny). Can't tell from the size, but odds are its a farthing. The second is a late William III halfpenny, 1699-1701 - can't make out the date. The third is a counterfeit George III halfcrown, made in brass and then silver washed. Hope this helps.