pokal02

There is 'A Guide to English Pattern Coins' by Crowther. It was published in 1887 and therefore doesn't give everything that we know about now, but still useful. It's not that expensive for its age (I picked up a reasonably good copy for about £20 3 or 4 years ago).

I would always gap-fill if only one or two items remained. If it's a very rare date, it'll re-sell anyway (probably at a profit if it's a few years before a better one turns up - I'm confident my 1665 crown in VG would sell & would expect 1686 & 1689 1/2ds in any grade to do OK too). If it's common - say 1886 1/2d instead of 1686 - and in poor condition - it shouldn't cost much anyway so not much harm would be done. As for the original question, I've also bought from both dealers mentioned and was happy with coins / service provided.

My top-performing coin (as a % of price paid) is a 1662 crown (s3353) in F, paid £32 for it in the 1980's, Spink price now £250. I would never have predicted that! I think that anything that ticks both 'rarity' and 'excellent condition'will continue to do well, so on a budget of £2500 I'd be looking at a 1665 or 1697 crown in AVF-VF (if I could find one), or perhaps a nice Edward VI /Richard III groat. It's only my opinion though!

I think it's OK to grade this as Fair - probably bang in the middle of that grade range. If you're OK with coins in this grade, you could get quite a few Charles II's for under £100 (1662,3,4,8,71,2,3,6,7,9,80,81) plus 1695, 1696, 1707, 1708. You'll probably have to save up a bit for a Geo I & II (they rarely turn up ibelow Fine anyway - I don't think they circulated much).

As my principal interest has been crowns, getting a date run in VF would be economically impossible!! I started with 'any grade will do' in the 1980's, and it's taken me until now to achieve a minimum of AF (1551-1684) F (1686-1804) & AVF (1818-date). In fact I still have a few rare dates (1665, 1697 etc) that I haven't managed even this yet. I agree that F to VF must be the grades that most lifelong private collectors (of pre-1937 coins) deal in. These sort of grades have seen a more realistic increase than EF (e.g. I bought A 1676 Crown in GF for £90 10 years ago, and I reckon it would now go for sbout £180). The current boom in these sort of grade seems to be in hammered & especially Saxon (a middling - say GF/NVF 1d of Alfred could have been got for £300 6 or 7 years ago - now it's more like £1000).

I've had less spare cash this year and have hardly been able to upgrade any of my crowns, other than nudging a couple of Charles II's from NF to GF. Have been filling in expanding my groat collection (which was one of each reign up to Mary) forward to Charles II & include more varieties, even though I'm having to go closer to F than my preferred VF - think I'll always find something to collect though. Assuming other mid-range collectors are in the same boat, prices of VF coins could drop (or F prices rise?)

One or two silly prices here. £3,000 odd (inc premium) for a fairly indifferent Tournai Groat?? It's not as rare as that. Am not surprised the Henry IV and Edward I groats went for huge prices though. There were two Charles II groats (LOTS 385/386) - I bid for what I thought was the less attractive one (both were described as VF, but I thought the first was AVF and the second GVF), hoping to be the only bidder. A mistake as the second one went for less!! (£130 and £100)

Many years ago I attempted a date run of 1/4d, 1/2d & 1d's (wasn't fussed about grades then) . I completed the ld's (obviously excluding 1933 & 54), but never got 1686 or 1689 1/2d's, 1685 Charles II farthing or the copper 1860 1/4d/1/2d. Have since moved on to crowns - never seen a 1674 (rumour is that there's only one outside museums). Until 10 years ago I'd have said 1665 was the second hardest (of the milled series), but a few have come out of the woodwork recently (only ever seen 2 specimens above F though). 1697 probably second hardest now. 1678 much harder than book price implies.

The same happened to me in a London Coins auction last year (a 1718 Crown was listed as going for £50 over my max but I was invoiced for my max). I didn't mind as I bid what I thought it was worth.