pokal02

Don't know about the 19th century, but would guess that the mid-1990s (exactly when I gave up for a few years!) was probably the best time in the last 30-40 years as prices mostly fell in real terms between the mid 80's & about 1999. It's definitely worse now than when I was seriously collecting before in the mid 80's. Some coins have completely drifted out of my price range in that time. In the mid 80's I saved up for 9 months to buy a (damaged) 1853 Crown at £775 thinking I'd one day be able to afford an upgrade at about £2k. Fine, except they've now gone from £2k to about £15k in about 10 years - more than inflation surely (and it's not even a type coin as the 1847 in much cheaper).

I might slab an extremely valuable coin in BU (say 1826 or 1831 crown, if I could afford one) as the merest bump or friction would technically make it GEF, knocking a couple of thousand off its value. Also extensively forged coins such as 1763 shilling & 1905 halfcrown. Generally I prefer unslabbed ones - my GF's and NVF will still be GF & NVF even with a touch of friction every now and then & I'd rather be able to handle them. I haven't bothered to release my 2 (out of c.250) slabs though.

I would say AVF myself, although accepting that others might say VF. EF - he's having a laugh. And most if not all Anne crowns on Ebay are seriously overgraded.

As a recruit from milled to hammered, I soon realised that at my level I'd have to put up with chips, cracks, weak strikes etc if I wanted to complete my chosen areas (I draw the line at holes though). I tend to look at the grade and then make a value adjustment (eg -10% for a small chip, 30% for a larger chip etc). My earlier hammered, as mentioned by another poster, is generally better than later hammered with Henry VIII probably worst of all.

It would have to be the 1674 crown to complete my milled (non-proof) date set. I'd also like a Chas I Briot pattern crown (N2670?) and a 1644 Oxford please.

I grabbed a Phoenix from Coincraft yesterday and was surprised to read that the 1964 penny is "difficult to obtain". Admittedly it's harder than the 1967, but I wouldn't have thought that a mintage of 153 million - over two for everyone in the UK - made it particularly hard to track down. At exactly 1,000 times the price they were advertising a Henry VIII Tower mint testoon, which is quite rare. Except that the accompanying photo was clearly a Southwark mint coin.

No - it's definitely 1964 as it's photographed. Yours for the bargain price of £3.95 apparently.

In the 'old days' many coins, even expensive ones, weren't photographed on dealers' lists so grading had to be taken on trust. I also bought quite extensively from Grantham Coins in the 90's and generally their grading was reasonable. Over-graders included D J Traynor (what happened to him?) . These days I'd say Mark Rasmussen was a harsher grader than most - his NVF is most people's VF, Studio Coins of Winchester are good too.

It's a trade off between desirability and price (although I go along with the view that imagining the coin's circulation is part of the attraction, so wouldn't collect hammered/early milled much above VF even with unlimited funds). I'd rather have two different coins in GF-NVF than one in VF, some will prefer one in VF, others four in AF-F. I try to avoid damaged milled coins but will turn a blind eye to a minor chip/crack or whatever on a hammered coin, provided I consider the damage is reflected in the asking price.

I suspect Florins are the least collected milled silver, if only because they only go back to 1849. For hammered, would imagine that halfgroats are not much collected compared to pennies & groats. Have had a go at everything non-gold other than 6d's & florins in my time - when I decided to limit myself to one milled denomination did consider 6d's before settling on crowns.

Wear looks pretty minimal - just a little in centre of rev - so I'll have to say GVF (I almost never grade hammered any higher!)

EF for me (much nicer than all my VF's) - seem to be a few surface knocks particularly on the obverse.

ebay was good at the beginning when even decent coins were allowed to find their own level (ie they tended to start everything @ 99p with no/low reserve - I remember frantically bidding on a 'Mills for Mudie' crown in EF which was going for about £62 with a few minutes to go but being outbid in the last seconds as it went beyond £600). Now everything's buy it now - usually no offers - & usually far too high. eg there's a 1707E crown in Fair (perhaps GFair if there is such a grade) which is on at £245. It isn't worth it. Start it at 99p and someone will bid it up to £130-£140. Or how about the Oxford Crown copy on at £700? - it's not difficult to pick these up for about £100 so why keep relisting it at that price - it'll never sell.

When I started my crown collection in the late 80's, I thought I'd complete it one day - at the time a 1644 Oxford, 1831 etc in less than perfect state looked achievable in 20 years' time if I could save up for 6-12 months for each (I didn't then know there was only one 1674). The crazy price rises of recent years -1831 crown £3.5k to £14k in less than a decade - have knocked this on the head. Fortunately there is at least one date/type in most runs (1674 for crowns, Beorthric for hammered 1d, 1933 for milled 1d etc) to save us obsessive completers from ourselves (not sure about 6d's?). The same £14k would buy, at current book price, a groat of each reign Edward I - Charles ii halfway between F & VF other than Ed I., Hen IV & Edw VI where you'd have to settle for F - surely much more interesting?

I'm in the same position as poster #15 with crowns. Could upgrade my 1696 relatively cheaply, but anything else looks prohibitive now - have turned to groats in recent years but the same outcome is not that far off!!

The crowns were a bit (!) steep for me too - the Winter list had a few more reasonably priced coins, but this is a top-end catalogue. £14.5k seems very high for a 1732 or 1839 Proof crown, especially as neither are absolutely FDC, but sadly almost reasonable for an 1831 these days (strange that all 3 are the same price).

Wasn't expecting that - thought it might get to about 180-200k - is this a record for a British silver coin?

Spink does give £4.5k as the value of an 1821 proof, but not sure why anyone would spend that much given that it's identical to the currency piece (assuming it's not the TERTIO edge error), unless they specifically collect proofs. Where they're different from the currency pieces (eg 1746) or no currency piece exists (eg 1839) they tend to be much more sought after, even in lower grades.

Wouldn't the 1674 crown fit the 'excessively rare' criteria? One available to collectors (no, I don't have it) and one in BM I think. I tend to regard 'rare' as meaning 'less common than others of this type/era etc', rather than 'less available relative to the number of potential buyers', so I think it's fair to describe the 1934 crown as rare, even though it turns up surprisingly often. I'd say 'very rare' was perhaps 'one will turn up in 3-4 years if you're lucky' and 'excessively rare' could be 'you'll only get 2 or 3 chances to buy it in your lifetime, even with unlimited funds'. The grading issue is important (especially for milled coins), the 1665 crown in grades above F would meet the 'excessively rare' criteria - I've only heard of 2 in 30 years - even van Roekel didn't have one. On the other hand, some coins can be very expensive without being particularly rare, especially if they're 'type' coins - the crowns of 1601 & 1831 spring to mind.

Nothing for me either this time (not a bad thing as I hope to be spending at Spink the previous week & am 'stalking' a couple of decent coins on websites but waiting to see how much I spend at Spink first).

Got mine yesterday. One must-have and three would-likes (four if I can get the Reddite crown for a hundred quid or so...)

The biggest problem I would think in compiling a guide is the grading, especially as the gap between F & VF prices grows ever bigger - this alone would mean ebay has to be excluded, along with a good few dealers, assuming the grade of sold coins is not re-checked & adjusted (too big a job surely).

Spink's Dec 13 circular was interesting. They are selling a Henry VI York groat in Fine for £3000. Their own Coins of England published about 2 weeks before gave the value in F as £1350. So either: * the value of this coin has more than doubled in 2 weeks * they seriously undervalued it in C of E * they are taking the **** trying to get a silly price for it. * it could be a rare variety (I don't think so - it's rare anyway). That was the worst example, there were many others (Henry 8 Bristol shilling GF for $4,500, 1554 shilling VF £2,400 etc). Having said that, I do tend to pay attention to C of E more than anything else when assessing how much to pay for a particular coin (although will certainly pay more if I think it's necessary). I think it's probably the most accurate if the many sales of overgraded coins are excluded.

I had a 1662 crown which was similarly marked, confirming that the practice extended to early milled.

Hi, Does anyone know where I could get hold of some standard Abafil trays (the smallest i.e. quarter-size)? Spink only do the deep ones which for reasons of space are not suitable & I can't find anyone else in this country who does them. Thanks in advance for any help.