pokal02

Thanks for the replies. It looks like I'll have to go with Waddell (who are indeed based in USA despite being 'Ltd') - I've enquired about shipping charges. The Amazon cases are the 1/2 size ones - too big for the space I've got left unfortunately.

The 1837 could be described as Fair/Poor or even NF/Poor although I agree it's pretty worthless. .

Eventually managed to get the results - I didn't get anything but was the direct underbidder on 4 of my 6 lots (3 by only £10!) so I'm on the right lines (there was nothing I absolutely had to have, so did'nt bid anything outrageous). Of the other two, a nice but not wonderful 1554 shilling went for £2,600 net (£3,200+ inc premium etc) - that's just silly!

I can't get the results for this sale on their website - 'Prices Realised' section just freezes (is it their site or my computer?) Assume I didn't get anything as I think I'd have got the invoice by now.

I rather liked the 1651 'atheist' crown that reads 'GO WITH US' instead of GOD WITH US'. It came up in Spinks circular a couple of times in the early 2000s, haven't heard of it since. (1651 is, of course. a difficult date anyway without worrying about varieties).

I'm probably another of the 'middle' collectors referred to in previous posts, and losing Spink (although they've effectively been lost for 18 months+) is a blow. Realistically I'm not going to save up for 20 years on the off-chance they'll have a Henry VII Testoon or 1834 Crown for sale then. I'm finding, again like other posters, that auction prices, even for moderately rare coins (eg Tournai & Durham House groats, P&M Shillings) in 'nice but not wonderful' grade are getting silly. I'm frequently having to get hammered coins in, say, GF rather than NVF to get anything. SNC was one of the few fixed-price lists where one could find many new & interesting coins every couple of months. (Many, although not all, dealers' lists & web-sites mostly consist of stuff that's been on previous lists & not sold - some coins stay on for years - I suppose this is less of a problem than previously now interest rates are 0.5%).

...and again veering slightly off topic, I assume that the 1953, 1960 & 1965 Crowns (and 1937?) were just issued in plastic wallets or something similar - I've never seen any 'official' cases advertised - I wonder why given that the 1935 & 1951 Crowns and post-1972 25p's were issued in boxes/cases?

I tend to agree that EF & VF grades have become considerably debased over the last 20 years. I would think that of the coins I see described as VF, I grade 5% as VF, 20% AVF, 50% NVF and 25% GF (with similar reductions @ EF - some of these I take all the way down to VF) whereas the 'F's I see I grade more like 30% F, 55% AF and 10% NF with only a very few VG/Fair (and the odd one or two even upgraded to GF!) Fair & Poor seem almost synonymous now - many coins described as Poor I would grade as Fair. I'm assuming from Spinks consistent increasing of their VF & EF catalogue prices that they are (or think they are) grading using the 'old' standards - some clarification on this in the 2014 catalogue would be welcome.

I'd tend to agree that standards for VF & EF have dropped, it used to be said that a VF coin should 'look uncirculated' at a casual glance. I wish Spink would publish a book on the lines of 'Standard Guide to grading English Coins' going back to 1662 (or better still 1551) - then I'd know whether to re-grade my whole collection! (Have compared the picture of the VF James II crown (shown as a grading example) in this year's Spink catalogue with two graded VF & AVF in Dec 2002 Num circular - I think the earlier ones are very slightly better).

I would have said AVF myself, although I know I tend to be harsh on VF coins and lenient on F (probably because when I started upgrading my Charles II crowns in the late 90s, Spink tended to quote them as £75 F & £450 VF - subconsciously the huge % difference has stuck in my mind!)

Finally got mine on Tuesday, so would think the rest should arrive today?

I managed to get Edward VI & Aberystywth-Furnace groats. Also still awaiting invoice - looking back in my records, the last invoice I had from them in 2010 was dated 5 days after the auction (& presumably took another couple of days to arrive) - so a week's probably standard. (Have already got my coin from the Spink auction 2 days later!)

There were a few fair/good prices @ Spink - the 2 Athelred I of Wessex pennies (I got the first) went for quite reasonable prices as did the Tournai groat. The Edward VI groat also looked cheap @ £420 (depends how 'bent' it was - couldn't tell from pics. Quickly gave up on the Durham House groat though - even the 'routine' Henry VIII Tower groats seemed to go for an awful lot.

I'll be there on Friday - probably just window shopping as the wallet's taken a few blows @ St James's & Spink this week.

Managed to snaffle a couple of groats at St James's this morning. Think the outlay has scuppered my trip to Spink though. Will probably go to Coinex but may well be looking rather than buying. I agree, many years I've found nothing between Nov-March & everything happens at once in Sept. Would like it a bit more spread out.

Didn't get any of my 3, but got a lot closer than expected (earlier bid at the same price on one, underbidder on another). Seemed to me that the high rollers ran out of money in the 2nd half of the day? Now I know I haven't spent anything, I might turn up at the Spink auction next week - most of the coins I would be after are in the early morning so hope the same pattern isn't followed.

Have bid on 3 items, but only about 105% of what I think they're worth. Will be amazed if I get any of them!

I noticed recently when browsing through ESC (as one does) that it says GIII octagonal countermarked dollars were given a face value of 5s, as opposed to the earlier oval ones which were 4s/9d. However, Linecar's work on crowns says that both issues were 4s/9d, Spink's standard catalogue is ambiguous but I'd read that as saying 4s/9d also. Can anyone clear this discrepancy up please? Thanks in advance for any help.

1696 crown in VG for £249 or whatever it was, no thanks (at least they're honest - some ebay sellers will describe a 1696 crown in VG as VF and try to get £249 for it!) I did once get a 1691 crown there in F for a reasonable £395 (for comparison a 1692 in GF+ cost me £525 six months later) - not sure how that one slipped through!!

I once saw a nice crown on Spink website & thought I'd buy it in person as I was due to be in Central London the next day anyway. When I got there, I found it was £150 cheaper than the website price (so snapped it up)! Used to get the Circular regularly but haven't seen one for at least 7 months - not sure it's still being published? They still send me the auction catalogues.

Thanks all, I think I'll leave it as it is, at least for now. As a matter of interest, what would be a reasonable guess at the decrease in value compared to a specimen without a crack? 2/3 of its book price (i.e. worth 1/3) ? It's actually in 2 quite neat halves and doesn't look any worse than before when I put them together.

Hi, The other day I dropped a rare hammered 1d (which was already badly cracked) and it broke in two. Would you attempt to have it repaired or not & if so, how would you go about it - I've seen the Allen Stockton website but would be reluctant to send it to America (or in fact anywhere by post - any repair could fail if it gets delivered back on my carpet underneath one of my wife's heavy catalogues!)

Does anyone else think the first groat illustrated under Henry VIII Posthumous isn't Posthumous? It has Lombardic lettering & Lis mintmark (can't distinguish the stops easily - could be saltires, trefoils or saltire crosses?)

Hi, I would like to get hold of some small coin trays (max 160mm x 240mm) to best utilise my available space. I can't find any this small (I use the SAFE Nova which are 190mm x 240mm - these are the smallest I can find). Does any one know of any available? Thanks for any help.

I've got the printed catalogue now. The 1681 & 1682 crowns mentioned are both £200 and the cartwheel £160, so something's gone wrong with the website. I remember selling a 1684 crown in AF at CCA a few years ago and was horrified when they estimated it at £28!! It went for £180 or £190 in the end though. I've never been too disappointed with prices I've rwalised there (other than one or two hammered pennies - I think milled does much better). Weird in the extreme. The first few listed are: 5s £50 1681 GF-AVF nice light tone, scarce 5s £40 1682/1 AVF light tone, faintest trace of mount removed from edge 2s6d £300 1909 GVF+/EF nice light tone 2s £60 1907 EF/ABU sl weak strike obv, v. light tone 1d £50 1797 Cartwheel virt Unc lustre traces, some surface mks & rust spots rev The cartwheel must be extremely disfigured to make sense of that laughable estimate (which would be ok for a VF or GVF item), but those first two Charles II crowns are also ridiculously low especially when compared to the 1909 halfcrown that's not even fully EF! I don't know what's going on tbh - if there were any images in that pdf it would be easier to see what's what, but there aren't.