Coinery

That's amazing, 300? I nearly fell in love with 1887 myself then for a second! I have to confess, I am looking for a collecting 'slot' like this myself, anything to do with minute detail and perfection really appeals to me. This collecting 'high' happens to me over and over again on this forum, the sudden realisation of the breadth and diversity of collecting coins, and the learning and specialist knowledge that comes even from collecting a single year. Thanks for the inspiration!

The original photos maneyer posted were from the cointalk website but whether linked to someone showing off their purchase, I don't know. Perhaps pm him? Thanks for the info. I've tried to look it up on Cointalk but eventually gave in. I'll not trouble moneyer, though it would make for an interesting finale, or not, to get it out of its slab and put the pictures up here. Hey, ho!

I really want to buy the coin that sparked this conversation, does anyone have the link? I'm confident this is nothing other than fancy, overdone, photographic software! I raise this point again, because my original request is slipping further down the posts unanswered! Anyone?

Hi, do you mind me asking which site? Have you got an easy link?

Yes, Valium can affect one in many different ways! :-)

(I had to see this via Tom's relinking...) I'm afraid I'm going to buck the trend here. From the description I expected to see yet another artificial 'rainbow' ugliness, but this wasn't. I agree that it may be artificial and the golden toning is a little too rich, but on the whole I love silver coins with a single colour toning - e.g. blue, or gold, or even grey-pewter. That's not nearly as ugly as I thought it was going to be. I'm with you Peck, I like toned silver. Although, in this case the obverse is not very attractive, but I could easily live with the reverse. Agreed With you two on this one! The toning over the veil looks very 'right' to me, I wonder whether the photography is to blame here and not the toning! I think I'd take a gamble, expecting it to turn up in hand more golden than caramel, I rather like it! I've taken a few pictures in natural light recently that have 'invented' colours I never knew existed on the coin. How much is it? I'd buy it to look!

It's the recut 19 in the date that makes this die pairing such a sought after rarity! I must have it! ;-) perhaps someone should tell him about this rare variety, and see if the 'extra information' gets added to the listing?

What I find especially odd about these two coins is how the obverses of both coins seem to be, as near as damn it, complete. I would have expected to find at least a small crescent of the obverse missing, strange????

Just has another thought on the same matter! I think it would be really effective to swamp all known spotted fakes on eBay with questions regarding authenticity. Subtly put...'hi I was just wondering if you can tell me where you got this coin? There are obviously a lot of fakes on eBay, so I'd like to know a little bit more about the coin before bidding' ...a series of these kind of emails, maybe a tad more accusing perhaps? If we all had a couple of 'copy and paste' standard emails, and each sent a message to these naughty so-and-so's on eBay whenever any forum member identified any fake and marked it in the 'new' fakes thread, I think the item would be pulled on most occasions and likely not relisted. Dah, dah, huge reduction in the confidence of sellers who list fakes!

God, wouldn't that be useful! So much useful information on this forum just gets swallowed up amongst the thousands of other posts.

I live in fear of any historical questions that can be linked to my interest in coins, and that I 'should' know the answer to...pub quiz, pub game machine, who wants to be a millionaire game at Christmas, brrrr, gives me the shudders just thinking about it! Poor you that you got bagged! :-) :-) :-)

Due to the nature of counterfeits its rarely possible to identify the coiners responsible for individual coins. An exception: http://www.predecimal.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=6170&st=0&p=56938&fromsearch=1entry56938 Perhaps further studies may reveal other connections as such. That's the kind of stuff! Excellent, could read that kind of history by the bucket load! Good luck with it all!

Can anybody offer up a rationale for the consistently high prices that EdVII pieces go for? If I'm very observant (and patient), I can get a steal on eBay for just about anything, from hammered to Victoria but, Edward, he's a very different animal, that rarely produces a bargain!

Mostly you'll spot the fakes right away being of brass/copper/pewter colour - and those which are silvered are very rarely with complete silvering. The garnish is one of the ways to separate the various types of counterfeits not really to separate counterfeits from genuine as some counterfeits are cast hence details being identical to the genuine coins. (I'm not interested in the cast counterfeits as they are mostly small time effords and probably impossible to separate the moulds used). The domain name is a fanpage which I did from a legendary danish psych band. I guess its possible to make a separate domain but don't know how and I'll think people will find the pages no matter what they are called. I think the name has some impact on search results but you'll be able to google it anyway. Right now its all very incomplete and needs lots of work - but the great thing about a home page is you can work when you got the time and upload what you have - doen't need to be a completely finished thing like an article for a magazine. I've only just grasped the concept of collecting counterfeits! I've no idea why, but it never occurred to me that there were the dies to think about, and that it would be so specialised as to separate out cast types! It's got quite a bit of magic and mystery involved in it, when you start thinking about all that criminal activity going on in the back rooms of houses in barns in 17 & 18 hundreds! Is it possible to link dies to real names and court proceedings, hangings, etc? Would make a great museum display (and website), if THAT kind of history could be added to it...what a great book too ;-)

Phew, what a read! :-)

Whatever the politics of the CGS/London Coins situation, I can't see anything other than a small Arabic 1 overdate. I'd find it even more worrying that something as clear as this could be explained away as anything else. It certainly would leave me thinking I could buy nothing with even the slightest degree of certainty.

I think it's superb, nice and easy on the eye, not fussy! Is it really that simple to 'visually' spot the fake shilling by identifying the garnish in the NW quarter? Can I ask why you chose such an obscure domain name? Won't that impact on the searchability?

How could you possibly know that? I did say 'appears'. I noticed that, in most cases, when the sale of a lot was started with a postal/email bid that was then outbid in the room, there was rarely a counter bid from the initial bidder. This suggests to me that the maximum bid was used to kick-off the sale. You might interpret it otherwise? That does sound odd, but I do know from personal experience of London Coins that I have won many absentee lots below my maximum. Fair enough. I don't want to suggest anything other than that the process is far from transparent and that, by being in the room, I feel in control of my bidding. In the 10 or more auctions i've recently attended, I've definitely heard 'OK, I've got £75 with me, so £80 ladies and gentleman, who'll bid me £80?' Your top bid as an absentee has got to be the one you'd be pleased to win it at...not the 'sod it, I'll put £xxx on as my worst case scenario,' because likely as not it'll be your worst case scenario!

Of, course, CS3/4 and photoshop have their part to play, but still a very impressive piece of art.

When I think about how much of a struggle it is to take a photo of just 1 single coin, with the focus good across the entire coin, and replicate the colour in an honest way, I can do nothing other than marvel at the standard of the photograph alone. Imagine pulling that set out of the drawer when you're numie mates pop round for a glass of Bollinger and chips (with curry sauce and mushy peas)?

Does anyone know of the top literary and website resources for Edward VII colonial coinage?

Just a thought, if you are in possession of a 'reasonably' good fake, that you had no moral issue in selling as genuine, why not list your coin with a GENUINE image? Maybe this is where a lot of the fear stems from...the 'sh*t, I would never be able to spot that myself'! Maybe some images linked to fake sales are pictures of genuine coins, spreading fear and confusion in the collectors' circles? It's my recollection that the hardest thing for the forger to get right on these coins is the sharp, squared, lettering of the legends...they are never of the razor quality of the genuine article (at least all the one's I've seen...Seuk?). Also, the background in the reverse quarters was a stumbling point...can't recall why now, haven't bought one for quite a few years! The legends are the big one though, the one that rules out 99% straight away! The G Crown is shrouded in the mystery and legends of fakism, that's for sure, and has got stuck there! Good job too, they'd be worth considerably more if a more people had the confidence to buy them! I say that coming from one who holds none...I'll change my tune when I have a couple in the bag!

I've been looking at this coin, purely out of interest, and because of all the 'bewares' that go with this issue. http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/170780911605?ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1423.l2649 I looked back at some of the pictures I'd downloaded from this forum (I can't find the original location) but the reverse of the 1817 on ebay seems to match some of the pointers picked out on the 1818 reverse, namely the two marks over PE of pense. Any thoughts? The 1818 forum pics had all the little red arrows on it, it that helps anyone locate it! The attachment is the best I can come up with (sorry, wouldn't allow me to upload a word document with image attached - Error You aren't permitted to upload this kind of file).

Good old olympic junk! Another nail in the coffin for twenty-first century CuNi!

Hmmmmph ...speechless!