Sword

I understand why people might like to collect decimal coins. Indeed, I might buy a silver set of the current circulating coins at some point. I guess I just don't accept a piece of metal with a painted Gruffalo as a "coin". If the Royal mint were to produce some porcelain discs with the Gruffalo painted on one side would that also be accepted as a "coin" by some?

Who would actually want such a thing. A child would surely prefer a soft toy Gruffalo. (I brought one for my nephew when we went to see the Gruffalo show in a theater). A teenager would want the £65 (or even £30) than such an object. I would not comment on any grown-ups buying for themselves ...

Stay around. It's very possible to have a hobby in interesting and rare coins without physically owning them.

"I want a million for a house". Then it was "I want 180K for a chip shop". And now a starting price of £5 with no mention of house or shop. https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/ONE-OF-A-KIND-MAJOR-ROYAL-MINT-DIE-SHARD-STRIKE-ERROR-2017-12-SIDED-1-COIN/123657536635?hash=item1cca90447b:g:kxAAAOSw11Bb3aql:rk:32:pf:0

I am sure you are right with regard to the more scratch resistant plastic. However, this is not mentioned on the Gold Shield site. https://www.pcgs.com/goldshield From what I can see, the Gold Shield Slab looks very similar to other PCGS slabs ...

One idea is to have tamper proof edging which holds the two pieces of glass together and protect the slab from drops. The two pieces of glass separates when the edging is removed.

It is rather sad that so many people only care about the number on the slab rather than what the coin (and even less what the slab) looks like. Can you imagine the insult of putting for example a Charles I Oxford Crown in a plastic slab? If one were to slab such a treasure, it should be between two pieces of sapphire glass at least!

I have wondered if TPGs will offer super deluxe slabs for very valuable coins in the future. E.g. non scratch glass instead of cheap plastic. It does look strange to slab a 50 or 100k coins in some cheap plastic that is easy to scratch.

UNC with cabinet friction is one of those self-contradictory term. There is wear but it could be due to mishandling rather than circulation. Sure.

It is a matter of seeing any old man with a goatee one wants to see. 😀

Perhaps. I admit Lenin was the first thing to come to mind.

Reverse of the coin:

Although I don't know anything about Soviet coins, I am inclined to think it is not Lenin. I find it hard to believe that Soviet coins would bear a portrait of Lenin in 1943. Surely it would not have been PC to have a soviet leader on a coin like the Tsars before. The CCCP emblem would be much more appropriate. E.g.

Forum member Madness came to mind too. 😀 And he still logs into regularly.

He states "As winning bidder if you are not happy and return the item to me I will refund your purchase price and postage costs without question". I have a suspicion he might not be honoring that promise.

That phrase generally mean giving advice to someone who is more expert in a particular area. But then again, I do find it useful for friends to occasionally emphasise things I already know. Articles / sites on fakes are so instructive and entertaining for collectors of all levels! It will be greatly appreciated by all.

This is a potential risk. But the fakers have already compared images of real coins with their creations and probably do know where the differences are. Besides, indicators such as poor quality of edge lettering, raised spots, same scratches on cast coins etc are much easier to spot then correct.

Depends on what you want to photograph I guess. My current compact is a cannon sureshot sx700hs brought a few years back. It is a very good holiday camera and comes with a 30X zoom and optical image stabilisation. Hence I can use max zoom without tripod. The lower zoom versions will be around £150. But I am not certain if it is any good in photographing coins though.

Found one for you. This shows the portrait of Yuan Shikai (The portrait of the Fat Man Dollar).

There is no indication of date for the Tael. Nice items!

Indeed! Great item.

I have done GCSE Chinese and can give you some information. The first one is indeed Chinese. The portrait is that of Sun Yat-Sen, the founding father of the Republic of China. The Chinese characters translate to "25th year of the Republic of China" (1937). Dr Sun died in 1925 and so this is a commemoration item. The reverse states finess 98.00 (98%), Weight 1.000. The logo is that of the Hang Seng Bank in Hong Kong. I won't describe it as coin coin weight but (if genuine) as a silver ingot issued by a bank. The second silver weight: this has characters for Hunan Provence. The weight is one Tael which is a traditional Chinese weight. "In China, there were many different weighting standards of tael depending on the region or type of trade. In general the silver tael weighed around 40 grams (1.3 ozt). The most common government measure was the Kuping; "treasury standard") tael, weighing 37.5 grams (1.21 ozt). A common commercial weight, the Caoping "canal shipping standard") tael weighed 36.7 grams (1.18 ozt) of marginally less pure silver.

Sounds a bit like the episode "Long John Peter" in Family Guy... "In the episode, Peter steals a parrot from the vet and becomes convinced that he is a pirate. He becomes the scourge of the neighborhood, terrorizing every corner of Quahog until he accidentally kills his beloved bird..."

Park sign in Amsterdam pointing out the obvious.

3 to 6 millions at auction? It's only worth just over half a million euros if all the coins are made of pure gold!