Sword

It's only a common ass featured on the coin I am afraid. Worth less than 30p in mint state. Hope we don't feel like that at work on Monday!

As far as I know, no one is certain what caused it. I think there is some theory about hay being mixed into the molten metal.

Isn't that just hay marking? If so, it is largely tolerated as it occurred during the minting process and cannot be removed.

It is rarely a good idea for a beginner to have a coin slabbed and graded. The first few coins that a beginner get are usually not of high enough grades or valuable enough to warrant paying the grading fee. I would not even consider sending an EF 1884 S sovereign to be graded as the expense will probably be about 15 or 20% of what the coin is worth. And if it turns out to be VF, the value is virtually scrap gold and you have totally wasted your fee. I can remember several beginners visiting this forum in the past, have paid for their coins to be graded and have simply wasted their money. One graded a fake dug out of his garden thinking it was valuable. Another tried to grade an undated 20p which was probably worth less than £50. One graded a florin which turned out to be obviously cleaned with a value not much more than the grading expenses.

Just out of curiosity, I had a look at Company House, which is a government website. It appears that CGS has only just applied to have itself struck off and will be dissolved in two months time. Technically, it is still active at the moment. https://beta.companieshouse.gov.uk/company/05485615/filing-history As far as one can tell, LCGS is not a company but is simply a department of London Coins. Not that any of this actually matters but I thought I would share it anyway.

I would regard something as a coin if it could have been spent when it was issued. E.g., although the 1935 rocking horse crown was not intended for circulation, some were actually circulated. Indeed, I remember having a very worn example when I was a pre teen collector and so it must have been accepted as currency in its days. I define a coin very loosely and would regard something very closely related to a circulating coin as having coin status. Hence, I have no problem in accepting piedforts as coins. I have read somewhere that the raised edge 1935 crown is not technically legal tender but it is similar enough to the incuse edge currency version. Patterns are not quite real coins for me and I regard them as just unadopted designs. (But I would love owning them and so they have honorary coin status for me) But I don't consider something to be a coin simply because it has £100 written on it because it cannot be spent as money. (And I don't want to buy any of them)

Indeed. Commemorating Prince George's fifth birthday? But there is no edge inscription. Something like "I can now spell cat" would be quite appropriate. And yes, £610 asking price is frightful.

He has got feedbacks for selling at least 15 of these things already. I am just not very sympathetic for people still wanting to buy from him.

It's definitely the thought that counts. It's an heirloom!

Enjoy the odd stroke of luck but don't expect to have such luck regularly. I recall hearing a Chinese phrase when I was a child which translates to “To guard a tree-stump waiting for rabbits” The story goes: one day a farmer was working in the fields and he saw a rabbit carelessly bumping into a tree stump and breaking its neck. The farmer took the rabbit indoors and cooked it. Later on that night he was thinking to himself “wow, I don’t need to farm anymore. All I need to do is to wait for a rabbit to run and kill itself each day by the stump”

Just for a bit of fun, some 2p "varieties" This example is a 2p without it's copper coating. It has toned a little.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4674846/Window-cleaner-finds-faulty-1-coin-worth-3-000.html Worth £3k? Yeah right! Apparently, he took £500 in coins out of banks five times a day for six weeks. Might have done better by sticking to his day job of cleaning windows.

coa is certificate of authenticity

I did a search and came across an article saying that the method of silver plating by dipping into acid has been done since Roman time. "The Roman moneyers had discovered that copper is readily etched away by certain acids and corrosive salts that will leave silver untouched. A coin blank was made in the regular way of an alloy containing about 5% silver, sometimes less. The blank was then dipped in a "pickle" solution of corrosive salts and acid. Sometimes the blank was heated and dipped again to speed up the process. The copper was dissolved out, leaving a microscopically thin layer of pure, spongy silver on the surface of the blank. When the blank was struck up with the emperor's portrait and the design on the reverse, the sponge silver was flattened down and spread across the surface of the coin, leaving a beautiful, brilliant silvery finish on the coin. This soon wore off in circulation, though, leaving an ugly gray, brown, white, or black splotchy surface on the coin." http://jaysromanhistory.com/romeweb/engineer/art15.htm

I hope you didn't pay £50 each for them and I sincerely hope you are not trying to sell them for this amount.

I have read an article in JN coins: "Before leaving the subject of the 50% silver alloy, it must be pointed out that it was far from being problem-free. For the first two or three years it looked good when newly struck, but wore to an ugly yellow colour. Some tinkering with the composition of trace metals was done, and the next couple of years saw silver coins wear to show brownish-red ‘coppery’ patches. Finally, the Mint got it just about right, and minted them with a coating of pure silver; these coins tended to wear with greyish patches, and this was so all the way through to their replacement with cupro-nickel in 1947. The Mint even experimented with pure nickel, and some extremely rare shillings exist but as they are strictly patterns, they are outside the scope of this article." I think Peckris might have written it. Perhaps he can comment.

For me, they grade as "reject" and "reject". (I now like to employ Rob's method of grading). But to play your game, I would say the example on the left would grade (might be significantly) higher than the one on the right. The lack of detail on the left hand side coin is due in large part to weak striking rather than wear.

"been in a drawer since 1951 when I went to the Festival of Britain on a school trip". It's not likely they would have given a VIP proof to a school kid unless he happens to be Prince Charles. Perhaps VIP stands for vividly imaginative person.

Duplicate post

What grade do you think this one was given? It isn't even VF in my view. LCGS graded it as 55 or GVF. No, I can't see myself slabbing another coin with CGS. It's unlikely that I would now want to buy one either.

This one is in the current LCA auction catalogue. Supposedly graded at CGS65 and GEF. Lacks eye appeal for me and the obverse has many hairlines. Estimate of £500-£600 is completely OTT in my view.

I didn't know that coins were ever acid bathed to increase the surface percentage of silver but this does make sense chemistry wise. Were some 0.5 silver coins actually coated with a layer of pure silver to improve appearance?

The reverse lions in the top shield are exceptionally well struck!

"my cooking s were not yet graded"? What grade did they give you? Tasty or not tasty? Seriously, CGS is no more and so there is no point complaining about them. And there is hardly any point complaining about LCGS either as one shouldn't have pay the £99 annual membership unless one was fairly happy with the old CGS. (I personally will never pay the membership fee myself).

I brought a 1984-1987 piedfort £1 set a few years back for ca £60. It was the only occasion I brought anything decimal. I guess I brought them for sentimental reasons as I remember getting them for pocket money when I was a lad. The presentation case is also very nice too. It is a shame that the Royal Mint can't be bothered to make nice cases for similar sets later on.