Gary1000

"Half a Dollar" was in common usage for the halfcrown in Liverpool when i was a lad - found it confusing because £1 was US $2.80 at the time Likewise. That harks back to the good old days when there were $4 to the pound. Apparently the crown was also called an Oxford. http://www.fun-with-words.com/money_words.html

Heck, I can't even get excited about it either, and I collect coins. I still find it hard to get even remotely interested in the 1970s bronzes, let alone the small 5p. The only vaguely interesting things about the modern coinage to me is the 1988 £1 coin (not rare really, but cool to find one in circulation) and the 10p die varieties, to me that's like hunting down a rare coin, lets face it none of the dates of current coins are actually rare, or likely to ever be, so it's got to rivet counting... Of course with the cupronickel 10p coins withdrawn, well that just leaves the 1988 £1 coin as the little ray of sunshine. I can't get excited about the commemorative coins because I despise commemoratives, talk about forced... 250 years of some other event or person's birth/death that we neither care about or even were aware of. Please save stuff like that for stamps. Production of coins for commerce really seems like a second priority, and I seen more coins with flaws in the last few years than ever in my 20 odd years of collecting. Consider 50 years ago, how many collectors collected then modern coins. Go back 100 years and how many collectors collected the then modern coins. It's not something new to call in coins to melt. There's still more than enough pre-decimal out there to keep us collectors happy forever. I don't expect the early decimal to be any different to the collectors of fifty year hence.

I guess purely for trade purposes, the first step towards a world currency.

There are other metals as well. Private patterns means you can do what you want - as indeed can the RM. I think I posted an image somewhere. What was the primary purpose of a private pattern? Was it a private submission to a Royal Mint commission for a currency coin? Usually. You have to remember that contracts were given out worldwide for currency, so any coin would show the engraver's/manufacturer's competence. Some were popular despite being rejected by the RM such as Moore's model pennies and halfpennies to the extent that they had to publicly disclaim them. Another box ticked! Thanks, Rob! Who owned the artistic image in the coin or note?the artist the engaver or the mint? Whoever commissioned it I guess.

That sounds like my approach - you use the "darker coloured folders" method, i.e. the ones that show new content? No, I just look at the dates as I did with this one. I've never stopped to work out what all the various symbols and colours mean. Same ere, wot colors

Picture's a bit small but it does look rather bright. I wouldn't be surprised if it's had a bit of a dip. Still it looks a nice coin, I certainly wouldn't throw it out of my collection if I had it.

I would suspect all the incuse errors are likely to be unique as I assume the error is caused by the coin jumping in the rollers, rather than the raised edge error being cause by the collar being assembled incorrectly.

Plastic was invented in 1855, 158 years ago, i think the problem lies in that there was no TPGs in 1856 and they did'nt think about plastic holders back then They used to vanish them, not a lot different really.

That makes ebay's fees sound quite eye watering by comparison

I am all for them being conservative on the higher grades but I just have a sneaking feeling (and my experience is more London Coins than CGS in fairness) that they leave the lower grades, particularly fine, with too much ground to cover. There was one rare and expensive coin I recall that they slabbed as 'fine' which I thought was nearer to 'fair'. On the other hand there have been occasions when I thought they might have been one-third of a grade low which at least is erring on the right side. These are just observations on my part and really shouldn't be given too much weight. What would be particularly interesting is how they would sell in an American auction. I wonder is they would be completely ignored.

Why don't you ask CGS, PCGS and any other TPG why they won't slab a cleaned coin? Yet they will conserve a coin before slabbing it. Maybe not CGS. So if you have a set of Queen Anne silver candle sticks it's prefereable to leave them black rather than give them a clean occassionally.

Peter, I have spent hours upon hours on that bloody platform and I am still waiting for it to happen. My wife is a Penrith lass however Obviously the wife and yourself didn't spend much time on the station at the same time.

I would like to make the distinction between dipped and polished. Dipped high grade silver I have no problem with, bronze I'm not so sure about. I do get the idea though many collector saw a 1933 penny on the ground sticking out of a dog turd half would not pick it up and the other half certainly wouldn't wash it.

I first started collecting coins, had previously dabbled with stamps in my teens. With coins I ran out of steam probably in the early ninties I think because of all that was being minted was endless comemeratives and the likes which were unlikely ever to have any value and much less than the purchase price. I think stamps went the same way even ealier so people just lost interest. There was no more chase, you just waited for the next set to appear ever few weeks. The post office was just churning out more and more junk issues for collectors purely as a revenue stream. I think coin collecting is going the same way. Who in there right mind collects modern commeratives?

The 0.500 has the sword pointing to a tooth like the regular crowns

You'd need an accurate set of scales but the specific gravities are far enough apart to be able to work out which is which. If you tap it gently with a rench you should be able tell from the ring.

What worries me is the expectation that slabbing a coin increases its value. Why? It's the same coin whether slabbed or raw.

What worries me is the expectation that slabbing a coin increases its value. Why? It's the same coin whether slabbed or raw.

Well ... maybe. But personally I'd have thought (that in the UK/Europe at least) a coin will find it's value dependant on what it is and the condition. I'd be surprised if many (any?) members here would pay any more just because a coin is slabbed. Amen. I've often considered slabbing some high grade but fairly common hammered coins for the US market but I cannot see a slab in the UK adding a significant percentage to the value or sale price. Would the US market even take one look at a non-US slabbed coin. IMO if you want to sell to the US you need a US slab. Although I will say, one factor in CGS's favour is that they use the 100 scale so they can have higher numbers than the US TPG, great for playing the numbers game US collectors

Absolutely agree, I have many Three-Pounders! Therein lies the difference between WANTING a coin, and WAITING for one! I'm trying to up the few EF GVI shillings I have. Rarely does ebay come up with a photo anything like good enough to see better than EF.

I have a clearout every now and again, usually when I need funds. I'm about to have one now as the wife wants to go home for Christmas, yes we need to buy the tickets soon, and it'll make a hole in £3000.

My Peter Nicholls has a small hole drilled in the centre of the tight fitting holes so you can push something like a cocktail stick up from underneath to lift the coin out.

Well that didn't work how I expected. You will have to scroll down to my post where I attacked the picture.

Here's mine. link

Complete collection? What does that mean? I set my goal to collect 1900 to 1967 Farthing to Crown. Well I,ve added most of the major varieties and many of the minor one's as well to keep it going. Not much else to add now.