Jay

There's been some great replies and suggestions here - thanks, I'm grateful for all that really useful information. What's becoming clear to me is that this is a key part of the enjoyment of collecting. Cheers, Jay

Ha ha I can understand that - I'm the same. It's combining work with pleasure which can't be a bad thing! Thanks for all your answers.

Two things in that one sentence.....Firstly dealers have a differing degree of what s a VF coin and EF coin, so that`''s where you come in, you have to know your own onions in that respect. Spinks quoted prices, well, take those with a pinch of salt. Then there's pricing, this comes from varying factors, grade and rarity are 2 of the most important. You mentioned a George V Crown on this website, but never mentioned which or grade, you did mention Spink however, Spink is merely a guide, rarity has no guide, nor does high grade, plus rarity.. Sorry, I missed stating the detail of that coin for sale here - it's the 1927 proof Crown. Thanks for the comments about Spink - I guess I am trying to understand that judgement you are referring to. It can't be an exact science I suppose and at the end of the day it would be limited by how much someone is willing to pay for a given coin, yet again you don't want to be a sucker and pay stupid money...

Hi again everyone, I have another question, this time about understanding how much to pay for a given coin when you go to buy - you may have discussed this several times in the past and so apologies for the repetition. As a beginner I am looking at keeping aside some money each month to build my collection - maybe £150 or £200. I've bought a copy of the latest Spink Coins of England & the UK which makes interesting reading, as are the articles and comments on various websites such as yours. What baffles me is how dealers varyingly price a given coin of the same grade compared to the Spink quoted price. I guess the spot price of the metal would lead to some variation in price but as a collector how do you decide if you have a good buy in front if you? Is Spink the accepted standard to base a judgement of price on (so that anything cheaper is thereby to be considered a good price) or is that presumption wrong? One of the George V crowns for sale on this website which I am eyeing at the moment is priced higher than the Spink value - how did you decide that? Thanks very much, Jay

Great suggestion about the wreath crowns - I'll see if I can get my hands on one or two. Yes I realise that you guys aren't likely to be fans of bullion coins but I guess I'm trying to achieve two goals here. One is a newly revived childhood passion of collecting for pleasure, and the other is to make investing fun - and the Britannias are certainly more attractive than share certificates and the like and I am unlikely to get too attached to them in case I need to sell them. Having said that, the investment side of this is a small scale thing which I hope to build over a few years - the primary aim is to get the experience of knowing what to collect for my own enjoyment. I realised the mark ups by the mint very early on....I'm buying from the secondary market. Thanks again!

Thanks very much all, this has been extremely useful. Yes I agree with not talking about it to anyone, and being a beginner I haven't had much to talk about so far anyway. Thanks for all the tips on preventing toning as well. Cheers, Jay

Hello all, I'm new to this so forgive me for asking silly or basic questions. I'm keen to build up a collection of silver Britannias, proofs for numismatic interest and uncirculated ones for possible bullion value when I retire, or to pass on to my children (depends how they turn out!). I also have a small but growing collection of crowns. What is the best way to storing new silver to maintain the mint state of brilliance and avoid toning? I understand toning on silver is inevitable in most instances, but there must be ways of slowing this down for some time at least? I have been considering individual coin capsules stored in airtight plastic containers with silica gel satchets but am unsure what the best and time tested option is......I live in the Gower which is relatively free of atmospheric pollutants (there is a steel plant in Port Talbot though, across the bay for me!), but it is incredibly wet here which can't be good in terms of the humidity. The other issue is security of storage - what do most of you do? With bank safes now not being available anymore is the bolted down home safe the only refuge for our collections? Thanks v much in advance, Jay