Colin88

The single most 'obvious' way of telling the 1905 Halfcrown fakes that were made in the 1970's / 80's by +++ is the weakly struck and wobbly letter "I" at the top of the "I" of "Qvi" of the "Honi Soit Qvi Mal Y Pense" motto on the reverse. I do have a superb quality photo of one of these fakes that you can see quite clearly.....but I still dont know how to upload pictures on this forum. There may be newer fakes that I am not aware of so apologies for that. regards Colin

Thats a great business strategy by London Coins I must say...."We have a lot of business on the go so lets leave the phone off the hook so that we dont get any more..."....God forbid that any new clients get through to us whilst we're busy doing admin... You could always get them slabbed by CGS and sell them that way! I noticed Jill lockett selling a slabbed Halfpenny recently on ebay and it went for less than the slabbing cost. Thats less than what the slabbing cost would be to us the general public...to her the cost would be whatever the cost price is to them , so she actually did ok in real terms I guess.

As a seller does anyone have recent experiences / views on the main houses in the UK? I am going to sell my entire collection of mainly English Gold/Silver/Copper & Bronze and a small selection but high grade and rare Roman silver. The majority will be between the £300 - £5,000 Who is best at selling what?. I was thinking about London Coins (if they ever answer their phones/take it off the hook today) for Copper and Bronze and slabbed Gold / Silver? Cant really decide between Spink / DNW / St James's / Eden & Eden for the rest of it?. Any ideas where to place the Roman? Thanks Colin

IMO they really should get rid of their IT people and start again with ones who know how to do it....oh, and they should also consider TESTING anything IT they do to ensure that it ACTUALLY WORKS....before making it live ( a bit of a revolutionary concept at Spink methinks)

Good stuff.....many thanks for that...I would always negoiate with them anyway...for me, what finished off Spinks (coins), was Paul Dawson 'leaving'....he held together the coin department and the inter-personal dealing side of it as well as the catalogue. Much as I would like to offer coins of interest to the form members, I have been particulary hacked-off by my experiences of selling high end coins on eBay and the way that people have tried to mess me about (I'm sure eBay wasnt always like this) its made me not want to deal with people on an individual basis....I am just going to sell the whole lot anonymously and at 'arms length' via the traditional auction process. I have sold to Colin Cooke in the recent past. Many thanks Colin

Hi VickySilver, I am slightly confused over the Baldwin / St James's / Steve Fenton relationship...do you know how/where Steve fits into this...I'm still unclear?....I have dealt with Steve in the past and found him to be excellent and hope to use St James's. Unfortunatley I dont have the same feeling about Baldwins...When I was a younger collector many years ago I always found them to be unapproachable and of the "Us experts, you d**khead" school of dealers and totally uninterested in my then few pounds that I had to spend on my collection....this attitude over the years has probably cost them £hundreds of thousands as I always made a point of never buying from them....a small thing but just my way of revenge ! However, hypochrite that I am I have invested and done well in buying equity in "Noble Investments" of which Baldwins are part. All the best Colin

Thanks for all your responses. I have come to the conclusion that Spinks are fairly hopeless on several points and their lack of communication skills is lamentable...it may be odd to say but they clearly have no interest in coins and their IT is a disaster. Can anyone explain the relationship between St James / Baldwin and how does Steve Fenton fit into all this? I think I will stick to the original plan of London Coins / DNW / St James's. Any idea about where to put the Roman? My experiences of trying to sell the high end pieces on eBay have not been good....does CoinageofEngland/Guy Newson actually sell those coins on eBay?....or am I just unlucky to get all the lunatics and non paying bidders?? Thank you Colin

Looks like a 'can't be bothered with this stuff' grading and the estimate seems to be about 4x under what it will go for in practice - a pretty blatant attempt at getting bums on seats or fingers on the keyboard... Frankly these big city auction houses with their ludicrously expensive offices 'in the best parts of town' and extortionate buyers' premiums irritate the hell out of me. Last DNW I went to, the receptionist had an accent that made the queen sound like an extra from East Enders. Sorry, think I've become a class warrior overnight... Dont worry, you'll get over all these nasty horrible well spoken posh people, when you get out more.....

I've spoken to their I.T department on two occasions in the past about the appalling user experience aligned to so many even basic things not working correctly....on both occasions you could 'feel' from the tone that they were uninterested in what was being said...or maybe it was just their way..or perhaps I was boring them rigid..either way I wouldnt bother wasting your time with them. However, now Mike Vessid is there, I think that he could be worth talking to and I will.

I've noticed that a few members on this site appear to get apopleptic about coins having been cleaned and seem to think that its the greatest crime in Christendom since Gordon Brown sold our gold reserves at a rock bottom price. Why is this? Its certainly not a criminal offence and we all have a choice to buy it or not buy it...no-one forces anyone to buy coins, cleaned or otherwise. Whilst personally I generally wouldnt buy a cleaned coin, if it was rare enough and/or if the price was right then I would.

"I take it you mean the Unite"???....sorry, did you not understand it spelt "unite"....?

A tough call.....has the unite been cleaned or is that the light?.....Personally I would go for the laurel...just.

Yup....BOGOF

I found two complete date runs of pennies from 1860 to 1961 ..including 69's and 5/3's, 26 Me's ...50's and 51's My mate lived opposite a bus terminus and for a couple of years we would 'buy' all the bagged up pennies off the conductors who were glad to get rid of them and I had a Saturday job working in a petrol station and used to look through all the coins and incredibly for now, our local vicar used to let me go through the collection plate...which included silver back to the 1820's...we'd sell a lot of it too and eventually we got a stall on the Saturday market...which was a also great way for two teenage lads to pick up girls..... A different time...

I heard that the 1877 Narrow Date that London Coins sold a few months back was found in junk box by a well known dealer....dont know if thats a true story?

I remember the day when a Spink EF was just about Unc to everyone else...Spink EF just meant that someone had breathed on the coin.

If its all about newbies and the fact that we dont actually own coins....then these newbies should never buy a house nor anyone be permitted to decorate or make changes to a house incase the next owners dont like it or it detracts from the value. Cleaning coins is the equivalent of stone cladding then? Buying coins or buying any collectable comes down to, not unreasonably, do some basic research first but ultimately, "caveat emptor". (I'm just off to scrub clean my Una & The Lion set).......cheers.

Hi Gary, Understood but personal preferences on whether its cleaned/dipped/silvered or with a false beard stuck on it, is not what I was refering to. The point I'm trying to make is not about the rights or wrongs of doing whatever you want to do with a coin but that whatever condition a coin is in when its being sold is entirely up to you whether you chose to buy it or not....it doesnt matter whether you're a dealer or a collector.....it is what it is in the eyes of the buyer and no-one is forcing anyone to buy it.

What my comment "perception, is truth" lacked, concerning Customer Service and the way that I , as a spending customer are treated was that it should have been more subjective....it should have read "my perception, is my truth"....and that is the truth.

Hi Bill, I appreciate your view, however, you are not alone in owning (or having owned) a successful global company or having a highvalue coin collection....clearly we have different views on how we run our businesses....but obviously they both seem to have worked out ok. I am also now too old and too fat to give anyone in business a second chance, particularly in the present economic climate, who gives the impression that they don't want my money or my custom. All the best Colin

This might sound brutal but its always worked for me. Put it on its side inside a plastic bag and hit it side-on with a hammer...a large hammer is fine.....it cracks open a treat. Always reminds me of when I accidently T-Boned one of those old Rodney Trotter type 3 wheeler Robin Reliants in my car years ago.....it just cracked open..!..no-one hurt....

When I started this thread it was not about the merits or otherwise of slabbing.....each to their own on that subject as it will always be. I was simply making a comment about how, in my opinion and recent experience, how un-business like CGS seemed to be. Not sure how many of you own their own businesses but you will know that you never get a second chance to make a first impression..my first impression when calling CGS is of a very bored sounding person answering the phone....that would not be good for business in my world. The second point is that I was offering them a volume deal and would have hoped for maybe some discussion on what we could have done on the price....maybe 5 - 10 percent discount I would have thought not unreasonable but open to have a chat...again in my world, always happy to discuss a volume deal with a new customer..its how I pay the mortgage. CGS really werent interested in that and just sounded uninterested in anything really......that is and was my experience..and in business, perception is truth. For me, a classic example of a company that really needs some local competition or at the very very least a bright and cheery sounding person on the phone.

Hi Colin....thanks for doing that for me......I'm not sure if you call a pattern in gold a 'fantasy piece'?....anyway thats what it is a Lauer Pattern in gold bought at the Gold Pattern Sale in Plymouth in 2008.....Ras was the underbidder I seem to recall.

I have a couple of fugazi's that some of you may be interested in....or not? I've tried to upload the pictures but its saying that the files are too big....I still hate this technology...my hope was always that computers were just a passing fad...anyway they are a superb 1653 contemporary halfcrown forgery and an attempt at striking a Charles I halfcrown onto a 1797 Cartwheel Penny. If you PM'd me hard could I send you the images that way?