Paddy

I don't know if anyone has definitive figures, but I have one, so it can't be that rare! 🙂 The rarest pennies site shows two examples, neither of them mine.

I have struggled to buy any of the 17th and 18th century silver I need in the last few months, so in desperation I resorted to bidding on Celtic coins as they seem so much more affordable. Two just arrived - this one is Atrebates Silver unit:

This one is a Dubonni Silver unit:

No postage specified, otherwise I might have made him an offer of £1, just to see his reaction! First time I have noticed the "Ebay automated Feedback". How long has this been going on? Positive but "This seller successfully completed an order" certainly counts as "Damning by faint praise!

I find a single source of light striking the coin at an angle works better.

That is a very pleasing inheritance and a great starting point for a collection! You seem to have the basic identification of the monarchs on each coin correct. It would help to add the denomination to the description as for some coins only the size differentiates one denomination from another. For example the Queen Anne 1707 could at first glance be anything from a Crown down to a sixpence, each with a different value. If you are unsure of the denomination, add a scale so we can advise. As to how to value the collection, there are two main approaches: - Learn enough to do it yourself. Buy the book (Spink Coins of England) and read up on how to grade, then assign a value based on your acquired knowledge. - Get hold of an expert. You can find local coin dealers online or at a coin fair, or you can go to an auction house. Bear in mind they will be looking at the coins mostly with a view to what they could buy or sell them for. Some dealers will do an Insurance valuation, but quite rightly they would charge for this as there is no profit for them in the deal. I can't see anything in there that is outstandingly valuable, and one, the 1977 Crown, has virtually no value. Unless you are planning to sell them, why not just enjoy them as they are rather than worry about their precise value? In any case, any value is only an opinion and only becomes fixed when you sell it. Good coins can go for peanuts on a bad day, and poor coins for a fortune on another.

Certainly seems to be 9+L. As to the raised dot - I think we would need a close up picture of that area. To me it just looks like a piece of extraneous metal has got stuck to the coin at some point. Unlikely to be called out as a new variety unless others are identified with the same mark.

The concerns were discussed at length on this forum several years ago. The usual gripe about always winning with one's maximum bid was the start of the debate, and this linked with the lack of live online bidding (this may have changed since then) meant the auctioneer could have prior knowledge of the top bids left and so engineer the auction to ensure this limit was reached.

I gave up on LCA several years ago. The combination of over-doctored images, inaccurate descriptions and (reportedly) dodgy auctioneering practice put me off. Visiting Bracknell to view or bid was too much of a trek, even when that was an option. One has to be able to trust the auction house when bidding online. Trust takes a while to build up but can be blown away in moments.

Don't get me started on the film industry messing with historical fact! I gave up believing anything they portrayed after Braveheart.

Yes - it seems to me that we have an unfounded trust in the goodness of human nature, despite continuous evidence to the contrary. We elect people to govern us, or appoint civil servants to administer us, or employ law enforcement agents to maintain the rule of law and expect all these people to operate to a moral code and in the best interests of the general public and society - and they consistently let us down. Maybe the anarchists have a point.

Interesting discussion on the worst king title possible here. I'm not sure I would agree with @copper123. I would suggest John as the worst - corrupt and greedy. After that it gets closer for second worst - Edward II, Richard II, Stephen and Edward VI are all good contenders with Charles I. George IV I let off as by then the monarch had virtually no power, and so could do little damage. Not sure what you have against James I - apart from his penchant for killing old women because he thought they were witches?

I fear we are more of a bureaucracy at the moment, ruled by an ever expanding Civil Service and semi-autonomous organisations that seem determined to ignore the will of the people and even our elected representatives in a trenchant defence of their own jobs and beliefs. There is no limit to the casual cruelty of the bureaucrat!

Not so much Catholic - more a Monarchist as opposed to a Parliamentarian.

Welcome back! A lovely coin - congratulations! I am sure you are going to open up a debate with your position as Category Manager for Coins at Ebay UK. The large number of fakes on Ebay has been a constant source of discussion here, and we regularly challenge sellers for the more blatant fakery and scams, with limited success. We used to report to Ebay, but with virtually no success, and so have largely given up taking that route. Reports were either completely ignored, or more recently an AI bot has reported "No issue with the listing" because the wording has complied with the rules, completely missing the point that the coin is a fake. Is this an issue you are going to be able to take on in your role?

Is this what you are looking for Rob?

I actually have my own copy, which I am not ready to part with yet! Looking at your pictures, mine has some variations - the end boards on mine are tooled leather covered, and the edges of the pages are tooled gold. I wonder if there were many variations in the published types?

Well that's a new way of executing the con! A screen shot of a genuine coin accompanied by two pictures of a low grade copy.

That is certainly a lot better coin, but I would not want to spend £1200 on it! Increasingly I feel I will have to stick with my existing collection and give up on upgrades - the prices are just too crazy. What budget I have left I will focus on filling the remaining gaps.

I checked it out on Ebay, where, surprisingly, the price has now increased to $720! Even allowing for a weak strike, I don't think I could give it much over VF UK grading. I guess that is what you get when you surrender your own critical judgment to a TPG.

No response here, and the item is still listed unaltered.

Done

I have had this 1825 shilling in my collection for years and I always assumed it was just someone's attempt to pass off as a Sovereign by gold plating it. However, I was looking in ESC this morning and spotted that there was a gold coloured variety produced in "Barton metal" - copper between thin layers of gold. I got to wondering if this might explain my gilded shilling. The weight is the same as the silver shilling (5.62g). ESC mentions that the copper is sometimes visible on the edge - I cannot see any evidence of that. Is there any other way of distinguishing them? Here is the specimen:

That's great - thanks. So definitely not a Barton. And I assume it can't be a gold proof, so we are back to the original attribution - a gilded silver 1825 shilling.

And here is a view of the edge: