Red Riley

Some months back I started to take a hard line with sellers - anything I wasn't 100% happy with went back. Since then I have returned 5 coins for a refund, only one of which caused problems as the seller stuck by his 'no returns' policy. This went to appeal through E-bay's dispute resolution process and in the end I got my money back. Incidentally, I cannot understand why e-bay set 'no returns' as a default i.e. you have to go to some effort to change it. Many sellers completely overlook this clause when inserting items for sale and few seem to stick to it when the chips are down.

It's never been up in America!

Yes, I bought three bulk lots. One I felt was an absolute steal, full of high grade 20th century stuff and a few odds and ends. I actually paid a fraction of its value. Of the other two, one was a broken but fixable coin cabinet (very useful) full of pennies, mostly high grade and once again I felt I had got a bargain. The third, frankly I wish I hadn't bothered... The money will only go so far and I was not there for individual lots this time. Hence I missed the pennies going for a song, but generally pretty pleased with my day's work anyway.

'One Cent Piece'? Do you have any idea what country it's from? As others have said, we can't do much without a picture.

I wouldn't have said that necessarily. My experience has been that Spink's underquote the lower grade coins (beneath their dignity I guess) and overquote higher grade or rarity.

I don't know where Spink's are getting their prices from, but I am finding them massively less than useful on modern issues. Has anyone else found the same?

I was.

Leave him alone, it's his first listing, poor love! Have a good holiday. Talinn?

There will probably be some patterns in silver, but they certainly didn't exist as a regular mint issue.

It was just The Dove when you were sober.

I think 96.2% feedback pretty much says it all.

It's a sobering thought that our coinage is now made of scrapped Ford Escorts.

Yes unfortunately, pretty much scrap. The book may say £2 but try and find somebody that actually wants a 1927 penny in VF... Had it been a 1926, maybe about £80-£100. 1927 was a unique year however, as it had the modified head in its original larger form in conjunction with the re-cut reverse, but as for value? Sadly not.

ditto

It's good that some are shifting and your assessment of average just below EF is roughly what I would have expected. I actually rather like the QE2 sixpences, I think I would have got myself in a complete tangle trying to engrave the various bits of vegetation on the reverse! I will agree about 1950s coins in high grade now becoming rather scarce.

The one in my book (I think it was a florin) had better hair but not such a strong laurel wreath! I was actually giving this sixpence a little bit of leeway for what may not be a perfect photograph. As regards the 1919H penny, to me it is 'EF Weak strike'. My view is that it is best to reserve grading for wear, other peculiarities should be described in words. As for calculating a value, well who knows? I wouldn't buy such a thing without at least a high quality photograph, but better in the hand. Quite the worst obverse strike I have ever seen is the 1918 Royal Mint penny shown on P18 of the book. I got this from change c.1970. It's EF but the head is virtually featureless. The reverse is a lot better but still not perfect...

These coins are very seldom graded below EF but I have a feeling that by rating it as low as fine, we are perhaps jumping straight through VF without stopping. Although it was quite a nice portrait, the obverse detail was always very shallow and as such parts of the design did erode very quickly. When all said and done, a 1967 sixpence has had a maximum of 13 years circulation and unless it was initially a very weak strike, I just don't think that's enough to get it to into the fine category. We can argue about this one, because ultimately it doesn't matter a fig!

Academic exercise I know, but at least VF. Most people don't even bother...

I have had the same problem recently. There is so much gold being flogged on e-bay, all I did was log the prices the items went for and calculate an average. Probably more accurate than Spinks! I have often thought that the way gold prices are listed in all price guides is rather less than helpful, as the bullion price varies so much. Would it not be more useful if all prices were shown as bullion plus a numismatic preium, listed as say, 'BV+15' or 'BV+50'.

Hmmm... I've always kept my sets (purchased from new) in a dry environment and I live as far from the sea as it's possible to get in this country, but still they tarnish. As I said earlier I have seen coins in sealed plastic cases with bloody great finger prints across them, so it all smacks of carelessness at the mint.

All those I've seen recently have had some degree of toning. Some have even got finger prints in the fields which is a bit careless.

(Chortle!) I was thinking much the same thing. Look I know it gives some people pleasure but it just strikes me that we are getting bogged down in a morass of meaningless detail and losing some of the fun along the way. Coins to me are enjoyable because they are a piece of history which we can hold in our hands. They provide a link to known people and events of 200, 300, 400 etc. years ago. At a stretch I can understand the interest in relatively major varieties e.g. Victorian pennies with the narrow or wide dates where this is used as a shorthand to cover a whole lot of other differences between the two types. But where the only variation is a minor date width discrepancy or an 'i' pointing to a tooth or a gap, then I'm sorry, but I can't see the fun. As ever though, if it floats your boat... (runs and hides)

Looks like 1836 to me, but it is a William IV groat or fourpence in um... interesting condition! Is it a detector find?

I'm not a hammered specialist (there are one or two in the forum) but in my view this is the sort of coin that ought to be sold at auction. Condition looks better than fine to me, but as I said I am not a hammered expert. I won't offer any opinion on the value, save to say that it will be quite a bit. Incidentally, there is an Alfred the Great penny which is almost identical (Ethelred was his elder brother) but prices are not that dissimilar.

Take a 1935, carefully lower the exergue, then take a fraction of a mm. off the height of the date at the same time recutting the 5 into a 3 by removing the vertical line and adding an oblique one at the height of the old exergue. Very skilled job and after all that, you probably deserve the £100 or so you would get for a 'genuine forgery'.