Red Riley

What sort of info do you want Marty? If it is a value, all these coins could be worth next to nothing (or just a bullion value in the case of the silver coins, still not very much though) or a total of a few hundred pounds, depending on condition. If you can post pictures on here, we'll try to help. Incidentally, the 1806 coin came as either farthing (21mm.), halfpenny (28mm.) or penny (33mm.) with a largely identical design, so it would help to state which you have when you reply.

Engraving a name on a coin was very common at that time, and usually happened when the type of coin was no longer in regular use, so your J Muncaster may well have engraved his name c. 1740 or so. As a numismatic object, the value of your coin has been dramatically reduced by his action, but in some ways the engraving adds to its historical interest, so not a complete write-off. The value will still depend on the state of preservation of the coin, and perhaps bizarrely on the quality of the subsequent engraving.

At least they're being honest, but what imbecile would buy this cr*p?

Just thought I would add a little update. Everything written, although I am constantly bothering Chris with minor amendments to the text, a semi-colon here, a full stop there or a little bit of extra wording to an illustration. The imagess themselves are a constantly moving feast, and although every base is covered, it is always possible to find the odd coin which gives an even more accurate picture of a particular grade - if the book took 100 years, I would still be looking for new images! Derek

Looks as if this might tiie up with Geoff T's post under the 'Lots of British Coin Related Discussions' section.

Any pictures? If only one side is blank, my first guess would be that it was post mint damage. Does it look like it's been filed or sanded down? thanks for the response, heres the picture At a guess, I would say that had been put on a lathe (the concentric rings would certainly seem to point to that). If so, you probably have about 3p's worth of brass! Anybody got any better suggestions?

Kind of agree. I do really like some halfcrowns, but my problem is that I'm a little agnostic on shields. Some are admittedly good, some bad, but in my view most are just a teensy bit dull. It's all about opinions I guess, and I simply prefer the pictorial representations which appear on the copper and bronze series, not to mention Pistrucci's George & Dragon.

Yes, the series does contain some atractive designs, especially (as Geoff T says somewhere else in this thread) the William IV issue and the preceding later George IV coins. All halfcrowns from 1816 however feature a shield reverse and some are better than others. The one that I like least is the Queen Elizabeth II design with a dreary shield, which moreover was usually very poorly struck.

Welcome to the forum James.

It's a little blurred, but on what I can see, I would assess the condition as Nearly Fine/Fine and with a value of perhaps £2-3. It would be difficult to sell such an item singly other than on e-bay and if you did want to sell, you would have to start with a very low opening figure of perhaps a few pence. I hope this isn't too disappointing, but coins in low grade are really very common indeed. On the other hand, we all have to start somewhere and acquiring a small low-value collection as you have done, is the kicking off point for many collectors. If you have caught the bug, it would be worth your while acquiring one or more of the books above (especially Collectors Coins GB) and look out for a new title early next year explaining how to grade coins.

None of the coins are rare and condition will be everything; for example the 1897 halfcrown could be worth anything from pure bullion value (maybe a couple of quid) to £150 for a superb example. Your best bet would be to post pictures on here, and we'll try to help.

Doubtless somebody can give you a more technical answer, but usually something like Goddard's Silver Dip, a proprietary solution for removing the tarnish from silver jewellery.

You have expensive tastes, Huss!

Your friend talks sense. The first and most obvious thing to look out for is an almost total lack of toning. The appearance of a dipped coin can also be quite matt, almost opaque whereas a coin in its natural state is neither too shiny nor too dull. I am sorry if that doesn't make a huge amount of sense, but it is one of those things where a bit of experience helps. Where an ebay image is concerned though, it may have been manipulated so much that it is impossible to tell. I have imaged 2 coins from my collection, the first I presume to have been dipped, the second in its natural state. I hope they come out okay.

I am going to be completely conventional about this, and say that to me the most artistically pleasing British coins are firstly, the Gothic crown of 1947-53 and secondly the standing Britannia florins of 1902-10. In the Gothic crown, William Wyon just managed to get everything right and the amount of detail is just stunning. No coin reflects the era in which it was minted more than the 1902-10 florin, the reverse being pure art nouveau. Look at any advert or book illustration of the time (especially by the likes of Aubrey Beardsley) and you will see art in exactly this style. I love it. Other than that, I am fond of the early bun series bronze (1860-74), the garnished shields of 1820-23, and of course Pistrucci's George and the Dragon. I also, for some reason, admire the accuracy and sheer unpretentiousness of the wren farthings.

Well how about that! I'd never noticed the edge lettering before, and it reads just as you say. I have seen several for sale, but none of them mentioned this wording. Obviously fairly common but interesting nonetheless. Thanks for the info.

My wife would definitely be in agreement with yours... Actually, I went through doing much the same kind of thing myself, but you really have to accept that without a king's ransom, there are some denominations/monarchs that you just will not get. What price double sovereigns, five pound coins, anything Edward VIII? If you understand that this type of collection has to be tempered with an acceptance of what is achievable, then you will have great fun doing it. I wish you the best of luck.

Strangely, I've actually got one of those; collected because some of my ancestors came from that neck of the woods. I had initially thought that 'The Endeavour' was a reference to Captain Cook's barque, but on investigation it appears that that was some years before and surely Cook's locale was too far away (Whitley Bay) to be noticed on the South Coast. The boat itself looks more like a fishing smack than anything with ocean-going potential, and therefore probably has a more local significance. I'm blowed if I know what it is though.

I would not have thought that the ME penny went undetected for long. However, a higher degree of expertise would have been required in identifying this particular variety as compared to the simple process of merely clocking a date or a mintmark on such as KN pennies and 1946 or 1949 threepences. Hence the degree of 'wastage' (i.e. coins melted down) may have been greater in the '26ME. I suspect this probably holds good for other more subtle rarities.

Given that the chemical makeup of the plastic is unknown, it must be assumed to be harmful. I would therefore suggest that you remove the coins and place them somewhere where the environment is known to be benign. I think Chris might be able to help here!

Probably none, surely most issued in 1946 would have been dated 1945. As there were none issued at all in 1947, this would not add to the 1946 total. The reason for the disparity is that there is a time lag between minting coins and releasing them for circulation. Hence most threepences issued in 1946 would not only have been dated 1945 but would have been made in that year.

Taking this a little bit further, during the late 60s, very early 70s I went through literally tens of thousands of pennies, and whilst 18 and 19Hs turned up from time to time, I never saw a KN. Looking through mintage figures, the total number of pennies theoretically in circulation at the time would have been something like 3,000,000,000 (3 billion U.S.); the total number of Birmingham pennies minted in 1918-19 was just short of 9 million. I have never seen a breakdown of production between Heaton's and King's Norton, but if we assume that as few as one and a half million a year were KN mintmarked (it would hardly have been worth issuing a contract for anything less) then one coin in every 1,000 would have been a KN. Considering that I checked about a thousand a week for a period of 3 years, the only conclusion that I can draw is that by that stage all the KNs had been spirited out of circulation. By extension therefore they are still out there somewhere! Two conclusions can be drawn from this; 1) The activities of collectors can themselves have a massive impact on the actual rarity of coins; and 2) Hardly makes them rare does it?

Normal advice would be to get a book to establish what you've got, but it's such a hotch-potch, you'd need half a dozen books and even then have some left over! It may not be worth much, but such mixed collections can be great fun for kids when they come across them for the first time and can even be the spur to start a more organised collection (that's how it was for me). So my advice to you? Put it in the loft for a further generation to come along and then present it to them at an opportune moment. They will love it. Incidentally, the 1873 threepenny joey is worth about a fiver, but beyond that I would be guessing.

A genuine post now. Not surprisingly, I have taken many, many photographs over the last year or so, and although this may sound perverse logic, I have found that the quality of the coin being photographed is the most important factor in getting a decent result. Take a high grade coin, whatever the metal, well struck and with good tone, and you could get a decent image with a box Brownie. On the other hand, worn bronze/copper, with pale tone, especially the low definition obverses of George V or Edward VII are an absolute nightmare! Certain rather harsh silver tones can also cause problems. For the record, I am using a Canon EOS 400D with a Sigma 70mm F2.8 EX DG Macro lens, a convertible stand/tripod setup, subjects taken where possible in natural light (including some taken in the garden) and all edited with Photoshop. To save taking another photograph (as I have now deleted that one), check out the 1839 penny on the 'Looking for Help' thread. I think the tool for cutting out that you mentioned is actually called an 'Eliptical Marquee Tool'. I have used this tool extensively as finding an acceptable background for coins which could be removed simply at a later date was proving very problematic (everything from tablecloths to a cat litter tray had been tried). I accept that where a coin has coarse reeding, some edge detail may be lost, but for my purposes, where surface detail is more important, that is not particularly relevant. I am no way any expert, but in the vast majority of cases I have been very pleased with the outcome.

Just thought I would mention the heading for this thread ('Ive been playing with my...') is the best I've ever seen on the Predecimal message board! Sorry lads, as you were...