Red Riley

Scottish Money touched on this yesterday, and given all the research I am doing, I am rapidly coming to the conclusion that in terms of wear, certain coin surfaces almost never sink that far down the grading chart. For example: 1)Reverse of Elizabeth II sixpence - the worst I have come across is NVF. For the coin to have sunk into 'fine' I would have expected to see considerable wear on the centre part of the rose and on the main body of the thistle, but no, even the most appalling coin from the beginning of the reign is still pretty plain in these areas, with nowhere else showing much wear either. 2)Reverse of Portcullis Threepence - again never seem to show any wear. The most obvious place for this to occur is what I assume are circular rivets at the points where the various members of the portcullis intersect, but on all the coins I have examined (and I've looked at a few) this is still pretty plain. And yet, both these coins are regularly offered as 'Fine' (admittedly for not much money). I would accept that the obverse does fall much further, but I really can't see there ever being sufficient wear on the reverse to warrant an 'F ' designation. Has anyone actually seen either of these coins in F?

Yes, I can make the KG6 3d hit fair, but I struggle to register anything like sufficient wear in the QE2 version. I am currently staring at a 1955 3d that presumably circilated right up to decimalisation, but no way does this show enough wear to drop it even below VF. Sometimes I think we artificially assume that a coin will wear down to a certain grade and bend the rules to fit. It also strikes me that more recent coins need far, far less wear to touch a particular grade than is the case with coins from the Victorian period.

Hi All, As part of my book, I have put together full grading guides to bull head halfcrowns, cartwheel pennies, the George & Dragon reverse (with and without garter), the standing Britannia, but can I do the same for some of the commonest coins around? I desperately need images of the following reverses: QE2 3d F QE2 6d F QE2 Scottish shilling EF, F KG6 Scottish shilling F, Fair KG6 sixpence 1949-52 F Wren farthing VF If you are unsure, a good guide is that for the cupro-nickel and brass coins, the most worn you are likely to find will be F, but the 50% silver coins could well have sunk to Fair. Also VF is about as low as a wren farthing will get. As these coins are likely to be more or less valueless, you may prefer to mail them to me, so that I can take the photograph. I will return the coin plus your postage as soon as I have recorded the image. Many, many thanks Derek

Crikey erm... (small boy in a sweetshop moment). I'll have that one, that one and that one! All joking aside this looks really useful. I have blown one or two coins up to destruction and certainly I would like all the bottom line (bar the farthing) - reverses only. The farthings are a little dark to discern, but essentially what I am looking for is a coin, probably an early one with clearly discernable wear and if possible a good tone. I am not overly technical on these things, but Chris has requested a quality of 300 dpi if possible. No need to worry about backgrounds etc. as I am learning basic Photoshop and can generally sort that out for myself. Thanks Teg, I am eternally grateful. I do take the point that it is rare to find some of these denominations in low grade - VF being about the most common. I do however have for example, a 1956 florin which is palpably fine, and some George VI 50% silver coins which have plumbed the depths all the way to fair, although it is a moot point whether such coins are anywhere near as worn as their 'fair' counterparts minted 100 years before. Nonetheless, the trade generally insists that these coins exist in such low grade, despite there being no financial advantage to them in that being the case.

And only one Riley!

I like history which is probably why I like coins.

Thanks Chris, but tell me, can I use them to measure the valve shims of a 1977 Triumph Stag?

Hi Dean, Welcome to the forum, Dean. You may regret asking if you can be of some help... Only kidding, but if you look in the 'Members Only' section, you will see why I say that!

Celebrities usually choose to, but as a royal you are born into it and have no choice.

I rather believe that since HRH has declared that it is a lifetime job, and given her lineage, Princess Charles will be a caretaker Queen much like Edward VII was a caretaker for the 9 years he was King. It is too bad about Kate though, she would have made a lovely Queen for Prince William.

You might need this: http://www.sttiggywinkles.org.uk/. This is quite near me; they started off dealing with injured hedgehogs (hence the name) and now seem to have branched out into general wildlife care. There is however, no organisation with more experience in looking after hedgehogs. Back to my photographs...

Hey, looks good. Now you don't have any images of coins I could use do you?...

Perhaps this is a case of aesthetics over rarity. 'Everybody' wants a Gothic crown not because it is rare, but because it is unbelievably stunningly beautiful and ultimately transcends mere numismatics. In my book, worth more in non-monetary terms than any number of rare dates or possible mis-strikes.

His name was Dodd if I remember (but don't think it was Ken...). This vehicle looked like Cruella de Ville's car in 101 Dalmatians. Apparently it was limited to 2000 r.p.m. but could still reach 300 m.p.h. Like your friend's Interceptor, it too caught fire.

Blimey, I guess we'll all have to call you 'sir' from now on! Actually, my main love has always been Riley RMs (I have two at the moment) - beautiful cars and amazingly cheap to keep on the road. But there's something about a Roller and people are always amazed at how little you can pick them up for. Envious? Me? Actually we seem to have gone a bit off beam with this thread!

I did have (the reason I acquired the secondhand micrometer) but sold it about 3 years ago. Lovely cars, but a nightmare to keep on the road. The expense of running the thing severely curtailed my coin collecting activities. So it had to go...

That seems too thin. I would have expected about 2.5 mm as near the bottom end. What is the weight?

Sorry, on reflection that just didn't look right and the micrometer is very hard to read/understand. The correct figure is actually 81 thou or 2.06mm.

I am making this difficult for myself as I only have an imperial micrometer, but my 1690 measures 36 thou which by my reckoning comes out to 0.914mm. The coin is very worn and the edge inscription wholly illegible.

Hi Perkin, Welcome to the madhouse of numismatics! There are several books on the market (some shown above) which will help you learn more about your chosen hobby, at least as far as UK coins are concerned. Foreign coins are more problematic but if you can post some images, I am sure someone, if not several people will be able to help you in their identification.

A specimen in poor condition reached over £1k on eBay recently. Illogical I know, but I guess the royal mint variety, or leastways the coin without the H, does not reach the stratosphere in terms of price simply because 1882 pennies overall are extremely common. I guess collectors generally just regard it as a variety of 1882H, but if the more common coin did not exist then yes, it would be up there with the 1933 penny...

Check out this website: http://thomas-spence-society.co.uk/index.html

There's quite a few there, and without a numbering system it's difficult to refer to them individually. In addition, as no dimensions are given, the copper coin could be a farthing or a halfpenny and some of the others could be either florins or double florins. Some people can probably tell simply from the image, but I can't. That said, the pick of the bunch appears to be the better of the two 1900 crowns which could be worth approximately £100. The 1887 crown may be worth £30 -£50 and the other 1887 coin, whatever it is, also has a reasonable value. The rest (including the scarce 1925 half crown) have a value in the range of £7-£15 each. As always, a scan does not tell you everything about a coin and these values could vary with the coin in hand.

It looks like William and Mary farthing in GF condition... on Ebay it would probably make £30 to £40.

Hi Micky, Someone has already said welcome, but take it as read from me as well. On becoming a coin collector you may be advised by other collectors to specialise your collection (i.e. concentrate on one or two denominations). Don't pay any attention to them, the joy of coin collecting is having a bit of this, a bit of that all of which adds up to a history of coins either throughout the world or (as seems likely) your home country. If you wish to specialise, you can do that years later. You might like to dabble on e-bay which personally I really enjoy. The chances of getting ripped off at the lower end of the market are negligible, the biggest risk being that the post office lose the letter! Always stick to sellers with 99% plus feedback and you should be OK. A little tip to interest other people (i.e. family and friends) in you collection is to buy the odd Roman coin. These always interest non-collectors, despite the fact that the world is groaning under the weight of the things, and as such, more common varieties can be bought for very little - an incredible amount of history for your money. Row after row of similar looking nineteenth or twentieth century coins however, will bore the less enlightened to distraction no matter how much you love them. Another piece of advice that you may hear is to buy the best coins you can afford. Good advice from a financial point of view, but initially you will not be able to afford anything other than very recent stuff in tip top condition, so for the time being just go for what you fancy. It is however always worth going for a coin with good eye appeal (i.e. no edge knocks, scratches, unsightly stains) despite being only in fine condition as these will be easier to sell on to the next batch of beginners when the time comes to upgrade your collection. Good luck!