coin watch

In the recent past I have seen coins that have been sold {with grading} by one of the above mentioned dealers to another of the above mentioned dealers, and that same coin later has been sold on again with a slightly different suggested grade. My point being that even with a coin that has been expertly graded it may well differ from one dealer to another and so makes grading so subjective. With this in mind I think the same applies to the grading company, at the moment they are no more professional than the dealers with many years experience when it comes to grading, so personally I think that the given grade on a slabbed coin should not be taken as a guarantee of grade, at least until a company has had years of proven experience or until another party of higher authority assesses the grading companies. After all these companies are only trying to make profit out of all this. I agree with Tom, I too am not conviced as yet.

Yes Rob I totally agree, I too think this type or variety is more availiable than one might think. At Coinex this year I remember seeing a few Charles Shillings with Triangle over Anchor mm`s and I am sure if I think back one was of this type, so they are around. While I am on this subject of overmarks does onyone know of which Charles overmark seems to show up the less, how about Portcullis over harp? I have recently come accross a Chas sixpence with this mark to the obverse, I can not seem to find many listings on this one, only a hand written entry for shillings on my copied Sharp papers.

I have an example of this die pairing {G1/1} with the triangle over anchor reverse for around a year now, it came from the Prestbury hoard. I was not aware of it being unrecorded until recently. I am awating contact back from a knowledgable head on this subject who was to contact the experts {any news tom!}.

Excuse me if i'm cynical but i don't think it's in the hobby's best interests in the long run. It's in investor interests and investors are something the hobby is better off without as they put the prices up on nice collectable pieces that other collectors need for date sets etc.

Just had a thought whilst drinking my beer and reading all this {I think better after a beer!} The one thing I find best about collecting coins {forgetting about its grade, value, type} is the enjoyment it brings to its owner with its visual content, what I mean is to a collector of a certain type it brings great joy to see the detail and design of a coin that one collects, and also, with care to hold that coin. My point with slabbing is that ok it is great that it is encased and protected from the elements but plastic will scratch and deteriorate over time no matter how well looked after it is, 50 years down the line I think some of the slabbed coins today will not be visible at all, we will just have to keep on slabbing, what is the point in that other than to give a nice profit to the slabbing company. Having said all that and looking at page 13 of Decembers issue of Coin News I have to say I think the slabbed coin on this page is encased very well. For the first time it looks like it shows the edge of the coin as it looks like it is suspended between 3 points. But for me slabbing is not the ultimate answer, why should this generation of slabbers argue with hundreds {and in some cases thousands} of years of natural preservation. Sorry slabbers!

I think there may well be a coin/auctioneer dealer in the Kent area that are already, if not very soon, slabbing coins as a UK version. I may be wrong but I remember them advertising for new recrutes in a recent edition of Coin news. I do not know if they have set this UK slabbing business up as yet but I thought I would add this to this descussion as a european alternative to the US may already be with us!

Hi everyone. I am new to this site and this is my first post. I am a keen collector of the English hammered coinage of Charles I, but as I am far from being an expert in this area of collecting can anyone tell me what the term `fine work` actually means. It is a term associated with a few tower mint issued halfcrowns, shillings and sixpences. What I do know is that these coins where made from carefully prepared dies, probably machine made, but I am not sure of reason behind such a well struck rounded hammered coin, were they patterns? and why do they command such a high premium? I have yet to come across a detailed study of this subject so hence my question.