Stuntman

What's the forum consensus on the toning on this. Does everything look natural?

Another 1837 halfpenny with smaller 7 over larger 7 that arrived yesterday via one of the forum member dealers. I'm pleased with it, a nice coin with nice tone in decent grade. It looks like 837 over 837 to me?

I have to say that I think Rob has a point. Once it's pointed out that the legend letters (and also the HONI SOIT / Y PENSE legends) look marginally thicker, I would be inclined to agree. Is that sufficiently decisive for the coin definitely to be a copy? I have no idea.

Nice double florin (he said confidently). Arabic 1 in 1887 which I believe is the slightly more common of the two varieties, the other one having a Roman I. Regarding verdigris etc, do a quick search using the forum's search function at the top right. I just typed in verdigris cleaning bronze, which brought up six threads. If you read through some of those, I'm sure you'll get some good advice. Some members here really know their stuff and have a lot of experience of this. I hope you're pleased with your purchases so far. I like the silver ones... . Your Jubilee Head and Veiled Head halfcrowns look nicer than mine! EDIT - I've just seen you've added double florin to your previous post, which makes my first sentence slightly redundant! I'd give it AEF at least.

I'd give both of those halfcrowns at least EF even being harsh. Some might say GEF or even better. Nice coins I think. On the farthing - again detail-wise it's about EF in my opinion, although I believe that farthings resist wear a lot better than pennies and halfpennies do, so the grading of these might be relatively harsher (I'm no expert). Eye appeal isn't so good in my opinion with the toning spots and the verdigris. While grading is to an extent subjective, the opinions of Rob and Paulus carry more weight than mine in this area, that's for sure

Place my name in the hat as well, please. In another of my previous lives it was a disadvantage to be first out of the hat, but this time I'm hoping my name comes out first!

Show us the other side, the George V obverse is often quite poorly struck on these. The coin may well have little wear but be quite poorly struck, if that makes sense. As to price - a fiver?

That's lovely. Although mine was graded NEF rather than gEF. What would you give mine? I'd give it VF, reverse better.

I wouldn't get too hung up on wanting genuinely uncirculated coins though. Something that's had a bit of life but still looks in decent age-appropriate nick has a lot to recommend it. Trouble is, finding these kind of VF to EF coins with nice eye appeal is often pretty hard too!

Exhibit A (my photos). Graded NEF by the selling dealer and cost me £110 plus postage. See the edge knock at 6 o'clock on the obverse.

I have to say I agree with Dave's estimate on the price and nearly said in my previous post that about £90 would be fair enough buying price (I looked at the listing and kind-of-guessed that you'd already dived in... ). But hey - you like the coin (as do I), it's an 1899, you've learned something, and sometimes you don't mind paying a premium for the convenience of enjoying it sooner. I've been guilty of this in the past, most notably with a Godless Florin that I bought from a dealer about 18 months ago. I can now see that it was overgraded, overpriced, and economical with the truth in its description (the coin has an edge knock that I didn't spot from the picture and wasn't mentioned in the description). There's a much nicer one currently for sale on a different dealer's website at the moment for £20 less than I paid for mine. You live and learn. I haven't bought from this dealer again...

Looks pretty good, nothing obviously amiss to me.

I finally got a Magna Carta £2 in my change today. I like the design and the coin isn't too bad, either. Really pleased!

I think that 1899 crown was definitely overpriced. Quite nice, but not worth that kind of cash IMO.

Definitely the top one of those two, but I'd echo azda's concerns about the lighting. The coin is probably fine (as in proper, not as in grade) but there is an element of doubt. Looks like they're double florins rather than florins?

Wow, lots of new acquisitions! Plenty of good advice regarding dealers and coin fairs too, I'd highly recommend the same and have bought from all four dealers Paulus mentioned. Another very fitting coincidence of 1899 and 1951 is that the 1951 Crown was actually struck from an old 1899 Crown die, with a suitably modified date. Seems very apposite given your Grandmother's influence on you. Thinking further, it might be worth you also considering collecting a year set from other monarchs once you've finished your 1899 and 1951 sets. I'd suggest 1902, 1935 and 1953 because there will be a Crown in each of those years too. Given they are coronation/jubilee years, many coins will have been kept, so it's relatively easy and inexpensive to find nice ones. I might then consider doing a year set for 1887 which would give you Jubilee Head silver, Bun Head bronze, plus some more interesting coins (withdrawn sixpence, double florin). Beyond that I'd consider collecting a type set (i.e. different designs of the same denomination) back to 1816 of whichever coin(s) tickled your fancy the most. Most importantly, have fun!

Hi Mick - I suspect your storage needs will also depend on how many coins you intend to collect. Note the word "intend", perhaps the siren call of certain coins might lure you to collect more than you originally suspect... For what it's worth, I've got one of the Lindner Coin Transport Cases with 6 trays. I think it's an inexpensive and convenient solution if you collect a bit of everything (i.e. different denominations of different sizes). My coins are all raw - i.e. unslabbed - and are in various grades from less than Fine up to BU. I think it's a really nice idea to collect all circulating denomination for 1899 and 1951, thankfully nothing should be too expensive (good job your Grandmother wasn't born in 1905...). I also think it's nice to be able to handle your coins (carefully, of course) and think about the various people who may have used them over the decades/centuries rather than have them 'imprisoned' in some way. I like the Victoria Veiled Head coinage designs, particularly the Shillings and higher denominations. Happy collecting!

Francs 1 Escudos 0, 73 minutes.

Well it's certainly been a decent game so far, and with Germany behind, the second half should be good too...

Never a penalty in my opinion!

A good effort from Wales, but I didn't think they particularly looked like scoring in the second half. Ah well. Come on Germany tomorrow!

No more goals and jackinbox wins. Portugal score next and it's your (jon's) missus in pole position...

Need Wales to score the next one...

Wales 1 Portugal 2 (says head). Heart wants Wales to make the final. EDIT: first goal 34 mins.

I agree on all counts. Tasters from people's coin annals sounds great! PS - I think Pete's term is rang tang - but don't google what else it means...