Nonmortuus

You need to decide what grade you would be happy with but aim for EF and above if you can. As for a guide on price someone like Rob or Paulus would be able to give you an idea.

Save the cash and wait for something you wont want to upgrade again if you can.

I was watching it as well but didnt bid for the reasons above

Still room for another upgrade as the strike on the Rev is weak in places.

Latest newbie, an upgrade on the one I had... again I don't think it warrants a post in acquisition of the week hence putting it here:

I am sure everyone would love to see what you have and Weaver, don't be disheartened. I only started collecting last July and still make plenty of mistakes but most of the people on here are more than willing to help, offer advice and point me/you in the right direction.

I would say probably EF, maybe gEF. There is some wear on the upper ear and on the tash. Others may disagree

I would really recommend the guide to grading book if you dont already have it and if you are lucky you can pick up some bargins with George V Halfcrowns.

This is mine but I want to upgrade it at some point:

Weaver try to get EF+ where possible, especially on common dates like 1915 Halfcrown. For £30 to £50 you could pick up a really nice example!

Slowly but surely a bit of everything but mainly George V Halfcrowns at the moment. One of the other forum members on here, @Paulus, kindly allowed me to copy much of his web sites lay out (http://pwcoins.wordpress.com/) for my own web site. I dont have anything pre George II on there but feel free to take a look at http://noncoins.wordpress.com

Book prices are purely a guide, hammer prices at auction are probably a more accurate guide but ultimately its what you think its worth. If you REALLY like a coin then get it because you may not have that opportunity again. A lot of my stuff is not top top end grade but they are also not washers. I probably only have a few 'choice' examples but I have purchased dates I am missing in grades I can live with with the aim to upgrade them over time. Ideally I would love every purchase to be a keeper but sometimes its not possible and the desire to acquire new stuff out weighs my ability to hold off and save I am really am new to all this so don't take my advice onboard without listening to the more seasoned collectors on here

I can only speak from personal limited experience but there are three dealers I always make sure I check at the coin fairs, Rob, Colin Cooke and Ian. Most of my purchases at fairs have been off them. As for online dealers there are a few I keep an eye on mainly because their grading estimates are normally decent and I know that I can do a deal with them in bulk or they will run auctions with no reserves. So, yes, I suppose I tend to stick with dealers, but I am always looking for stuff from other sources. I am pretty sure most people here will have one or two dealers they use on a regular basis but will also be looking elsewhere

To echo Chris if you don't ask you don't get but always remember these guys are dealers to make a living so are well with in their rights to ask whatever they want for a coin, it owes them the purchase price, the cost for their time to find it, store it and if they are selling it online or at a fair the costs to actually 'show' you the coin. From what I have seen most dealers are not offended by you asking about the best price they can do on a certain coin etc as long as you dont offer them £10 for a coin up at £300! As for an investment there are a few discussions on here about that. There are no guarantees that you will get your money back and the flavour of the month tends to shift over time so while Shillings may be what people want now they may not be in 20 years and ultimately supply and demand will drive the price along with the grade. Higher grade coins seem to at least hold a majority of their value, if not go up, but again their are no guarantees. I am collecting because it is something I have started to really enjoy, I like hunting for bargains at the fairs and on ebay etc. Of course there is a long term financial consideration unless you have bottomless pockets. I hope to either leave my kids a nice collection that they can either sell or keep adding too or sell it myself when I am at the stage of not being able to enjoy them myself. Fingers crossed, its worth more than I paid for it but this isn't driving my interest in the hobby and if it isn't worth more when I sell it then so be it I have enjoyed the hunting and collecting along the way

Hi Ben, welcome I would suggest you collect what you like the look of. Buy a few books from this site, especially the grading book and try to get to a coin fair if at all possible. I only started collecting last July and the knowledge available here from the long term members is brilliant. I initially started wanting to collect Halfcrowns but I have started to buy whatever I fancy when the budget allows. One of the best bits of advice I was given was buy the highest grade you can. I have a limited budget but try to buy the best I can with it. I am sure some of the more knowledgeable members will be along shortly to offer you some pearls of wisdom Good luck and welcome to a wonderful hobby!

He was using the 1882 as the main reason to purchase the group of pennies. It was the only one individually photographed the rest were all lined up in a photo from a distance.

Excellent! Thank you both for the confirmation. I picked up the lot for £27 delivered on the assumption this was a mid grade low tide. This was also in there along with another 10 or so worn Victoria pennies and a couple of Geroge V and Elizabeth II pennies. I know its in a very low grade but this was the coin the seller was raving about not the 1902:

I am just after a second opinion please. I bought a small job lot of pennies that were all in a pretty bad way purely becuase I thought I had spotted an ok grade 1902 low tide. This is what came today along with an 1882 H washer and a few other badly worn pennies. Am I right in thinking its a low tide?

Yes please

I use quadrums just because they look nice, standardise the size, are easy to open for pictures and can be reused.

I would imagine just have a thread specifically for fakes something like: Brief description: 1905 Half Crown Picture: Info about fake e.g. where you saw it, do you own one, how can you tell its a fake, distinguishing features, if it was on ebay did it sell etc. Saw it on: Ebay, it sold for £225.00 Distinguishing features: It is a bloody awful copy that looks nothing like the real thing! (obviously more detail in a real post etc) Leave the thread open so people can post pics and info, one coin/info per post and any post not specifically listing a new fake that get made are just deleted so that the thread is purely pictures with information in every post. I don't know what tools you guys have behind the scenes but I can imagine as long as people know the thread is purely for a picture reference and that there is another associated thread for discussion where they can link pics from the 'picture thread' for want of a better description if they actively want to discuss certain features.

I was chatting with @Paulus the other day about there being a dedicated fakes post in the members only section where we post a photo of the fake and the reasons for it being deemed so in a single post. Each post would then be a new/known fake. Then we could have an associated thread for discussion of the these fakes. I know there are numerous posts about fakes already but you have to scroll through 20 comments to find the pictures of the next fake and the associated discussion. The reason for two threads would be to keep the first thread clear of numoerous comments and for it to just be a gallery of known fakes and what to look out for in order to spot them. Maybe number the photos/posts in the picture thread to allow easier discussion in the other thread? I don't know but for a newbie like me, with no fakes in hand, it would be a useful tool. @Nordle11@Chris Perkins is this something worth doing?

If I include the postage the Farthing was £2 ish off the top of my head. I think using a different way to light your coin (day light LED lamp) for the photo may throw up more detail

Glad to know I have not over paid on the penny with £1.99! The farthing was 99p plus postage. Again, more about starting to get a few in hand to compare grades etc until my funds allow some higher grade purchases

Yes it is a bit OTT. The sellers photos were awful (out of focus, far away etc) when I bought it so it was a punt based on the date and the toning the seemed to be there. If I decide to flip it I have already had a few people who are normally decimal collectors/silver stackers take an interest on Facebook and offer me more than I paid. For now it will just stay in my collection