Leo

I suspect you will also enjoy the grading manual. Welcome to the hobby! There is no way back

Lovely chocolate colour!

Have you received it, how much did you pay for customs?

There was one in London yesterday - I loitered around http://www.coinfairs.co.uk

Jester, I have taken a look at those two crowns that you mentioned and the cheaper one has signs of wear that the other one doesn't. Look at the belt thing across St George's chest (this wears very quickly), the visor of his helmet, the edge of Victoria's veil, and her hair... Now, does that justify an increase of price of 700%? It is true that the value does not increase linearly with quality, it is exponential (as relative rarity), and once you go higher than EF it gets really into very fine details. But more than a grand for a common 1887 crown is pushing it too far I think.

Very very nice florin. I also went for the 1902 set, being so common in high quality you get the 'best bang for your buck' if you want to focus on quality rather than rarity, and quickly put together a type set. You do know that the third farthing did not circulate in Britain though?

With the measurements that you have provided, if it was gold it should weight about 2.7g...

Who buys that?

These are the two, for completeness of the previous post

I picked these up in auction last month. A couple of small Spanish colonial coins from Lima - pictured below with a farthing to give an idea of the size. I find very amusing that these little coins are tiny miniaturisations of the larger 8R with practically the same design and details - and even the elaborate edge detail that was done turning the coin between two parallel linear dies. Such an awful amount of work! As the mints were paid on the basis of weight of silver minted, there was little incentive to mint small coins and these are quite hard to find in good condition. The vast majority of the silver mined in America at the time was used to mint 8-reales, often meant to be sent to Spain or for the trans-pacific trade. In particular and looking at these two little ones, in 1755 in Lima it was recorded 55,686 kilos of silver minted into coins, of which 53,111 were made into 8Rs and 4Rs and the rest (less than 5%) was left for smaller change - 2Rs, 1R, 1/2R

The quadrum foam ring is slightly overdimensioned to ensure it grips the coin, i.e. in the 19mm capsule the foam opening is about 18.5mm wide.

Try squeezing the coin out by gently pressing at the bottom of the pocket But careful that doesn't fall to the floor!

Of course there are more advanced methods but are probably not necessary. TBH the reverse looks like silver to me.

Throw it into the floor (carpet/ vinyl) and listen for the sound... It has a peculiar resonance that you don't get with CuNi

Yes, but beware that in high grade coins parallel lines can indicate die polishing lines or planchet adjustment, and do not detract. This Conversation on the subject is very illustrative.

Well for ten quid you haven't done bad as that's pretty much bullion price! As long as it's silver of course. As for the coin, it's been cleaned. That strips down a lot of its numismatic value, but regardless of that, all the time you are going to spend finding out when and how and where was it minted, and learning about it, is priceless. BTW I know practically nothing about these coins. I may get one myself

The correct way to handle coins. Metal tongs. In case you catch something from it. Link There is some room to improve in the photography department. Perhaps it's intentional, to lure collectors assuming he does not know s*** about coins and there is opportunity for a bargain... but references to 'VG' and Spink catalogue in his descriptions suggest to me that he knows very well what he's doing.

That is very interesting. It could be the same die in just slightly different degree of deterioration. Do you know the mintage figure? Incidentally, they are very nice. Lovely acquisition.

The reverse die of the centavo broke nicely! Good it was a trial

That is an amazing coin

I can definitively relate to that! After upgrading the rubbish, I am trying to sell that stuff now and it just doesn't shift. But it's part of the learning curve! You have chosen a good series to start. The good thing of collecting milled coins like those from the Victorian era is that these are coins produced in industrial quantities, nearly identical with very high standards of quality, their wear and deterioration follows clear and well studied patterns, so it is possible to determine their grade accurately. And as it's also a popular series to collect, their prices are transparent and normally relate clearly to their quality - less so with rare specimens and key dates. There are very good advices on the posts above

I'd love something like this, but afraid out of my price range... The good thing of being such popular coins is that they are very liquid and can be bought and sold virtually anywhere, and their price is fairly stable. That gives a peace of mind. The bad thing is that you will have to fight for every one of them in auctions and the chinese are buying many now. Not to mention americans - as these coins were legal tender in the US their collectors are avid for them.

Not only newbies! I have an incomplete peseta collection, a sort-of-comprehensive British 20th century type collection, a couple of albums of international coins of all sorts, a concoction of horrendous silver bullion pieces, and for the last couple of years I've put together a succint Victorian type collection that I'm very proud of. And now I'm veering towards Spanish colonial... who knows what I'll be hoarding in 5 years' time! It's just really good fun, and reading about coins and their history is fascinating. And it may even be a good investment! Incidentally, to complete your starter kit of predecimal British coins you may want this and this and also a loupe.

Yes, the lighhouse sheets come with one for each which is very handy. Otherwise you can always make them yourself. So what do you collect?

This has been very quiet lately... I will post a classic piece I bought last month. Nothing extraordinary about it - If it had a George III stamp it would be worth 5 times more!