Collecting Early Milled Silver- on a budget?

[Conor44]

Hi everyone. I haven't posted here for a while- in fact I haven't bought a coin in over two years. I collect Early Milled Silver mostly, especially the Georgian period. I'm now wishing to 'get back on the saddle' so to speak, but as a student (going back to college next autumn after taking the year out), as you can imagine cash flow is a slight problem, especially when collecting early milled as opposed to the often more affordable Victorian coinage, for example. I always adhere to the rule of buy the best condition you can afford. Looking at my scant collection (albeit with a handful of very nice coins indeed), I often find myself thinking 'this is a hobby for old retirees with money to spend, i'm wasting my time here' LOL! I have thought about narrowing down, ie. rather than trying to collect sixpences, shillings, halfcrowns and crowns, just concentrating on one of those denominations for the time being. Anyone have any advice? 

[Paddy]

Well two thoughts occur to me:

1. Some of the small denominations - particularly threepences and fourpences - are much better value and easy to pick up for well under £100 each (often only £20 or so), which gives you a good chance of getting representations of most of the early milled monarchs and years without breaking the budget. A few years back I built a collection of virtually all the pre-1800 3ds and 4ds without paying more than £50 on any one coin. Sixpences and shillings are especially expensive at the moment. Charles II Crowns are often cheaper than the mid-range coins of the same year.

2. Keep an eye on the non-coin specialist auction house. With the internet and using saleroom.com and easyliveauction.com you can see job lots and individual coins at small auction houses across the UK and the world. Often these go for a fraction of the price they would if presented at a coin specialist auction - but you do need to do your research and know what you are looking at. (A local auction near me had a job lot including a William III sixpence, a Charles II Fourpence, an 1862 Sixpence and a bunch of other silver coinage - hammer price just £80 plus commission - this week.) Often you can sell the bits you don't want out of a lot and almost get the ones you do want for free!

 

[Peckris 2]

I wish I'd bitten the bullet and bought early milled in the 90s. I'm not saying I could have easily afforded it then, but compared with now...

Mind you, I do have a representative type of William III crown, shilling and sixpence in at least VF. "All" I need now is a halfcrown to complete the set but the prices of them are a bit ouch.

[Unwilling Numismatist]

As a student you can benefit from the global time difference.

I've had some very good buys from ebay auctions ending in the wee hours of the morning when most people are asleep, so when you check aucttion site pay attention to the end times, if they in teh tiny hours UK time you might find you can afford/get lucky a lot more than you expect!

 

 

[JLS]

I’m having fun collecting early milled halfpennies by Peck variety right now...most of the VR and ER ones only have a few specimens in high grades; if you’re content with low grade examples you can get some real rarities for £100 or less. They turn up in dealers’ junk bins too occasionally !
 

William III halfpennies in particular were terribly badly made and you can sometimes get decent examples cheaply because people expect a VF or EF coin to have a lot more detail than they actually do. And the number of minor varieties is large, Peck is really just the start.

[JLS]

If you’re into Georgian coins I’d also recommend the evasion halfpenny and farthing series, almost infinite variety, poorly studied and plenty of bizarre types and spectacular errors. You can buy acceptable examples of the common types for as little as £10.