A normal 1868 Threepence?

[Chris Perkins 228]

Have a close look at this one

[Chris Perkins 228]

Notice anything unusual?

[mint_mark 9]

Rritanniar!

[Chris Perkins 228]

Exactly right!

In Spink it's 'Extremely Rare' with no prices, and in ESC it's R3 (Extremely Rare).

In this years coin yearbook it says £100 in VF, but it said £100 in VF back in 2000 too.

[PAUL.J 0]

Is this your recent purchase via ebay chris? Looks like a reasonable piece and shows that despite its well discussed problems you can get some good rarities through this medium.

I have doubts about the accuracy of the coin year book values. Some prices are significantly lower than in other catalogues and don't appear to get updated as regularly. This forum has covered such discrepencies in values before and the conclusion seemed to be that any catalogue was only ever going to be a guide. When it comes to rarities I think more than usual its a case of how much a collector is prepared to pay to get hold of a piece that does not come up very often. Its a case of 'miss it - miss out!!'

I think it's interesting that a collector is prepared to pay sometimes significantly more for a coin because of a very small difference that distinguishes it from others of the same type. To the untrained eye it looks exactly the same as a coin you could obtain for a fraction of the price if it was not for an overdate or legend error etc. This is no criticism.......I do it!!!!!

[Chris Perkins 228]

Yes, that's the one I got from ebay, from an Irishman selling on German ebay!

You're right about rarities though, as they are sold so infrequently, the catalogues just reflect either a rough guess or an old sale that grabbed them by the troat. Lots of sales of this kind of thing get missed I'm sure.

eBay is no doubt an important place to buy coins, but I still wish it didn't exist, for obvious reasons.

Anyway, I've never seen another RRITANNIAR, and I'm on the look out for the BRITTANIAB 1858 now. In fact the young head Threepences are an interesting area, I have an 1856 threepence with an unusually small 1st 'A' in BRITANNIA, so who knows, perhaps there are other errors yet to be spoted in the series.

[Sylvester 15]

I have doubts about the accuracy of the coin year book values. Some prices are significantly lower than in other catalogues and don't appear to get updated as regularly. This forum has covered such discrepencies in values before and the conclusion seemed to be that any catalogue was only ever going to be a guide. When it comes to rarities I think more than usual its a case of how much a collector is prepared to pay to get hold of a piece that does not come up very often. Its a case of 'miss it - miss out!!'

Hmm coin catalogue prices have caught me out before.

I remember trying to sell a 1750 cleaned sixpence in EF condition. Coincraft states that in EF the coin would go for £250, so i offered it up for grabs at £150-175 thinking that with the cleaning it would be a fair price.

Everyone though i was asking way too much, looking at Spinks' guide they were right it only reached £150 in EF.

Thus i was asking above the catalogue price for one without problems.

Strange this, dealers sell at Coincraft prices and buy at Spink prices! Hmm surely that's more than fair profit?

[PAUL.J 0]

As a seller, you always want to sell a coin for as much as possible but as a buyer, you want to pay as little as possible!! I have found that additional considerations like a cleaned coin complicate the matter even further!! I personally won't buy a cleaned coin (knowingly!) but have ended up with one via ebay. The coin in question - an otherwise VF+ 1671 Halfcrown - quite difficult to find in higher grades. Now because I could not find an uncleaned equivalent (and I really wanted this type) I kept this example. Its starting to retone and looks quite attractive. Its very difficult to judge the effect on the value of this past vandalism!!

Similarly, how would scratches, die flaws and patchy toning all effect the price of a coin? I have seen quite ugly coins at full catalogue value. I think rarity here is a key factor. Collectors are prepared to pay full price despite any faults for coin they really really want.

[william 0]

Chris,

Are you going to sell that threepence? What are you going to price it at?

[Chris Perkins 228]

Paul:

You're quite right, as a buyer of coins to sell on, I always think twice about buying scratched, flawed, unevenly toned etc coins, and like you won't touch polished coins, if I can avoid it, not even with your barge pole.

A good example is the 1762 Half Guinea I bought from Forum member Dan. A nice VF but with a scratch on the obv (see it here: http://www.predecimal.com/forsale/other.htm). Now I would price it at least £800 normally and would expect a speedy sale. But due to the scratch I've put it up for £600, which is a very fair price, but I'm not sure it will go that quickly.

William:

Well, to justify the price I paid for it I really need at least £120.00 for it. That may not be possible right now, so I may lock it away until they get even rarer!

[william 0]

Well, to justify the price I paid for it I really need at least £120.00 for it. That may not be possible right now, so I may lock it away until they get even rarer!

Well, it's certainly out of my reach!

[Chris Perkins 228]

Yes, for a small coin, it's out of a lot of peoples reach.

Work hard at school, get a good job and ask me in 7 years, maybe I'll still have it for you

[Emperor Oli 0]

I personally won't buy a cleaned coin (knowingly!) but have ended up with one via ebay.

Me too. I bought a Napoleon III 5F (God knows why), mainly just for its elegance but when I received it, to my dismay it was polished.

[Chris Perkins 228]

That's why you should only buy from reputable (specialist) sellers that offer a returns policy.

[Sylvester 15]

So Chris...

I take it you're not interested in buying this then?

http://www.coinpeople.com/forums/album_pag...php?pic_id=1047

[Chris Perkins 228]

Well i'd give you bullion for it of course, how much is Mandy Moore, she certainly looks Extremely Fine, but is she uncirculated?

[Sylvester 15]

Well i'd give you bullion for it of course, how much is Mandy Moore, she certainly looks Extremely Fine, but is she uncirculated?

Ha that half guinea is my new pocket piece, to carry around with me. Nice having something unusual, that's the only reason why i'd buy such a bad bad coin.

And Miss Moore is EF definately, UNC could be, put it this way she's a hell of a lot more UNC than Britney Spears, who seems to have entered circulation and will soon be heading for a grading of FAIR if she keeps it up!