Slabbed values

[Peckris 579]

It is a guide 400, but dealers and everyone Else is using

That Guide and expecting the same cash As spink says its worth unfortunately

a prime example being the 1940 Single Exergue line penny... when was the last time I saw one of these sell for 'only' £40?!

Last year, when i bought one from Colin Cookes for 30 quid in BU....oooh did i say BU, maybe its UNC, i don't know any more

I think they must have mis-identified it az - it was the late great Colin Cooke himself who told me in the mid-90s that he'd not seen one for five years and it wouldn't sell for "less than £20". My own cost me about £5 in 1978 (a great year for buying!) but they weren't classifying it back then

I believe it was actually the Royal Mint that coined the term 'BU'....without really meaning to. In the 80s their annual sets of coins in folders were suddenly marketed as 'Brilliant Uncirculated' and that caught on to mean an UNC coin with full lutre.

I believe it was actually the Royal Mint that coined the term 'BU'....without really meaning to. In the 80s their annual sets of coins in folders were suddenly marketed as 'Brilliant Uncirculated' and that caught on to mean an UNC coin with full lutre.

It was certainly about before then. I remember it back to the 1960s but it's never really had any official standing which makes me think it's a comparatively recent phenomenon. I wonder if an (even) older coiny than me has any recollection?

Seaby's 10th Ed (1960) jumps straight from Unc to FDC. Whereas Elizabeth Gilzean's 'Coins - A Collector's Guide' (1968) mentions 75% EF, UNC (bag marks but nowt else), BU and then 100% FDC (perfect mint state) so I'm wondering if it slipped into common usage somewhere in between the two dates?

By 1970 when Finn & Dowle's Coins For Pleasure and Investment was published they state that Unc is a modern term and means a coin that is perfect to the naked eye and that BU is only really useful when referring to copper or bronze. Interestingly they refer to FDC as an alternative to Unc.

All a bit imprecise it seem to me!

BU was in common use by 1968 when I first started to buy Coin Monthly.

[azda 979]

I bougjt my 1940 BU Single exergue line late last Year Peck for 30 quid, so i feel like i finally got a bargain

[Peckris 579]

I bougjt my 1940 BU Single exergue line late last Year Peck for 30 quid, so i feel like i finally got a bargain

Yes you did! I'm just surprised that Colin Cooke hadn't spotted what it was. Either that or they were having an off day.

[azda 979]

It was in their Site as the Single line and the BU grade, so maybe that was the case

[Peckris 579]

It was in their Site as the Single line and the BU grade, so maybe that was the case

Weird. Maybe they were feeling generous? Or maybe they've a whole bucket-load they're feeding out in tiny dribs and drabs

[Red Riley 2]

I bougjt my 1940 BU Single exergue line late last Year Peck for 30 quid, so i feel like i finally got a bargain

Depends on your definition of BU!

Deja vu? What's that?

Deja vu? What's that?.......