TomGoodheart

Very nice Paul. The collection is clearly coming along well! As for me, I'm struggling to find anything nice to buy on the shilling front so picked up another Charles i supporter's badge which I enjoy. Another Rawlins obverse (signed to the reverse) Medallic Illustrations 355/216 with a rather fancy crown. Ex David Corrick collection (sadly no tickets) which he presumably bought from BDW in their June 1994 sale (Lot #221) 38 x 29 mm, 11.44g. Originally had suspension loops so it could be worn or a ribbon or sewn to something, but these were removed in antiquity. A small repair at 6 o'clock, whether from the alterations, or possibly the lower loop broke and it was pierced at that point as sometimes happens, impossible to know.

I quite like this one with the serpentine double O on the reverse. Fortunately the main parts of the design are pretty much unaffected. So I can live with the quirkiness. 🙂

Undoubtedly. Although I believe less on eBay, which I feel has gone off the boil and is mostly blatant tat to surely even the most naive of newbies, and more on the newer Facebook 'collector groups' Many of which are simply selling platforms for the people who set them up with the occasional 'educational' post chucked in to retain interest as they flog their wares. I often see comments praising what, to me, appear to be fairly run of the mill examples of a coin. Which makes sense to me, since I personally feel I'm still learning! Despite spending the last decade or so recording examples of what I collect, there are still occasions where it dawns on me how very few coins of a particular variety or mint mark I've actually seen. On that point, I'm always guided by Richard Lobel's the Coincraft Catalogue where he quotes his mentor saying " 'when you go to value a coin it is what you have not seen rather than what you have seen that matters'. By [which] he meant that, when you see a coin that you have never seen before, forget what it catalogues, it is rare! " Newer collectors I'm sure think what they are seeing must be the 'finest ever' - aided in some cases by the TPGS claims - when in actual fact a quick search on the BM website or on CoinArchive.com would quickly disabuse them. And of course, presumably down to Covid in part, people aren't spending on holidays and meals out and are quick to splash their cash on collectables. Hence the silly money we're seeing now, which some - presumably - see as normal. I don't know what the future will be like. I feel as a collector, I'm approaching the limit of my budget, but that's not really new! Every now and then I see something I can manage - often a conditional rarity - or get tempted by something new - I've recently bought a few historic medals related to Charles I because they're attractive, historically connected and, compared to some of the coins, not too expensive. But I've had to accept that I will never have a fully representative collection due to the scarcity of some of the types in the series and, often more a factor than the rarity, the fact that some examples only exist in grades that I'd struggle to live with. Yes, I'm shallow! But I like to get a buzz when I look at my collection and that generally means a coin has to meet an aesthetic benchmark for me to consider it. Sadly (?) many of the coins I'd like currently live in other people's collections. And are likely to stay there for the foreseeable future. I therefore have to accept that the best I can hope for is to be considered a minor, but careful, collector for whom eye appeal was important. God, that was me before I've even had a beer! Sorry. I'll shut up now.

Not familiar to me I'm afraid Rob.

Thanks Rob. I did wonder if it was from a small museum collection or similar. No 14 in a display of historical items maybe? I guess we'll never know. Though it's quite a nice example..

Long shot, I know as it's an envelope not a ticket. But anyone any ideas? Cheers.

As always, it comes down to knowledge and perseverance, whether it's ebay or anywhere else. You need to know what's common and what's not and what's a general price for something that you're prepared to pay. I've just picked up something from France at what I feel is less than I'd pay here at auction. I might regret it - their photos are rather harsh, however it's also illustrated in a book where it looks better, so I took a gamble. However I've spent the last few days finding examples and seeing what they sold for so I feel relatively confident. I aim to keep my search parameters quite wide in the hope that I'll pick up mis- or poorly identified pieces as well as those correctly classified. And I don't buy to sell, so I have the luxury of being prepared to pay 'collector's' rates and not worry about profit margins. I guess what I'm saying is that we all need a buying strategy and working out how much crap you're happy to look at in the hope of finding something desirable is worth considering.

Yeah, there looked as if there might be some nice pieces there. Hopefully a better overview of the contents of the find will be posted in a bit.

If I had to guess it'd be Peter Mitchell (right two/Baldwins) due to the slightly square shaped 5 and S in ESC Paul. Left one, no idea.