custard1966

oldest - Indian copper coin of the emperor Ashoka, 3rd century bc newest - 2004 penny I just picked out of my change

They're both common. Neither is rarer than the other according to Gouby - both rated as abundant Freeman rates the second type slightly rarer - c11 vs c8 So there's not much in it.

Chris, could you please modify the coin registration form to reorder the tabstops? I like to tab between the fields but some of the tabstops seem to go nowhere (I'm guessing they go to labels rather than fields) e.g if you tab out of the denomination field it doesn't take you to the notes field. This would make data entry much quicker. Thanks.

wow ...that is lovely...i hope youare proud do you have any pictures? When the 1851 arrives I'll post pictures of both if you like - if I can get a good result with my scanner.

That looks a million times better. I think having it available in downloadable form would be great. 15-20mb isn't a problem for broadband users.

That's a sheer beaut! Please do tell us if it's as good as it loks - that Britannia shield is truly excpetional! Hopefully it'll arrive early next week - I'll report back.

In no particular order (all pennies) 1797 lustrous choice unc 1806 proof - fdc 1839 proof - aFDC 1851 - this beauty I just bought http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vie...e=STRK:MEBWN:IT hope it's as good as it looks 1856 PT - GEF 1860 Moore Pattern 1860 n of one over sideways n - lustrous GEF 1863 open 3 - aF (one of only 6/7) 1865/3 GVF 1912H - BU full lustre

ok, sorry... No problem

nothing funny about it, victorias bronze pennies started in 1860, and changed from the jubilee head to the older 'widow' head in 1895... There's no such thing as a Jubilee head penny. The Jubilee coinage started in 1887, but pennies were not included. I was pointing out the numerous errors in the description.

The description for this one is pretty funny http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vie...3913588675&rd=1 I always thought it was Prince Albert and I never knew Victoria was a widower. And the pennies didn't change between 1860 and 1894 - so all those varieties in Freeman et al are forgeries.

It looks like the single line - hard to be absolutely sure from that photo The double line is most obvious to the right and I can't see any sign of it there The other difference between the two is that on the single exergue the waves touch the exergual line - which they appear to on this example. On the double exergue they are separate from the exergual line.

It's occurred to me that I was being a bit penny-centric with that reply- since that's all that Gouby covers. But well worth the investment anyway. I have both Peck & Freeman and though I'd like to help there's no way I could get along without them. But I'm happy to look up anything you need to check. I got my copies from here http://www.galata.co.uk/ I think there's someone who advestises coin books in the classifieds in Coin News as well.

Chris, Why not get Michael Gouby's book - it's much cheaper than Peck or Freeman, has more varieties and has cross refs to both And it's still in print.

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vie...3912783948&rd=1 (!)

According to collectors' coins there are 7/8 plus perhaps 4 patterns There's also a uniface - with just the word MODEL on the obverse. I seem to remember reading somwhere that there are two in private hands - no idea of when one was last sold One has been stolen (from a church I think).

The worst coin ever on E-Bay ? http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vie...3912362086&rd=1 this guy is selling the worst load of tripe I've ever seen

The only other category I can think of is a mailing list. If we just had other, in addition, that would probably cover it - unless anyone else can think of any.

This looks great Chris. Is it too late for some extra info? I think it would be useful to add a 'purchase type' field which would probably have a fixed set of values auction internet auction online purchase coin fair private sale etc It would then be possible to see how prices vary across these types of source. Also, I assume you want us to use this to record prices we see being realised. Do we need some way to distinguish prices we've seen from prices we've paid ?

Also, provide a web form for feedback If you're using a reply paid card for feedback from the book it'll save you money If you're not using reply paid you'll probably get more feedback if it's free Why not have a facility on the web for people to report prices that have been fetched for coins? If you set it up soon we could all start logging results.

I think there's an argument for separating currency and non-currency coins Patterns & proofs (except for a few jubilee/coronation years and such) tend to be pretty rare & expensive beasties & I find they interrupt the flow/layout of the currency coins.

I could almost weep... http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vie...3911832002&rd=1

So we have... A man with long hair & a beard... who has 12 disciples...

I hadn't spotted the the Peck refs Perhaps that's because the layout is a bit chaotic and the refs are patchy for the bun heads and non-existent thereafter. It'd be a big improvement to tidy that up and I think preferable to use Freeman for the bronze. Another question is over which grades to use for pricing points. As we discussed in another thread a while back, Spink means 'full lustre' when it says UNC. I'm not sure how helpful this is because it's a big jump from EF to BU for bronze coins. The collectors guide describes UNC as 'unworn, as struck by the mint' but says nothing about lustre. If we take Abt FDC as used in the guide to mean BU then having a lower grade of UNC to mean less than full lustre is very useful. It would be even better if it were possible to give prices for percentages of lustre (the Satin reference uses 20, 50 80 & 100%).

Another thing I think would be very useful is to add Peck/Freeman catalogue numbers (Peck for copper, Freeman for bronze).

That sounds great Chris. I think the issue of images is an interesting one and I can only speak from the point of view of a specialist penny collector. The way the guide is at the moment the images are pretty pointless (and all other catalogues are just as bad) and I'd be prepared to lose them as a trade for having more varieties listed (see my next point). The real value of images is if there are enough to provide a (reasonably) complete identification guide. This requires a lot of images and that the images be of a suitable size & quality This would, I think be very diffcult to do at all and probably be beyond the scope/cost for this publication. Beyond that I suppose (again from the point of view of a penny collector) the other thing to sort out is which 'varieties' to include. There are lots that are described in reference works but not typically listed in catalogues. I guess there's a trade off between pages (& hence cost) and completeness. But as a specialist collector I'd certainly be prepared to shell out a few pennies more for the most complete list and I think this would be a very worthwhile 'unique selling point' for people like me.