Dg43

Obviously not very photogenic. A shame that Meeshu's 'investment' seems to be a disaster.

I am in complete agreement with you Peckris. There is little to distinguish between them and the currency issue in Unc I paid £5 for last year. Strike a little better perhaps. CCC have had that coin on offer for several months now.

An extremely erudite and entirely plausible explanation Rob.

It has collapsed under the weight of all the dross for sale on there.

??????????? You're out of luck I'm afraid, just watched three genuine (according to the photo's in mirror etc) finish on ebay. Average winning bid?.................................................................. £55!

If you check out his other coins they are top-whack and mostly over-graded. Eg: http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/1887-VICTORIA-SILVER...id=p3911.c0.m14 http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/1849-VICTORIA-SILVER...id=p3911.c0.m14

I do not have CCGB 2009, but the same prices are given in CCGB 2008. Spink 2009 lists all three as: F - No price given; VF £1; EF £15; UNC (Full lustre)£50. Coin Yearbook (2008) also prices all three as: F £1; VF £4; EF £20; UNC £40. David

Derek Colin Cooke have a nice Unc 1918kn at the moment, also three (!) 'Bu' 1912h. The website has been re-vamped and the pictures are much better. Glad to hear that you are an 'ordinary' collector with Vf's and Gvf's - like me!!! Btw, I bought your book - excellent. David

He is certainly persistent, it has been listed and relisted for several months. Originally it was up for £15,000.00 - or best offer - unbelievably he had an offer!

I watched 11 listings for genuine undated 20p's in 'My ebay' that finished between 30th June and 5th July; the average of the winning bids was £281. I did the same for 13 listings finishing today, the average of the winning bids was £162. Two listings that finished at £1550 and £4700(?!) earlier in the week were relisted, the first selling for £180, the second for £215. Oh dear! its falling apart.

I wonder if the current prices realised, (most seem to be around the £250 mark on ebay) can be sustained in the future, after all it is a matter of demand. But I suspect that when the interest dies down they will settle down to about £50. The whole business may be tacky, but it is certainly entertaining.

Congrats Anna, you got a great price but not extortionate. So you can hold your head up! By the way, did you notice that your auction had 1,100 views - in 24 hours!!!! There is one, that is ending in 3 days, on a five day listing, that has already had 27,000 views!! Utter madness. There are now more than 2,000 results when you search for 'undated 20p', many just scams of one sort or another. The most expensive is £15,000........or best offer! David

Good luck, tell us how much you get! Just a thought, you do have one of the new type 20p's with neither a date on the obverse (Queen's head side) or reverse (shield side)? I.e no date at all? Only some people selling on ebay seem to have got hold of the wrong end of the stick. The old 20p has no date on the obverse but it is dated on the reverse. These are worth .....20p. David

Anna, Rob's advice is sound, this is nothing but midsummer madness, however if you are going to auction it on ebay it might be a good idea to go for a quick 3 day auction, rather than a ten day one, in case this whole thing blows up! David

This is a recurring theme on the forum. Sadly it is inadvisable to purchase anything of a collectable nature from China, although there must of course be reputable and genuine Chinese dealers, but - how do you tell the difference? Also, many people do buy fakes from China, either knowingly or unknowingly and sell them on from addresses in this country to which no suspicion is attached. This link, whilst more specific to the faking of US coins, shows the scale of the problem. http://coins.about.com/od/worldcoins/ig/Ch...ing/index_g.htm

This is lifted from their 'About us' page

I suppose they are taking advantage of the dire economic situation by offering coins to 'investors' who are chary about the regular investment options. The idea is, anything graded higher than UNC 82 is, to quote the CGS website: "Scarce and desirable". But, as you point out with your examples - and another example is - an 1887 proof halfcrown graded 'Unc 90', for £350, when the proof FDC price in Spink 2009 is £170. So their prices seem a tad high. I can see what they are trying to do, exploit the dire grading situation, not only on ebay, but sadly amongst so-called reputable dealers, (with a few notable exceptions). And I must say, their grading seems very strict. Whether they sell many coins is another thing, CCI's home page declares: 'Latest News: July 2008 CCI List - OUT SOON!' (my underline). However, I had not realised that they are all part of the same group, this is rather disturbing.

You could have posted it under 'ebay laughs'. I can't understand the £5.50 bid, but the seller has a feedback score of 12. The whole exercise is likely to be a ploy to accumulate a lot of good feedback quickly. The bids probably all come from friends of the seller. Pickup only is perhaps a strategy to discourage idiots who might bid and win, then leave negative feedback.

Jeff There could be rarities in amongst them, but you would need to become an expert in bronze pennies and spend months going through them. Apart from the unc bags of 1967 pennies, some have been in circulation for up to 100 years! I would guess, and you can probably confirm this, that most if not all of the early 'Bun head pennies are extremely worn and show show little more than a clear date. Old head Victoria and Edward vii pennies are very common and of little commercial value in low grade. I think £1200 is a very good offer. David

Here is a link to Chard's website, where, although they do not state a selling price, enforce Chris' comments about bullion price + a small percentage. Rather a poor representation of 'Una and the Lion' Link to Chard: http://www.24carat.co.uk/frame.php?url=197...onunailion.html

From your description I assume it is a British Gold Sovereign. George V on the obverse, St George and the Dragon on the reverse? and 22mm in Diameter. These were struck either in Australia (Perth, Sydney, or Melbourne), Canada (Ottawa) or India (Bombay). The mintmark is located on the reverse below the horse's right rear hoof and just above the date. So, the mintmarks are either: 'P' 'S' 'M' 'C' or 'I'. As you say, not rare but still a great find. David

Got it. http://medals4trade.com/collections/displa...cat=0&pos=1 The contributor says it is RRR - according to Brown - which I do not have. As far as I know, the reverse legend refers to the Reform Bill of 1832, and the general lingering discontent that resulted from it. RRR does not necessarily mean it is particularly valuable, it depends on demand. If as you say it is very worn, then it is probably not worth much. However I don't know that for sure. There are no catalogues of values for this sort of medalet as far as I know.

Perhaps you could supply the URL of the website that is offering the piece that is similar to yours. If his coin is in a comparable condition to yours what is his price? Political medalets of this type were very common. David

I think this may be the piece of loveliness to which he refers. http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/1679-Charles-II-Fart...1QQcmdZViewItem

It is almost definitely an 1821 Crown, quite worn, in fine condition or worse. Sadly it is a very common coin, a quick ebay search found 34 sellers with this coin for sale/auction! If as you say it has been gilded to match the mount then that does not help the coin's value, which, if it is undamaged and not gilt is less than £50 I would say. If the mount is gold it is worth more than the coin, having said that, the mount could be gilt brass or similar. Chris will have a much better idea of values. David