argentumandcoins

Just been told that Hiram Brown (Edinburgh coin shop) passed quite suddenly last Friday. He was one of the major Penny collectors in the country and an expert on the subject, A bad year for the hobby keeps getting worse.

A Gentleman who was always happiest discussing coins. RIP Geoff.

Dear All, If the following offends you I do apologise but following on from a question I received about a Rarity 3 1956 halfpenny I have on ebay these are the last 2 messages. The original question was along the lines of "is your price a typo? (£45 was the BIN price). I responded very politely that it wasn't and that I had sold a rarity 12 1956 (I said R14 in my reply) in nearly VF for £125 several years ago (the buyer is a forum member). Anyway, here goes (BUT PLEASE READ THE BOTTOM MESSAGE FIRST); Dear new_world_numismatics, Mike, you are obviously a high-end dealer in choice coins, probably ex Goldberg, CNG or Heritage? I greatly value your opinion and knowledge of British numismatics but would be obliged if you would refrain from further contact as I do not think my pathetic business is worthy of your attention. Thank you for your choice words of wisdom which I will share with all of the users of the GB coin forums (some of whom are in the States and collect GB bronze by Freeman numbers), in the hope that they too will benefit from your knowledge and experience. I will also email Michael Freeman and tell him how disgusted you are that his work is not of the same standard as Breen et al and I will contact the major UK auction houses and tell them to desist from using his numbers forthwith as the man is obviously an idiot. - john8150_0 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- From: new_world_numismatics To: john8150_0 Subject: Re: Other: new_world_numismatics sent a message about 1956 Halfpenny, F475, Rarity 3, VF. #350471069974 Sent Date: 08-Jul-12 16:18:42 BST Dear john8150_0, Hello again, thanks for getting back to me. I guess my question then is this: if I do go through my buckets and find any such varieties, would you be a buyer? Otherwise it would not be worth my time as no one on this side of the pond collects such "varieties," nor even acknowledges there existence... I am familiar with Freeman's work but have never agreed with him on much. Nor do serious numismatists, as is evident by the fact that he had to self publish for decades because no one would publish his work, and he still is not recognized by numismatics-based publications today. Please consider that on a modern coin with a mintage over 20 million, that there are bound to be numerous die varieties, potentially dozens and dozens, none of which would necessarily be rarer than any other. Even if so, the population of such a "rarity" would still potentially be in the millions for such a "rarity," which would not even make a "R" scale for any other type of coins, ranging from ancients to 2012 dated coins. (also his rarity scale is backwards from established numismatic numeric ranking systems which further compromises his credibility). Honestly, I would never recommend Freeman's work to any serious numismatist for fear of being mocked as an amateur. And anyway, the fact that you've only sold one in (at least) the last 6 years kind of confirms this. Anyway, good luck and I'll let you know if I come up with any "rarities" for you! Regards, Mike P.S. I guess what I'm trying to say is this: you may be more of an "Ebay Imbecile" than you think... Simply reading your listing was somewhat confusing and offensive, as you aggressively attack any of your potential buyers before they even become one, and on top of that, you offer nothing but garbage in your listings, whilst proclaiming on your website that you only deal only in "rarities" and "high grade items." Please stop wasting our time! - new_world_numismatics

I had PM'd him Pete, but no reply as yet. I have bought similar stuff in the past and had the seller send it via Special Delivery. It works okay as long as the seller has enough trust in the buyer!

Look like silver medallets issued in 2000. Probably Vatican. Silver content will determine the price.

Best guess would be Colonial, possibly Canadian, local issue token. The bust is similar to a William Wyon pattern bust of 1823 for British West Africa, although obviously not the same quality. Colonial token coinage was rife around this date and some was "blacksmith made"

I've just ordered some for stock. If you google Royal Mint Discount codes there's a code for a free 2016 £5 coin with all orders over £40. You also get free delivery on all orders over £45. I had to put 6 orders through just to fill my boots on free stuff (yes some of it is crap but it all sells).

Rob has covered the Ed VII silver question. Re the reference books there is nothing in particular for any of the milled series issues that is relevant only to one denomination. The general books that will help you are ESC (recently reworked by Maurice Bull), Davies (silver coinage since 1816 and supplied by Rob) and then any specific sixpence collection auction catalogues (most recent being the Alfred Bole collection).

As already discussed with Pete, the coin in the collection was taken from a complete and original 1937 proof set. It was clearly a proof. Dad already knew that it was unrecorded but checked every 1937 set we encountered in salerooms (a lot I may tell you). If you handle enough coins you know a proof as soon as you see one. Why some dealers and auction houses refuse to accept the totally bleedin obvious is beyond me, but fail they do!

As a dealer you have 2 ways you can go. 1) keep the cash and lose a customer or 20. 2) give a refund, take a hit and keep your reputation intact. No-brainer really (unless you've got no brain). It would be remiss of me to pass judgement on a fellow dealer........

57000 sales equates to a massive amount of fees for ebay. Disgrace? Yes. Surprise? No.

Ebay here we come: LOOK MUST SEE RARE gold proof 2p mint error (wrong mettle used). I've never seed another so it must be uneek. Super rae investmant. Happy bidding.

Sadly my lad lives with his vacuous mother and the "anything for a quiet life" rule applies, hence the earring at 6, dyed blonde hair at the front for the past 12 months etc etc.

I had the same guy contact me twice trying to buy gold coins and pay by credit card, oh, and could I ship them immediately as the address he wanted them sending to would only have somebody home to receive for the next day.....

I think most of the page visits I used to get on my website were people trying to get a price on a coin(s) that they had found in car boot sales or family members dusty drawers (no puns Peter!!!). T'internet is a strange and mysterious place to a dinosaur like me but my middle boy (8 next month) wants me to help him set up a facetube/youtime thingy so he can get subscribers watching him doing stupid things. He needs my help if any "dangerous people" start to contact him. He can make "lots of money" apparently. What a sad and dangerous world we seem to have created for our descendants. I think at 8 years old my interests extended to all things army (action man, little soldiers, playing "Japs and English"), football and bike riding.

Apologies to those members who contacted requesting a list of unsold lots from the LCA June sale. I decided that if I had to re-write the list I may as well write a catalogue, so that's what I have done. All of the unsolds have been individually catalogued and photographed for sale by auction. As some of you know I work freelance for Northern salerooms and I have submitted the lots for sale at PFK in Penrith. The coins will be sold during and antique sale and run to about 220 lots. The sale date is 09/08/17 and live bidding is available online via the saleroom.com or easyliveauction.com. There will be obv and rev pics for each coin and a printed catalogue will be available from the saleroom on request. In addition to the coins I also have 3 Peter Nichols cabinets available. They are a Coronet (his largest which retails at £954 + £55 delivery) and 2 x Standard Crozier (retailing at £678 + £31 delivery). These are not listed for sale yet so please PM if interested.

The old boy would be pleased to see it in a good home Mike! 11 isn't bad going as some of them are really hard to find in any state. Tennants is TBA (they are contemplating a stand alone sale rather than including it within another coin sale). I didn't get my 0% rate so there won't be any flexibility on reserves.

Nice find though Rob. Shame the Groat collectors are more into hammered than milled or it would have a decent premium.

My dab....

Nee bova marra. Neebody has got owt to help us like eh!

Anybody got a copy of the 2010 edition by Roger Outing available for sale please?

My youngest keeps mixing up his d's and b's too

Until grading is done by a computerised scan and the images compared via software there will NEVER be any consistency or real accuracy in grades. I know that I could grade the same coin differently if I looked at it 30 minutes apart and I do it for a living. A benchmark set of coins is all well and good but at the end of the day it still comes down to how each grader compares the coin to the benchmark. Just as an aside, who graded the benchmark set that all submissions are now compared against? The CGS grades seem excessively harsh to me but why would their graders give a flying feck as it's not their investment that they are devaluing? London Coins are now very harsh (as I found when putting the collection to them) but, why would they give a flying feck as it's not their investment they are underselling....... Would I be happy with that Gothic in a raw state without an EF60 (WTF does that mean?) sticker on it? Hell yes. How would I grade it? Probably A UNC. The Florin looks around the same although I will use the caveat that grading from pics is always prone to +/- at least half a grade error.

Everything sells and everything has a value. If they are lead tokens from grain sacks etc the commercial value will be small. The real value is in the story and the mystique is it not?