pokal02

..and now the Edw IV at DNW on 3/7/19. Not much to get for either groats or crowns now (excluding 5-figure or 'will never turn up'), although I'd like one of the 1634 pattern groats - they used to turn up regularly but haven't seen one for a few years now.

I see the 1935 crown went for £742. Perfectly decent ones are regularly available at £500-£550. All I can say is at least two people were looking at the slabbed grade not the photo.

The moustache looks OK but I still think the ear and hair look worn. To be fair, it could be the photo or possibly the slab has become defective in some way (the toning looks a bit odd too). The proofs were indeed .925 silver.

...and now we have a 1935 proof crown graded PR64CAM by PCGS (confirmed by PCGS website that it's the same coin), but the grading is ludicrous - there's heavy wear on the obverse and I'm struggling to even say VF. (No blame attached to the seller here - he/she started it at £1 and no doubt it will find its own level - it's £180 now).

The Vigo crown's only £70,000 more than I paid for mine (I will admit theirs is better!!)

There are some strange crowns out there after a bit of a lull - a distinctly fake-looking 1844 that someone wants £3,000 for, another 1844 (from a different seller) graded B Unc which is little better than Fine, and a 1703 at the bargain price of... £70,200.

I remember the old penny falls and looking to see if there were any old ones ready to fall. I remember spotting an 1895 (when I was trying to complete a date set 1860-1967) and spending about 2/- before it finally fell. It's the only coin from my very early phase of collecting (I was about seven years old) that I still have. Also trying for an 1883 a couple of years later, running out of money, and getting it by putting a lolly stick into the slot. (Hope the statute of limitations has expired on that!)

Just two pre-47s in the 80s for me - 1940 & 1946 shillings, both in surprisingly good nick suggesting that they hadn't circulated for all that time. Remember getting G V silver in abundance in the late 60's/early 70s, only ever got one pre-1920 (Edw VII 6d, date unreadable).

Got the 1646 Oxford groat at DNW today (a considerably worse coin than I'd have liked, but I'm at the 'beggars can't be choosers' stage now). Still on the lookout for the Edward IV...

Rarity holds its value too - look at the recent price for the Ashby groat which wasn't even Fine - I guess quality is just a different sort of rarity (to me, paying £29k or so for a 1726 Crown is madness but if it's one of only 2 or 3 in that grade, I can see why some would go for it).

Yes, a few prices seemed 'over the top' to me - I'm glad I virtually completed this series some years ago, as there are a few I could never afford now.

I'm also running out of space - I might have a closer look at a cabinet - for now I've moved half my collection to a secure facility elsewhere (this also spreads the risk - I'd rather have a 1% chance of losing half the collection due to fire/burglary etc than a 0.5% chance of losing all of it).

ebay's gone a bit haywire recently. Some joker wants £85,000 for a St Peter penny and another wants over £39,000 for an 1839 crown. I don't care how rare they are or how much 'eye appeal ' they've got, this is just silly.

Was outbid on both that I went for, £3k was more than enough for the halfpound, £1.3k fairly reasonable for the Ceolwulf I 1d - less than it sold for last time - (didn't want to go too much over book for such a moderate specimen). Prices generally weren't quite as high as I would have guessed.

I'd also say the top end of GVF, would expect 50% of collectors (and 99% of dealers ) to grade it NEF or AEF though.