pokal02

It's not only Ebay. I was idly trawling Etsy and saw 1898/99/1900 1d's on offer for a bargain £1,000. They are Fair-VG at best (the first two arguably worse). Edit: maybe they are a bargain after all - I've just seen a 1936 1d in Fair-Fine on Etsy for £27,300!! (No, it isn't an Edward VIII). I think I'll give up now.

1669 and 1678 crowns are very under-rated. They are at least as rare as 1665 and 1675, the 1669 probably more so. I've seen/heard about only 5 or 6 1669's in 40 years of collecting crowns, and about 10-12 1678's. I've only ever seen/heard of two 1669's above F.

Yes, it was all a bit strange. Although most of the coins either went for silly prices or proved that sceats/stycas are seriously undervalued in the catalogues, some went for fairly modest prices - I was so shell-shocked by some of the early bidding (and the extended wait didn't help) that I missed bidding on a Beonna that went for below low estimate. One of the Eardwulf's looked quite low too. My theory that where there are two near-identical coins, the second always fetches more was proved in spades by the two 'Aelfwald II(?)' lots. I was the underbidder on the first at 270, and then watched the second go for (I think) 1700. I'd expected to at least fill my Redwulf, Osberht and Wulfhere gaps given the number of coins offered - managed a Redwulf and Wulfhere, although with hindsight would have gone for the slightly inferior Wulfhere at 220-odd rather than paying 500 for mine. The hammer came down on the last Osberht with my bid winning, but he re-opened it and I didn't bid on.

What's going on - 180 lots taking 5 hours with another 420 to come? They'll still be bidding at 1 a.m. on that schedule.

I see from the Abramson catalogue that the Spink 859 type previously attributed to Aelfwald II is now given to Aelfwald I. Two with the moneyer Eadvini rather than Cuthheard are given to Aelfwald II, although noted as doubtful Is this the only type/moneyer now attributed to Aelfwald II?

I spotted one of these at an antiques fair about 15 years ago @ Alexandra Palace once priced at £8 (it was about F). I managed to haggle down to £7 and sold it for £50 on EBay (fairly cheap - F was £200 in Spink at the time). I'd completed a date collection of farthings (excluding proofs etc) in the 1980's but sold up in the early 90's to concentrate on higher denominations - remembered how rare this one was when I saw it.

I've started collecting 50p's recently (only the Shield/Britannias, not Mrs Tiggywinkle etc). I picked up a 1974 for £9 but had to pay silly money (£50+) for 2009 Shield, 2011 and 2016.

I'd say it's one of those that many sellers would go NEF and many prospective buyers GVF (as far as I can tell without seeing it in hand). There's a little bit of wear, although not much, in the hair and at the top of the reverse. I'd agree that the contact marks are fairly insignificant & not enough to downgrade it.

A nasty sting in the tail for me as Spink delivered my lot to an address I left in 2005 (I'd have collected in person but for lockdown restrictions). Fortunately, although the present occupant had opened the package, she willingly handed it over. Myself and Spink both at fault here. The online invoice did indeed show my old address - it didn't occur to me to check immediately as I've had stuff from Spink sent to my new address many times since 2005. It seems I must have had two accounts and for some reason they re-activated the dormant one - they have assured me that the two accounts now merged and the old address deleted!

A nasty sting in the tail for me as Spink delivered my lot to an address I left in 2005 (I'd have collected in person but for lockdown restrictions). Fortunately, although the present occupant had opened the package, she willingly handed it over.

I was thinking more of a date run, which isn't much of an issue for hammered apart from some Commonwealth issues & the 1558 penny. I've managed one of each reign & mint (except Ashby) for hammered groats and have a few more varieties I could still pick up. although as you say there a a few I'm either never going to get or won't bother with,. Have often toyed with expanding into milled groats (definitely easier than shillings) but something else always comes up!

I'm pretty close to completing crowns (ignoring proofs) - I of course lack 1674 and some of the more obscure edge years eg 1671 v. quarto. Wouldn't get anywhere near it if I was starting now. I wonder if groats might be do-able - (except the unique 1697?) - one could include/exclude post-1816 maundy depending on resources etc.

The auctioneer was continually saying that these were coins for 'collectors', but I suspect very few got a look in. The same paddle numbers kept coming up as successful bids and I can't imagine any collector being able to buy 7 or 8 coins at these prices.

I was looking at four crowns (one an upgrade). I knew they'd all be expensive as I don't have many crown gaps these days. In the end pushed the boat out on one which was over 3x top estimate & gave up on the others. Have to give up collecting until October now to get back on budget!

I think I've had 4 or so purchases not reach me over the years. The sellers have always refunded me. One of these turned up months later - I notified the seller and paid again. I don't know whether he had borne the loss himself, or if not, whether he reimbursed the carrier (it was from Italy - I've had more problems with (non-coin related) post from there than anywhere else).