JLS

Well, I've inquired by return e-mail about how to do it, and heard back nothing, so I'll probably just give them a call tomorrow. If possible it would rather nice to find out what other people have bid before making up my mind !

Semra confirmed this morning that they're offering phone bidding.

I think the facility is more useful to e.g. general antique dealers who don't want the hassle of having to register to bid on various sales independently if they're only planning to bid on one or two low value items.

Maundy coins are still legal tender, having been redenominated to their value in decimal pence by the Coinage Act 1971 s. 2(2). It's not really clear to me what the earliest legal tender maundy money is though; can we go back to the undated Charles II milled issues, or can only "modern" Maundy money post-1822 be spent ?

Interesting. I don't own any similar British pieces but I have a French matt pattern, presumably for photographic purposes, from the turn of the last century and the quality of the strike is superlative.

Interesting ! Were these produced for photography purposes ? The obverse strike looks very soft from the images above.

With the 1953 farthings various die combinations have been ascribed as VIP proofs...I've seen 2+B coins (same as regular sets), as well as 2+A coins (very rare), and 1 +A coins (excessively rare). Presumably the latter are truly VIP proofs, the 2+A pieces are just an error, and the 2+B coins are most likely just nice examples of the ordinary strike (cf. the example in the London Coins archive ex-Norweb which despite some fingerprints looks better than most of the supposed "VIP" pieces in my opinion).

True, that hadn't occurred to me.

But AFAIK he's going to have to pay 10% of the current bids as a final value fee ? The cost of withdrawing a listing with a £600 bid on it like the W&M halfpenny he had listed is substantial. I'm not sure what sort of aspirations he had for those pieces, because they seemed to have generated a lot of interest - if he wants the sort of prices a top auction house could generate he should be prepared to pay more than an effective ~12.5% fee !

If I were a consignor I wouldn't be happy, I imagine prices will be somewhat depressed. Also the paucity of photographs is going to be an issue for a lot of the larger lots etc.

When were you calling them ? I organized a return shipping of a submission a month or two back and they always answered the phone - try between 9:30 and 12 pm or 2 to 4 pm in my experience.

Presumably a contemporary forgery, though ? I'd be interested to see photographs, not something I've come across before.

Ooh, interesting ! I'm going to have to weigh all of mine now to see where they stand...

The more I look at this coin the more seems wrong with it ! What's up the with the apparently raised marks to the right of Britannia (and the S shaped mark after BRITAN) - die damage ?

Definitely for the currency issues, and the Wreath crowns, but I've never seen this problem with 1927 proof issues, weren't they struck from polished planchets ? It would seem pretty odd for the mint to polish the dies to death but use any old planchets !

The seller Paul is a nice chap, bought two rare unofficial farthing style pieces off him recently, fair price and no problems. These issues are pretty rare. There were a variety of dies used for the outside rings, have a look at this one for comparison: https://www.cgbfr.com/5-centimes-lindauer-petit-module-souvenir-de-lexposition-coloniale-1930-paris-f-122-13-var-ttb,fmd_492430,a.html I'm sure CGB will have even more in their backstock if you ask them.

Yes, agreed. The price is pretty high, but it's eBay. Assuming the seller would take 60-70% of the listing price as a best offer, it seems pretty reasonable supposing the coin was a super-choice 1927 proof florin. The seller's based in the USA, and won't have had the opportunity to handle that many of these issues compared to a UK dealer or even experienced collector. Plus. the best 1927 coins I've seen have been in the original set, not sold individually. Sets tend to get broken up for profit when they are unsaleable due to problems with individual coins... Grading is all relative. There are 20th century Austrian coins I can think of where that level of hairlines etc. would still result in a really choice coin due to poor production and typical cleaning etc. I agree that it's been hairlined by cleaning, but this is often market acceptable with proof coins as long as the eye appeal is OK. The problem is that the PCGS grader seems to be totally unfamiliar with the issue, and how commonplace coins in this sort of grade are.

There's even a nick on George's ear ! I'm not sure if the hairlines are bad enough to warrant a details grade but no way is this a PR66 coin...

Tony Clayton's listing of die numbers suggests that all 1867 shillings with die number 19 + have the obverse of 1868 (which is a fairly scarce variety). I'm a bit sceptical, albeit working from a rather rubbish example with die number 19, it looks like an ordinary 1867 obverse to me with tight ringlets. What do people think ? https://imgur.com/a/LW367ri

This is my problem right now - my eBay sales are doing just fine, but it's hard to buy any decent material at wholesale prices right now. Luckily my dealing is a hobby to fund the collection rather than something I depend on for income, but it's frustrating when you put a lot of bids you feel are sensible on an auction and come away with no lots, or just one or two.

Lot 1984 in Auction 149, sold at £300 + premium back in 2015. Alright coin (EF cleaned or rubbed...) but hardly worth the AU grade or a £1k+ price.

What about this example of CGS grading ? https://www.ringramcoins.com/boe-dollar-12727.html Clearly polished in my opinion; also what's with all the fibre still in the holder ???

Yeah, I'm a bit cautious to remove any more verdigris, especially using chemical methods, because I'd rather not have a patch of pitted, unpatinated bronze, where it used to be. Having said that, so far, except in the centre of the verdigris rings, all the metal revealed has retained the patina so it's possible that good results could be achieved with more aggresive techniques...

After cleaning with a sharp toothpick this morning, it's looking a bit better.

Yes - Pm'd.