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JLS

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Everything posted by JLS

  1. JLS

    Ebay's Worst Offerings

    https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Four-Generations-Of-The-Remington-Typewriter/202945869303 Nothing wrong with the medal but the title made me laugh.
  2. JLS

    Possible Fake Coin

    It most probably is genuine, I would agree. Having said that, if you'd really like to be sure, David Sear himself is willing to authenticate ancient coins; money is not wasted as the certification does make pieces more saleable, and he may pick up interesting features than non-experts would miss. https://www.davidrsear.com/certification.html As for the clipping, if it's ancient that's OK and it doesn't reduce value too much. The problem is that a lot of these coins were mounted in jewelry, from the time when they were made to the 20th century. When removing a coin from jewelry, it's often more salable if there's no trace of mounting at all, so someone unscrupulous might remove a little bit of the edge of the coin to achieve that. In any case you bought it at auction so there was at least one other person out there who thought it was worth roughly what you paid for it !
  3. Yes, you can actually see the C too on the flan, on second looks, so it is definitely a York coin. Probably Edward IV second reign then, with London dies ? I've had the York die piece before and it looks nothing like these, crude almost Irish style portrait.
  4. Do you think the portrait style is compatible with that ? There are York issues of Edward IV with cross in central quatrefoil; it would have to be Archbishop Neville suspended (1472 - 5) presumably given lack of marks by neck. I'd be skeptical of an Irish attribution simply because I've never seen an Irish penny of Edward IV which isn't heavily clipped !
  5. JLS

    Ebay's Worst Offerings

    Even then, if you could get the seller down to £25, not a bad buy.
  6. JLS

    MS62

    Yeah, it does look a fair bit nicer in the video. To me, probably a bit better than EF; lots of lustre, minimal wear on devices, just weakly struck with ugly toning.
  7. JLS

    Ebay's Worst Offerings

    Looks like a bad contemporary forgery. I'd bet the weight is wrong, the corrosion suggests poor alloy choice. Potentially interesting to the right person at that price - I'd like it if it wasn't in such rubbish condition.
  8. JLS

    Possible Fake Coin

    Nothing screams "fake" to me here. The reason it's underweight is more likely because it's clipped, most of these were struck with flans larger than the dies. The straight edge on the right of the reverse looks suspicious. Very easy to get the style of the reverse of these right though - just a matter of doing the lettering; would be interesting to see the portrait.
  9. JLS

    Possible Fake Coin

    A really quick but lazy way to do this is to use screenshot software (try "snipping tool" if on Windows) to capture the photo as it displays on your screen.
  10. JLS

    Ebay's Worst Offerings

    https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Very-Rare-or-error-Penny-1854-Victoria-37mm/223916840005 Is it a "beating error" ? No, sadly the beating was quite intentional...
  11. Anyone got any tips on how to remove bronze disease from this unfortunate coin ? I imagine stripping the surface (using bicarbonate ? ammonia ?) would be better than leaving it rot, but I'm wondering if there would be any way to keep the patina. There doesn't seem to be much pitting under the corrosion. https://imgur.com/a/8BmsnPt
  12. There already is a catalog ! "A Thousand Guineas" by Nielson and Warburton. galata.co.uk/store.asp?storeAction=showDetail&stockID=6523&stockMasterCategoriesID=9 Like the Cumberland Jacks ("To Hanover" tokens), this is a series for people who like micro-varieties and impossible rarities. The vast majority of pieces are common, easily obtainable in top grades, and not very attractive or interesting. Then there are all sorts of fun advertising pieces, and oddities, some of which only very few are known. I dabble in the series as it crosses over with my interest in 19th century advertising tokens....
  13. Very nice - this is a really exceptional quality strike for this issue, even if there's a bit of wear.
  14. Good luck ! I can't find one of the brass ones in nice grade; my collection of these is in a similar state to Will's; don't have the "RRR" one or the silver/gilt specimen listed. Did pick up the following unlisted gilt prooflike piece recently though:
  15. JLS

    Twenty dollar

    This is more of a MS64 or MS64+ coin IMO. The large gold bruise easily and PCGS in particular are not harsh about minor bag marks or edge damage on these. What will keep it from getting a higher grade is probably the bagmarks on the nose and under the eye.
  16. I've never seen an Edward VII farthing with convincing original mint lustre, but I've seen an 1898 and a 1901 which looked kosher. Maybe just good coin doctoring though.
  17. I'd expect these to exist though, despite the spurious nature of the above example. I've seen Old Head Victorian examples. See London Coins, 2 March 2014, lot 2293, "Farthings (5) 1879 Large 9, 1879 Small 9 (2), 1901 with traces of lustre, not mint darkened, 1907 with lustre, not mint darkened NEF to GEF". As typical with farthing varieties, no-one was particularly interested and it went for £42 + premium. M"
  18. A much worse offender among the seller's offerings is this: https://www.ebay.com/itm/MINT-ERROR-NGC-CERTIFIED-1817-37-NETHERLAND-CENT-STRUCK-OFF-CENTRE-RARE-IN-UNC/222885567656 Hard to believe it's worth even £100 with the hole. Sort of thing I'd feel lucky to pick up for £20 knowing that I'd probably double my money if I decided to sell it down the line.
  19. One ugly coin. This really should be MS60 - an EF coin which technically might have looked like this when it left the mint, but nevertheless has severe defects. The problem with NGC is that they'll take the better than average lustre and OK strike and make that bump it up a few points, despite the metal flaws, "contact marks" *cough* wear, and heavy bagmarking. Ozjohn's coin looks like a MS62 or MS63 piece; the obverse rim nicks will stop it getting a higher grade if the weakish strike doesn't. A much more attractive piece though.
  20. I love the fact that on yours the date is readable ! On my example (similar grade) it's too weakly struck to be clear. Think it was probably an afterthought by the engravers...or they just didn't leave enough space and then panicked because their punches were too large ??
  21. A rarity for the unofficial farthing collection I picked up earlier this week.
  22. Owning a few ex-polished pieces, I wish they could stop being shiny a bit faster....
  23. JLS

    Patina

    Interesting. Before after photos much appreciated. What was the fake patina made of, do you think ? How did you get rid of it ?
  24. Agreed - note how the initials K.G. are still legible on the reverse despite the extreme wear. I think the polishing theory is correct - but why would someone do that ?
  25. JLS

    Ebay's Worst Offerings

    That's actually very good for a machine translation. Yeah, "coniazione" translates to "striking" or "coining" rather than "coinage" per se. What surprises me is that the seller uses the same nonsense English description on Italian eBay...
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