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Paddy

Accomplished Collector
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Everything posted by Paddy

  1. Very nice but I think your £50 per month budget would be blown for the couple of years! I suspect that lot will make more like £500 to £600 at DNW - they generally under-estimate. You have 3 or 4 coins in there that a dealer would move on at over £100 each, the 1718 quarter Guinea well over £200, so with the other bits quite a good lot. (The "Quarter" Farthing is actually a "Third".)
  2. I have long had a theory than both IT and collecting (along with certain brain focused games such as Chess and Bridge) are particularly attractive to people with a low level (often undiagnosed) autism. The need for high focus of concentration, attention to detail and retention of large amounts of data seem to work together.
  3. Ah yes - I did Fortran IV at university on punch cards. I hereby formally apologise to Ian Pickles for shuffling his deck when he wasn't looking.
  4. PL/1 with DB2 and IMS/Db to start with, then another another little known application development suite called Sapiens (RAD). Then much more into the Business Analyst side for Insurance companies - a lot in support of the sales process. Eventually all got too stressful and cost me my marriage so I got out of the rat race. EASYTRIEVE rings a bell somewhere but I cannot remember what it did or where I met it!
  5. Early Retired now, prior to that I had a Travel Agency for 12 years, before that I was IT Consultant on IBM Mainframes (Like Peck) both with IBM and other companies. Before that I was British Army - Royal Engineers all round the world. I collected coins for a while as a child and then got back into them while I was being a Travel Agent (too little intellectual challenge there!).
  6. Paddy

    The Proclamation Coins

    Another interesting way of building a collection of "foreign" coins has been taken up by one of my regular buyers at market: He wants one decent coin from every country or territory that is or has been under British control at some stage. It is a surprisingly long list - I saw a map online somewhere suggesting that there are only 22 countries in the world that have not been occupied at some time in whole or part by the Brits! He came with a list - and I promptly added a whole load more - Ionian Islands, Demerara & Essequibo, Straits Settlements etc. There are other surprises: Israel, Iraq, Afghanistan and the United Arab Emirates are all ones I would not have thought of.
  7. Paddy

    The Proclamation Coins

    ... and to get back on topic I found this site which has some good pictures of most of the proclamation coins (and a few others): http://www.triton.vg/proclamation.html
  8. Paddy

    The Proclamation Coins

    Any chance one of the moderators could move all the political ranting in here to the Dog Pit so that we can get on with the very interesting topic of the Proclamation coins?
  9. Paddy

    1847 gothic crown

    One just sold on Ebay Canada for $705, which was either a bargain or a stitch up - I suspect the latter.
  10. Paddy

    Ebay's Worst Offerings

    I had to have a laugh at this one! I know many dealers who love to use "Near" and "About" to justify Fine, Very Fine and even Extra Fine grades, but I have never seen anyone use "Near Fair/Poor+" before! https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Rare-1672-Charles-II-Silver-925-Shilling-Near-Fair-Poor/292656589612?hash=item4423b12b2c:g:mogAAOSweqxbWiKQ
  11. Peck hits many of the ones I would suggest - Pink Floyd being my ultimate favourite. A few others: The Strawbs, Greenslade. Moody Blues (though they get a bit poppy sometimes), Emerson Lake and Palmer... Here is Greenslade as they are probably the least know of the above:
  12. Paddy

    Total newbie question re 2005 sovereign

    I am not the person to advise you on Grading coins - I don't do it myself at all. I can see that encapsulated examples make appreciably more than raw, so it may be worthwhile. Mintage for 2005 is quoted as 12500 in Proof, 45542 in bullion. This is not hugely different to other years - Proof coins in 2009 and 2010 were 16000 but in other years around there range from around 8000 to 12500.
  13. Paddy

    Total newbie question re 2005 sovereign

    Does appear to be a Proof coin - I assume you have checked it is Sovereign size and not half sovereign as both had the same reverse in 2005. As to value - you have done OK but not stunningly brilliantly. If it had it's original box and certificate it would make over £400, but without those they make only a little more than the bullion coins. Actual price as ever will depend on how much someone wants one. There are far more of the proof half sovereigns that have sold on the net recently, and these are only making bullion value without their boxes. But you certainly haven't lost out, as long as it is genuine!
  14. Paddy

    Ebay's Worst Offerings

    The example @terrysoldpennies has given shows to me the most normal indication of the crude fakes around - they have an almost cartoon-like quality with all the lines in the depiction too thick and uniform, as if they have been drawn with a thick pen rather than an artist's brush. This may be as a result of using a computer to generate the image? The genuine coin in his example shows much finer artistic detail. Sadly, as he suggests, we cannot rely on the forgers continuing to get it so wrong...
  15. Paddy

    Antiques Roadshow - Coins

    Thanks - I will remember for next time. I watched it tonight and even have it recorded on my old-fashioned freeview box. (I don't watch enough TV for Virgin or Sky but I could do it on the internet.)
  16. Paddy

    Antiques Roadshow - Coins

    Probably get it on catch up? (Don't ask me how - I here everyone using this expression but I have no idea how to do it!)
  17. Yes - some great tips there! Just to reiterate a hint I put elsewhere, you can also use brackets for things to include. The minus sign "-" means exclude - the plus sign "+" means must include but putting in nothing defaults to a "+". So: (1903, 1913, 1927) +shilling -(florin, jersey) when used within British coins means "Give me anything in British coins that is dated 1903 OR 1913 OR 1927 AND has the word shilling in the title, but leave out anything which also has the word Florin OR Jersey in it." I use this to search for shilling upgrades in multiple periods without also seeing too many florins (because they are often described as "two shilling") or coins from Jersey (which often are described as "thirteenth shilling" or similar. You can save these searches in Ebay - the only problem at the moment is the title of your search will be the full search string you have entered. On occasions they change it so you can edit the title and give it a sensible name such as "Shilling upgrades" but they keep turning that function on and off!
  18. Nice looking coin but I would say the price is considerably high. It may be "XF" US style but not "EF" UK style. When I get a chance I will look out a spare I think I have which is a similar grade as I recall, and would be a lot less money. As to holding for you - I don't know. Each dealer is different and it may depend if they know you from previous business. Equally if they have had that one in stock since 2007 I suspect they will delighted in your interest!
  19. Sorry - you've gone One Step beyond...
  20. Welcome to the madhouse! I am sure you will have a lot of fun here. It seems you have already learnt a painful lesson with your Guinea purchase - I am sorry to hear that. Are you not able to return it for a full refund? I won't try to answer all your questions at once - others will chip in soon I hope. A few thoughts: - Telling wear from poor strike will come with experience and can be very difficult in some cases. The main thing is that wear should only be on the highest points of the design. If the coin looks flat and lacking detail in the troughs, then it may be a weak strike - or even a copy. - The two main variants of the 1787 shilling (with and without Semee of hearts) are equally common and seem to have no difference in price. Far more important is the eye-appeal of the particular coin you are looking at. - As you have learnt, pay no attention to the grades claimed by sellers on Ebay. (A reputable coin dealer, Third Party Grading company or auction house is a different matter, but even then opinions will differ.) Go for the coin that appeals to you most. You can go for TPG graded coins if you wish, but you will pay a substantial premium for these. I prefer my coins free of plastic! - Unslabbed a decent VF+ to EF 1787 Shilling should be easily achievable in your budget if you are patient. They are not scarce coins. I hope that helps and I look forward to seeing other opinions.
  21. Paddy

    Is this PVC damage?

    I would give them a gentle wash (not clean) before putting them in any new album. Warm soapy water and a soft sponge works for me. If the sticky residue is particularly resilient I use a surgical spirit dip with a little detergent mixed in. This also works very well for sticky tape residue. I would not use anything stronger or attempt to scrub the coins clean.
  22. Paddy

    Ebay's Worst Offerings

    I have done a few but he has so many! It is difficult to believe anyone would be taken in by his coins or artefacts - they are so awfully bad...
  23. Paddy

    Limerick Farthing - James II ?

    If it was English Tin I would have it like a shot! I don't do Irish coinage, despite my name.
  24. Incidentally, the old undated 20p seems to have dropped steadily in the market. Average price for (supposedly) genuine ones on Ebay is now £40 to £50. I suspect there are not enough collectors for the 200,000 odd that are supposed to be out there - the youngsters are all into the 50ps and £2 coins, and there aren't enough oldsters around. The presence of the fakes at £4.99 on the market doesn't help either.
  25. I had a friend with an Orange contract that they had stuffed up on - he was paying just the mobile but had broadband AND Landline as well. Orange had agreed the contract and so could not back out. They kept offering him "upgrades" at increasingly ridiculously low rates just so they could re-contract the Ts & Cs and start charging him for the broadband and landline. Even if it was peanuts at first they could later increase the charges to what they should have been all along. Needless to say, we all advised him to stay with what he had!
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