Paddy

Anyone need to stock up on Churchill Crowns? https://www.easyliveauction.com/catalogue/lot/1dca8780764590f01dc5eb167892a6a7/0af8d24542e81eb9357e7ef448a6646f/fine-arts-antiques-jewellery-silver-and-quality-co-lot-321/

No problem! I am in North Devon if you are passing. Or you can buy them - 50p each plus postage! And I have similar stocks of 1972 to 1981 Crowns. I buy up job lots for the odd interesting coin but inevitably keep acquiring more of these modern crowns, which all go into a box on the basis that "One day I'll find a use for them". If I had a patio, they would be propping up the chairs by now. Curtain weights maybe?

OK - I have checked my stock - I have 66 Churchill Crowns here in various states of preservation. I find it difficult to tell much difference in the size of the Cs Hs or Rs, but there is a wide variation in the size of the teeth around the rim. It would be too simple to say there are 2 varieties - it seems more as if there is a continuum of variations from barely the tip of the tooth showing to a complete triangle, sometimes almost detached from the rim. In some cases the length varies from one side of the coin to the other and from Reverse to Obverse. My observation would say these are not varieties as such, just variations in strike. I can hardly photograph all these, but if anyone is seriously studying them I would be happy to lend them to you!

Just to report, in case there is anything anyone can or ought to do: www.predecimalcoins.com never completes its loading at the moment with a message at the bottom of the screen: "Waiting for ws-eu.assoc-amazon.com". I am guessing some part of the advertising arrangement with Amazon is broken or no longer available... It doesn't stop us using the site normally, but is annoying! :-)

With all the Specific gravity discussion in this thread - is there a convenient kit for measuring this around? I have the scales, it is the volume measure (presumably a la Archimedes by immersion in water) that I need.

Good grief! If that is a satin finish, I am a milionaire! I have a box full of them somewhere.

I have never had a problem with pop-ups here, but then I have them turned off at Browser level. (In Chrome).

The typography is interesting and very pleasing. I am sure I have seen something in a similar style from that era, but I can't think where. You might try contacting Timothy Millett at http://www.historicmedals.com/ He seems to know more about medals than anyone else I have found, may have seen one before, and may give you an indication of value.

Thanks Rob, I have always smelled a bit of a rat about this coin, but I am more inclined to the E having been pasted onto an English coin than a complete fake. The E is too far to the left compared to the normal Edinburgh coins, but I wasn't sure if this would have been correct for an E no star. Now the news that the no star was due (probably) to a filled die means the location is definitely wrong. Still, I only paid English 1709 price for it more than 10 years ago, so I will keep it as a curio.

Anyone able to give me more on this shilling? It appears to be a 1709 E no star shilling dated 1709, BUT the E seems to be in an unusual place, and the bust appears to be English third bust instead of the Edinburgh bust. Is this right, or is it some cobbled together fake? (Presumably an English 1709 third bust Shilling with an E floated on in the wrong place...?)

It does look like a very lovely Coronation Medal for Edward VII in 1902. It is hallmarked Silver, assayed in Birmingham in 1901. The makers mark - J.F is for James Fenton and Co. of Great Hampton Street Birmingham. See: http://www.silvermakersmarks.co.uk/Makers/Birmingham-JC-JG.html#JF For more than that we need the designer - is there any signature on it anywhere? I can't see any in your picture but maybe a close examination with a glass could find some initials somewhere?

This would be Caroline of Brunswick, wife of George IV of England. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caroline_of_Brunswick It is likely this was struck during George IV's reign (1820 to 1830) in support of the Queen. As you can read in the wikipedia page, George was being pretty unpleasant about his Queen and there was strong popular support for her. Hence tokens/medallions were struck for popular consumption and as gaming tokens.

Cleaned to me means some chemical has been used on it - which I don't think is the case for this one. It has definitely been rubbed with a coarse cloth at some stage to give the marks. Interestingly, the 1922 posted earlier in the thread looks more chemical-cleaned to me. With the flatness to the knee, typical of light wear in usage, but then the even tan colour it strikes me as one that has been cleaned and re-toned...? (I have recently noticed this in a number of pennies I had stashed away as AU but now had to downgrade.)

Cache problems certainly sounds most likely. Have you cleared your cache recently as part of a clean up? Or maybe manually deleted some of it? The web pages could be looking for the avatars in the cache and not finding them. If you haven't flushed the cache recently, try that. Webpages will be slower to load for a bit while the system replaces all the components, but you will have got rid of a lot of junk too. Try as a quick fix, when you have one of the broken avatars on the screen, hitting Shift-F5. That does a "hard refresh" (or at least it used to in older windows and hasn't been superceded). The webpage should refresh ignoring the cache and reloading all components, and that may fix the problem.

I am no expert grader, so wait and see what others give before you accept a final answer. I would give Good Fine (F+) to the reverse, but Fine (F) to the obverse because of the surface porosity. That is grading UK standards - US grades would be higher.

I sold a rather lovely Pidcock farthing on Ebay a couple of months ago - I hope it's not my one going round! Mine was the Elephant and parrot farthing...

If you are buying bullion for the sake of bullion, the Royal Mint is the last place to start. Even with their discounts their prices are way over bullion value, so it will be years before you even break even. You would do better through any of the numerous bullion sellers online where you pay close to the current gold or silver value for the coin. Even if you are getting bullion but also like the coins, you would do better through dealers and coin fairs, where you can get very decent sovereigns etc from previous years at not much over bullion value. (I was shown 20 Sovereigns a few days ago in a range of dates back to Victoria and all VF or better, blanket price £250 each.) Personally I would forget gambling on the commodity market (which is all that bullion buying really is) and spend some time at a coin fair buying coins you really like and have a bit of history!

OK Nick, here are pictures of mine. It seemed to me that the date, in particular, looked smaller on mine. I tried to check out the Ebay advertised one to make sure it wasn't a mis-identified shilling, but I think he has it right. If you think there is a difference we probably ought to re-open this discussion elsewhere on this board.

I have the 1827 Sixpence - about the same grade as this one on Ebay at the moment and it cost me £100 ten years ago, https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/1827-George-IV-Sixpence-Key-Date/122737600194?hash=item1c93bb26c2:g:cDUAAOSw4ZNZ05md Interestingly my one has much smaller lettering than this one. Is there a recognised variety or has one of us got it wrong? :-)

Very much so! I have had an Ebay alert going for more than 5 years now, and as far as I know only one has come up (referred to above) and I missed it. Another case where the books seem to have mis-estimated the rarity of a coin. (1827 Sixpence is another.)

I don't know if Jamie ever got one of these, but I am after one too. Last one I need to complete my run of Threehalfpences...

Brilliant - thanks Stuart! I will pass on to my friend.

A friend has asked me to get a full identification of this Henry III penny. We believe it is Roger of Canterbury, but we are not sure of which class - can someone please clarify?

Yes - I had got that far, wasn't sure which class. There also seems to be a rare 6x for Canterbury for which we were hopeful! Is it 7a or 7b then?

Thanks Jerry, you are of course right! Not my area at all so I assumed when I was pointed to the Montmedy coin and it seemed to fit that it must be right. Disappointing reduction in value but still a nice find.