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secret santa

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Posts posted by secret santa

  2. Posted

    Around 2 weeks ago I "bought" a Squirrel Nutkin 50p on Ebay for a friend. The vendor was a "nicholsonmelanie" with plenty of feedback history (although I never checked it) and was offering the coins at £2.50 and open to offers. I offered £1.50 and accepted the counter offer of £2.00. To cut a long story short, the coin never arrived, the vendor removed all trace of themselves from Ebay, never replied to emails and I received a refund from Paypal. Now, he/she only made £2.00 on this transaction but I wonder how many people were fleeced like this. I guess some people will put it down to experience and not apply for refunds but this person will probably be back under a different name to make some more money from unsuspecting people. £2 from a lot of people adds up over time and is likely to entice more buyers than an expensive rarity.

  21. Posted

    Whatever system is adopted, there will always need to be an "owner" to arbitrate on whether a proposed obverse or reverse type is, or is not, a uniquely defined type. For example, Freeman did not distinguish between the 2 obverses used for circulation and proof 1953 pennies, the only difference between them being a single additional border bead and thus a slightly different alignment of legend to beads. Gouby's Victoria reverse ja is so minutely different from reverse j that some may argue that they're essentially the same. Freeman's George VI obverses 1 and 2 differ by the minutest of legend to tooth alignments, so minute that Gouby calls them the same. Good luck (and thick skin) to whoever is prepared to take this on.

  22. Posted

    4 hours ago, jelida said:

    With a numbered or Lettered system you find yourself having to refer to the manual all the time.

    I don't think you'll ever get away from having to go back to the "manual" or whatever becomes the central repository of varieties. Unless the naming system contains a lot of free format to catch the particular nature of the uniqueness of the variety such as B over R in BRITT, first 6 over 8, top leaf missing etc etc, you'll never invent a system that immediately captures the nature of the variety. Even with Freeman number, there are so many 1874 variants that I always have to go back to the "manual" to check the die pairing.

    Gouby's system is not very intuitive when it comes to dates with many variants but at least it is expandable and can cope with new obverses such as the 145 tooth Victoria, and virtually any date width. The important thing is to have a single source of varieties, their names and descriptions, with photographs, with single point maintenance (and maybe a small committee to agree new varieties). Chris P has mentioned producing a "new" Freeman with updated numbers but, if that involves changing existing F numbers, it would be fraught with danger.

  23. Posted

    4 hours ago, terrysoldpennies said:

    I agree with what you say Richard, but the using of two systems is already confusing , what I tend to do is think in terms of the year , and the major definition in freeman , and if its a sub variation of one of them , then add after it the Gouby definition. Of course a new type find I suppose should be give a Gouby classification , unless it is a new die discovery, then who decides where to place it, Is Michael willing to adjudicate, or would you .   Terry 

    I think in an ideal world, Michael Gouby would be the person to maintain a definitive list/database of varieties with associated Freeman number where relevant (just as he does in his books), taking on the role of adjudicator and allocator of identification using his BPYYYYAB coding scheme. Whether he wants to is a different question.

  24. Posted

    8 hours ago, Rob said:

    A quick question for you penny chaps. What level of detail do people collect to? Is it date example, Peck/Freeman number, Gouby variety or as far as you can go?

    In my opinion, Freeman number will always be the prime definition of variety detail but, because it will become increasingly out of date, it will have more and more omissions. Gouby tends to fill these gaps and his identification system is flexible enough to allow endless introductions and his Victorian penny book is the most exhaustive in terms of listing the different varieties which collectors would pursue and label their coins to. Other publications tend to take the difference in varieties to ever more esoteric and trivial (?) levels of detail but which do provide the collector with something to look out for during periods of coin drought.

    So, what do people collect ? My theory is that the more money one has to spend on one's collection, the more one concentrates on the "major" varieties, i.e. Freeman and Gouby's original Bronze Penny list (i.e. without the numerous minor date differences etc). The less affluent collector will tend to pursue the esoteric/trivial "varieties" because many of them go unnoticed and can be obtained at less expense. This is my opinion and I may be quite wrong. If I am right, them there won't be much money for the dealer in seeking out these varieties as they won't realise huge prices.

    I'm basically a Freeman man myself.

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