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damian1986

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Posts posted by damian1986


  1. 7 minutes ago, 1949threepence said:

    I think there may well be two separate factors at work here. The first is undoubtedly wear. As Derek Allen says at page 110 of his book "The standard guide to grading British Coins":-

    That is common to the entire series. You can't miss it. Affects even pennies with much lustre still on them.

    The second factor is a weak strike on coins which are otherwise uncirculated. Just co-incidental that the same area is affected.

    Another obvious consideration is that if the breast is weakly struck to start with, it will wear quicker anyway. A vicious circle.  

     

    Can we see the UNC 1848 for comparison?


  2. 2 hours ago, 1949threepence said:

    It's certainly a very nice problem free specimen. Shame the series has that weakness with the right breast wearing away so quick. I bought an UNC 1848 which has a superb obverse but an almost breastless reverse. So whether it's actual wear or die wear, or both, I don't know. It's something Derek noted as actual wear in his grading book.

     

    2 hours ago, mrbadexample said:

    I'd have said not fully struck up, or you'd see the wear elsewhere too.

    1848r2.thumb.jpg.fae0482d615f4e9eb13ad38ec22b1bd2.jpg

    My 1848 unaltered date penny reverse. The right breast plate is a bit flat but otherwise quite a minty coin so can't see it being wear from circulation. 

    • Like 1

  3. On 7/25/2020 at 10:38 AM, 1949threepence said:

    much more in line with the stubborn, defiant, never say die British Bulldog spirit.  

     

    On 7/25/2020 at 2:48 PM, secret santa said:

    I think I can remember that............................................................................................................maybe not

    I prefer the chosen quote as a statement of effort. 

    We rank 2nd in the list of number of Nobel Laureates by country with 132, 8th in the Ease of Doing Business Index and ranked 2nd the Global Innovation Index in 2015. So we're doing something right.  

    43rd for Expenditure on Education and 34th for net exports by capita isn't quite so good. Which is why I like the quote they went with. Crack on. 

    Aside: 2nd in the world for Prevalance of Cocaine Usage 🏆


  4. This one was an eBay find - not stupidly cheap, but given the grade and the type (rated VS in Peck) it was probably a lot cheaper than it should have been.

    It's not even about getting a bargain. It's just rare to find things in a decent grade on there. This one is an eBay win in my book anyway :) 

    If I remember correctly, this was misattributed as a Richmond 1c. I also got a Peck 228 (rated ER in Peck) with Harp mintmark recently and that was also misattributed as a 1c, Peck 170-something. 

    c-brit-1625-1634-farthing-richmond-2-quatrefoil-compressor.thumb.jpg.d826956166e210db0889d0075d76ed00.jpg

     

     

     

    • Like 5

  5. What are the figures for BU coins issued, do we know? I understand these are just for-circulation numbers?

    If they issued 1.4 million for circulation they must have done an absolute shitload on top of that in BU packs and change-checker cards. 50k, 100k, ... ?

     


  6. Richard I use Adobe Photoshop which has quite a lot to it. GIMP is a free alternative if you search that. The key tools within the software are the circular marquee (for cutting out circular milled coins) or the pen tool (jagged romans or hammered). YouTube videos run through the basics of layers and using those tools to 'cut out' something. I'll give you a bit more info after you've had a look and if you have any questions.

    There are a few other things like drop shadows and messing about with different fonts that I might do for some coins or if I'm going to move them on, will attach a couple of examples below.

    It's all a bit vain ! But useful to have in some form as a 'consistent' point of reference. 

    peck1142.jpg.aff19a797ac90662939f86fcd1c35552.jpg

    e1-berwick-blunt-4a--3.jpg.788659e261f65f5f78e89fbe9e4bb5be.jpg

    • Like 3

  7. 1 hour ago, secret santa said:

    Nice artwork Damian, did you produce this yourself ?

    Not sure it's the best photo, but I only use a phone and didn't want to mess about too much with the light or settings. I cut out and catalogue all my coins again solid backgrounds with a few notes like this yes, just so I have a digital point of reference that I can access anywhere on my phone. 


  8. It's a shame really, coins around the £300 mark are costing £400 with postage, which puts a lot of reasonable but still common Saxon coins out of reach tbh. Vendor is only going to see £270 back on such a sale, so assuming they want most of their money back, £400 is only getting you a coin worth £270 a few years ago, which isn't a lot. Obviously over simplifying this, but I did see my 1c/1a E1 mule sell on here with coinery for probably only half what I paid through DNW (of course I got carried away 😅)

    Let the dealers have em. No point whinging about this and then hitting the bid button.

    Likewise they're running a business and and provide a good service and this is how it is. 

    All in all... 🤷‍♂️ 


  9. Might be being optimistic to think you can get bags of the stuff in any sort of reasonable grade (VF) with the chance of finding the odd scarce one

    But would pay a reasonable amount for unattributed lots more for research purposes 

    Have a small collection but when buying singly in higher grades they get to "I could probably spend the money elsewhere better" sort of prices. 

    world-_roman-maximianus.thumb.jpg.eb2e842972e5c0b37644e91cb2d88012.jpg

    • Like 3

  10. 42 minutes ago, Rob said:

    The letter profile is too similar for it to be a repunched/repaired die. If double struck I would expect to see the same on the border teeth, or anywhere else for that matter. The lighting is a bit misleading, so do the teeth show the same displacement? If not, then it suggests it was on the die as made.

    Thanks Rob it's hard to say - I would say no, except around the 1 in the date there's a case for a displaced tooth but with the coin in hand I'm still not really sure.

    The "double striking" is only really clear in  1 GEORGEIUS III DEI running clockwise from the 1 to the I in DEI. 

    The portrait shows no signs of double striking which is why I initially considered to not be double struck. 


  11. On 6/17/2019 at 4:48 PM, Rob said:

    You might be surprised. Coin porn has been mentioned on occasion, so googling porn could result in some unexpected readers!

    That's how I got here initially... 🙄

    The earliest memories I have of coins in hand were the bigger 50ps... so never saw a predecimal coin except in a tin my dad had. Obviously cash still reigned supreme, but my interest since mid-20s was always further back, without ever having connected to the predecimal system. 

    I was thinking about young lads I know who collect things... Magic cards is one thing at the minute... There's an end result to collecting those in that you play the game with them.

    The collector mentality is pervasive in society. But the *outlet* has to be kept going, by promoting the hobby and linking it to our history. That's not to say that younger collectors will have a spare £1600k to buy a not-very-pretty few grams of bronze. But the buy in is gradual and has to start somewhere. 

     


  12.  

    1 hour ago, Diaconis said:

    An interesting snippet in CoinWeekly and though directed more toward the hammered penny market, nonetheless interesting and still pennies. Good to know the British coin market is attracting foreign buyers. 

    399043505_Screenshot2019-06-13at18_10_32.png.eebfcfe9a28ad8108aeb4da46de6a051.png

    So it's good that the coinage is reaching a wider audience, or it's good that people with plenty of cash to spend are keeping prices propped up?

    Sounds like the buy-in is "the market is booming", rather than "look at what you can get out of the hobby"; this isn't conducive to bringing in new collectors of worse-than-fine pennies at 2 grand a pop!! 😄


  13. 8 hours ago, copper123 said:

    I would have a stab at the rose farthings - there are many options though  and its only a matter of opinion

    Amazing after all these years we are not sure exactly how they were made

    I have a couple of rose and at least something in the series for every issuer and main type (currently at about 10 coins total), but the goal is to have at least one of every Peck subtype - the 'type 3' Rose farthings are looking like they will be tricky to obtain; since-discovered or Everson types may play a part but this will come together over time. 

    The series seems quite tough full stop as they aren't really ever going to set the world alight, so get buried in any auctions where I saw them for sale, until a farthing specialist sells or a kind forum member drops a high grade one under your nose... Colin G got me a nice Harrington type 2 Peck 54 ex Lingford, ex Rogers and most the rest came from Rob with excellent provenance. 

    • Like 1

  14. Some useful suggestions in here.

    I like the suggestions in and around the mainland Britain issues such as the anglo-irish penny and half penny, and the Napoleon III Birmingham mint bronzes.

    On the latter, it's said that "Birmingham mint pioneered the bronze coinage", but I see coins of the Paris mint dated 1952 but only 1953 onwards for Marseille. Did the Heaton's pioneer the coinage, or merely support that Marseille mint in something that was already being done in the French capital??


  15. I picked up a thread on the Moore model pennies from 2006. Apparently you can get a good one on eBay for a few pounds.

    Not true in 2019, it's junk.

    Searches for things like 1937 proof penny also yield junk. 

    Appreciate they might come up, just don't really see the point in eBay anymore - if the "easy" stuff isn't really there then the alternatives are ...? I figure a good reason to be getting to the fairs 


  16. What are the most important coins in telling the story (in terms of history and numismatics) of the copper and bronze coinage of Britain?

    There's no one answer, but this thread would neatly tie a fair few together. Couple of ideas

    • The Droz and Kuchler patterns of the early Soho period as a precursor to the steam powered coinage of 1797 onwards.
    • The H and KN bronze pennies where the mint contracted out some of its output
    • The Gillick 1st-issue E1 obverse where the designs were put out to competition (which didn't really happen prior to this?)
    • Any example of the datal overstrikes giving some indication of how the dies were prepared, amended and 'evolved' 
    • Pistrucci's G4 farthings... on the basis of their excellent and actually-not-very-British workmanship 
    • The rose farthings with brass wedges to deter counterfeiting
    • Some specific combination of dies in the bunhead coinage -- as to which beyond pre- and post-obverse 9 (older features) I couldn't answer that one

    'tis a bit quiet here at the minute so hopefully get a few ideas from you lot thrown in here 😋

    Peter - do put a case forward for an Anne farthing or the 1860 😛


  17. @Nonmortuus

    Couple that I have below - a bit of reflection and opening multiple collecting fronts doesn't work for me 😆 but they are just nice things in themselves so never parted. 

    Sourcing them is trickier than it probably should be too I think, I assume in the past a lot of them showed up on eBay UK, so it got to routing through ma-shops and that wasn't the best place in the world to be either. 

    1908-1mark-1000.jpg.1eb219ee63b02e059dd37884ab164a91.jpg

    125657q00.thumb.jpg.4482a41cea5c28887e6a464b0577bcd5.jpg

     

    • Like 3
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