Welcome New members!

[Chris Perkins 223]

Hello EVII,

Well done you deserve a medal for being my first member!!!

What do you collect? Where are you?

[Guest Dan]

Hi, Chris,

My name's Dan, and I've been collecting for the last 20 years (at least!!) Done a bit of dealing at antique fairs before I went to university, had planning to get back into it once I've passed my driving test. I have a big soft spot for rare proofs.

[Chris Perkins 223]

Thanks for the info Dan, you're the only member to bother putting anything about yourself so far!

I have a 1937 proof Sov if you're interested, perhaps you better get your driving test out of the way first.

Chris

www.predecimal.com

[Guest Eliza]

Greetings to all! I'm very happy to have found this delightful forum, since I'm a Yank collecting GB silver (Geo I-Victoria). Just small denominations, 6d-1s mostly.

I got started by discovering in my mother's things a Jubilee Head shilling, hideously worn, possibly been in the family since they moved to the Boston (US) area from Preston, Lanc. in the 1890s. Trying to identify it, I stumbled on all the REST of the stunning coinage of 19th century Great Britain. My current personal favorites are the Jub. Head and Old Head half-crowns.

I hope you can tolerate an American among your ranks, spelling conventions aside.

Thank you,

Eliza

[Emperor Oli 0]

Hi

I'm called Oliver and I'm only 14 but i've been collecting for about three years. It started when I was rooting through my grandparents attic and I found my grandfather's old coins. I bought Spinks catalogue and looked them up to find out a bit more information on them. The best I found was a William & Mary 1692 QVARTO Crown in VF that's worth £900 in Spink 2004 ! I didn't really store my coins very well so last year I bought a cabinet from Peter Nichols (www.coincabinets.com), the BEST coin cabinet maker ever, who also makes cabinets for the British Museum. It now takes pride of place on my desk. I collect from George II to the present day and enjoy collecting a lot.

oliver

[Sylvester 15]

Oliver...glad to have you with us, Peter Nichols hey? I've dealt with him too, he does make some very very nice cabinates of which i have one myself...haha.

Looks like you're into collecting seriously and only 14...it took me till about 18 to figure out what i actually wanted to collect. (I'm only 19 at the moment so it took a while).

I'm glad to see people are now becoming more interested in the earlier stuff, George II had some very stunning coins minted...a nice subtle tone on a high grade shilling or sixpence, there's nothing better, not quite what the Morgan Dollar collectors in America would tell yer though.

Eliza, glad to have you too...i actually collect American coins as well as British, and i frequently loiter on many American groups and they've been very happy to have me on there hurling abuse at the Churchill Crown, and dissin' the State Quarters so i'm sure we'll all get on! Spelling doesn't really enter into it, e.g either color or colour i'm happy to use either

Sixpences are my speciality, anything from 1674 upto 1787 that is, my interest wanes after 1816, unless it's florins (Godless or Gothic and Ed VII) or those superb Shield reverse sovereigns of Victoria.

The first coin in my collection was an 1887 shilling, just out of interest...

I also like half guineas (full of unsusual demoninations me)

and out of the US stuff i like, Morgans, Washington Quarters, Mercs, and Type III Double Eagles...no wonder i have no cash lying around when i need it.

Sylvester.

Specialisation was never my strong point!

[Guest Eliza]

Hi Oliver! Hi Sylvester!

It's nice to (virtually) meet you both, and all lurkers, too.

How wonderful to get going on collecting young! I collected hit-and-miss in my young teens and my collection never amounted to much. But now, post-college and well into working adulthood, I have more options than I had when young. And, ta-DA, the Internet, which is just a miracle-in-motion.

Say nice things about the US quarter program! Do you know how impossible it is to get the US Mint to do ANYTHING different? Don't dissuade them now! I grew up deeply in love with Canadian coins, which blew the US stuff right out of the cashbox (and really, still do).

But US coinage suffers not only from lack of imagination, but there's this sense of fear of offending someone. Someone in one of the coin newspapers last summer complained that the Sacagewea golden dollar just glamorizes an unwed pregnant teenager. As If!

I recently nabbed a Geo II 6d at, of all places, Monticello, the home of Thomas Jefferson in Virginia. I don't know its provenance but it was there in the gift shop. It has provenance now! The heraldic devices on 6d's are so tidy and detailed, I truly love them.

Morgan dollars are truly "crunchy," like a crown: good, honest, solid silver. I know personally that, as late as 1963, they were still in circulation in some western states, like Montana. The Peace design never wore as well as the fabulous Morgan eagle, IMHO.

Now, the Churchill Crown ... I used to own one ... it may be home leveling a table somewhere ...

Eliza

[Chris Perkins 223]

Well there appears to be a proper little community here that I hadn't noticed!

Good work Sylvester it really is good to have someone in the Forum to welcome people and talk about sensible stuff!

I'll just let you get on with it then.

Peter Nicholls is all very well but you know my collecting accessories are fantastic too!

Chris

www.predecimal.com

[Chris Perkins 223]

By the way....

I must insist on the proper British spellings being used in the forum. Anyone found writing 'color' and not 'colour' will be banned for a week!

That goes for Americans too I'm afraid.

Chris

[Sylvester 15]

I could actually get into a fascinating discussion about English spelling if you so wished, from my days as an English Language student...it's amazing what you learn, the proper British spelling of the word colour was actually 'color' without the 'u' until the late 18th or early 19th century, when the people standardising the language (the ones that dropped the long s; written as f without the crossbar), and they basically decided the languaghe wasn't French enough so they added a few "u's" and swaping "er's" for "re's" in places to make it look a bit more continental and prettier...but i'll leave it at that!

Anyhow back on topic i'm glad i can be of assistance in welcoming newcomers, the more the merrier!

Anyone else care to introduce themselves?

Sylvester.

[Guest Eliza]

Re: spelling

I think it was Alastair Cooke who said that England and America (the US) were two nations divided by a common language ... but perhaps that's apocryphal.

I'll mind my p's and q's! Promise!

I appreciate the greetings. Hello, Chris!

Eliza

ps The workday is just about over for me (nearing 4:30 EST), so I'll be back tomorrow in the late morning.

[Chris Perkins 223]

It was Oscar Wilde that said 'America and England have everything in common, except of course language'.

I don't care how the U's got there, they're staying now! I'm glad it looks prettier, well done those standardisers! (or should that be Standardizers? or is that actually even a word?).

Maybe I'll start a Forum to talk about anything that isn't to do with coins....

Chris

www.predecimal.com

[Emperor Oli 0]

Peter Nicholls is all very well but you know my collecting accessories are fantastic too!

Hmm Brazilian stock mahogany or plastic? I know which one I'd choose

[Sylvester 15]

Hmm mahogany, definately the best wood of the lot in my opinion, i love the stuff. And of course he uses renewable resources, where they replant some trees afterwards...that is always good.

Sylvester.

[Chris Perkins 223]

Eyes peeled on my accessories, SAFE have just launched a wooden stackable coin tray of the same dimensions of the NOVA range.

Some people prefer to buy plastic as they get a lot more trays for their money and it is just as safe for the coins.

Chris

[Emperor Oli 0]

Whoa! I nearly had a seizure when I saw that wooden "cabinet". How one can compare that to Nichol's is beyond me....

[Chris Perkins 223]

Oi Cheeky,

That veneered wooden specimen is pretty popular and I haven't even listed the new wooden trays yet!

But it's all about price at the end of the day. Some people are very happy to pay a little over a hundred pounds and have plenty of safe, chemical fee space for their collection.

Chris

www.predecimal.com

[Raoul 0]

Hi everyone,sorry for not introducing myself before,only just now saw this section.

My name is Raoul i live in Perth Western Australia and have been doing metal detecting as a hobby for the last 18 years,i have just stumbled across this forum while surfing the net and i must say it is a great help in my hobby, you all seem to know a lot about coins and i am amazed at Chris and the knowledge he has about coins.

As i'm not a real coin collector i wont have to much to contribute to your forum but i will be an active reader to all your comments and tales.

Regards Raoul

[william 0]

Great. Stick around!(unlike a lot of people, who just register and leave )