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scottishmoney

Your Beginning Collector Being Burned Story?

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Mine was when I was about 10-11 years old and being in an antique centre and paying the then equivalent of 50p for a well beaten 1861 Victorian penny. At the very stretch it might have been worth 10p, I only learned later that condition should have dictated the price.

Then when I was about 14 paying £25 for a rather well worn 1723 Woods Hibernia Halfpenny. That stupid thing is not even worht £25 now. And £25 was a lot of money to a then 14 year old, it was like 10 weeks of my allowance.

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I bet your parents were pleased (if you told them)! That's the kind of thing that can put a nipper of coin collecting for life.

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I bet your parents were pleased (if you told them)! That's the kind of thing that can put a nipper of coin collecting for life.

Oh my mother would have loved it, she hated my coin hobby and only saw it as a source for loans. Gram on the other hand has encouraged it so, taking me to coin shops when I was a kid etc. Still even ask about my coins and tells good stories about coins she had whence she was a girl in the 1920's.

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I got burned when I sold my first collection to buy my first computer ( a Sinclair, it was that long ago!) I had ammassed a great collection of early Victorian & Edward VII silver from Malta, mostly EF, where it was in circulation at the time.

I also had a number of Saxon and Norman pennies that I'd give my eye teeth for now. The money only just covered the cost of the computer, which, although well used in learning programming, never lived up to the quality of the collection lost. :angry:

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Tee hee. A rather battered cartwheel penny for £12. Probably worth a fiver for 'interest'. Since then I have bought lots of 'gap fillers'. Later on they look out of place and I've regretted being so impulsive and not waiting. But that's life!

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I honestly don't have such a story to tell. Since my emphasis when I was young was coins from circulation (late 1950s and 1960s), I made a killing when I sold my collection in the mid-70s for a down payment on my house. I also sold a bunch of dupes/junk silver coins and bars when silver hit it's peak in 1980.

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I once swapped a beautiful, EF 1935 crown for probably less than its scrap value in useless bullion. I thought because it was older it was better. Now its looking £7 for the bullion, £30 for the crown.

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Apologies for bumping this ancient thread, but I came across it whilst looking for something else, and couldn't resist giving my two pennuth (no pun intended).

The biggest burn I had as a beginner was paying £25.00 back in 1995, for a 1901 penny in just NEF, from a stall on Chelmsford Market. Looking back now, I can't believe how naive and stupid I was. £25.00 doesn't sound like a lot, but it was to me then. I allowed enthusiasm to outrun discretion.

 

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A nice thread, surprised it didn't get more responses!

The one that got me was an overweight double brockage, a reverse and an obverse brockage stuck together. I think I paid about 100 pound for it in excitement when I first started collecting errors. I didn't realise at the time that it was 2 coins, so when I did realise and sold it on, I probably got about half of what I paid :( 

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My worst (to date!) was a shilling I bought for over £200 and sold for ..

 

.. under £40

:(

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I remember back in the seventies buying George Iv pennies just the common dates mind at 50p to a £1 same with halfpennies - I think you would really struggle to get your money back even now on then - stitched up is the word , I think most dealers sold modern (under 40 years old) to suckers at vast profits.

Only now do we now understand how common some off these coins are mainly to do with ebay provideing a level playing field.

Another thought back then we never really understood just how common 1839 and 1853 farthings are as well , I would suspect that many a collector in the seventies would  have known they were common , but not how common.

 

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