ID PLEASE

[loose54 21]

Thank you for your suggestions guys, I do struggle with some of these hammered pieces, I don't know how some of you can read them so easily!

[Chris Perkins 223]

Not sure. I find Clive's absence (work and recent incapacity) means I tend to flounder a bit on the classes of such as Edward pennies without the reassurance he'll confirm or deny my guesswork! I also find there are days when there seem to be no new posts until late evening ... maybe people are just busier?

I suspect the membership is in continual flux. When I first joined there were loads (well, four or five) youngsters, Chris posted pretty regularly and Geoff (who knew how to spell 'definitely') and I don't remember as much discussion about bun heads etc. Farthings though .. they seemed very popular. But then CC was still around, which I'm sure made a difference.

Now? I see Geordie has popped in a bit more regularly of late, but as Paul says, there are members who aren't currently posting much .. I suspect it will pick up again after the summer. And hopefully some of the people that come there to ask about coins will stay and post. But I know forums aren't for everyone and interests can change ... as Lao Tsu said.

Sadly the popularity of forums is in decline, I think it's mainly the social networks that are taking over. People join groups on fb and ask the same questions.... where they often get wrong answers or no answers at all, but as they are already there and active they don't tend to use forums much. I've seen a lot of it lately.

[Coinery 926]

I suppose the perfect venue in that case would be an integrated FBpage and Forum, where both parties could communicate on the same platform! Does such a thing exist? Will a piece of software be developed that can communicate between the two? Auctiva somehow manages to interact with the eBay machine, so I guess it might be possible one day?

The forum that does that first will be king!

[Coinery 926]

Another problem, I guess, is whilst you want dialogue on certain posts, you don't want to open the floodgates to single posters, which might effectively swamp the numismatically interesting discussions. Hmmmmm!

[Chris Perkins 223]

It's a tough one and I don't think there is a software solution for it as yet.

[Rob 3,001]

I don't get why people would turn to facebook first if they wanted an answer to a specialised topic. Surely the best place is where people meet who are interested in the subject and by extension have a better idea than your mates from the pub.

If they are only interested in the views of their friends they probably don't care if they get the real answer anyway, so I doubt if numismatics has lost any future collectors as a result.

[Paulus 1,942]

I don't get why people would turn to facebook first if they wanted an answer to a specialised topic. Surely the best place is where people meet who are interested in the subject and by extension have a better idea than your mates from the pub.

If they are only interested in the views of their friends they probably don't care if they get the real answer anyway, so I doubt if numismatics has lost any future collectors as a result.

I have to agree, these cannot be the sole meeting place for the serious collector.

I have joined 3 Facebook Groups I thought may be of interest to me:

• British Pre-Decimal Coin Collectors Group £sd
• English Milled Coinage
• Silver coins collectors

And I have looked at several others.

They are fine as far as they go, but fail miserably when trying to rival a forum such as ours ...

• Some have very few posts per day week
• Many are simply a way to buy sell or swap low grade crap, or set up fee-free 'auctions'
• I don't think I have learnt anything new of any significance from any of them, whereas I do that all the time on here
• Most importantly, as a resource, there is no organisation of topics or threads, or a search facility (which I find staggering from Facebook), so it is really only the most recent posts that are easily accessible
• Some of this Forum's members belong to some of these Facebook groups, and it is so clear that what they have to say in response to a 'grade and value' type question is way advanced of most others

With current technology, serious collectors are much better off joining a forum, and this is unquestionably the best for British pre-decimal, (thanks once again Chris). I am not resisting change here, in fact Stuart's suggestion is bang on.

But just hold on a moment ... the only real difference between this forum and so-called social media websites is perception ... aren't we also a form of social media website, albeit without the 'networking engine' that tries to link in contacts, family and friends? (Cowers expecting to be shot down in flames!).

Just some thoughts

Edited July 28, 2015 by Paulus

[azda 973]

I also belong to one or 2 of these facebbook groups but it seems when you offer opinion on grade and price you seem to be the devil and don't know what you've Talking about. I had one guy Last night being a bit of a tool, someone posted and asked a price of an ex mount and worn (probably Fine grade) 1817 half sov, this particualr poster Said his coin was worth £900-£1000, fair Play to the OP who said it would'nt be near that.

I offered my tuppence worth and according to the poster i knew jack about coins, he eventually got naughty because he apparently knew it all but knew nothing. The expectation and then realisation of People like him is the reason i don't Post much on These groups, because if one person says its worth thousand that is the post that the owner of the coin will Focus on and the rest irrelevant, so i just ist and watch mostly and have a Little Smie.

The difference here is its a dedicated site for coins and we mostly know what we're Talking about when coming to grade and pricing.

[Rob 3,001]

I don't have facebook. I also don't get my car repaired at Burger King.

[azda 973]

I don't have facebook. I also don't get my car repaired at Burger King.

Either would i, their burgers Are crap

[Peter 615]

I don't have facebook. I also don't get my car repaired at Burger King.

Either would i, their burgers Are crap

I would prefer Burger king over Halfords for car maintenance.

[Coinery 926]

Me too!

[Chris Perkins 223]

Very good points. Most of what goes on on facebook is very low level stuff, usually relating to inexpensive modern commemorative coins or finds in change. It really is surprising how many people really like and passionately collect commens and coins from change! There are also a few people floating around that have recognised that such coins when actually sold as hyped up new items are nothing much more than a money making mint effort.

And like Dave says, there are such a lot of know-it-alls that often give false information, and there are also a lot of people trying to sell old rubbish for far too much money. Posts appear and if there ever is anything interesting, it's gone in a matter of hours and you can never remember where you saw it, or ever find it again!

[Peter 615]

A little knowledge is dangerous.

The expertise is on the forums.

Apart from predecimal I use coin community and cointalk.

The latter 2 are US based and there are genuine experts on ancient coins,photography and the like.

There are also some ham fisted cowboys who believe a UK coin GF is AU.

My other forum is for my MG.There are some clever boys out there who have saved me £ and made me a budding mechanic.

[Chris Perkins 223]

I've got an MGF rear bumper here somewhere (plastic part), and I think the metal part that holds on the front bumper, if you want them. Both are GEF with the odd minor edge knock.

[azda 973]

I've got an MGF rear bumper here somewhere (plastic part), and I think the metal part that holds on the front bumper, if you want them. Both are GEF with the odd minor edge knock.

We'll need a picture to check the grade Mr P, you know how it works