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No, l want to skim them at ducklings and hopefully bring home some meat. Still though, how did you guess l was trying to do evil? By the way, do you feel it's moral and welcoming to straight up ask someone if they are evil and / or dumb? Most importantly: Any answers to my actual questions? This is a new forum for me but l'm hoping it doesn't devolve into bored regulars vs. newbs. It always boils down to "We are just trying to HELP you (by insulting you) you IDIOT!"

Just out of interest, are you going to attempt to convince HMRC that (for instance) an 1847 proof gothic crown is only worth 25p for CGT purposes because it's legal tender and you could use it in Tesco to buy a couple of spuds?

That's as far as I go I can tell that its long cross, hammered and possibly a Edward. It weighs 0.194 and in the pictures its measured in mm. could it be a farthing? to rubbed to identify? any input welcome 🙏

Hi Here is a medal with a connected rosette that I bought on eBay a few weeks ago. Weighs 34gms, diameter 44mm, thickness 5mm. Not silver. Not named. My grandfather was born and grew up in Rhymney, South Wales, which when he was young was a busy coal mining village. It was minted by J.W. BENSON London, so the medal could be 100 to 150 years old. ??? I have not been able to find a similar medal. All I can find is that this type of medal could be given following an act of bravery or good deed by for example a friendly society. I am interested in the social history of the area so can anyone add anything? Many thanks Alan

Not entirely. If the coin is sufficiently rare, they will fake an apparently well worn/used coin with patina to fool the collectors. Classic example is the 1850 Shilling, which is mega rare. A few years back a Chinese seller was touting a load of them at £10 each. All appeared well worn and convincing, each substantially different. This seller made it clear they were copies, but the unscrupulous could buy one and pass it off as genuine. On Ebay, the history of the seller is the most important factor, as you have pointed out before. In other auctions, for rare coins ask the auction house for provenance, and view even that with a jaundiced eye. There are now many coins in private collections that are fake because the collector was conned when he/she bought it. As they all say: "If it seems too good to be true, it probably is".

Not moved far have you LOL

Yes, it does seem to be normal speed again. He (host) turned it off and on again!

Thank you. I was hoping QV to 1947 silver coins would not be faked because they're not all that rare but now the forum's loading faster l can appreciate they do get faked. If not-so-rare coins are being faked then l'd guess the selling points for fakes (i.e. ways to squeeze money out of the transaction) would be: 1. Quality i.e. very fine, uncirculated (though l've seen some patinaion on this thread!) 2. Silver denominations, but not really silver Therefore l'm hoping buying grimy silver coins from QV upward that pass the magnet test, would be a safe bet - what do you think?

Hi okay but l need a specific list of silver coins at least. From what l can tell, as seemingly agreed upon by @wlewisiii, we have: SILVER, PRE-1947: - All crowns (CLARIFICATION NEEDED: l'm presuming since the Great Recoinage of 1816, right?) - Double florin - Some sovereigns - CLARIFICATION NEEDED: specifics needed (though they aren't something l'm really interested in personally, it'd be nice to have a list) - Maundy money (CLARIFICATION NEEDED: l'm presuming since the Great Recoinage of 1816, right?)

Woo woo. OK. The forum is fast now, thanks for getting it fixed!

Legal tender has a pretty narrow defintion. It basically means what can be used to settle a debt, in the absence of contracted payment terms. Here is a snippet from the Bank of England website: "So, what counts as legal tender? It varies throughout the UK. In England and Wales, it is Royal Mint coins and Bank of England notes. In Scotland and Northern Ireland, it is only Royal Mint coins and not banknotes. There are also some restrictions when using small coins. For example, 1p and 2p coins only count as legal tender for any amount up to 20p. And 5p and 10p coins only count for any amount up to £5. But £1 and £2 coins count as legal tender for any amount."

The typos keep coming! I think you mean 1696, not 1996! I knew what you meant the first time, so I didn't comment.

Many thanks, I've spotted a typo, its meant to read 1996 not "the 1692 looks .......wonky ?" its been a long day......🥱💤

Looks like the next major new version will include a night theme by default. For this version it can be done with an add-on. I'll look into it.

Hi thanks for the reply. Don't worry, l wasn't sugesting changing software, my enquiry was completely unrelated to this site, this is my first week here and it looks good. Though l'd like a night theme if possible, easier on the eyes

Circulation damage I would say.

Faked coins are made both in Silver and in base metal. In some ways the base metal ones are easier to spot as a simple silver test gives them away. 19th century coins are much faked and the "best" of them are very difficult to spot. There was a discussion on here several years ago about 1818 Half Crowns. A number of apparently excellent condition examples turned up in quick succession. They were all fakes, but the only sure way to spot them is that they all had identical dents and marks! As to the auction houses to avoid - impossible to say. Even the best houses have been caught with fakes in the past.

I chose Invision all those years ago and have used it ever since. I'm afraid I have no experience with the alternatives. phpBB may have been the only competition back in 2002. I always delay major updates for as long as possible because they always causes complete failure, like the one in October last year. There are of course many other server-side factors that play major roles in causing it to go belly-up when upgrading. It would probably be even worse attempting to migrate a fairly large forum to something else at this stage, so I'll stick with it as long as it works. I'm no whizz though. There are probably many other capabilities that I haven't explored.

to me its looks mis shaped, most of my milled coins are more circular, with this one I would appreciate any opinions the 1692 looks .......wonky ? would this have been turned out this way or happened through circulation?

A lot of the fakes are described as silver (they are not) they are base metal but it could be another way of making it difficult to these sellers by reporting them

Sorry for being basic: 1. Would a fake silver coin still at least be silver? I'm aware of the fake bullion coins that are at best silver plated. 2. Are ordinary pre-1920 silver coins from say William IV to GV faked very often? I mean the ones once in general circulation (Crown down to Threepence). 3. Can anybody name UK auction houses that are best avoided by proven personal experience?

@Chris Perkins as an asides, do you rate Invision higher than, say, Discourse? [I'm interested in creating my own small forum for something unrelated to numismatics or even collecting altogether]