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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]

Yep. Just to clarify: I meant the advantage of keeping the Chinese listings up, is that you know where they are. If the Chinese stopped selling direct, they'd pass them to UK sellers (as this thread seems to show here and there), who aren't always obvious. I'm no expert but even l can spot a fake hammered coin here and there. But some of the artificially patinated coins on this thread are a real eye opener. Disturbing.

Thank you. I think Maundy Money may still be legal in the UK too, but from what year onward? I'm not planning to pay anybody in legal face value, l'm asking for Capital Gains Tax purposes.

The 'test' thing has been there for a while. It was something I did and tried to undo. I thought it was only visible to me! It would seem that my host is probably having issues, as my other websites are also slow. I'll get them to check things.

ditto

I came here to say the exact same thing! I’ve also noted the word ‘test’ in the top left corner, just in case that’s relevant?

My understanding, which is likely to be wildly wrong, is that it's pretty much only the Crowns, Double Florins & various Sovereigns that are officially legal tender. I must admit, I'd enjoy seeing a shop keeper presented with a fugly 1965 Churchill crown for a 25 p debt! The look on his face would be amusing, I'm certain.

Not likely to show up in the UK, but just in case... I have an acquaintance who's father was awarded this medal for his work in creating the Clad Metal system used to replace Silver in US Coins (dime, quarter, half dollar and dollar). It went missing from a drawer in his apartment shortly before he died in December. If by any chance you see it, please let me know. Thank you.

Cannot comment on predecimal UK silver coins as they have all changed size. However Australian silver coins florin, shilling and sixpence still remain in the same format as the old imperial coins. With the florin now 20 cent, shilling 10 cent and sixpence 5 cent. However sovereigns and half-sovereigns are deemed to not be legal tender for some reason although sovereigns etc. were minted in Australia at Sydney, Melbourne and Perth. because of this they attract a 10% GST (VAT). Pure gold coins do not attract GST.

There is a part of me that thinks that buying a fake - from someone selling them as reproductions - for space fillers for something like, say the 1798 Dorrien Magers shilling that only 20 still exist - is fine. Pay $5 since I'll never probably even see a real one and concentrate on spending good money for the real ones like the 1787 I got recently. But no sympathy for anyone trying to pass a fake as real.

Is it just me or is this forum excruciatingly slow? E.g. 10-20 seconds to load a new page / post a reply? Other websites are way faster right now.

Hi, l'm kind of new to this. I'm trying to find a list of UK silver (and other metals) coins that are still legal tender today. So, l'm particularly interested in anything pre-1947. Am l right to say all Crowns are legal tender, as well as the QV Double Florin? Or is it actually all denominations? I have tried to Google it but it feels like no list exists. The search results are often wide of the mark.

The advantage to the buyer is that the fakes are priced accordingly, sold by obvious sellers (e.g. they've been selling dropshipped homewares for 1,000 feedbacks then suddenly switch to perfect bullion coins for 1/10th the going rate). Worse would be if UK buyers obtained them to sell individually here and there, because the Chinese bulk sellers have all been barred.