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A bit quiet on this forum at the moment - I fear some of our regulars have been put off by some rather aggressive comments. Pity. I got tempted into buying some gold - 1872 Sovereign and 1887 Half Sovereign at a little under melt:

I won these two double florins at the London Coins Auction this month. The last time I acquired a double florin (the 1887 arabic 1) was in June 1978, and my handwritten note from the time reads "Patrick Finn, Spink & Son, price: £0.00"! This generosity was probably thanks to my late father, who did some of the photography for Dowle & Finn's Guidebook to the Coinage of Ireland (Spink, 1969). My father and I used to do the rounds of Spinks and Seaby's whenever we visited London, and I guess Patrick wanted to encourage a budding collector (I was 15 at the time). Very kind of him! By way of explanation, we lived in Northern Ireland at the time. My father was a founding member of the Numismatic Society of Ireland (Northern Branch) as well as being a keen amateur photographer, and some of the legendary figures in Irish numismatics such as Bill Seaby (director of the Ulster Museum) and Michael Dolley used to visit our home.

1700 William III with small round Os in date! This one’s tricky because, whilst I saw it and loved it, he’s not quite fitting in with the collection. Fabulous tone, though, and surely EF and maybe even better? iPhone images unfortunately!

By the way, this is the 1887 double florin that I got for free from Spink. I see that I graded it VF as a 15 year old: was I a little harsh?

Well, well, well... This has turned out to be quite a pleasant surprise. After my last post regarding a conversation with Shirley Watts on the 10th August, I decided to take the chance and hand over some money, despite my original misgivings. Shirley actually rang me after sending me an email with details for payment to make sure that I had received it, which I confirmed I had. She gave me all the relevant bank details (IBAN etc) on the invoice which duly checked out, so I thought sod it, and made payment by bank transfer on Friday. Today this lovely little unit arrived on my doorstep. It's really very well made and will sit nicely with the other one I have. I feel kind of bad being so cynical in the first instance, but the African bank account on the original email was clearly dodgy, so she's going to sort out some IT at her end. A good day all round really.

Two very nice examples there Paddy, I occasionally buy a sovereign to put away for a 'rainy day' but don't actively collect them. My latest addition is a proof silver half penny token so apologies for posting in coin acquisition of the week!

Picked up this rather nice one last week. The 15 leaf variety.

Not in the best of condition, and not cheap at $500 BIN (just over £400) but I am still pleased with this F27. The obverse scratches do not show so intrusively in natural light. Jerry

Time's flying, as nearly another year has passed since the last post. There's been thin pickings of late with prices going silly at auction to the extent that only just over two dozen coins were added in the past 12 months including modern ****. Still, I managed to add a few decent things worthy of note including this Edward the Confessor Trefoil Quadrilateral penny of Winchcombe, which ticked a missing rare mint box with a type I didn't have. It is believed to be unique. Ex Jon Mann collection.

New addition to my Charles I halfcrown obsession collection - this one has outstanding provenance, passing through Helen Farquhar, Dr E Burstal, J G Brooker 906 (this coin), P Hunt, Colin Adams, Roderick Richardson and Maurice Bull

Bargain of the year had to be this Edward III 3rd coinage penny of Reading which I bought at DNW for the same price it sold for in the Circular 40 years ago! Obviously it crept under the radar, as instead of the usual legend ending in HYB (S1555), it has the much rarer ANG (S1555A), which speaking to a person who specialises in these things, increased his recorded corpus to three examples. The legend variety wasn't noted in the 1982 listing, resulting in North announcing a new type 10 years later, so I guess others might come to light. I was quite pleased to get a full mint reading as most Reading pennies seen have a weakness somewhere and although not a thing of great beauty, it might be the best available. The North coin went to Stewartby and sold for more than twice what I paid, but is missing a section of legend on the reverse, whilst the other one is lower grade. Another mint off the list. Happy days.

Nothing. Coin collectors like the circular bits of metal. These other people like a square piece of plastic with an arbitrary number printed on it. Two completely different sets of people. Perhaps some enterprising individual could separate the two camps fully by just issuing bits of plastic without anything in them!! 😉

For weeks on end, Australian nursery owner Humphrey Herington has been racking his brain to identify the elusive thief eating his seedlings. At first he thought it was escaped goats. Then perhaps a pesky possum. The last thing he expected was to walk into work one day and find a "cheeky" koala, dazed and too stuffed to move, surrounded by stripped eucalypt plants. "He looked like he was full. He looked very pleased with himself," Mr Herington told the BBC. Staff are now building a koala-proof fence around their seedling tables to thwart the marsupial - dubbed Claude - whose snacking on several thousands plants has cost the nursery A$6,000 (£3,000; $3,800). Ironically, the plants Claude devoured were being grown to boost koala habitats in the region - the species is endangered. The team at Eastern Forest Nursery, near Lismore in northern New South Wales, had first noticed plants were being chewed a few months ago. "There weren't really any signs - there was no tracks or anything - to indicate what it could have been," Mr Herington said. "It was a mystery." They set a possum trap - to no avail - and even examined animal droppings for clues. But the culprit was only caught when they became a little too greedy. "We came out to work one morning and there he was, sitting there on a pole." "And there were lots of plants missing that morning... I guess that day he must have had a really big feed and was too tired to go back to his tree." With Claude unmasked as the leaf thief, Mr Herington gently wrapped him in a towel and moved him to some trees about 300m (984 feet) from the nursery. "But a couple of days later, he came back and continued with his nightly visits," he said. But Mr Herington isn't mad, he's rather amused. Koalas aren't exactly known for their agility or ingenuity. "I just couldn't believe that it was a koala," he said. "I was shocked but I was also... a little bit impressed." Tinged with that though, is concern. "I've been here for 20-odd years and this hasn't really happened before," Mr Herington said. "Is it that there is a shortage of food?" In 2022, koalas were listed as endangered along most of Australia's east coast, after a dramatic decline in numbers. The once-thriving marsupial has been ravaged by land clearing, bushfires, drought, disease and other threats. In 2021 a NSW inquiry found koalas would be extinct there by 2050 unless there was urgent action. There may be as few as 50,000 of the animals left in the wild, some conservation groups say. koala.webp

WOW! That’s gorgeous, what artistry! The way that tone looks like clouds…prettier now than the day it was made!

I have a pile of new stuff @Paddy, various things, just not had time to take any pictures as yet!

You simply made a statement concerning the reality of things. As Diogenes said, “Of what use is a philosopher who doesn't hurt anybody's feelings?” 😉

Never the Twain shall meet, thank goodness! We should celebrate and enjoy our differences because, unfortunately/fortunately, they can never have that party!

Not sure if anyone is watching the coin cabinet auction, but some lunatic has just won an MS67 1967 sovereign for a hammer of £13,000... 😯

At long last the RM acknowledged receipt of this coin at the museum. Dave there has been rather a champion in this. Not to bore, but quite the saga and no wonder not many see a coin through the process of submitting coins to. the RM: I sent off the coin (all figures in USD) which cost $25 to send wire which was only for $25. Postal fees for minor value but tracked and signed for another $42; coin got stuck in customs for nearly two weeks. Customs wanted another $25 so sent another bank wire to RM for that and the requisite $25 bank fee. Total to send the coin in? $142 USD! The next element will be time - Dave said probably 6-8 weeks but not sure when the counting began. In the olde dayes of Graham Dyer, coins would at times be held for one or even two YEARS!!!!

Wow, and you are holding it in your own hands! Fabulous acquisition, Paulus…class, m’friend!

that's a rum one Paddy, I agree with Martin, a contemporary forgery

Today's update as follows: I spoke to Shirley again who has confirmed that they are looking to wind down in the new year, so if anyone wants to order a cabinet from them, best to let them know asap. HOWEVER, don't order or contact them via their website or email. She said there has been some problems with her emails and therefore will no longer be using the email address as a method of communication. I think there may have been some hacking going on, which would explain my original problem with the weird bank account details on the supposed invoice. The telephone number to contact her on is 0115 922 4149, which is their workshop number. She's not always there, but will call you back when she gets the message.

...same here...Sierra 10.12.6....

Not quite correct. Date spacings vary on both reverses and are not positive identifiers (see screenshot of Richard's site below) and I have actually seen three spacings - narrowish and properly wide as per Richard's pictures and even narrower as per your comparison one! (Your new find is the same as Richard's first pic - narrowish with 0 just to right of bead) The true identifier is the lack of the extra line in the shield for A# (also in Richard's screenshot) as well as the flag pole thing. But yes, yours is indeed a no-knot 1* plus A# - well found! It is known on circulation specimens as well as proofs, but don't yet know how rare it is, but suspect quite rare indeed!