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Once you have been self employed, Mike, it's intensely frustrating to be in an environment where no-one has the courage to actually do anything! It served its purpose though - the extra few grand got us here - I am now sitting on a terrace on my fruit farm, sipping red wine from a 5 litre plastic bottle that one of the ridiculously friendly villagers gave us from his own vineyard, under a nearly full moon, living the kind of life most people fantasise about. The coin business has suffered from neglect during the Catawiki months, and I shall thoroughly enjoy giving it the attention it deserves once more. It is the future, and Catawiki never was, really...tudo bem, it's all good

Well I am glad to announce that I am out the other side of the Catawiki nonsense. Catawiki and I had to part company this week. I am not sorry, frankly. I told them what they needed to do to break into the UK coin market and they didn't want to do it. I think they are giving up on the UK to be honest. Last month they got rid of the UK marketing dept, then a couple of weeks ago they got rid of the UK country manager (who was a huge ally of mine in all the battles I fought with them). I shan't miss it, it was a silly place! I am very happy to be a free agent once more, running my little coin business from my little farm on a hillside in Portugal....That's better. I was never suited to the corporate thing!

If it was me I'd be having a refund regardless of the outlay. If I buy a coin I want the one pictured.

mmmm nice sixpence - its been looked after that one

Nick is spot on; to clarify, the dies are "pickled" by acid exposure after devices and lettering are engraved & as these are recessed they are protected from the polish applied to the higher field surfaces on the die & with progressive strikes the cameo effect is progressively lost. As copper-nickel is harder, the 0.500 coins such as the OP tend to wear a bit faster than earlier .925 bits & then the later 1950, '51, '53 issues that have no silver are even harder so with the passage of time (perhaps not such precise mint work on dies??), the cameo effect is lost earlier and earlier - if that makes sense. An interesting bit is how one separates VIP proof strikes from the deeper cameo ordinary strikes, as they are supposedly worth a substantial premium. In short, I have collected 20th C. proofs for many years and am not always certain of the difference. In hand, I THINK that I can tell the difference but there are certainly some borderline coins. This problem is analogous to that with the Victorian currency vs. Maundy threepences...

Declan I'm sorry it didn't work out for you.I would love to see a few pictures of Chez Portugal and let me know when you have running water,WiFi and soft toilet paper(I don't mean king size Rizla).All the best buddy.

Eddard Stark half groat