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My 1860 Gothic Florin that I acquired a few years ago. Sold to me as GEF / AUNC. I'm thinking of sending it to NGC for slabbing. I'm expecting a rating of around 63 or so. Am I about right?

Thanks again. I've ordered a copy of Davies from Rob.

That was taken with my Panasonic Lumix FZ1000 bridge camera (20MP) in aperture priority mode and max zoom (400mm equivalent). Also in burst mode. I gave up on multi lens SLRs when film died but I've recently acquired a Canon EOS 700D DSLR with an 18 to 200mm lens that seems to function well. I must save up for some more lenses but find that the Panasonic is a lot more convenient. Lugging around bags full of lenses still doesn't really appeal. I've been into photography since school days but only recently joined the local photographic society to see if I could learn anything new. As far as composition goes there are a lot of intriguing ideas about and at least I'm not now relying on the camera doing all the work in auto so joining has helped a bit. I had thought of digging out one of these museum pieces cluttering up the garage. 😕

What are peoples thoughts on this florin? I thought it was a real shame about the rim nic and black spots. What would you all value it at? Thanks in advance.

I once left an absentee bid on a lot and ended up as underbidder. (My bid was well over the low estimate). The very same lot was offered for sale in the next auction again (obviously it wasn't actually sold first time round) and I was again under bidder after leaving another absentee bid. Believe it or not, it appeared again in the auction after that. There is no doubt in my mind that the auction house has allowed the vendor to set a reserve higher than the low estimate and was bidding on the vendor's behalf against me.

Self isolating fat cats

You're not alone, there's an older thread on here where other members voiced similar experiences.

The one time I used commission bidding with London Coins all but one of my highest bids won. I've adopted a different approach ever since. Happy to post the auction house name as I still have my email with bids and invoice which would confirm!

Is not that robin picture just heavenly............

You mean in a sort of "Try them out in a limited dummy run on the bronze first" type of way?

I agree - bags of lenses pay only a minor dividend over what you can get from the latest mirrorless cameras from the likes of Fuji, Olympus, and Panasonic. I have a Lumix LX100 and while it wouldn't yield professional results, can match many prosumer DSLRs. I like the m4/3 sensor particularly when matched with the multi-AR cameras from Leica and the Lumix LX series. Yeah. They do lack some of bells and whistles of cameras such as time lapse, but the gap is closing fast and really the newer iPhones and Samsungs deliver shots you'd be very hard pushed to tell from expensive enthusiast cameras.

I have a 760D and a bunch of lenses, but after seeing what the new mobile phones can achieve, I'm starting to reconsider my direction regarding photographic equipment.

I was at a loose end...

Maurice Bull's "English Silver Coinage" is also more detailed on varieties than Spink and provides rarity ratings for everything, of variable accuracy. Also covers the pattern silver coinage for Victoria in reasonable detail, if that's of any interest.

The sparrows were nest building this morning as were the resident blackbirds. A mouse was noted pilfering the seed we put out for the birds six weeks ago. One hedgehog has reappeared, though I suspect mum and dad didn't make it as one was found rotted away in next door's garden when the lawn was cut and the other appeared on a neighbour's patio a month or more ago having been shredded by a strimmer(?). Last year we had 6 in total.

Luckily the local wildlife will come to my jungle. Being in total lockdown because of vulnerable family and being a member of the photo club means I have limited access to wildlife to photograph. Some will sit still while trying to distract the cat from the nest. Unfortunately this means I took over 200 pictures this morning.