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Wow, I will say that was a steal. To be fair, it may have been cleaned but it is certainly far better preserved than the average.

That is ridiculously cheap. It looks like it would retail for at least £500.

Not too bad - was that the one whose entire mintage was shipped to Australia?

Maybe it's just me, but he looks the spitting image of Sue Gray

yes, I was scared about that - I keep mine in an album that is PVC free, of course. But I have to say that some nice toning is going on there, lovely colours - I know it might not be for everyone but I certainly like it. Thanks

A worn die is not the same as a worn coin, and I do agree the reverse die had lost detail, a bit like some ‘F’ reverses in the penny series. I pondered this previously, why the need to mark the engraved face of the die to monitor longevity, when the die could be marked elsewhere in greater detail ; they would have to have counted the number of actual coins struck per studied die either way. And the die marked coins seem to have been too few to be practically monitored for ‘in circulation’ studies. Could partially worn regular dies be lettered or numbered to in some way monitor a later stage of their lives, or to be brought back into use? Perhaps with such a tiny mark the die would not even need annealing. Is there evidence out there? Jerry

Here are a few of my recent halfpenny acquisitions, firstly the 1862 Die letter C previously mentioned.

There may be people who will only buy from one place or another - but I don’t think that captures fully what is going on. Personally I will buy from anywhere (auction, dealer, private, eBay) and I will pay what I can afford over what I think is the market price - on the basis that I value it more than the market and / or (wishfully thinking) the market will perhaps catch up with me one day … I suspect what is also going on is that there is more information available (albeit imperfect, including a putative grade) and more accessible means of buying globally. The result is that discerning buyers are creating price differentials between what they want (illogical as it may seem to others) and what they don’t. Or at least what they know about and what they don’t.

Virtually every dealer is asking where these people paying high prices are. It appears that just as you have people who only buy on ebay or facebook, so there are people who have decided to buy at auction to the exclusion of other outlets. You often see something that you make a mental note is worth £x and it opens above this level. Add in the premium and mark it up as you have to, and you have something that nobody will touch. Selling at fairs, everyone expects you to come down a bit from the ticket price, but these are almost mostly lower than you would have paid at auction in the first place. It's a parallel universe.

more $$$$$$$$ and ¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥ than we have ££££££££ !