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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:

As it's been reported as quiet on here, over the next few days I'll post some of my favourite acquisitions from the last year, apologies for any I have posted before. First up, very happy with this 1750 crown Bt Mark Rasmussen March 2023 Ex. J.E. collection

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!

They all seem to be platforms for selling rather than educating

Yes - it was a very good deal to help out someone who needed to get cash urgently. 2 Shield back Sovereigns - 1870 and 1872, 3 shield back Halves - 1872, 1887 and 1890, 1906 half and 1958 full sovereign. I don't really collect gold, so these are more an investment/hedge against inflation, but much nicer to have it done in decent looking coins. And before anyone raises concerns about stolen property - I have known the vendor for nearly 20 years, straight as a die and most of these he bought off me at some stage. He has turned a good profit on the prices I originally sold them to him for, so everyone is happy.

"You pay for the gold and the history is free".... I usually only comment on such phrases, looking back over a month maybe, but with such quality, with it very neatly summing up what we all love about coins, and I know it's not yet October, but I am going to stick my neck out, and declare that "Motto of the Year"... Just excellent...

Indeed. You pay for the gold and the history is free. Those coins can make decent pendants (but hopefully they won't end up that way).

Hi Jerry, Here are a few of the more useful and/or busy ones. https://facebook.com/groups/259534051467342/ https://facebook.com/groups/2465098747044680/ https://facebook.com/groups/1612487989090789/ https://facebook.com/groups/ConderCafe/

ditto, though finding stuff is rather difficult. I'd rather not spend hours trawling through eBay.

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

It's always a wonderful deal to secure shield sovereigns below spot price 👍

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

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

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... 😯

When I first started collecting coins as a teenager, I particularly liked my USA proof set. Out of sentiments, I have just brought a 1992 silver proof set on eBay. I am a little surprised that the older proof sets are so unloved and my cost me £14.50 + postage. Is the excessively high mintage (well over a million) the only reason for the lack of desirability? The designs are generally rather nice.

I’m really not convinced that Facebook offers the useful archive of information going back years that the forum does, and its excellent search facility. However I don’t use Facebook for coins…..any particularly recommended groups? Jerry

The facebook groups are certainly busy but the wealth of knowledge here is superb.

Gold has been a good investment for so many years now. Pretty I never brought any when the prices were lower. If I were to buy gold, then a spade guinea and Victoria Young head sovereign would be high on my list. One advantage of gold is that wear doesn't result in discolouration.

Hey Stu! 3 focus areas still for me: Milled silver types, preferably early milled Charles I halfcrowns, different Spink numbers 18th C Conder tokens BTW, your camera gave up the ghost in the end after many many pics, bought another of the same second hand

Nice! Bring ‘em on, Paulus! You still focused on tokens? Noticed the C1 HCs could potentially be taking over? Great to be fluid…builds knowledge

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?” 😉

And just before that, a 1965 MS66, and a 1966 MS66 hammered for £4,100 and £4,000 respectively... Same bidder I think, paddle numbers looked similar. What am I missing here?

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.

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!