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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

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:

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!

"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).

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

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.

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!

Bought this one at Lockdales as an upgrade to my sixpence date run: Very happy with it.

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

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!! 😉

I've seen a couple of Facebook groups, but they seem to be relatively inexperienced collectors excited by very average stuff. Oh and convinced that the odd cud is a rare variety!

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

Definitely quiet, Paddy…there was a time you could barely keep up with the posts on here, tragic! It now feels rather decrepit tbh. Anyway, I too have recently been scouring the gold, but not seen anything yet that I like…at least not at a price I’d like to pay I did eventually buy the Marsh (Hill revision) book, though…a really nice thing I have to say!

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?” 😉

Most guesses of surviving numbers are underestimated, relying to a large extent on personal experience, which is a bit hit and miss as you can't pick up everything. There is no central database of coins, so you will almost always revise numbers upwards. The only exception to this is likely to be for cases of mis-identification where one type will reduce and another increase. Patterns and proofs are a bit more quantifiable. Additional examples from known dies can appear at any time, just as new die pairs appear on a regular basis. We only have a fraction of the story.

Yes, but they tend to get upset when you tell them. When I pointed out to someone on CoinTalk that 'I collect coins, while you collect opinions', he got a bit miffed. Diplomacy has never been my strong point, so if someone could enlighten me on how to call a spade a spade without offending, I would like to know.

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

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!