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Starting off, I owe you all a big Thank You...I came here 1 year ago and was recovering from a stroke... my reading and speaking has got better and my chaos has improved as well.... to a degree. Ive attached some photos of what's been paged and has put some order in place.... if the worse happen I'd hate to think what would have happen to these coins... The hammered coins (pennies) still cause problems for me and still there others to follow.... Sorry! 😟 once again a huge Thank You one and all for the support and clarification when assisting my queries, I wouldn't have been able to have got this far without it. Kind Regards "H"

I have to at least make some cursory effort to inform myself as to why two members are not getting along. Get a bit of background, you know. Although I think I probably wish I hadn't. The BLM thing was years ago and this is a coin forum. Peckris' recent post about Jenrick was silly, but he's still not going on and on about the same thing for years. I'm going to close this topic for now. I may open it again at some point. Please don't start another one or carry on somewhere else where you left off. I think we know where you're coming from by now and you and Peckris are never going to be buddies. That's it, back to coins.

I had the luck to pick this one up on ebay , unattributed 😊 An F148 high tide

My idea a few years ago was to do away with the 1p and 2p because they are comparatively expensive to make and fiddly to deal with, and have the 5p as the smallest denomination in regular use, as is already the case in some countries (I think NZ and Australia have 5c as their smallest in-use coin). But with a just-for-fun and British quirky twist - have it renamed as a 'Shilling' (dually featuring both '5' and 'Shilling' in the design). Items could then be priced in Pounds and Shillings if so desired, but it would still be decimal and technically nothing would change, there would still be 100 pennies in a pound and the 5p would still be 1/20th of a pound just like it and the shilling always were. Merchants could price exactly the same as now, e.g. £3.40 or they could be brave and price as £3/8 for the novelty value. Most would no doubt stick to the way it is now, but it would be fun to have pounds and shillings, and perhaps shillings could catch on at least colloquially. The 10p could be called a florin and the 20p a double florin. The 50p would be 10 shillings, obviously. I think it would be fun thing, but it's no doubt too late to re-establish any kind of shilling now, even in name only, for 2 reasons - 1. People who fondly remember using actual shillings are becoming scarcer so there really isn't much nostalgic connection with shillings, florins etc among the general public as a whole and the concept of having £1 made up of 20 of something would be confusing for many. And.. 2. Physical cash in everyday use for payment of most things is being overtaken by electronic alternatives, so use of actual cash is dwindling and is very likely to continue on a downward trend. Pie in the sky. Maybe it could have worked 20 or 30 years ago!

I hadn't realised GIV Crowns had got so high! This is my best, picked up about 15 years ago as part of an old family collection:

These are the best of my bunch, 1864 is probably the best example that I have, these as the rest I have were boot fair finds well over 30 years ago, pre computers internet day and age...... also It turns out 12 months have passed by it was 1 year today that I first joined www.predecimal.com/forum 👍🍻

I was fortunate enough to pick up mine before the prices went completely crazy:

ah! these are some of mine, the better ones.... to heavy to put in a folder so left in pouches 👍

Found the others today....A fair devil indeed....

You'd need a deep pocket for most of these recent items at Heritage, but not all early copper has sky-rocketed over the last few years - the slab-grades have the main effect of course. There are two Peck plate coins, but none of the coins including theses were provenanced by Heritage. Perhaps the buyers recognised them too, but probably just going on the grades. All are hammer prices: 1694 1/2d - MS61 - $1200. Surprisingly low grade for a coin that retains lustre, this is the Nicholson example that sold for £1,200 (I think) in 2004, if so it's made no money at all over the last 20+ years! This is the exception price-wise. 1694 1/4d - MS64RB - $7,000. Lovely colour though slightly porous detail, this is Colin Cooke's own example sold 2005. 1695 1/2d - MS63 - $9,000 - big rise on this one, though it has been glossed and lost some lustre since previously sold at Baldwin's 2010 Strickland-Neville Rolfe auction. I saw it at the time and wondered if it was thick-flan (there's only one known otherwise) as it did look unusually thick. It was a bit porous though so that can be deceptive. Unfortunately it was sealed in plastic and I couldn't ask Baldwins to weigh it, because if it was heavy weight, they'd have amended the description and it wouldn't have been a bargain! It wasn't very cleanly struck though and It went for £540 back then. 1699 1/4d date in legend - MS64 - $7,000. This is Brook's example and is the Peck Plate coin despite the dark photograph where you had to squint to make out much. The edge variation matched up and it is of course the no-stop between A and the date variety - which was also not mentioned by Heritage. As far as I know, this was last sold in the Shuttleworth collection SNC 2001 as EF £650. 1701 1/2d - MS63 - $7,250. Also the Peck plate coin and Heritage auctions missed (or the slabbers couldn't be bothered to note) it was no stops obverse (P.704). This is ex Nicholson Hopetown House, Peck.

Those prices are quite astonishing. I have Peck's own 636 plate coin (Montagu 3); so now may be a good time to sell.

FFS, alright STOP. How do you have the energy to hold a grudge for 5+ years and still get so worked up now? I can't even be bothered to read all of the 'Proof there is no god' thread, because even with my 'neutral' cap on, trying to be objective, you really do seem to moan on and on and on. And now you're doing it in this topic, years later! Be cool man, at least for your blood pressure and arteries, it's just not worth it. People don't want to see it. I don't want to see it. Tit for tat nonsense. I don't think I've ever paused/suspended or had to take any disciplinary action on anyone in the forum in 20+ years (some that did have bees in their bonnet tended to leave in a huff of their own accord). Please, either take this elsewhere.... difficult I know, if Peckris has blocked you or whatever. Or find some other place to argue with people. Life's way too short.

"The Harold II silver penny hoard only includes pennies minted by the king" You would have thought a king would have better things to do

Welcome to the forum @sambevan77 An interesting selection, but as you say nothing I think of startling value. It would take a long time and a lot of effort to fully ID all of those. A few shots: Row 1 - first is Roman, second looks to be "Hollandia" - ie Netherlands 18thc, third might be an Indian temple token, fourth and fifth I think are Ancient Sri Lankan, sixth looks byzantine, seventh no idea. Row 2 - first may be another byzantine, 2nd, 3rd, 4th look to be Indian , 5th maybe French, 6th, 7th and 8th Roman. Row 3 - 1st, 3rd and 4th look South American, 2nd might be the most valuable as it maybe an Indian gold Fanam, 5th and 9th no idea, 6th, 7th and 8th Indian or Middle Eastern. I hope that helps. You will have to do much more research in your own time, but hopefully those thoughts will get you into the right areas.

Consider getting a specimen crown rather than the RE proof as it is much cheaper. The specimen is nice, has reflective fields (but no frosting), and comes in the same red box as the proof. My specimen (top) cost me £50 in 2020 and my RE proof (bottom) cost £500 15 years ago.

1904 narrow date with 1 over tooth, Lucky enough to pick this one up in uncirculated condition Ex rare

You were 100% correct Stu and thanks unwillingly numismatist for putting me on to Liz who verified it was a fantasy piece unfortunately 😕 Thanks guys this is much appreciated because it's irked me for some time. Glad it was in a joblot of coins auction and as it hardly cost anything.

1882 were nearly all minted by Heatons and therefore carry the H - a few were minted in London (just to test the new electronic presses?) and are very rare. I'm baffled by the George III coins though - pennies weren't minted until 1797, "cartwheel" type. There's no 1773 or 1775 pennies, but there were halfpennies which are noticeably smaller than bun pennies unlike your 1773. The 1775 looks very wrong and is probably an 'evasion' type, i.e. a contemporary forgery produced in the US. The 1773 "penny" looks more like a genuine halfpenny should apart from the size , but is also probably wrong - REX is wider spaced than on a genuine example.

His constituency is Newark apparently. I wonder if Kemi Badenoch has reflected on possible anagrams that could be made...?

The one consideration you have missed is the possibility that the overdate (or letter) was not punched deep enough into the die to pass the lowest point of the previous digit. Using the same reasoning, consider the 1817 GEOE/R shilling. I refuse to believe the engraver thought 'Here'a correct legend, I'll just create an error by 'correcting' the R with an E so that some nerds 200 years from now find something to get excited about'. Clearly the E would have been put in first, but the correction wasn't sunk deep enough. Easy to do if you are looking at the lowest point in the field as a reference point rather than the bottom of a very small deep pit.

Most of the stuff I buy seems to look like that

Someone has took a genuine 1820 coin and altered it to 1817 then cast it i assume. Anyway....I found the paper's that Gary Oddie wrote if anyone is interested. They are all on the link here...https://britnumsoc.blog/2021/10/09/counterfeit-shillings-of-george-iii-1816-1820-iv-a-contemporary-mould-revisited-gary-oddie/

To be fair, the chaos doesn't ever seem to subside. Sometimes you need to part ways with it for a while to regain the will to try and overcome it.

I think people get a bit worked up over the question of cleaning as the topic is somewhat nuanced. Every coin in circulation showing signs of wear has effectively been cleaned because the act of circulation ensures that contact is made with other surfaces which rub against each other. i.e. nothing different to taking a the use of chemical cloth to a coin and rubbing. That just speeds up the process. The only thing that is offensive in the eyes of most collectors is a case of a polished coin, with or without the use of chemical substances. Personally I love toning for the fact it gives added confidence that the surfaces have not been messed about with, but even that has a few caveats because silver dip will leave a residue on the coin which over time will give the piece in question a typically pinkish hue. Any coin in someone's pocket will end up from friction with lots of faint parallel lines, because they were there. Without polishing chemically, I defy anyone to see the difference between pocket rub and a soft cloth, though clearly it would be possible in the case of demonetised coins to use your loaf and conclude that not being in circulation any more, the only option left is deliberate. In the case of the Morgan above, if the surfaces aren't reflective, probably not other than 'cleaning' from circulation, because there is clearly wear to the high points.

We all have dogs in our collections. I remember when I was cataloguing Stewartby's collection for Spink. I was under pressure to keep the lot numbers down as far as possible because of the quantities involved. That raised a problem when I was trying to catalogue the Edward IV halfpennies as he had one excessively rare light coinage Canterbury coin with mm. Pall and trefoils at the neck (S2072A). The problem was the fact it was unique. The downside was unique or not, it was a dog. To keep the average lot value up, I decided to mix it with a high grade halfpenny and gave it a buy me estimate. As I suspected, the high grade piece did all the heavy lifting on the lot, but I already had one, so pulled out the stops and bought the pair. Having bought it, I immediately sold the better coin for nearly as much as the lot of 2 cost, leaving me with a cracked, bent, holed, worn, and just about every other fault imaginable coin that cost me about £9. Still never seen another. The coin in question was found in Hampshire near to the Delme-Radcliffe home, who acquired it when found, wrote it up in the BNJ vol.51 and sold it in her sale in 1985 (lot 288). An absolute dog, and one of the last things I would part with. I used it to tick the pall marked coin box. Here it is in all its splendour (?)

So do I. It will get the wife off my back telling me to stop doing all the things I enjoy. Rest assured all will be fine. I'm not giving up the ghost yet. I haven't yet created a box for Rob Pearce 1958-2026 to tick yet. Eventually it will be filled, but family history suggests I might be around for a while yet. My father's eldest sister was 96 when she died. Never married, ran a smallholding on her own, then had a sweet shop in Wells, rode a motor bike until she was 70 and refused to go into a home to the day she died on the grounds they were full of old people. The interesting bit was the bike. At 5'3" and weighing 5 &1/2 stone, one that she rode was an Ariel square 4. I guess she didn't want to conform to the insecure female model. By the time she stopped after coming off on ice one night, she was down to a 250, but was collecting her pension. I liked visiting her sweet shop.

Yes, definitely a contemporary forgery (very common) of a silver skin clad onto a base metal core - the core is corroding and bursting through in places which is causing those greyer-looking patches and random protrusions through the silver skin. So, no scrap value at all to speak of, but an interesting bit of social history and probably worth keeping thus.

Seemed as good a place as any as bought the Halfpenny from the last LCA with obverse 1.

Great. Message me and we'll sort out the technicalities.

That's sad. I lost my mum to a brain tumour in 2021. By the time she was diagnosed it was stage 4. Three months she lived from diagnosis to passing away. Affected us all deeply. Thank you for replying. I look forward to seeing your future research when you are publishing your findings. Stu.

Poor Gary, but absolutely fantastic that you’re still around and working with the counterfeit coinage. Nice to hear from you.

Hi Guys! I'm still around but haven't had much time for coin study lately. Gary was about to start a new cancer treatment which unfortunately proved to be in vain. As he knew he might not be recovering, he offered me to buy his collection of counterfeit George IIIs shillings at a very fair price. So I jumped on a plane and spend a pleasant evening with him where we wrapped the coins in rolls with paper and looked at some of his vast collection. Next morning the very day he would start the new treatment, I returned to Denmark - and never heard from him again. I haven't yet had a chance to look at the coins, of which there are apparently over a thousand. Instead, I've been working with my own collection in the hope of being able to refine the group divisions and perhaps arrive at a more correct classification for the whole series. Only when that's finished, I will start classifying Gary's coins.

I believe their local council is to rename Wells-next-the-Sea as Wells-in-the-Sea?

J G Scott wrote a book in 1975 about c/mks on Copper and bronze coins which I retained when I acquired DRJ's collection. I will see if I can find it tomorrow night and post what is useful.

Here is one that is probably a transportation token, but because the message is less clear, one cannot be certain:

Quite a few Counter-stamps are commercial. Many copper pennies were stamped with "Lloyds" and used as tokens for their paper. The Chinese used Chop marks to confirm authenticity or claim ownership. Some were also governmental - indicating a re-valuation or the use in subsidiary or revolutionary organisations. Many early Caribbean coins are counter stamped versions of other country's money. Engraving tends to be more personal, individual and so difficult to track down. When I first started collecting again in the early 2000s I picked up a cartwheel penny at an antiques shop, which, in the terms of the vendor, had been "Vandalised as someone's written all over the back" As a result it was cheap. The wording was something like "When this you see, think of me, J Bond 1827" - it was a transportation token created by or for someone about to be shipped to the colonies! I put it on Ebay, and it sold for a tidy sum, going to Australia. Sadly I no longer have a picture. Here is a Brazilian 20 Reis counter stamped by the government to revalue as 40 Reis.

Unless his full name was Harold Trumpsson?

Sad news about Gary. I never met him but heard lots of good things about him. He was born in the town i reside in. I just dug my shilling out as this post had sparked my interest. Never even noticed it before but it's got a clear overdate. 1817 over 1820. That's something i have never seen in a counterfeit coin before.

Many thanks Paddy and Coinery As far as records go – it appears money started to be officially defined by weight of metal in Iraq about 2,150 BC. The retreat from that definition perhaps started in Britain in 1914, when banks stopped changing notes for sovereigns. So understanding weight standards is basic to understanding what money was for 97% of its history. If you do not understand the weight standards, you just cannot understand the real history of money. That is why I think it is important. It is comforting to believe there are “a small number of academics willing to invest the time in this”, who are perhaps keeping an eye on the situation for us all. Indeed that was still sort of true 25 years back. But those guys were fighting a loosing battle then and anyhow, they are, as far as I can discover, all now dead. There are today way more professional academics than there ever were before. They generally refuse to discuss these matters, a sizeable sub-group will turn hostile and sarcastic if they are raised. I am afraid this seems a straightforward Cui Bono situation to me. The great majority of professional academics are paid by states, and all states have now adopted “managed money” - which they print at will. ‘He who pays the piper calls the tune’. I am an old guy myself now, and am pretty much fixed on a search for anyone at all out there who will try to understand these matters, and will stand up and debate them. I tried looking amongst professional academics. It was a poor plan. Am I really alone here in seeing the Curator of Coins at our British Museum holding a Charles I pound coin and saying “it is a pound weight in silver” ? All the Best Robert Tye PS in case of interest - for my series of videos on Youtube - look for “A History of Troy Weight” Playlist:

Items For Sale - now in the Members Only area.

Thanks Paddy. Charles II 1667 and William III 1696.

I have now added this type to my rarest pennies site and would be grateful to see any other examples.

As a dealer I can safely say that if sold as a complete collection, you might get a small profit if taken as a whole but that would have to include the genuinely scarce pieces like the Kew Gardens 50p. The vast majority will go at face value if collected from circulation. I bought a complete collection of issued decimals in 2013 and still have most of the circulation pieces. Collecting them from circulation was no mean feat, but when everyone else can do the same, it eliminates much of a premium. Plus everyone wants coins with no marks if possible. One offs in sets sell for a premium, but not that many collect 1p, 2p, 5p 10p and 20ps, so you are left with profits coming from 50p, £1 and £2 coins. Nobody wants the £5 coins. If modern, most people buy year sets and get the job done in one go.

It just seemed bit of a sweeping statement and reflected the personal searches of 2 people for different varieties. Had it been a survey of 30 or 40 collectors, all searching with the same level of intensity, either statement would have had more supporting evidence behind it. Both are unquestionably less than common, but I wouldn't like to assign a rarity of one relative to the other because I haven't done the spadework. My NGC MS65 1673 halfpenny was in a 65 slab when I bought it in 2006 and did so because I could see without a glass that it was actually a 5/3. To me that was obvious. Thanks to the work done by Nicholson identifying the various 5 over 3 dies with their different styles, I was then able to say that the majority of 1675 halfpennies were actually 5/3 and the straight, clear 5 from new dies was the rare type. At this point the yearly mintages fell into place, because if you believe the mint output figures, 1673 and 1675 were not particularly different and certainly not as rare as the 1672 in the case of 1675, yet listings in past catalogues suggested they were much on a par with far more 1673s than the figures suggested. That was my 3rd unassigned 5/3 to go in the collection, none of which was in less than a 63 slab. And all now out. Add the identifiable dates from images rather than cataloguers opinions and you arrive at not dissimilar numbers of 1673s and 1675s, and 1672 then becomes much rarer relatively. Which is what the mint said. Consequently I am happy with my analysis. This study also showed the existence of a doubly cut overdate, when close examination of my 5/3 showed it in fact to be 5 over 3 over 2. Totally unambiguous if you look at the pictures in the confirmed unlisted varieties section. It ain't going anywhere soon, but my sketches do allow others to identify the reverse die involved. Nobody would have considered it likely prior to my discovery due to the propensity of the mint to use dies to extinction.

I'd not call it professional but for my three main obsessions, er, collections (shilling date run 1663-1970, Irish coins 1928-2000 & French 3rd through 5th Republics) I have a four ring binder and bunches of coin safe plastic sheets that hold anywhere from 42 (shilling sized) to 30 (half crown sized) or 12 (1870's 5 franc sized) and that suits me nicely. It's easy to show them to friends and easy to take it along when I go to coin shops or shows. Easy to find on Amazon, couldn't tell you elsewhere. Hope this is of some use.

I have a rather nice 1736, 3 over 5. These are much harder to find.

Thank you Stuart. All in all it has been passable here, but a few incidents have caused a bit of grief. I have had ongoing issues with a few external adjustments made when sitting at Birmingham since the middle of the summer. Trying to upgrade the website at the moment. A few changes to stock that I honestly believed had gone through due to the reply received from the platform, had not in fact, leaving me selling most of the desirable coins for a second time. It has happened to a few people that are regular customers who are more forgiving than new ones. The second set are less forgiving because they don't know you. Accordingly, I have had to make orders manually processable only. A pain in the ass, but at least it eliminates me having to incur a second set of full fees just to refund the customer. Makes me look a twat, and I never see them again. All is explained in the message on the landing page. The question is, can you see it or would you move past the front page too quickly to register the message? Anybody interested, have a look and give me some suggestions for a revamped layout. Website landing page Doesn't rain, only pours. Next problem. In addition to the above site issues, on Boxing day the CH boiler broke down and leaked it's contents everywhere. I have now informed myself by experiment that the new trainers my wife bought me a few months ago, are in fact waterproof as claimed. A quick check suggests the volume they can hold is in excess of 1 litre, but, it's a write off. Ideal boilers have shown themselves to be less than so. All the HE series units have a manifold that consistently breaks and they have done so on this boiler at least 3 or 4 times on several occasions since 2004. It's plastic, but rather than make a replacement that will last, they are offering a full boiler brand replacement. That's shit. I like to buy something that can be repaired with the least landfill possible. I am going for a Vaillant this time. Next problem. I've not been in the best of health for the past couple months. I'm not sleeping at all. The wife thinks I'm slowly going off my trolley due to lack of sleep and generally ignoring any potential health issues. Pointing out that my basic health figures are better than hers, she chooses to ignore my comments. She swims 4 or 5 times a week and does other exercises but has high blood pressure, nearly 200 over whatever. I do sweet f a and have excellent numbers - 120 over 85. Probably because I also smoke too much (she doesn't), drink too much (she doesn't) and don't try to pretend I'm in my youth (she doesn't either, but instead spends most of her time worrying about me not being so). To sum it all up. In the lead up to Christmas she got totally p'd off getting no sleep due to me coughing and keeping her awake. I've been banished to the sofa, and now sleep when I feel like it. She also booked me into the quacks and worse still managed to impress on him her concerns, much to my consternation. I now have a prostate exam for Friday. A senility test for alzheimers on the 8th. A new CH boiler being fitted on the 9th, and a lung cancer check in a mobile scanner on the 15th. This is apparently going to appear in Tesco's car park as part of the national screening program for smokers and ex-smokers. All is capped off by a consultation with a sleep specialist on the 21st. Apparently there is a program for that too. Anyway, enough of my woes. Downstairs for a quick cigar and see who is wandering around the garden followed by a quick whisky. One thing my family has got right is that a bottle of Linkwood is a regular in my Christmas stocking. :) Happy Days. Please look at the current website layout and give me some ideas about what would make it work better for you. More drop downs? More info? Ease of use? It is currently 03:30 on the 1st Jan 2026 and I don't feel at all tired.