Chris Perkins

Or someone has machined it, for fun? The weight would be a clue.

Jason, I'll upgrade your PDF versions of the eBooks to the epub versions free of charge.

List the numbers of each pre 1947 silver coin Carly and I'll see if that £50 is about right. Are the foreigners silver (coloured) at least? Some countries still had silver content up to the late 60s, but not all that many. Generally foreign coins found in accumulations like this are ordinary coins from foreign trips, as Clive mentioned above.

Carly (facepalm (in your pic)), If they are just normal used coins from circulation (lots of people saved them in the 60s) generally the coppers are fairly worthless. The bulk of any value will be in the pre 1947 silver coins (for the silver content). It usually isn't really worth presenting them in any way, as they are almost certainly just worth the metal value, which could still add up to something worthwhile as the silver coins are worth many times their face value.

I think Halfpenny Jon and William kind of grew out of coins a bit I think, i.e. got on with learning whatever they were learning - no doubt boozing and babes and babies may have got in the way for some of the early members. I bought some coins off both Jon and William many years ago. And for young people now there is social networking. Forum? What's a forum, we may as well all be using ZX81's, we're so old.

In that condition, even with less doubt about it being a 'C' coin, I would have thrown it straight in the bin! I hope you get your money back for it.

Must be late Victorian then, I'd forgotten they called Florins 'Two Shillings' then, as well as later.

It looks like a toy coin (for kids) and is probably made my Lauer of Germany. Often Lauer is mentioned in the obverse legend. Actually it's a bit late for Lauer I think, so could be another maker. I sometimes wonder how many times these have passed through the digestive systems of children!

There are quite a few mentioned within this forum, too, over the years. It is no longer 1973 and thankfully there are search engines to aid people in finding lists of known forgeries etc.

I just logged in to have a look. So far there are 5 English fakes (3 milled, 2 hammered), 1 Chinese and 2 Ancient Greek listed, so currently very much in its infancy, it would seem.

On the subject of fakes, the BNTA have just launched a website for members with user name and password protection, where known fakes are documented and shown (I assume, I haven't looked yet). Apparently users can also add fakes to the database. The information is not available to the public and this is the reason: After much thought, and consultation with many of the BNTA members, the Council decided that the best route to take with the forgeries database would be to protect the information in a “members only” section of the website. This means that the information is not shared with the public and genuine collectors are not put off from building their collections by knowledge of the quantity of that forgeries exist. The best way to battle this problem is to educate ourselves as members of the BNTA and feed this down to our clients when helping and advising them to buy coins. So, this concept boosts one of the core ideas of the BNTA : that collectors should look for the BNTA symbol when buying coins and are advised to seek out BNTA dealers when building a collection. The private nature of this information also adds value to your membership of the BNTA, with access to information that you would not be able to easily find elsewhere. I think that's a wrong decision and it seems to suggest that collectors are a bit silly and that they all really need a BNTA god to offer guidance. Many novices do need guidance, but surely the best way to battle any problem is to educate EVERYONE, not just a minority group of UK coin dealers. It would be nice if everyone was aware of the BNTA and that collectors actively looked for the BNTA symbol, but I suspect of all the coin sales on the internet in the world, less than 1% is made by a BNTA member and that nearly 100% of the coin buyers either don't know who the BNTA is, or don't really give a toss!

I like my music like my forgeries.... brassy. It also made me proud to be an American, although I've never been there and have no connection to the USA whatsoever!

It went for £235 in the end, which is a very nice surprise. The others also did well and there are 3 more that end at the weekend. I'm currently doing pics and cataloguing my 50+ 1770s fake halfpennies in the hope that there may be a scarce US made one among them.

I think that makes it art imitating art, imitating art, imitating art, imitating life, imitating legend.

Cleaned in the past, as it looks very bright? But not that it really matters that much for a peach like that.

CCGB2014 says £300 BU, and that one certainly looks a lovely grade.

It looks like shilling, I know! But I honestly have no idea who those bidders are. One of the bidders whacked on the £230 on the 29th June (my Birthday, as you all know) and the other has been coming back to it and nudging a few times a day in small increments. Yesterday he stopped around £100. Today he nudged until he finally out bid the £230 just now. Edit: initial bidder bid the £230 on the 30th!

This surprises me. I've got some electrotype/counterfeit coins on ebay at the moment (after giving SEUK first refusal) and my electrotype Scottish 1582 40s in copper has gone a bit high (£235 just now, with about 6 hours to go). I've noted that I've incorrectly called it a 60s, but can't change it! here: http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/271533065323 I know that older electrotypes are collectable and I know what I paid for it about 10 years ago. £235 is more than I thought it would get to! It's not one of you lot bidding to win and neg me for selling a fake coin is it?!

That's a very good idea Peter.

Shall I put "Clive and his Egyptian mate"? I don't know the name of your mate, or I would include it, if he wants me to.

Oh yes, I remember seeing that one at some point. I've never seen the content, but I don't think it includes basic lessons on reading Arabic? Yes, looking at a review it is a: "profusely illustrated general history of Islamic coinage".

The RM seem to use the Pistrucci St George whenever they don't want the hassle of having to pay a living artist for a new design (most of which are nowhere near as good as a Pistrucci). However, I would imagine that the current copyright rule of artist death +70 years means that anyone could potentially use it now. And I think back then the rules were different and it may have been only during the life of the artist (if at all) and Pistrucci having died in 1855, there would probably not have been an issue with its use in 1859. Lovett may well have used his version knowing that Pistrucci had died and his copyright with him.

Ooo, I had some very similar to that offered to me by a friend and hallmarked as 'Fine Silver' in Chinese. They were all fakes! Zinc (which is about the same density as silver) with a thin silver coating. The blackness on them was just applied to make them look old, as it washed off. Another friend of mine (the scrap man) tested them with a very expensive XRF machine. We confirmed it by filing one to reveal the bluey zinc under the silver. My mate who bought them also said they were definitely silver! Get them check with an XRF. The Chinese have been in the fakes game for many years.

Excellent. Bit far North for Romans to be losing things, and that makes it all the more fascinating.

Could that have been bank fees perhaps?