Chris Perkins

Dame Judi Dench is a fox!

And I tell you, that Justin Hawkins (the singer), can get bloody high with his vocals. But they are well controlled and not out of place. I may be up in Manchester next year Sylvester shall I knock for you? Chris

Ok, i'll skip the paper talk! I was born in Sidcup, which although officially part of the county of Kent in SE England is also right on the edge of the London Borough of Bexley. So when London is cool, i'm a Londoner through and through, and when it's very bad, i'm from Kent! I grew up both in London and Kent. I used to work for a London IT company providing extremely hi tech and specialised stuff to schools and colleges: www.bromcom.com. It was super there because I really got to travel around the UK and Ireland and get paid for it! From Dublin to Dover, where there are schools, I went. Then I met a charming young German Fraulein. She wouldn't live in England, and the traffic was bad, so I moved to a village on the outskirts of Chemnitz in Saxony, Germany. The traffic is much better now and I really have time to concentrate on my numismatic empire! It's quite different here, but with budget flights and the common market Blighty is never too far away. I do miss the sea though. Seems strange always being 800 miles from a sea, stuck with a bunch of land lovers. I still keep strong links with England and pop over from time to time to buy coins, see family, mates etc. I'm also into Classic cars and Rock music and I have very long hair Chris

Yes, it certianly does. It's like a differnet style, completely new Queen with twisted lyrics!

Yes it certainly is, and I won't go into why I think that is. Although I imagine it's probably for the same reason that most world leaders and top business executives are not female......Females are busy with much more important things! In saying that though it's good to see Eliza here and I do have a few regulars that are of the female gender. And they are so nice to their husbands and sons! Chris

I live in an isolted mountainous region between Saxony and Bohemia, and I don't get out much at the moment. What is RCC? Chris

Talk about things NOT coin related!

Well it's about time a refreshingly different band came along to break the dross of one second wonders. Who likes The Darkness?

Well it's fine by me because while personal purchases are down. I'm having a right blindin' run of accessory sales for mainly husbands and sons! Chris

Absolutly right, might as well call it slagging, because it's just coin prostitution! Making money out of packing a coin into a plastic thingy, those huge differences in price between grades are laughable and manufactured by the industry. To a degree they take the actual learning and knowledge of grading aspect away from the coin collector for profit. It should be about how much you are willing to pay for a coin based on how much you want it and how much other people have paid for it on the open market. Creating miniscule varities of Uncirculated inflates prices beyond real worth. It is about feeding the needs of the people that are perhaps unsure and need 'official' aknowledgement of what they have. Preying on uncertainty. Take a coin to any dealer and he (she) will usually grade it well and for free! Learn about your coins, study the differences between types, strikes etc. Appreciate the history, the designs, the building a collection. Organise and love your coins and they will always have a much higher value than being sealed in a plastic thing! All my coins are graded CP and that's the way they will stay. Have you ever tried to get one of the coins out of those slags? I got a George V Half Crown from my good friend the late Mark Rosner once, graded by one of them as AU......It was scraping a GVF! It took so much smashing carefully with heavy items to crack and completely remove the coin to be properly graded, it was untrue! Chris

Yes, she has but picked a coin that wasn't mine! I also got the impression she didn't want to spend to much until Christmas was out of the way That right Eliza? Chris

They base their prices quoted on what they and other dealers are selling those coins for. The demand for any particular coins, auction results past and present, inflation etc. In short, they are based on what is available now, nothing to do with how many were minted. I suppose the quanitity of a particular coin available now is in most cases relative to the numbers produced I have noticed that American price catalogues religiously show mintage numbers for everything. Spink have never done that, apart from recently they have started to show issue numbers for certain proof coins. Sometimes I think that it would be a good idea if Spink did likewise but perhaps this would lead to frenzy like up and downs in prices that US coin collecting seems to see often. Chris

Hmmmm, Sometimes I think the Isle of Man exists only for the TT race and to produce ridiculous Cat, Harry Potter, TT race coins and an uncollectable amount of 'commemorative' tosh. I hope I am never forced to sell new issues!!! Chris

I expect they make minor modifications to the alloys used with different years??? Chris

No, the 73 hands was a million times better than a runner with no body! Like I always say, just a money making ploy. It won't be long until we start seeing celebritys on coins, holograms and more sickly colourisation. Chris

What a stupid 50p! Perhaps you should also pop that image in the debate section so the voters can see it. Chris

When you make a normal post it should say: 'You may attach a file to this message. Maximum file size (in bytes): 51200000' Browse your Hard drive and select any .jpg or .gif you want to display with your post. Not too huge! Chris

I've always maintained there are for too many commomorative coins these days and they are all about making money for the mint. I cringe when someone contacts me saying they have a lot of Westminster collection coins to sell. It's over priced, and sells very slowly when it isn't new in my experience. People that religiously buy every new issue are being mugged, and their coins will probably be worth less than they paid for them for the next 70 years at least. I too would like to see pictures of htese new issues. Chris

Exactly, Everything is rare and overhyped. Like the rare 1964 pennies they found in the cellar, that were put there some years ago wrongly labeled as 1967! What a load of poop. Chris

Yes you're right, it's a good catalogue, i think I have that edition too somewhere. Unfortunately I don't know when they will be printing another. In fact I am very suspicious about Coincraft, the catalogue is good. However, in my opinion the coincraft website is full of over priced over hyped, mostly rubbish coins and I don't agree with how they may catch novices out with that kind of stuff! They are a huge money making advertising machine and I don't like it! Chris www.predecimal.com

Well you have been busy Oli, and what a delicious idea. Pity you can't vote for more than one, as I tried to do. I am touched by the good vibes and remarks about the site I'm getting lately. Some days it counteracts all the bloody 'New Pence' 2p emails nicely! Chris www.predecimal.com

When you two have done your sums I'd be only too pleased to publish your findings on the site. Chris

Oi Cheeky, That veneered wooden specimen is pretty popular and I haven't even listed the new wooden trays yet! But it's all about price at the end of the day. Some people are very happy to pay a little over a hundred pounds and have plenty of safe, chemical fee space for their collection. Chris www.predecimal.com

Good idea. Probably one of the ancient Greek coins I have which if I can confirm it's authenticity should be worth about GBP15,000! It looks very real, and my friend at www.coinsforsale.co.uk who has been an ancient coin dealer for 40 years also says it looks very real. Next time in in the UK i'll pick it up and take it to the British Museum for verification. If it isn't that one it could be another Greek Decadrachm I also need to get verified. If both of those were made by the same bloke that seems to be producing all the dodgy pound coins these days then it's probably my 1937 Proof Sovereign (Spink 2004 GBP750.00). I have seen them sell for GBP1000.00 Or perhaps it could even be my 1927 halfpenny struck shilling size with a milled edge! Who knows. Chris www.predecimal.com

Chaps, I've often wondered about the differences too. I know that Spink have been going for ages etc but even a lot of their prices are well under/over what some coins sell for. It also seems to me that the Spink market values pay no attention to the prices acheived in online auctions which I've often seen go far higher than the stated prices. They monitor the major World auction houses I'm sure but i'm convinced some international sales of British coins get away. The Collectors coins books give another opinion drawn from British dealers lists and auctions in the real world and as far as I know they pay no attention to online goings on either. The Spink catalogue is really much more than a price guide, it shapes the market, because most dealers price their coins using it. So whatever is in there is probably what you'll see coins being sold for! So perhaps the Richards book reflects true worth with some coins. You just need to find a dealer without a Spink copy! And you won't. Chris www.predecimal.com