Chris Perkins

That would work for shillings with the three lions on, but ship halfpennies.....more effort than it's worth.

The whole thing should be 4cm or a little larger? The mount is probably only a few grammes and is probably 9ct if it is gold. In which case the value may well be less than £30. The coin is very worn and normally I sell crowns in that condition without the added gold plating for around £20.

My earliest Krause is the 1800-1900 one!

I think he meant 3.5cm including the mount? In which case it's most likely a gold £2 coin, or at least meant to be one. Lots of GIII replica £2 coins seem to have been made for the jellewery trade...I've got one in my collection of fakes. I think it was probably made with the mount and the style is very different to a real one. I suspect we'll need to see a picture.

Most importantly, in poor-fair the H wears away, so it's most probably an 1882H.

At an angle sometimes looks better doesn't it. Fabulous error that. And you're going to be auctioning it soon?

If it's been circulated it's worth £2 and is perfectly legal tender as such.

I've done a bit of geneology too. Got my Perkins ancestors back to about 1750 (all in London) then it goes a bit patchy. That little Pfenning is certainy 'in German' so is most probably German, not that Germany existed as one united nation back then. A Stadt is a town and a münz is a coin. The town is no doubt represented by the coat of arms on the other side, but I don't know which it is. Lots and lots of towns, dukedoms, principalities etc all issued there own little coins back then and it makes it all very complicated. The vast majority of the lower copper denominations are of negligble value. Please do contact me when you are selling any coins (mainly British but I'm also not fussed about nice Europeans).

No we don't. We just know it from the film of the same name with Bill Murray! The Ground Hog is not a native of those isles (i'm in Germany). I'm all for having a Hedgehog Day though! Somewhere in the forum, in the non coin area is a picture of Igor, a hedgehog that we found and cared for for a few months. Sounds like an interesting collection. Is it for sale? Recently I have purchased a collection from the USA ($800 worth). It all went very smoothly.

There should be a significant different in diameter.... about 2cm for the sixpence and 2.5cm for a shilling (not hugely different from the modern shilling/sixpence). It is possible that one of them was struck on a small flan? Or that both are sixpences! Can you trust that the seller knew what they were selling? Post pictures if you like.

Isn't that word doc just a blown up version of the other image? It's still not clear. It could be a real one, or a silvered base metal forgery. Usually the George III 2nd head (1817-20) are the ones that were most extensively forged. I don't think I've seen a forgery for the Geo IV 1820 coin, probably because the forgers would have carried on circulating the old type. Chances are high it's a real one but the jury is out.

I believe the blanks are hardened, perhaps it missed that stage. Or some other stage. Please post a picture.

I see what you mean. It does look a bit base-metally, and not as detailed as it could be. Can you attach a bigger picture of just the 'head' side?

That's right, all dated 1967 and that's one of the reasons there are so many of them.

I once used a couple of bags as 'ballast', put under the spare wheel (at the front) of my rear engined MG to keep the front end on the road. Worked a treat.

Another big problem with selling them is the cost of transportation! Postage costs are high for such a heavy item and it renders them uneconimical.

Scrap them. Unfortunately the world and his aunt seem to have kept the abundant canvas bags of 1967 coinage which was all made in massive numbers. Any other year has a slight premium of scrap value (which unfortunately is quite low at the moment), but 67's are all cheap and any collectors that want one have already got one and don't need another 1199 of them.

I have a great aunt called Shiela C(lements). But she's 80 and not online, so I suspect this is another one! Please post a picture Shiela. Forgeries are pretty common around that era, but silver can tone very darkly too. In 1820 both George III and IV half crowns were made. With the 'ANNO' under the shield it does sound very much like George IV.

Yes, it probably was. I certainly wouldn't have paid that much for one. Now that the word is spreading more people are aware and searching for them. 100,000 is pretty scarce for a circulating coin though, if there are as many as that. When was the last time you saw a 1988 shield back £1 coin? And there are 7 million of those somewhere.

This is genuine, I have received an email to the same effect.

When new, the wartime compostition bronze coins were chemically darkened so that they looked more old and used. This was because the natural tone of the 'new' bronze looked different and it was feared that the public would be wary of them. Some (scarce) ones seem to have escaped without being darkened.

A mule is a coin made of a pair of mis-matched dies, not to be confused with an 'error'.

I'm involved with enough books, it's someone else's turn!

Well, either keep them for posterity or sell them to me for £70 (or someone else). Those are really the only 2 options. You'd need to be in the SE though to justify me picking them up.

That thought had crossed my mind too Geoff! I was in the UK over Xmas and didn't see any new type 20p, 1p or 50p's.