Chris Perkins

The 1981 Crown is a 5 shilling (25p) coin. In a case it's worth about £1. The 1990 proof set is worth around £10 assuming the coins have not toned at all. The 1986 £2 coin can be spent as £2 but will be worth £3 or even £4 if it's in absolutely perfect condition with no scratches or toning.

What a great find! You'd know about Civitas Cantor and all the others if you had an 'Englands Striking History' to hand!

I know that there is no way of adding images anywhere at the moment, including in the gallery or even as an avatar. I'll try and sort that out this week (was in Vienna last week). I tried already but it's a mystery.

No I wasn't talking about the customs forms, I meant the description of the item that some post offices will ask for. Some don't ask.

I've had problems with this in the past too. (from the UK). When people send me coins from the UK I often recommend that they describe them as antiques or collectables, so that if they go missing you get the proper money back. It's ridiculous that coins are't covered, that rule should apply to current money only. I don't know if it's the same for special delivery. In the mean time, lie through your teeth...if it goes missing then how are they ever going to know the package contained a coin?

I know! You just instantly know the type of person your dealing with if they call you 'mate' in a sentence somewhere. And you can bet that if they're old enough to smoke that they hold their cigarette facing towards them between thumb and index finger.

How much is postage for one of them to Germany? Surely one of them is big enough to be worth while.

I know what your picture is! I mean the one in the listing.

Silver bars? Where? Perhaps we could swap.

I got it for £10, so I'll send it to my friend at coinsforsale.co.uk.

Resting it on a lemon squeezer can only increase the value, surely?

924 (the cow) can't manage the stairs. Ok, ok, I'll do a picture right now. I've actually listed it on the website for £95 just now.

£20 and it's yours. Or is that too much? I don't really know about pricing hammered, and how badly the hole affects things.

Thanks. I'll wait and see if TomGoodheart wants it. If not, I'll send it to my hammered friend. I also have a quite nice 1624 shilling.

Tomgoodheart will probably want to see this. It's holed but not that awful all things considered. It has a crown mint mark. I haven't worked out which Spink number it is yet!

I met my local MP once and told him I wouldn't mind helping out. But he looked like a potato and all he did was drive around in a big Jag most of the day. He expected me to go knocking on strange people's doors in Gillingham (Kent)! Bloody cheek. And all the people that helped out were wierd scary people that you could tell were not very socially skilled. One woman proudly told me she'd been knocking on people's doors for over 40 years. Surely she should at least be in the cabinet by now? Then they kept writing to me and getting my name wrong, so I just ignored them and concluded that politics wasn't for me. I simply don't have the right background or cardigans to fit in with that lot.

As far as I know he hasn't noticed the forum and therefore hasn't seen us making public fun of him! The last email I got was yesterday. There was no swearing but he asked if my email was a threat and that he'd get the police involved. I pointed out that there was nothing threatening in my message and that if you compare his outbursts with my calm replies, the police would probably side with me. I said I would ignore his outburst and just put it down to him getting out of bed the wrong side that day. And just as another bit of thinly disguised patronism, I told him about how rewarding coin collecting can be and that he shouldn't let this little episode put him off.

It's unlikely to be worth a fortune at any point in the future. If you look at Victorian coins with similar errors (granted, that type of error was common then) most dealers don't add anything to the normal prices. Anyway, I can live without it!

Was being lazy! I haven't done pics yet. I will do.

I got a Chas II Crown recently. 1677 and a bit better than yours. Does anyone want it for £95?

I'll make a big thing of it when it's done, don't you worry. It's being put together by fellow forum member Red Riley.

I've never seen one, and I don't think I've ever heard about anyone having one.

Mainly on the bust, the heavy wear on the veil and hair. Also the flattened broach and collar. The reverse is better than fine really.

To explain the grades in words is hard. Each coin type wears in different places first. Generally though, wear for VF or Fine is usually quite obvious when you've seen a few. What you need is the Official British Coin Grading Guide...A publication which will be published by my very own Rotographic and will appear next year. It will have photos of all coins types from the last 200 years in all grades! Possibly the most useful book for coin collectors ever!

I had a someone once that had an Edward VII sixpence, 1906 I think. It was worn so I told her it was worth just a couple of pounds max for the silver content. She got really shirty and refused point blank to believe me. It was 100 years old, how can it possibly just be worth a couple of pounds! I waste such a lot of my time with that kind of thing. It had reduced recently but now it's the school holidays, I wonder if that has an effect? I suspect my current biggest fan is very young, he certainly acts it.