Chris Perkins

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.

Oh it gets better! I'm going to have to edit out most of his very limited vocabulary. Here's his reply: oh f* off mate just wanted to no dont be such a f* c* u sarcastic p* shame i have gt one u p* wot a f*in waste of time and oxegen u r you stain on society f* u c* To which I replied: Are you a child or a juvenile? You certainly act like one. If you are, then I understand your immaturity. Do you think that you are a better person because you are able to swear at me and say lots of bad words? In my experience people that resort to abuse and cannot construct proper sentences in the first place (or spell), rarely have rare coins. And, today you have proved that very convincingly. Tell you what: I'll continue buying and selling collectables, publishing books and selling accessories....You continue being childish and abusive, loosing your rag etc, and in 10 years come back to me and we'll see who has got furthest in life. Deal? You should watch out who you're abusive to in the future, as vengeful types might take the liberty of tracking your ip address and end up knocking on your door! So I hope you are equally as hard as your hard words. Keep looking for rare coins, one day you might find one if your lucky. I wish you all the best, Chris

I get a lot of comical emails from people that are just plain ingorant. This was one I got yesterday: hi i was given a 1965 coin of winston Churchill and looked it up on verious sits and books and was woundering if u would be intrested in this on the other side of the coin there is a picture of queen elizabeth 2 and i latin the sayin DEI GRATIA REGINA F.D. and i was woundering if u would be intrested i have recived a offer for it for 600 pounds but you cum highly reccemended so please if u wud like this i wll let u for 600 or 550 To which my reply was: What are you talking about?? No one that wasn't in a straight jacket or on serious medication would pay £600 for a Churchill Crown!! They are the most common modern crown and probably the ugliest coin in the world. You must surely know from looking at other websites that mint examples can be purchased often for less than £1?? I've just sold about 6 scruffy ones for less than face value (which is 25p). Are you trying to pull my leg? His reply: no to be hounest i have seen it in a book that this coin is valuled at 500 pound mate So he obviously saw the Satin VIP coin in a Spink book and completely ignored the normal one! In my experience, people that do that normally cannot write or spell properly, and this gentleman has just proved that yet again!

You're 17, you can still get away with being a Master for the next couple of years. Happy Birthday for today.

You can stay in that group as a mark of respect for your old involvement. See it as a bit like an honourary doctorate.

Master Jmd, long time no see. You must surely be Mr Jmd by now?

British coins in general in the forum, doesn't have to be predecimal despite the website name! The line coming from the B is the result of a die crack. On the inverted dies used for striking the coins, that line would have been incuse, not raised as it is on the coin. The crack may well have been caused by the blob on the Queen, which may have been some kind of debris picked up by the dies on a previous strike casuing a hollow bit of damage (and the crack) on the die and resulting in the mal-formed 20p that you have. Die cracks were pretty common in the past, but are rarely seen on modern coins, as least, not obviously seen on modern coins. The quality of the other 20p's struck after yours probably got worse until someone noticed and the really awful ones were probably rejected. Yours escaped into the pot and into circulation! I don't expect the value to be huge though. It's interesting in an anorak sort of way, but it doesn't have a wow factor! I'd probably give you a couple of pounds for it, which is many times face value

That's a little better, but NEF for the Crown is still inaccurate. Unless by Near EF you mean VF! For hammered info try my good friend Richard Varnham via Coins for Sale he's very knowledgable and knows all the right people.

Then you really should not give your opinion unless you can stand by it! Just because others sell coins in a haphazard amateur way, doesn't mean that you should sink to their level and try the same! Buyers will respect an honest seller a lot more than one that overgrades. Grading is not just opinion, it's fact, especially with modern milled coins like those. You can't just choose a grade out of thin air! To be honest I am very dissapointed with your justifications and if I was a collector I wouldn't buy anything off you. Murderers murder people, but just because they do it, doesn't mean you have to as well.

You have a lot to learn about grading Clive! That double florin is Fine, and the 1889 Crown is around about VF. The 1887 florin doesn't look bad, but it's not EF. I havn't looked at the trade dollar. Perhaps other members will also post about how they see the grades. It's all about learning what the coins look like when UNC and using that knowledge to base the other grades on. I'm sure you mean well, but don't expect prices for the coins in the grades you give them.

That's alright, it's easy to oversee! I think you'll like CCGB though, seriously. I get good feedback about it.

No more quoting the CYB in this forum! Can't you use the Rotographic CCGB2007 book??

A Collectors' Coins GB 2007 would be most useful. If you've not seen one before, they really do contain more varieties than any other book (for the last 200+ years of coins). See the Amazon link at the top!

Those types exist also with George IV on them (and WmIV??? Not seen one) and also as pennies.

Nova Scotia is not Caledonia, i.e. the big peninsular on top of England! Nova Scotia is 'New Scotland', a part of Canada (before they switched over to dollars and cents).

1791 with a swirly print sounds like a Parys Mines North Wales Halfpenny (or Penny). Is it copper with a Druid on the other side? Hello Jen, wonderful to have some female company in here for a change! Many of the members have turned gay already you know ;-)

I've got the following: 1. Catalogue of the Murdoch Collection of Coins and Medals (the series of Scottish and Anglo Gallic Coins). Lots 1 - 406 (11th to 13th May 1903). Catalogue is complete, but not all in one bit! It has hand written notes in the margins which appear to contain the names of the winner and the price paid. Names include Spink, Verity, Rollin, Lincoln and Weight (they bought pretty much everything between them). I don't know if it's an auctioneer copy...each page is totalled and the Total of Sale is shown at the end before the plates. Offers? 2. Catalogue of the Murdoch Collection of Coins and Medals (the series of English Historical Medals). Lots 1 to 670 (2nd to 7th June 1904). Complete, but not all in one part. No prices noted. Lots of plates with large illustrations, quite a thick catalogue. Offers? 3. Catalogue of the Murdoch Collection of Coins and Medals (the series of English Historical Medals, GIII to Victoria). Lots 671 to 1084 (14th to 16 December 1904). Complete and just about still held together. No prices noted. Attractive plates, so are copies of fine hand drawn images. Offers? If you don't want/need them Rob, what do you think the 3 are worth? They came with a collection a few years ago.

That's a fake, instantly recognisable from the awful pitted surfaces. The coin wasn't struck it was cast. I'll give you a fiver for it plus your postage costs.

I collect forgeries! Can you post a picture and we'll be able to tell you right away if it is or not.

I'm listing hundreds of new coins on predecimal.com, most are from a big collection I bought which was compiled in the 80s in Australia. The total sale value is high and there are some lovely early 20th Century pieces. I've already listed the Fractional farthings up to pennies in the last few days. It's a big task and I'm doing it bit by bit. When complete I'll send out a newsletter. Some of the recently added pennies are from a forum member and some of the farthings have already sold to another! So, don't forget I also buy coins and am always on the look out particularly for 1797 to 1970 coinage in collectable grades. Selling to me is much easier than ebay, and you may be surprisingly satified with my offer...I'm very fair and transparent.