TomGoodheart

Now you're just giving me a headache!

Mmm .. something like this I suspect I'd only know if it was in my hand*. As always, it shows the importance of knowing your field. But even then if someone wants to fool you, with the technology available today, it might be very difficult to detect. I suppose that's when knowing who you buy from (or getting some assurance about their returns policy) comes into play. Sad. But I guess, that's life. Even the Romans said caveat emptor. * Yes. Assuming it wasn't stamped REPLICA that is!

How .. odd! There's another replica on ebay; this time a Charles I threepence (or at least it's loosely based on a provincial Chas 3d) that I advised the seller was modern going for £51. Either people are happy to pay (to my mind ridiculous) loads for these things or they don't know what they are about. I think the most I paid for a contemporary (ie 17th century) fake coin was £40 because I thought it was rather splendid. The monkey in the royal arms was particularly good!

I think the problem is Jay, that there can't be many of us here who have paid scrap silver prices for our coins. So we'd probably want a price that reflects what we paid. Since I don't buy coins for what they are made from but for their historical value mine might prove a bit pricy. With a quick calculation suggesting a minimum of $120/oz (and I haven't bought anything at that price in quite a while) up to perhaps $10000/oz I doubt you'd be very interested.

I'm inclined to think it's genuine. Counterfeits and fakes are generally less crisp in the lettering in my experience. As to the missing stops .. if you were going to fake something to that accuracy I'd imagine you'd put the stops in. Is the reverse normal looking?

Indeed. If you did hand it in then they wouldn't give you £1 for it. Which leaves most people with the choice of passing it on or making a loss. Same as in ye olden days in fact, except now nobody will chop a bit off you for posession of a fake. I collected enough counterfeit (are they good enough to call that?) £1 coins to have an (preferably extremely poor!) example from most dates since 1997. My 'worst' examples are made from lead which has then been painted gold. Pass them off once and after that the paint wears off so a real shoddy job! But numismatically interesting.

Sounds like a good result to me! I think it's always interesting to have a couple of examples of replica / fake coins as reference material. Providing they don't cost too much that is. It's all part of the learning process I'm afraid. (I think I spent nearly £50 on my first counterfeit but it was such a nice example I kept it!)

If they are sold as souvenirs from historical sites and are clearly marked as copies then I have little problem with them. But there are quite a few that aren't marked and they can be a problem, particularly for beginners. Then there's the professionaly made pieces such as the Ashmore copies which can fool experts (in fact people actually collect Ashmore replicas as interesting pieces in their own right!) And of course the actual fakes (which used to be made in the Middle East but now increasingly in China). And there's contemporary (made at the time the 'real' coin circulated) copies which are of historical and numismatic interest. I uesd to have a small number of counterfeit Charles I shillings but sold them. But I still have a nice selection of fake £1 coins, just for amusement value! (And they are still being made, even today) Any of these will have a value to someone. Whether it's for curiosity, historical interests or illegal reasons.

Well, it's difficult to be absolutely sure with just a photo, but I'm pretty sure it's a cast copy. See above for a photo of a coin I seem to remember being sold on ebay as a copy which looks pretty much identical (ignore the Chas II crown) Sorry to be the bearer of bad news. I hope you didn't spend too much on it?

Slabbing is irrelevant to me. The coins I collect (hammered) generally are unaffected by handling since they have toned over the years and, so long as you are reasonably careful, unlikely to show any additional marks. They can't be graded in the same way as a modern milled coin in that there's a degree of subjectivity since a coin is rarely uniformly struck all the way across. A coin that is sharply struck across 50% of it's face for example will command quite different prices depending on whether it's the portrait or legend that is sharp. So a slabber's opinion of grade is irrelevant to me; how much I want the coin will depend on whether it's any improvement on all the other examples I've seen and whether it appeals aesthetically. Nobody else can make that judgement call for me. I find slabs make it difficult to see the edges (and sometimes even the shape of a coin. And they don't fit in my cabinet! So for me it's a no-no. I've only bought one slabbed coin and immediately 'liberated' it to get a better look. Of course, if I collected a different series, such as milled copper, I might feel differently.

Yes, I thought they might be! It has been a while, hasn't it?

Obviously they are withdrawn from circulation when spotted by the authorities. But the main thrust seems to be catching the forgers. The number of fake £1s in circulation is pretty large (maybe 4% of all in circulation?) and very few people are going to bother pointing it out and losing a quid for their trouble. When suspicious most people just get rid asap. I have a fairly representative selection of counterfeit ones. A nice piece of lead painted gold for 1989, example for every year between 1993-97 except 1995 and a full set for 1999 - 2006. When I find a new one I ditch the most realistic keeping those with the wrong reverse or particularly poor castings in preference! My silver 2002 example (with test marks) and the lead one are my current favourites!

Gosh! Have I been gone that long?! OK. If you by any chance are still interested ..! ... First Chas shilling is Spink 2799, Sharp G1/2 what's commonly called the 'Briot' bust. Issued at the Tower mint by Parliament in the King's 'absence'. Triangle dates it between 1639-1640. Second one is S2789, Sharp D2/1. Harp dates it between 1632-33.

I don't see any particular problem with slabbed coins. But to favour one coin over another simply because it is slabbed seems a bit foolish. I imagine that this sort of thing will appeal to those who don't know as much about numismatics and wish to rely on the guarantees that such companies normally provide. (Though I don't know what CGS offers in this respect). In other words, it strikes me as something for 'investors' in coins, rather than numismatists. As for pricing, well that comes down to research I guess. People who do their homework will see that the prices are perhaps a bit high. And also that there are other firms offering slabbed coins. It's not something that particularly appeals to me for a number of reasons. Firstly with the coins I collect, grading is somewhat subjective. One VF Charles I shilling can just have a lot more appeal than another; even though strictly they are both the same in degree of wear and tear. Toning, crispness of the strike. Whether the coin is full or clipped, central or not. That sort of thing. Secondly I like to examine coins in my hand. However good encapsulation is, it's still difficult to get a proper idea of a coin when it's encased in plastic. And in the end, for me at least, it's almost irrelevant what someone else thinks of a coin. I still base my decision on whether I like it, whether it's a good deal in comparison to similar coins I've seen in the past and whether it adds something to my collection. Nobody else can make those decisions for me.

I go into the Post Office when there's a new issue, like the 2006 £5 and get a handful and spend them. You sometimes get some funny looks but they are legal tender and maybe someone will get one in change and give them to a kid they know. Well, that's what I hope anyway. Maybe in 30 years time I'll have encouraged a couple of children to start collecting coins. Who knows?

I'm more than happy to 'contribute' any of my Charles I shillings. Many are in the gallery section here so if whoever might want to put this together wants to use one or more as an example of late hammered that'd be fine. As are most of the coins (joke).

For £1000 you could buy a selection of early milled silver shillings (1/20th of a £) from 200-300 years ago or some interesting groats (four pence) from the reign of Henry VI of England (mid-1400s). In fact, for less than £100 you could buy a Maundy set from the reign of Queen Victoria (1837-1901). All of far more historical and coin collecting interest than the items you have mentioned in my opinion. Just an idea!

That depends on what you want to spend. A good picture framers should be able to sort something out for you. Putting felt or velvet behind the coins would allow them to be kept in place by the pressure of the glass so they don't slip around whilst on the wall. Or choose a frame yourself from a shop? Alternatively Chris here sells coin trays. They can be bought with holes of various sizes so you could select one to hold yours safely. They are quite attractive on their own or you could get some moulding and make a frame around the tray for display purposes? If you message him from here he can perhaps advise. At least, them's my ideas. Maybe someone else can suggest something better?

"This coin is slightly better than the pictures but it was hard to get the detail with the camera that ive got. No, honestly, the picture tells me everything I need to know! Coins like this go for over £100 on ebay what, 'like this' as in round and made of metal? so grab a bargin! With all my lots you will get exactly what you see in picture, no more Indeed! no less! "

Most metals tarnish and coins pick up dirt Joe. So while your coin may look like aged silver that's no guarantee I'm afraid. And while more recently some coins have been struck especially in silver I'm not aware that this was the case for coins of this date. So although you could get your coin analysed, I'm sure it will turn out to be the normal cupro-nickel. Sorry!

Which should be good news for collectors of higher grade or rare pieces with a decent provenance traceable from illustrated sales catalogues over the past 100 years or so. But less so for those of us with modest pockets who pick up coins from antique shops, Ebay and other places where people simply haven't kept (or don't know) the provenance of a coin. I think I have a couple of recent hoard coins through auction, a dozen I can trace back beyond whoever sold me the coin to a dealer such as Stephen Mitchell or another auction house, a handful from well known collectors (including one coin I can track back to the 1950's). But for the most part, all I have is the invoice from the dealer that sold me the coin or simply a printout of the Ebay listing. I buy in good faith and using a modicum of common sense, as I suspect we all do. But that might not be much defence in a court of law. Just sayin!

I've collected a few - about £20 worth - but having picked out the worst of the bunch (wrong / out of alignment reverses, extra poor casting, wrong colour (one in lead, painted gold!)) I've given up and just pass them on. A few I've kept for a friend who claims he knows someone with over 200 of the things, but they are only a passing interest to me. I have however noticed I get more from certain shops and taxi firms than others and haven't seen the numbers coming my way substantially decrease, despite the recent arrest of Mr Glindon. The bottom line is that, like counterfeits throughout history, there is little incentive to hand them over to the authorities. You lose a quid, and a numismatic curiousity.

Mmmm .. I was under the impression that it was the UNESCO agreement on the treatment of antiquities that is the problem. See here for a rant UNIDROIT Effectively making the assumption that unless an antiquity could be shown ot have been in collectors' hands for some time it could be assumed to have been obtained illegally. What concerns me is that, of the coins I own, many of which were obtained from reputable dealers whose names you would all be familiar with, very few have details of previous owners. Whenever I ask 'do you have an old collector's ticket' or 'can you tell me where this coin is from' I'm often told that the coin was bought at a show / as part of a lot and that no ticket exists. Worse, I've seen coins I have owned for sale on Ebay with 'I don't know much about this coin' descriptions. When I have emailed the seller to tell them that all the information (Spink reference, provenance, dates of purchase) are on the ticket I supplied to the purchaser they have no idea what I'm talking about. If people simply don't pass on tickets or details to purchasers none of us will have a leg to stand on should the police knock on our doors demanding to know where our coins were found and when and how long they have been in private hands.

And a very belated Happy New Year to everyone from me too! Here's to a survivable (if not succesful) 2009!

As a 'specialist' collector, I look far and wide for my coins. I have bought many internationally and I have no idea why Germany should be any worse (?) than anywhere else. I bought a very scarce variation from a chap that picked it up as part of a job lot in Germany. I look internationally because few of the rare varieties are recognised there and so there's always a chance of finding something new for cheap! I had a minor hassle with a coin from a German auction house (WAG), but only because I hadn't realised I'd have to pay by bank transfer. Once I got over my anxiety my building society accomodated my request quite happily. In terms of grading I use the photos. Even with UK sellers I generally ignore their view of grade and condition. I'm the one that is going to have to live with the coin, after all. I have never had problems with post. The only hiccup I remember was when poor Antony Wilson sent me a coin to my Royal Mail PO Box via parcel post. Because of the separation of the Royal Mail and Parcelforce, without his excellent assistance my coin would have slipped into some limbo. But I have never had a coin lost, nor a seller renege on a deal. As for language. I have always found sellers in Europe to have excellent English. If I'm really not sure, I don't bid. But that goes for anywhere, doesn't it?