TomGoodheart

Hope it's a good one! And if you get any coins as a present, pics please!

Better on the reverse. And better than the others I understand. gF for me. I could see a dealer call the reverse nVF.

I like shillings because I remember spending them. If I had a lot more money I'd probably have continued with milled ones as well, but budgetary constraints meant I needed to specialise and Chas I is where I ended up. Hammered shillings are a nice size (almost that of a bronze penny) and come with a good variety of portrait designs. Plus you can pick them up, breathe on them or drop them in your tea without causing much harm. I'd worry about copper and bronze in better condition getting finger marks or verdegris ... Halfcrowns I quite like, but they get pricier than shillings as you go back in time. I did own a nice hammered sixpence once. But milled ones are too tiddly for my taste. Shillings are .. just right. .

The College of Arms has responsibility for matters heraldic so any changes to flag and coat of arms will be down to them. Interestingly Scotland has it's own Court of the Lord Lyon So in theory they could drop the blue saltire and use the lion rampant ... or deep fried mars bar ..

Hi Chris and welcome! Feel free to show off some more hammered - we always like pics! .

I think your divorce simile is spot on Dave. Oh, we're good friends now and we've lived together reasonably amicably for 300+ years. But once one side starts to quibble about the details it's all too easy too see the other taking a firmer stance in return. And I can't see much help from Europe. Spain in particular, apart from it's own economic woes, won't want to encourage the Catalans or Basques (now there's a comparison Alex Salmond might like to use!) any more. And the newer members in the East will expect an independent Scotland to have to jump through the same the hoops that they did ...

True. When Wifey drives she can listen to the Kooks and all that shizz and then when I get in I just switch cards and it's back to Lamb of God and the Prodigy! Oddly, I feel a bit like a Luddite. As technology had advanced I've simplified. Back in the day when I took photographs I had a decent SLR camera. Then we were burgled and we just got a point and shoot instead. I used to lavish time and money on my stereo in the days of records. And albums were as much for the music as the artwork of the covers. Now .. I just listen to music via the internet. I think I have one downloaded track and that's John Cage's 4′33″! Though CDs can be handy sometimes. Can't get an MP3 signed by the members of a band, can you?

LOL. You would have liked my Dad's old Quad stereo. Valve amp, Rotel deck and electrostatic speakers the size of radiators. Sadly I had no space for them so sold them on to a specialist... Now? I listen to my metal off an SD card that plugs into the car sound system ...

Just for fun (?) I thought Id revisit this thread. Seems to me that the Scots are voting with an awful lot of unknowns. Currency, EU membership, border arrangements and status/future of what are currently UK Government departments and armed forces in what will nominally be an independent country for a start. Now I can't see Westminster allowing Scotland to flounder as it's not in the interests of everyone else. We would all benefit from an economically healthy, politically stable neighbour more than another sick man of Europe. However there may well be a limit to how accommodating they are if it goes to a Yes. While everyone has views as to what will happen, it really doesn't seem clear to me. So I can only assume voting will be down to sentiment. Not really a good basis to make a decision that will affect us and our children for generations ..

Well, that is over ten years worth. Luckily I realised early on that it would be helpful to have comparisons when looking to buy. The fact that it also gives me a historic record of prices and availability didn't really occur to me until rather later on!

I certainly maintain records of coins by reference number, price, where and when sold. I have 1510 so far. Just Charles I Tower mint shillings ... and that doesn't include all of those in auction catalogues and dealers' sale lists. It's a full time job. But unfortunately an unpaid one. .

It already has. I bought this raw from Stacks Bowers 18 months ago: Negro's head having been used as a mark for only about 10 months the coins are scarce in any condition, so £400+ would have not been unreasonable IMHO. I got it for $330. I'm sure others have similar stories. Conversely, a year ago I bid over £500 on a coin here in the UK, expecting to get it for a bit under my bid. A regular Charles I shilling but in rather better than average condition. It went for £1000 not including commission. It's not just in the US that conditional rarity has become most desirable alas. .

I can't fault any of that coinkat. To me the UK market appears to be moving away from the varieties and scarcities in any condition towards everyone wanting better condition as well. This makes grade more important. Trouble is, most hammered and early milled coins weren't consistent in how they left the mint making it a challenge to determine what's wear and what's down to the quality of the strike. I'd argue that makes a large proportion of 'classic' coins that attracted collectors of the past unsuited to third part grading. I worry that this will make such series less 'collectable' in the future. There also seems to be an expectation about prices (at least on eBay) for slabbed examples of such coins which may be%2

Verdegris on a silver coin (top of the reverse): Though as far as I know you're right that verdegris shouldn't form on precious metal coins. I'm guessing that since it's a copper salt, it's not actually on the silver, but an area of over-concentrated copper in the alloy.

Thanks. To be honest, I'm finding it difficult to second guess prices in the current market. Little material about and much of it mediocre with the occasional daft price being paid for better pieces! But I'd hope on a good day between £150-£200 ... if the lop-sided flan doesn't put people off. I'm assuming that's post-slabbing? Bit worrying ... And yes, since silver coins are not 100% silver the small amounts of copper in the mix can in theory result in verdegris. Though I don't believe it can spread beyond the copper to the rest of the coin AFAIK. .

Well, beauty is in the eye of the beholder, but I was wondering about this for example: Trouble is, I could see it getting anywhere from a 40 up. (Or, given there are a few scratches, a 'details' grade ..!) Maybe when I win the lottery. Or if ever I decide to sell it. Though in that case, if I was aiming for 'big bucks' I'd be as likely to use NGC and sell through Stacks or Heritage in the US. As for Bill, I don't remember him posting recently. You could always PM him?

Welcome Russ. Remember we like photos of coins too! Feel free to post a few from your collection if you can. Are your shillings all milled or any hammered? Why do I ask? Er .. just curious!

I've moved this topic to the TGP Discussions section for neatness PWA. And while I also fall into the 'have not slabbed a CGS coin' camp, I feel compelled to mention that while I would be very interested to know what CGS would say about a couple of my coins, since they are hammered the £29.99 (plus £10 post) rather puts me off trying it out. OK, so I'm cheap. But while I can still find pleasing coins for under £80, how worthwhile would it be to spend £40 to get a 'details' grade? Detector finds with scratches or dints, museum cleaned, even odd spots of verdegris ... I just can't see even some of the rarest of my coins meeting their standards, which are after all based on expectations for later milled. I'm not saying CGS should compromise their standards .. I'd be happy to have my coins assessed on the basis of wear alone. But I suspect in most cases I'd just be throwing my money away. If submission was the standard £13.75, or there were 'introductory' offers would I try it out? Maybe. Just an observation.

Perhaps we should have the equivalent to a swear box? Every time someone says "Penny" "Halfpenny" or "Farthing" they have to put in 1p. Same with misspellings and bad grammar. The proceeds to go to those who collect shillings and talk proper...

Chris has an occasional clear out Geordie. Particularly if there's a spate of spam. Fortunately there hasn't been for a while. But he's the only one that can actually remove members. PM him maybe?

Oh, well, you might find this amusing then!

To be honest, now seeing it small like that, I see minimal wear at all. And it looks to be better than average on eye appeal. But I'm going to defer to people like Clive, Rob and Stuart to state an actual grade I'm afraid!

Mwahahahah. 4-0!

Welcome CC! Indeed, cleaning is not recommended! The other thing to remember is that we like photos of coins as much as, if not more than, talking about them. You might like to look at the thread here: http://www.predecimal.com/forum/topic/7880-posting-pics/ As for the 1800s life was very similar but TV was rubbish and there were no mobile phones. Or was that the 1980s? I forget ...

Another attempt to get a decent photo of my 'Marianne' theme advertising jeton as I'm jolly pleased with it. Shiny things sure are tricky to photograph aren't they? To my eye, it's more lustrous in the hand and has hints of blue, but I'm just to lazy for a proper photographic setup so ...