TomGoodheart

Did this in under two minutes using Paint:

Um ... have you thought of Paint Rob? Comes as standard on most Windows based systems. Although sold as a (very) basic 'art' package, you can easily draw boxes in it. Cut them, paste them, resize them, move them around .. all fairly easy. Once the boxes are where you want them you can drop a text box over for any words you want to print too. What I tend to do is when I have the first element right I save the result. Then resave after the second etc.. then if you completely mess it up it's not all lost. Save the final result as a .jpg and you should be able to just print it as you would any other image file. That's what I'd try first anyway ...

Replied,

"Gang member" or something. Other exciting credits include Tom The Pig Man, Turnpike Keeper and King's Man. Hey, it's a living. Plus he gets to hang out with people like Martin Scorsese, Ridley Scott, John Boorman and the cast of Casualty.

Bet you wish you'd printed it the same size as the Coincraft ones now. Less chance of it being overlooked as the pan across the room! And .. congratulations. Better than my brother-in-law who was cut out of Gangs of New York and, as far as I can tell from the credits, Maleficent too!

I'll let more experienced members comment on the coin itself. Though very very double struck is an overstatement. I have several coins far worse. The orientation is normal. Hammered coins, the top die was just dropped onto the lower and so obverse and reverse alignment was largely down to chance. But in the meantime, I'm curious why you want it slabbed? If you mean to sell it in the US, fine. In the UK, a slab will make no difference (apart from costing you for the pleasure) as virtually all collectors are likely to just break it out again. For protection, a capsule will do the job and it'd be cheaper. If you want reassurance it's genuine, I suspect some members here can provide that. And if you really want it slabbed for the fun of it, CGS are UK based and more experienced in British coinage than NGC. Slightly less risk in sending coins to London than Paris or the US from the UK.

I see that fake shilling went for £170+ Scandalous. And what's the betting some of these end up going for daft prices in a year or so? http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Anglo-Saxon-Coenwulf-Silver-Penny-Coin-/331219463173?pt=UK_Coins_BritishHammered_RL&hash=item4d1e37ec05 :angry: :angry:

Yeah, OK I admit I may have overdone minimising the inconvenience for the sake of making a point. A toothpick then!

LOL I've replied to the last post in a thread before this ... only to then find out it was only the last post on that page and my reply makes no sense half a page on! An easy mistake ...

Here Wendy: http://www.predecimal.com/forum/forum/58-items-for-sale/ However ... whether here is the best place to sell them is debatable. So far what I've seen has been ... how do I put this? A sort of average assortment of coins put together by a casual collector. Picked from change or from travels as nicer examples. Now there may be a couple of stars amongst them, but it would take time to sift and see. Maybe you have a coin someone here really, really needs for their collection! Or maybe not .. It depends how much time and effort you want to spend finding out I guess. It might just be quicker maybe to list a few coins at a time somewhere like eBay. Or visit a dealer? People here might be able to suggest one near to you? OK, you risk missing out on finding that rarity, but .. well, take a look at this: This coin had 13 bids on eBay. It's a nice coin in decent condition. And eventually sold for .. £4.20. Most coins don't sell for a fortune I'm afraid and the time and effort selling them has to be balanced with how much money they might make. Sometimes it's easier to take a bit of cash there and then rather than spend weeks in research and trying to find a buyer for a few quid more. I hope that doesn't seem mean. It's just we get a lot of people visiting and asking 'how much'. And sadly a lot of the time the answer is .. not a great deal. Having said that .. if you want to try I suspect the simplest way, rather than dozens of listing is to take some sharp really big photos of each sort of coin. 20 of the better pennies, all the foreign coins, the shillings ... take one photo of the fronts and turn them over (but keep them in the same position so people know which side matches which!!) and do it again. Put them on photobucket and then post links in the For Sale area. Then people can look through for dates or grades ask for more details of any coins they might be interested in. Hope that helps.

We all know coins have been cleaned in the past. Some tooled to bring out detail. Holes plugged. It happened 100 years ago and it happens today. And with coins to which these things were done 50, 100 years ago, it's part of their numismatic history. Whether we like it and can live with it is, I think, a personal decision. As is whether to 'undo' the damage. My point was that charging to remove a bit of red wax that would probably flick off with a paintbrush and to then use that as an example of a supposedly desirable service shows a complete lack of understanding of an important (to me at least) area of numismatics (ie; provenance). It shows a different mindset. One that I'd prefer not to become all prevalent. Though I may be too late in that respect!

"Sold by Westminster for £150, receipt for proof. Westminster rated it as Fine but I'm not so sure." Hmmm .. 221453006545 All I can say is at a £0.99p start, that's where it might stay.

Well, I can see your coin now, if that's what you mean Wendy!

It was just used to illustrate their 'Restoration Service'. "PCGS Restoration is a new service designed to help collectors overcome environmental problems that may have occurred with their coins. Preserving originality and the natural condition of every coin is the number one objective of PCGS Restoration. All coins submitted will be evaluated by experts before any restoration is attempted. Coins will not qualify for restoration if, in the opinion of these experts, the coin should not be restored or if any attempt at restoring the coin could possibly worsen its condition."

Just spotted this on the PCGS Europe website. I'm ... a bit horrified. Rob will know why: I know everyone is different and some collectors want their coins to look pristine as if they've just come out the mint, but .. ..well, I just wouldn't.

If the direct linking doesn't work Wendy (it doesn't for me) look at the top left of the reply box. There you'll hopefully see an icon that looks a bit like a switch. Click on that and your typeface will change to a more basic form and you can then enter code. The code for an image is img. You need it in square brackets for it to be recognised as such and you need a pair, one to switch it on and another, preceded by / to switch it off again. Type in [im g] [ /im g] but without the spaces between the letters - I had to leave those or it confuses things!- then paste your photobucket link between the two sets of square brackets. And you should end up with something like this:

Another dinner plate from Azda!

Someone asked about this: Unfortunately I'm not experienced at reading late Anglo Saxon legends I just can't make sense of either the moneyer or town. EPRED? ON []ENT[][]?? Any ideas anyone? And the obverse. Edward the Confessor helmet penny. S.1179 (?) Ta!

Despite being half Scot, I rather agree. I receive letters concerning my taxes and premium bonds from Glasgow, suggesting there are Government departments which would need to relocate if Scotland were a separate country. Only today Wifey and I were looking at mobile phone charges in Spain. People might not be too happy if they have to pay additional roaming costs when crossing the boarder. Or if, as when in Anglesey our phones sometimes switched to Irish networks, folk in Newcastle found they were paying overseas rates to make a call! If Scotland is outside the EU will the rest of us need passports to visit? And will the Scots need to expand their border control/customs agencies? Minor details you might say. But all potential sources of friction and resentment if not thought through very carefully.

It's always worth picking up better than average coins when you see them Dan. The trouble we all have is that in the early days of collection it's not always easy to know if something is better or not. Some years are easier to find in nice condition than others. For example you should have no difficulty finding a 1787 shilling looking almost new and an EF example with a bit of time. 1908? That will take both time and money! But remember, if you spot something you like the look of you can always post pics here and ask for people's opinions. Plenty of advice to be had. In fact it's difficult to get some of us to stop talking about coins my wife says!

Thanks! That's very interesting! (Clearly I understand less and less how eBay works these days!)

I think it used to be easier to select which countries you wanted to list/ sell to on eBay. I gather that now it costs if you want your listing to appear on ebay.com. And when I last looked it was simple enough to select worldwide sales but tedious to try to then say except Russia, China, etc.. So now I just list and assume it's UK only. It's laziness I guess. But simpler this way. Just out of interest John, I didn't actively select any particular countries with my latest listing. I just followed what eBay told me! Can you view it? And does it say I whether I'd sell to Aus? (151291713149) .

As everyone says Dan, for most dates, the coins can be found. However all of us here (well, pretty much all!) have to make a decision at some point about balancing what we'd like with budget. Which in turn affects the speed at which your collection will grow. Personally I seem to buy less than half a dozen coins a year. Four so far this year, though it was only two in 2007. That's a result of my only wanting certain coins, being particular about what condition I want and how much I have available to spend. Some people might find that rate of building a collection too slow. I did myself a while back and diversified for a bit because money was burning a hole in my pocket! Now I'm back on track with my main collecting interest but funds are low. Fortunately (?) coins that appeal are also in short supply! I guess what I'm saying is that you'll need to decide at what point you are prepared to accept a coin that, were it a more modern issue, wouldn't make the grade. Pun intended.

No detailed knowledge I'm afraid. Though I do know that in the Tudor period laws were passed that gave the exchange rates for various European (and Scottish) currencies against ours. Presumably based on the fineness of silver. I also seem to remember that in the days of Edward I foreign merchants brought debased silver coin ('esterlings' also known as 'crockards' or 'pollards') into the country and exported our better quality coin for melting. As a result the law was changed to require them to bring silver into the country. This would then be minted (or more likely exchanged for already minted coin) at a rate favourable to the English exchequer which the merchants would then have to spend on goods they wished to buy. Basically the state has kept a close control on exchange rates for a every long time! Oh, and if anyone is curious about recent exchange rates (I use it to calculate overseas auction prices for coins sold a few years ago) this site might be of interest: http://www.x-rates.com/historical/ .

Says he's been sending coins from the UK to US for five years no problem. Sent International Tracked and Signed For (the old Airsure) Standard insurance is £50. He didn't think it worth paying for enhanced insurance as that only goes to £250 which was less than the £600 value he put on the coins ... *shrug*