TomGoodheart

My only reservations about that is that the bank I use simply place cases in a storage area where staff come and go all day. As far as I can tell, it isn't protected in any way from damp, flooding etc. And most banks seem to be removing the facility. I had to opt for a town miles away as no banks where I live offer safe storage. Not very convenient if you, like me, enjoy looking at your coins regularly. Plus there's an 'inspection' fee of a few quid. My thinking is that my coins are circulated and have survived being handled for many generations and part of the pleasure of having a collection is to be able to look at it. Others may feel differently. Plus I get several £000 coverage as part of my home insurance. Only items over £1000 individual value need specifying, so depending on how soon you start buying serious rarities or gold you may find your home insurance adequate. Bottom line is collecting should be a pleasure. If having your coins in a bank helps you sleep easier, great. If you like to access them when you want, keeping the fact that you collect quiet (people can get strange ideas about the value of coin collections) and concealing them at home may be adequate. Your choice.

I reckon storage is largely down to personal preference, though price and long term flexibility might be a consideration. Options range from a few pence (Colin Cooke sell acid-free envelopes suitable for coins, though obviously you can't view them without taking them out, at least there's plenty of space to write notes for your records!) to a personally made coin cabinet. I have one of Peter Nichols' The advantage is that you can select trays with coin recesses to the size you wish. In my case, all my coins are the same denomination, so the trays are the same. It has a traditional feel, helped by the fact that I use coin 'tickets'; small paper discs upon which you can write information about your coin. As several of my coins came with earlier collectors' tickets I think it's a nice way to store them all. My 'secondary' collection is made up of coins of differing sizes and so I use a similar system to many others in that the coins are in 2x2s. Called 2x2s because they are around 2 inches square. Usually these are card with mylar windows: though I have some plastic ones I bought years ago. Mine then sit in coin storage trays (Chris sells the Lindner version) though some people use albums (like photo albums but with little pockets in the pages as pictured above) to hold the 2x2s, which can be a bit cheaper. Another option is to use coin trays but with round recesses to hold the coins directly or in plastic 'capsules' Again, Chris's supplies (click on the predecimal.com link top of the page) include these. Main thing is to ensure you use new products that were designed for coin storage as these will be safe (no pvc or acids that can damage the coin). Finally, there are coin 'flips' transparent plastic envelopes or double envelopes (one for the coin, one for a card to write details on). If you buy mylar ones these should be safe, but I'd suggest not using ones you might receive coins in when you buy them as it's difficult to know if they contain pvc. Paper envelopes from dealers and auction houses should in theory be acid free and hence safe! As sound says, best to consider record keeping now as part of your storage and security. So it's worth keeping records of what you have, where you got it and how much it cost. Additional details like grade, likely value .. up to you. I use an excel spreadsheet, coin tickets, photographs and retain receipts/ copies of ebay/ dealer listings and keep electronic copies on memory sticks. Recreating records later after you've bought a few dozen coins will be tedious, a few hundred .. well, like I say, best start now! Also gives you a way to keep track of what you have (avoiding duplicates) and what's needed. The collection might be worth but a few quid now but .. who knows what it might cost you to replace it I a few years time? .

Thanks Chris!

More of a commemorative that happens to be bullion than a coin by the sound of it. I suspect there are few collectors for that sort of specific product, so as Chris says, the value of the gold is what matters. £200 sounds about right, but if the certificate confirms the carat of the gold you can double check here: http://www.hattongardenmetals.com/sell-scrap-gold.aspx They offer a fairer price than many. If you're willing to take a chance you might get more on eBay, though there are no guarantees. Of course, whatever you do, avoid high street gold stalls. They will offer you a lot less.

What!?!? Me?? Gosh. Who knew? (Not me obviously!) I'm not sure if that's brilliant or a bit sad, but thanks everyone! And don't worry about going to the trouble of a gold watch. A sovereign will do just fine!

I received my 5 Centimes today. Haven't had a chance to photograph it, so I've had to edit the original images. In the hand it's a really nice chocolatey brown which I suspect won't come across properly, despite my tweaking. Anyway I am very happy with it!

Reminds me of a favourite quote from Richard Lobel's intro to the Coincraft catalogue: "One of my first mentors, Bill Ross,[] said 'when you go to value a coin it is what you have not seen rather than what you have seen that matters'. By that he meant that, when you see a coin you have never seen before, forget what it catalogues, it is rare!

mcsearch's companion site, acsearch Heritage have good archives though you need registration (for free) to access to better photos CNG have a decent search function and some nice coins Hosting sites like Sixbid, LiveAuctioneers the-saleroom.com and numisbids Christies have some sales archived Noble.com.au

I'm still curious about the bike! I was behind a TX1 the other day and I have to say, it didn't look terribly wide. I wondered if you'd need to remove both back and front wheels, or it would be sufficient to take the back one off and rely on the fact that you can twist the front round to fit in the space.

It was just one coin. More of a swap than an actual deal. But then I got the bug. Six months down the line, here I am in a dingy bedsit with a rolled up shilling up me nose ..

Looks like Chris has some competition! :lol:

Not so keen on the spot on the reverse. I'd sell, though like Nordle sixpences aren't really my thing so ..

I'm not the most patient of people. I don't much like to wait. But that's a decent profit. Plus Heritage appear to have another listed in their April auction if you could live with the toning. Bottom line (for me) would be, do I want the Newman provenance? If not, and I could get another later, I'd likely go for it! https://www.numisbids.com/n.php?p=lot&sid=679&lot=25065

Should I save the rest of my brass thruppences then? For the new vending machines and Tesco trolleys? Small local shops and mini-cabs in my area. Used to get them handed over in change. And of course, once in circulation they continue. I too see little problem now they are out there. People inevitably accept them - who wouldn't since if you handed on in at a bank you'd lose £1! But the cost of making a whole new issue of coins which will (by 2017) buy you less than 1/3 of a cup of coffee? Nah, more of a marketing ploy I think.

Interesting low-feedback seller...especially given most of his date-facts are correct for the threefarthing! The overdate is however commonly found with the Pheon! I queried it and got "I don't really have any knowledge of coins I was just asked to put it on my account" hmm.

321354284036 "1562 over 1 Elizabeth 1st Hammered Three Farthings - Choice (A410) 12mm diameter. 0.28g. A clear over-date; the much rarer 1560's date (these are usually 1570's) and high grade. Choice." Unfortunately the photograph that accompanies it is of a replica 1562 sixpence. So if any of you has a spare £300, I'd suggest saving it for another day.

Well .. I think it's worth considering that market and availability aren't necessarily the same thing! I'm pretty sure that the sort of thing I collect as often passes from one collector to another directly as is obtained through the open market. But then I suspect that the number of specialist Charles I shilling collectors is quite small. Which means that 20 examples would probably satisfy all who wanted one and still leave spares for less specialised collectors. Whereas the collector base for some other coins (and I'm thinking of the US market primarily) is much larger and so 20 coins could disappear and an example not re-surface for many years. Which I guess is me saying that absolute numbers, beyond the near unique such as Rob's groat, are not always the be-all and end-all. When US collectors talk of 'rare' coins they sometimes refer to numbers that exceed the entire population of something like the Northumberland shilling. How many 'key date' 1911-D $10s are there for example? But I bet most US collectors would think of it as a rare coin.

Mmm .. I think it's difficult to pin down because, as you say, people will have different views. I think excessively rare has to be limited to under 5 known. I have a coin Michael Sharp termed as such (because of the privy mark rather than that it's an exciting design!) I have found 3 apart from my own. MS's is in the BM so I guess one less available. 5-10 rare. 10+ scarce. After that, well, patience and a fair wind will get you an example if you want so just "uncommon". As to buying rarities, probably not. Some things such as certain Morgan dollars or Newark siege coins command higher than might be deserved prices due to sentiment. Other genuinely rare but unexciting coins might suddenly become popular. But my feeling is that if they haven't attracted a collector base by now, they probably won't! Uniqueness is another strange factor. Unique coins are often undervalued. Then another turns up and it becomes a recognised type or variety and whoosh! When I bought my Sharp G3/2 (S.2804), which is one of the two 'discovery' coins published in the the BNJ, there were the same number known as S.2790 with the plume over shield reverse. However the list price for S.2804 doesn't and likely never will match the latter as it was known and sought after earlier. And particularly as there are now 10 known examples of S.2804 as more have come to light.

I think availability/demand is perhaps a more useful measure. Calling a coin rare to me suggests that if I want one I will find it a challenge. But if there are ten examples but only four collectors ... And of course, many of us here probably own quite rare coins that will never command the prices paid for some for which thousands of examples still exist.

I think you can get a commoner one for about half that though. London coins sold a couple for £650 +commission. Brings a whole new meaning to 'touching history' eh?

As you've no doubt noted, always best to wait until the RM issues are on the open market and have been available for a bit. Prices drop immediately on issue of most from those asked by the Mint and if you like a design but aren't fussy for a particular year you can hunt around for better prices. I think the Clovis ones are fun too. Bit different, at least!

For melt?!? Sounds like a bargain!

I do think it's nice to wear these things occasionally! I particularly like this painting of the Infanta Maria Ana. (Sorry it's on Shutterstock) You can see she's wearing various 'apotropaic' amulets including crucifixes, a relic of her patron saint, badger claws, a jet 'fica mana' and a malachite and coral teether for protection. http://www.superstock.com/stock-photos-images/4409-19379 Interesting that Nordle noticed that my dime is from a leap year (the last leap year of issue)! And Andrew Howitt has a touchpiece for sale Debbie. Though not in my price range. http://www.bottles.freeserve.co.uk/Charles-II.htm

It looks like I now own this. A French (late in the) Revolutionary period 5 Centimes, issued between 1796-96 Copper 23mm 5g:

Nationwide. I dare say each bank charges what they see fit.