TomGoodheart

And people think hammered coins are complicated ...

151291735991 Sold

Don't know about 'good' but some Russian coins. Though not for cheap I'm afraid. ma-shops PGN

I paid £100 for it in 2004. I'm open to offers from anyone happy to pay by bank transfer? .

I know Tun makes no sense Pyx wise. But that's all I could think it might be .. I've amended the listing description. See what you think Rob:

I've had years of practice Peter!

151291744648 Sold

A few more on ebay: 151291735991 151291713149 151291722044 151291744648 All with the 'Tom Goodheart' provenance of course!!

Yes. When you hover near the bottom of your post you'll see an edit button.

Thanks Rob! My feeling is it's nVF. Probably impossible to pin down without a photo, but the Rayner link is nice to have.

Oddly, the 'reverse' mostly restates what's on the other side but in a different hand ..

Here's the 'obverse' which I wondered if it might be Alan Rayner's. Anyone seen similar? .

Do we need the smiley here?

.. from humble beginnings .. I'm sure it's the same for most of us. Modest buys at first, some from ebay, then more from online dealers and then the big world of auction houses. Gradually coins that other people have owned start to creep in and provenance starts to mean a bit more ... .. some of us actually seek out such coins. For others I guess if the coin is pleasing it's neither here nor there where it lived 10, 20 or 30 years ago. Horses for courses, as always.

Cough. Cough. LOL Well played that man.

Yes, the BNJs are a great resource. And of course you can pick and choose articles at leisure. Just realised I assumed pies wants coin related books! Maybe he wanted historical research! In which case I'm afraid Amazon might be better for recommendations as I wouldn't have a clue!

Very much depends on what you want! Yes, Brooker is a good overview of a collection assembled over many years by an enthusiast! 1300 coins is it(?) pretty much all illustrated (B&W) with provenances and weights and short appendices on the pyx (which yields the dates the various privy marks were used) and provenances (which I have then used to track down auction catalogues of interest!) Tower and provincial/obsidional issues are all covered. Only proviso is that Brooker was keen on things like legend variations so collected some poorer examples just because they were different and he liked some rarities which are therefore over-represented and make you think they were commoner than they actually are! Then there are specialised publications on various denominations. The BNJ published several for example by Grant Francis on the various Tower mint issues which largely established the classifications. Michael Sharp's paper on Tower mint shillings (which also touched on those issued at Aberystwyth) is the basis for the numbering system used by many shilling collectors. All available online: http://www.britnumsoc.org/publications/Digital%20BNJ.shtml Halfcrowns are covered by Bull's series(!) of books which go into great detail. As does Roy Osborne's 1984 paper (BNJ again) on Tower coin varieties. More readable is Beasley's Coins and Medals of the English Civil War. Finally (probably not actually!) George Boon wrote a book on the Aberystwyth silver mines which touches on the coinage. Amongst other things! Not sure about gold as it's not an area I've looked at. Again I'd start with the BNJ maybe? And of course I'm always happy to help. I've learnt as much, if not more, from talking to other collectors as from books. .

This is true. Researching provenance naturally leads to knowing a bit more about what's available. And while most modern coins can be found in whatever condition you wish there are certain ones, like 1916 pennies I seem to recall, which just weren't generally struck well. If you wish to aim for the better or best examples then you need to know what condition is generally available to collectors. This becomes increasingly true for older and hammered coins. Like my last acquisition, some series are only available in rubbish to Fine! Dismissing an unattractive example may seem sensible at the time, but you risk discovering a few years on that you turned down one of the better ones to your regret! Whilst there will always be exceptions, generally the further back you go, coins that were singled out for the privilege of being illustrated in a sales catalogue or journal will still stand out as better than most today.

Apologies, Richard. If it's any consolation I can often remember where I've bought something... Ah, I then wondered whether you were a traditionalist like Rob. And that a provenance had to pertain to something of interest (such as a published coin or recognised collection) rather than just purchasing details? But of course, purchasing details is all a Murdoch or Lockett ticket might be. It's only later (when a collection has been assembled and disassembled again) that those details become of interest to people like me, maybe ... I think I shall market mine as the "WhatThe Dickens" collection when I sell it through Lockdales. (Just thinking out loud!)

Clive! I am disappointed! I thought you were Old Skool!

I think most of us record where we got coins from Sam. Which is all a provenance is really. OK, maybe not Scott for his bargain bin finds! For myself I enjoy knowing if a coin I now own was once considered decent enough to be in someone else's collection. It adds to the history of the thing. And if it's just that it came from a field in Lancashire, or someone on eBay, well, I just record that too for consistency. I doubt that my collection will ever merit much attention. But I guess you never know. And since I enjoy knowing a bit more about the more recent history of my coins, I hope that when they are eventually sold off to other collectors, the information I've put together might amuse someone else. And if not.. well I've had fun researching it all!

OK, I'm hoping to take some photos later, but in the meantime does anyone have any pics of Alan Rayner's tickets? Ideally when he was dealing for himself (1973-89) rather than when at Seabys (1949-73) but any would do. The ticket I'm interested in is 29mm, (off) white and written in black biro. Says 381/AO which might indicate March 1981?? Thanks!

I don't get it. 331185740865 Can nobody else see that it reads +TOWER OF LONDON?????

Good morning sweep. I hoped you'd find us! Lots of penny collectors here. In fact it's sometimes difficult to get people to talk about anything else! It was me that suggested a British forum because I know there are several experts (even people who've written books about the things) here. So welcome and I hope you find it useful!

But, is that a bad thing Rob? After all, .... the more penny collectors, the less competition for rare hammered coins and so on!