TomGoodheart

Sounds sensible Sword. Unfortunately my Admin powers don't extend to adding sub-forums! I can suggest it to Chris P and see what he thinks.

Surely it's not a good sign for "coin collecting" when the Isle of Wight starts issuing such things?! Oh, and I've his a small snag with the Milton Keynes issue. Apparently concrete cows don't produce enough crap to make commemoratives. Who knew?

Available NOW! The Extraordinarily Rare Isle of Wight £2 coin!! And Coming Soon! The Limited Interest Edition Milton Keynes £5! Made entirely from the poo of Gold plated Concrete Cows! Order Today! We Expect This One to Run Out Very Quickly!! http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/RARE-ISLE-OF-WIGHT-1996-CARISBROOKE-CASTLE-CHARLES-I-2-TWO-POUND-COIN-UNC-/380779125328?pt=UK_Coins_BritishDecimal_RL&hash=item58a8345a50

Yes. Some auction houses seem to be more inclined to do this than others. But as Rob says, most times coins find their level. You just need to decide if you're buying as a collector or seller. If as a collector, decide what price you think the coin's worth to you, adjust for buyer's premium (about 25% seems average now, with VAT and postage) and there's your bid. If you're selling you'll have to build in what profit margin you want. Part Two of this illuminating series, where Tom gives tips to Grandmothers on how to suck eggs, will be published later....

LOL Peter does have a point though. My personal view is that while there are a number of reasons for having a coin slabbed (protection, grading, 'saleability' reassurance and to have it added to a 'hall of fame' type ranking), the majority can be satisfied without using a TPGS. Capsules will protect your coins. And as Peter hints, self-education and forums like this will help establish a grade for coin as well as helping you identify the modern copies. A slab is no substitute of learning. The sales aspect has already been mentioned. A while back (and probably buried in one of the threads I linked to earlier) there was a proposal a number of members here join together to buy high grade British coins, have them slabbed and sell them via an auction house like Heritage. The reason being the observation that PCGS slabbed British coins often go for a premium in the US over what they would here. Now there are a number of reasons this may be true and slabbing is only part of it. Bottom line is, only one person can decide whether they think it's worthwhile having their coins slabbed and that's you.

LOL I don't mind joining in. But I went to see HIM once and Ville Valo seemed to expect us to sing them all! Needless to say I wasn't too impressed with that!

Mmm .. I think I did mention controversy Mynki, though I didn't quite have this in mind! Anyway, welcome to Predecimal and, yes, there are a lot of interesting threads. And plenty of expertise in British coinage, so feel free to ask any questions you like. It isn't always like this I can assure you!

*cough cough* There's a pm function gentlemen. Feel free to use it.

Thanks brg, I stand corrected.

Hmm .. a bit slow for me! Here... I fixed it for you! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oEGAdEGnqKA

Ah, that'd be me Vicky. I suggested Mynki ask the question here as well as on a US based forum because I thought he'd get additional .. perspective here. Plus I try to get anyone that posts about British coins there (CCF) to visit 'the experts', if I possibly can! Sorry.

And a 'C' in A Level Biology enabled me to study Biochemistry at London University... with the resulting Third securing me a research post at a leading London Medical School. Abso.. oh, wait ..

I think the 'significant value' thing only works in the US. In fact, a lot of people seem reluctant to trust their own judgement and buy unslabbed. Plus you can't even suggest a grade on US ebay unless it's backed up by the coin being slabbed by one of their approved TPGS. For individuals you have to balance the cost of grading/encapsulation against the overall value of the coin. I see little point spending £30 to get a certified grade on a £50 coin... I didn't bother mentioning on the other forum that US TPGS have in the past made significant errors attributing British coins. Which can be an advantage for a buyer, but only if you know your coins! There was also that thread where someone claimed that PCGS damaged their coin ... If you look at these previous threads: http://www.predecimal.com/forum/topic/7753-cgs-a-customer-facing-business/page-5?hl=trial#entry82331 http://www.predecimal.com/forum/topic/7811-cgs-trial/?hl=trial http://www.predecimal.com/forum/topic/8066-cgs-trial-part-2/?hl=grading http://www.predecimal.com/forum/topic/8235-cgs-trial-part-3/page-2?hl=grading#entry91238 you'll see that CGS have very stringent standards and a rigorous system for ensuring consistency of their grading. They do perhaps need to improve some aspects of their customer service/turnaround, but generally they have some very satisfied customers... but whether it's worth using such a service at all is an issue that rather divides members here and one you'll need to decide for yourself Mynki!

Vines & Rees Rob? Ah, the good old days. Whatever happened to all those facts I supposedly learned though? And on the subject of price, I found an auction catalogue I want, but it's part of a lot and that's over £375. I feel that's a bit steep for one catalogue, even if I had the money free, which I don't! Of course, if anyone wanted some medal catalogues, I'd buy the coin one I want out of the lot ...shame nobody here (afaik) is interested in medals as well ...

Interesting. Thanks Peter! I wonder how it compares with Manville and Robertson's "British Numismatic Auction Catalogues, 1710-1984 " But not cheap .. and I have a couple of auction catalogues I have my eyes on that will cost me a fortune. Well, seriously dent my coin buying budget anyway. I wish building a reference library was cheaper.

OK. I'm now wondering about Frank Purvey(!) Mainly because the ticket in Eaglen has the King's name underlined by a wavy line; an unusual feature. Plus his writing appears to have a slight backward slope. With how the numbers are formed and rather loose letter 'P', it's a ... 'perhaps'! Of course, it may not be anyone significant at all. Though it would be nice to pin it down to a particular hand. For dating purposes, if nothing else.

Thanks! The RCB tickets I've seen are a bright blue, sometimes with a stock number stamped on them in black ink. I'm inclined to think that this is a Seaby ticket and, although it's an RCB coin, written by someone else. The fact that it says "Parliament" rather than Chas suggests to me it was one of a number of related coins, so a stock, rather than an actual collector's ticket makes more sense. Eaglen says that the collector Cuthbert Whitton wrote many of the tickets for the coins that RCB sold on commission through Seaby 1949-. Of course, it might not be Whitton as it could be one of the later (1959) portion of coins bought by Seaby and sold subsequently ... Sadly, it might be impossible to properly track down as most of the Seaby Bulletin coins don't seem to be illustrated and descriptions of just a grade and price aren't conclusive. But I thought I'd try and find out what I could. Everyone here has added to my understanding and so I'm grateful for that!

Thanks very much for trying Rob. I've posted a photo of the coin here: http://www.predecimal.com/forum/topic/3664-coin-aquisition-of-the-week/?p=94222 It's a shame more coins weren't illustrated back then. It would make identifying them rather easier, though I know it wasn't economical. Still, an RCB link is nice, even if I can't pin it down to a particular sale. I might try the vendor ...

Raymond Carlyon-Britton (1893-1960) followed his father's interest in coins. Many were bought by Seaby for subsequent sale. Ideally, the ticket might tie up with a Seaby catalogue. Unfortunately the coins were sold over a number of years and, unlike the British Numismatic journal, nobody has seen fit to scan the catalogues, otherwise a search would be much simpler! Well, it does follow the layout of CA Whitton's tickets for Seaby, although I'm not sure about the size. But that would make it one of the 1949 coins?

Thanks Rob!

Grey (or might once have been dull green) with slightly faded blue ink. 32mm / 1¼ inch diameter. Is the XIV 894 a cabinet number? And RCB A.477 a lot number, or rather stock/listing number? Any help appreciated!

That's the scanner Peck. Here is an example with my newer printer scanner and while it's another coin I think it just lacks something in comparison with the earlier example. I think if you have a scanner that produces acceptable results, great. But I just don't seem to be able to find how to tweak the images to my satisfaction with this one.

I've used both a scanner and camera. All of my earlier attempt were with the scanner, a cheap little thing that came with my pc package. My only complaint is that images are a little .. 'flat' and there's' no way to pick out highlights, beyond rotating the coin so the light hits at a different angle. The 'background in this case is just the inside of the lid of the scanner.. Example here: However our latest printer (an Epson) wasn't as easy to set up and as we have a small point-and-shoot camera I tried that and was happy with the results. I used Paint to draw in the background because I think it looks better. The advantage of a camera are that I can adjust the illumination. I shoot in bright daylight on my kitchen table, supporting the camera, which I set on macro, with nothing more than a coffee mug to avoid too much shake! But it takes quite a lot more time and effort than the scanner. In the end I guess it depends on your resources and what you want the photos for. Mine are really a record for insurance purposes so it's enough that you could tell my coin from another. Of course, it's brilliant that they are good enough to show off acquisitions too! But I wouldn't want to invest much more money or time just for that ...

Well, the laptop arrived. Windows 7 was not the horrible experience I had feared and works acceptably close to Vista. There are a few niggles, mostly for the price. Firstly, the thing came with no word processor/ spreadsheet / office package (!) OK, it has a trial version of Office 2013, but I don't want to buy something on top of what I already paid! Thankfully I have an old disk with Office 2007 but I'm not too impressed that it didn't even have Works. The case is definitely plastic. OK, it's light. And having taken the last one apart a few times, I suspect it's strong enough. But it could have been made to feel a bit more robust. Other than that, it's odd things like there's no physical volume control for the sound system. My old laptop had a little dial. This you just have to use one of the f buttons. The SD card port is smaller. I used to have a card I used for memory expansion, which fitted the old laptop neatly. The new one the card protrudes by nearly 1cm so having it permanently in the slot would risk damaging the card and slot. Annoying. Otherwise it's fine, just the usual nuisance of familiarising yourself to something new. The keyboard layout is slightly different (there's a numeric pad which I didn't use to have) so I find myself catching the wrong keys occasionally. I'm still trying to get it to hibernate (hopefully fixed, one of the network adapters was set so it could wake the laptop from sleep). And I still need to tweak the mousepad settings to exactly how I want. On the plus side.. It works!! The colour and screen resolution are good. And unlike Wifey's pc, when I look a images of coins they are actually round, not oval! You can imagine how irritating that was!!

Yes, you don't really want your laptop on, well, ... your *ahem* lap. Get's a bit too cozy for comfort! I have mine on one of those cooling tray thingies. The fan stopped working a few months after I got it (actually the fan worked, just the blades all snapped off one by one! Cheap Belkin tat), but it still helps ventilation and keeps it cooler than if it were directly on a desk or something.