TomGoodheart

Yeah, a 'piece of 8' is basically an 8 real coin. They were produced throughout the Spanish world (so that's Mexico, Peru as well as Spain itself). Early ones were 'cobs' - essentially lumps of silver cut to the correct weight and stamped with the Spanish crest, moneyer's initial, mint and value. Later they made proper coins, like the one Paul posted above.

From Lloyd's website: On Tuesday 8th October I was followed back from Abergavenny market and robbed [ this is the 3rd time that I have been followed from a show ]. Its becoming a common problem for dealers of all kinds and may change the way we operate - I am certainly cutting out many of my shows as a stall holder [ I may still be a visitor ] and so ask my customers to order from the web site rather than wait to see stock at a show. I have marked the stolen coins on the site as accurately as I can - there will be a few errors as my note pad, cheque books and pay in book were also taken plus the usual human forgetfulness and error. It will be 99% correct.

Thanks. I'm sure they could be improved with a proper tripod (one of those mini desk-top ones would no doubt do) and lighting, but I'm lazy! I have certainly noticed that as soon as light levels drop the camera struggles to focus crisply and the resulting photos are noticably grainier. But as Peter says, I think most modern cameras (point-and-shoot or fancier) should be able to produce acceptable results, at least for ebay listings. Having said that, some coins are just really difficult to photograph to their best. While the one I posted above is a success, there are others of mine that whatever I do, just don't look at all as good as (I think they look) in real life. I've one on ebay at the moment that just looks rubbish, despite my best efforts. Probably explains why nobody has made any offers for it!

Hmm .. I get photos like this: Using nothing more advanced than this: An Olympus VG 120. Hand held but steadied on a box, set on super-macro and in good sunlight. (The background is cropped and filled using MS Paint on my laptop).

I think maybe it was that the coins are below £1000 sale price. But yeah, I can believe £50,000 worth. I've noted 36 Charles I shillings alone amongst those lost. The worry is if they aren't found soon they will just be melted. I'm sure they must be insured. But the numismatic loss ..

Lloyd has marked up his website to show which of his stock was stolen, so if anything is offered from an unusual source it can be checked against the photos there: http://www.coinsofbritain.com/pages/coins/coins-all.asp Most of the stock appears to have gone, from hammered to medallions. I wonder if he was putting it all back into (or collecting it from) the bank? I hope they are all recovered and soon.

http://www.predecimal.com/forum/topic/7880-posting-pics/

Have you been at Peter's tablets Ski?

Yeah. On their US website they are flogging two silver eagles for $300 That's over £90 for an ounce of silver. I don't care that they are MS9,001, it's still just a very fancy way of selling bullion at a huge mark up. Of course US forums are full of people who collect such things and pay a premium for an extra shiny (MS70) lump of silver over a washer (MS68). It wil be interesting to see whether the market for such things eventually goes the way of beanie babys or whatever. Ridiculous.

My only comparison is with shillings of Charles I. Where, as you know, things like changes to a bust design within a recognisable and distinct type are viewed as major varieties (Sharp E1, E2, E3 etc..) as are significant differences to a reverse design. But pm overmarks? I'd say not. Of course, there aren't any hard and fast rules really. Generally it's down to whoever first does the classification to decide. Which is why we have a Sharp C2/2 and C2/3, although the only difference between the two is that a lis is missing from the top of the shield, but several rather different looking busts which are all clumped together as D4/ A more major study was undertaken by Roy Osborne, who differentiated between different harp designs and the like. The problem is .. that resulted in a very complex classifaction. Probably the reason most shilling collectors stick to Michael Sharp's nomenclature is it's simplicity!

Bother. So am I allowed just to tell everyone that they mustn't bid on any Charles I shillings ever again instead? I hear and I obey Well, I appreciate the gesture. Though as you don't actually collected hammered coins in the first place .... 1) praise be to God! 2) you old fox, TG, what a manoeuvre, what a move! Purely unintentional I assure you Stuart! Though an interesting strategy for future reference ...

Ah well. Welcome to Predecimal anyway. Plus it's a fun find, even though it won't make you a fortune.

I think we might need another photo I'm afraid Ritchie. Though it's not really clear it looks to me as if the edge of your coin has a 'sawtooth' pattern ^\/^/\^/\^\/^\/^\/^\/^\/^ Which suggests that two coins have been thinned and stuck together. If the edge is perfect it would be interesting. But I wonder if you inspect it carefully whether it won't have a give-away seam where the edges don't exactly match? ^\/^/\^/\^\/^\/^\/^\/^\/^ (Yeah, rubbish attempt but it's easier than trying to draw it!) So a good photo of the edge would help.

Bother. So am I allowed just to tell everyone that they mustn't bid on any Charles I shillings ever again instead?

And I'm only buying a shilling. Blameless!

For fffff...Bugger! Perhaps the 4 of us should email our top bids to a 3rd party, and the highest genuine bid goes forth, whilst the others bow gracefully out...no point in the winning bidder paying over the odds, eh? I'm interested in 2 of the lizzies - one to keep, one to sell! Sounds sensible! Question is .. who's going for which lots?

Basically, yes. Chris (predecimal owner) gives this brief guide: http://www.predecimal.com/grading_standards.php And of course, there's Derek's book, the Standard Guide to Grading British Coins. But remember these generally apply to later milled (machine made) coinage. Hammered (and ancients, like Roman) because they were hand made with inherent variations are a bit trickier ..

Hi and welcome Jaggy! Well, most of us probably started in a fit of enthusiasm, bought loads of tat for too much money and finally settled down to a particular area and bought some books to learn more about it. Which of course is not what you should do, but .. In the end you need to enjoy what you collect. That's more important than what, so long as it isn't silver rounds that pretend to be coins but were never designed for spending No, seriously, collect what you like! Personally I collect only a very narrow range of coins (20 years worth of a particular value). My wife says all my coins look the same! Whereas others collect good examples of any coin that takes their fancy. If you're like most of us, you'll change direction or focus a few times. And you'll make mistakes (particularly with grading, which affects price) I expect. But remember, you can always ask for advice here, even about coins you want to buy. Just post a photo and ask for opinions. Because there's no shortage of those here!

Oh dear ... and there was me hoping for a bargain!

Hmmm... databases make my system sound very basic! I have two Microsoft Works Spreadsheets, one lists coins in reference number order with prices; so effectively the total on that gives me a figure for what I've spent (and rough value of it all). The other starts with the sum I had to buy the collection and takes off the purchase amounts in the order in which I bought the coins, so gives me a 'remainder' figure, which is my budget for future purchases. And then I have a folder with photos of each coin. Any 'details' such as provenance are part of the name of the photo, can be put into the spreadsheet and of course are on the tickets I write for each coin. I also keep a separate folder with scans of purchase invoices, downloaded auction listings, that sort of thing. Simple. Like me.

So long as nobody bids on my lot, I don't mind!

This? http://www.forumancientcoins.com/gallery/displayimage.php?album=3151&pos=27 Afghanistan silver drachm Stylised bull/ horseman. 9th century.

I have just checked my post above and an hour later I still have the facility to edit it. But what I have found is that sometimes the reply box refuses to take any text until I click on the 'toggle' switch icon I highlighted with an arrow. I wonder if AardHawk is talking about that (since, unless you know 'the trick' it would then appear that you can't reply at all) I've not had any problems with jpegs below 100KB. In fact, because photobucket has been so crap lately I've stopped linking to my photos there in preference to just resizing them and directly inserting. The only tricky step is remembering to click on the 'insert into post' button so they appear where I want. And to avoid being entirely negative about the new software (which Chris had little choice other than to change) I do like the Auto Save function as it's saved me having to retype one of my monologues on a few occasions now when my laptop has messed up!

I quite agree, edit in this new system is annoying. I'm sure when we had the old format forum, editing was simpler! While I found the edit button easily enough .., (there it is!) ^ the fact that I have to then choose that strange toggle switch (arrowed) or click on 'Use full editor' before any of what I type appears in the bloody box bemuses me. And if I want to then cut and paste part of what I've written, or if I want to highlight text in bold or italics, I have to click it again!! As for nesting urls within a picture link from the internet (which I used to be able to do quite quickly, so long as I could see the code) well, I have to rethink that each time. Why it's clunkier .. I have no idea. And as for the fact that if you try to edit too quickly it 'activates flood control' and if you leave it too long the edit function disappears ... yeah, that's irritating too!