TomGoodheart

It depends how flexible you want to be. For example if you included shillings you could add variety with gun money (James II), shilling tokens (George III), and colonial issues (Windsors). The only denomination that isn't continuous in milled coinage (apart from oddities like fractionals) is the florin. And if you include British colonies you can have a coin of Edward VIII too! Agreed. If you start with the cheaper more recent stuff there's a risk prices will rise as you progress backwards. As Paul says, if you have a 'wants' list and stick to it you have the chance to pick up pieces as you go.

Depends if you are including hammered, in which case the only denomination that goes all the way back AFAIK is the penny! You'd need to decide how you wanted to proceed when silver pennies were switched from regular currency to Maundy, but it would be possible to get a complete run to the present day with time and money.

I didn't want to hijack Declan's thread but was interested in Rob's comments about the grading of his 1684 shilling(?) Now, we all know that grading has changed over the years. You could call it less strict. We've all seen previously listed coins creep up (but somehow never down (!) the grade scale). Or maybe it's just that more 'sub' grades between Fine, Very Fine and Extremely Fine have opened up? But I was curious as to .. why? Is it just a commercial thing? After all, while we don't have things like the American's Red and Grey books that insist the difference between an MS 64 and MS 65 should be $xx, grades do influence price. The thing about that is that the coins themselves haven't changed, have they? Rob's coin was a nice coin and still is. Other similar graded coins haven't all been melted down making it rarer surely, so it's still on a par with the same coins it would have been compared to back in the 1960s. Or has it? Has teh interweb brought more coins than could have been known in the 1960s to light and now we have more comparative specimens? Some of which will inevitably be better, ... others worse. Views? Opinions?

I've been thinking again about this, partly as a result of comments about toning on another forum. One participant said of AT: "Prove it... that's the rub. How do you prove it was intentional exposure instead of years of incidental exposure. But since it is exactly the same chemically [AT and NT] that's why a purist doesn't differentiate between pretty and damaged." I guess if one had to compile a list of 'coin crimes' there are some that would get you on Santa's naughty list and others, not so much ... 1) Sanding down one side of a coin and engraving it .. well, Victorians did this and while it would be a 'no no' now, people do collect such things! 2) Drilling a hole through it. OK, I admit guilt here. I wanted a Mercury dime on a cord for luck. And I did do it to a gold touchpiece, though a Jonson Matthey replica, not a real 18th century Angel of course! And holed siege pieces, well, we just have to live with those. 3) Cleaning with sand, brillo pads, or whizzing. 4) Varnishing 5) Giving it a quick 'rub' to bring out the shine(!) or the spit and aluminium foil thing. 6) Colorization (again and spelling deliberate!) 7) Adding a bit of subtle colour to make it look less straight-off-the-production-line. Anyone else ones to add? Or re-order according to views?

I just read that Lou Reed died. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WJpQJWpVJds Brings back happy memories.

Looking forward to what 'Met' comes back with next, "anti-American racists" indeed!! Odd thing is ... he's based in the UK according to his profile!

If Peter and I get bumped off Coin Community Forum it's all my fault! I couldn't resist chipping in on the subject of *coughnaturallycough* toned coins again!

LOL I get a similar thing from Lockdales. Kinda fun to see stamps still with 1/2p values. I do wonder if Royal Mint plc. will stop accepting such things one day. Mine got to charity shops, like the Red Cross to sell on.

What are the letters on the shoulder? (Look like CHR? to me). Might give a clue.

Gosh! You have to admire how they've got the coin to match the holographic label on the slab!

Aye it is Ski. Thanks, will have to get my buddy to purchase it from the UK as i'm going over in a few weeks and can Save a bit on the postagggggge being the Scotsman that i am Do you have a copy of Brooker Dave? A nice reference book if you're getting into Charles I coinage. Plus Michael Sharp's BNJ article of course.

Indeed! I guess I can delete that file I made of stolen coins to look out for now!

Oh, I tone off all of mine by feeding them to Sumatran Civet cats. Messy process and the shipping costs are horrendous but the results .. oh, wait. Maybe that's my coffee ....

I know a couple of mine were cleaned a while back and have a feeling one or two might be AT, but I can't remember now whether any in the tray I posted might be the ones. Certainly the Briot hammered has been dipped (quite a bit I suspect) and isn't toning particularly nicely. But it would be difficult to replace, so ...

£20! Ouch. I don't remember Noble being quite so bad when I bought a coin from them, but that was a while back and postage prices have increased quite a bit since then. Hopefully your sixpence came tracked and insured for that price Garrett! Photos?

And of course, I like this one:

I find it almost impossible to photograph toning satisfactorily with individual coins! However you get an idea of the range of colours in this photo of a tray. I've still had to play around with it but it's a bit more representative of what they look like 'in real life' Not all are as I would prefer, but sometimes you just have to put up with what you have!

PCGS info on 'Amazing' eye appeal: "This is a coin you look at and think "Wow!" This coin could have incredible luster and/or color, and/or mind boggling contrast if a proof or proof-like, and/or incredible mirror surfaces if a proof. Amazing eye appeal can add up to a full point to the "technical" grade." "Wow"? I'm thinking "Where's the eye bleach??!" I'm also thinking "original toning always follows the color spectrum of the rainbow, in nature, if the colors are in a different order then it is most likely artificial toning and not worth buying". Eh?

http://www.pcgs.com/eyeappeal.html?utm_source=pepperjam&utm_medium=affiliate&utm_campaign=14510

Having sowed a few unobtrusive seeds of doubt I've not bothered posting more in that thread. Rather in the same way that I refrain from shouting throughout all the threads on NCLT "But they AREN'T bloody coins, they have NEVER circulated, they're just overpriced rounds of silver, so WHY do you need to slab and grade them?!?!" because it would be bad for my blood pressure. No point pursuing arguments you can't win, I reckon!

Another quote from the thread: "I took a great course on toning at the ANA many years ago, presented by Bob Campbell, he said always look for attractive toning, and that original toning always follows the color spectrum of the rainbow, in nature, if the colors are in a different order then it is most likely artificial toning and not worth buying. As to how much premium to pay? That is totally up to the buyer. Some of the monster toned Morgans can be astronomical priced when compared to a price sheet." Colours of the rainbow?? But coins don't tone red, then orange, yellow, green, blue and violet, do they? They start a pinkish grey and go a bluish grey with occasional gold highlights. Of if dipped they seem to go a bit yellower. And eventually, black. But a progression? Not in my (admittedly limited) experience. I suspect there's less science than wishful thinking myself. After all, who is going to admit to paying over the odds for an AT coin? Attractive? Then it must be natural (they tell themselves...)

So it was quiet here and I was browsing an American forum I frequent and came across a thread on toning. And I happened to mention that British coins just don't appear to tone in those brilliant(!) rainbow shades you find with US ones. I wondered that, since variations in storage and metal composition aren't to my knowledge that different over here to those in the US, how that might be? One respondant suggested that since he'd observed that British silver coins tone all-of-a-piece rather than in a rainbow progression, it's an artifact of how our Mint prepared the planchets. He went on to say "Some favor toning - especially Morgans - to the point where they'll pay a substantial premium over normal prices." I decided not to post my immediate reply, which was along the lines that I find it curious that something that commands a premium in the US is more often found there than in the UK, where it does not. Or am I just being cynical?

Hmm .. that's a heck of a difference in price realised! And if any Americans are reading this, remember guys, always buy the slab, not the coin!

That's the one.

Well done Dan. Don't be too disappointed at missing by £10. That is likely just the bidding step. There's no way of knowing if you'd have got it by offering another £20 or if it would have just kept going. (My bid was over £100 more than the hammer price! Unsurprisingly I'm delighted it didn't go that high!)