TomGoodheart

For grading perhaps Derek's (who is a member here) book might be of interest?: The Standard Guide to Grading British Coins The only other thing I'd mention is that buying directly from the RM and companies like Westminster can be expensive. Very often their products can be picked up later on ebay for less. And of course, there may be less of a market for such things if ever you want to sell than for coins meant for circulation. If you like them, that's fine. But they aren't a money-maker. Except for the mints that make them in the first place of course!

Ditto. A very good day indeed, with coins to prove it! Well done!

Hi Al. As the others have said, it helps to have an idea of what coins interest you before we can offer much advice. Here's my story. I got a load of odd coins from my Dad. Some I put aside and of course, I wanted to know what they were worth! So I went to the library and got a few books on coins. One of them was about shillings (the 'old' 5p). Now I remembered spending shillings from when I was a kid and I was surprised to see they had been used not just here but in countries like South Africa and New Zealand. I decided it would be fun to collect a selection just like in the book. Over time I've narrowed down what I collect as what I've wanted has become pricier, but I still collect shillings, only now just English ones produced during a particular time period. As I've collected I've bought books to help me know what coins exist and what sort of condition the better ones are in so I have a guide to what's worth buying and what's not! I have also learned (pretty much everything I know about coins!) from other collectors as we've compared notes about coins we've seen (or not seen!) People collect all sorts of coins, depending on what they like. That's something you'll need to decide for yourself. All I'd say for now is ... condition (we talk about 'grade' which means how much (or ideally little) wear a coin has had over its lifetime) is the MAJOR decider in how much a coin will cost and how desirable it is. Which brings me to 2) Never Clean Coins (unless you want to ruin and devalue them!) And 3) (my personal opinion) don't mix investment with collecting. Collect for fun. If you choose well, if you ever decide to sell you'll find a buyer. Maybe even make a profit. But collect because you enjoy it.

Hi Asumel and welcome! I've not dealt with Kent Coins, but do have them bookmarked in case anything interesting comes up in their stock. I'm not sure what you mean by odd? Looks like a normal low- to mid- range dealership to me. By which I mean that they have modestly priced coins in grades that reflect their prices. Advice about buying old coins? Well ... that kinda depends on what you mean by 'old' really! Some people think of anything pre-decimal as old. Others would say a coin needs to have been around for over 1000 years to qualify! Me? Anything pre 1816, which is when the face value of coins was disconnected from the intrinsic value of the metal they were made from. Bear in mind, old doesn't necessarily mean more valuble or expensive. Roman coins can be picked up for a few ££ and coins from the 1930s can be worth tens of thousands. It all depends on the coin and what condition it is in! Basically, there are some who just collect anything they like. But most people collect within a time period, reign or by denomination (face value) of coin. To really advise you best we'd need to know what sorts of coins interest you. So personally I'd recommend getting a book or two on coins from the library and see what appeals to you. Then you might like to read a bit more about coins that you like before spending too much money. I know that's not as much fun as just going out and buying! But it makes it less likely you'll spend good money on something that really isn't worth it and you later regret. (Though I have to say, we've probably all been there and done that at some point!)

Ideally, you want a full weight, round, evenly well struck coin with nice toning (!!) However those aren't easy to come by and you'll find individual collectors often have different priorities as to which aspect is most important to them. For example, in my own area of collecting interest, there were two sales through Spink towards the end of 1999 and middle of 2000. In the first, the Martin Hughes collection, many coins were noticably full and round, and although not always fully struck up, most were to my eyes very attractive. The second, of J M Ashby's coins, features many very crisply struck coins with minimal wear. However some of the flans are oddly shaped and there are occasional weak areas noticable to the King's portrait. Something that presumably Ashby felt he could live with, but for me that detracts at times from the coin. In the end only you can decide what's most important about a coin and what, though less-than-perfect, is forgivable. This is where knowledge comes in. If you can get to see a number of coins in a series, through auction catalogues, other publications or collections, you can get a better idea of what is the average condition coin and, hopefully, a benchmark coin to aim for or try to better. That of course takes time. But it can be fun learning!

LOL OK, I admit, I'm no wiser for that! However there are others here who know a bit about hammered coins. Hopefully having pic of both sides now might help someone ID your coin for you!

Mmm .. the portrait looks 17th century. Trouble is there are a lot of European states it could be from. Do you have a photo of the other side? And an idea of diameter might help too.

Interesting!

I resume you're planning on selling them in the US Varietalis? Otherwise CGS could be just as good: http://www.coingradingservices.co.uk/ And here for a thread with comments about the service: http://www.predecimal.com/forum/topic/7811-cgs-trial/?hl=trial

I have the hollowed out half of a penny, though I've never see the other half or an example of a complete hollowed out coin in the hand. I wonder if someone was experimenting along those lines, do you think? Maybe this would have been the coin that fitted within the hollow, if it had turned out neater? Just an idea!

Yes, I remember annoyingly being refunded my PayPal money on numerous occasions! I only ever swallowed it because they posted on arrival of cheque, rather than make you wait for clearance. It's a husband and wife team I think, S&H? Yes, Heather and .. Steven? When I bought from them in May I paid by paypal without problem. I think it's just they say they don't want it in the listing details, but I suspect it would be difficult not to accept it, given it's ebay. Decent stock, but I don't know what to make of the bidding ..

Silver can tone in various ways, including golden highlights. However, from your photograph, I suspect that your coin was gilded at some point (probably to pass it off as a coin of higher value). A sixpence being roughly the size of a crown (five shillings). I'm assuming the gilding has mostly worn off again over the years but can be seen from the correct angle. Suggesting your coin has seen some use, though whether as money or possibly a 'pocket piece' carried by someone for luck, I couldn't say.

Brilliant! Thanks!

No I don't have one Stuart. (I photocopied a few pages that were of interest many years ago, but not that one!) If you are able to attach a pic, that would be brilliant! Thanks!

Er ... not right now Stuart. Definitely confused. And not just by Maundy coins either! And .. sorry Declan!! Not quite sure what happened there! But the photos and 'proofiness' explanation helps, so thank you.

So can you explain the features that lead you to that Stuart? Because it's all new (and confusing) to me! Surely currency 3ds would far outnumber Maundy ones? The reason I ask is that ..ahem, someone - entirely unknown to me though luckily it's just the sort of thing I will appreciate - has bought me one of the RM 'lucky' silver pennies for Christmas. And if I did know about such a thing, well, I might just start thinking of buying a few more silver pennies .. as a sort of side line. Not that I do know of course. Which makes it most coincidental I happen to be posting this thread, but well, synchronicity and all that .. And if that makes sense to anyone, well done! Because I'm not sure I'm following this, but ... And I have yet to have a glass of anything alcoholic today. Most odd! Perhaps I'm channeling Peter? Now there's a worrying thought ..

So, this is how I understand it. By the 1820s there was no demand for a piddly little silver penny and probably little interest in a silver half-groat (2d) either, apart from the traditional annual Maundy giving. Consequently special issues of 1,2,3 and 4ds were minted annually for that purpose. However prior to the 1800s (and contrary to what the RM website says) I can't see that there was any difference between a 'Maundy' penny and a regular currency silver penny. It's just that people have fallen into the habit of calling all small denomination (4d and below) milled silver 'Maundy' money. Or am I wrong and there are distinguising features to, say a 1750 penny that can be used to determine whether it was struck as a currency piece or not?

Not to me, but Americans can be a funny lot when it comes to humour Dave. I also think in the US there's more of an obsession with precious metal value so people will bid on that alone, even though they have no interest in a coin as a coin. Maybe he worries it's not silver because nobody else has bid? Here in the UK I suspect people buy for melt too, but much more a last minute thing, when someone sees they could make a bit on a low-bid item.

That has to be the poorest fake NGC slab I've ever seen!

Shatter??? Ah, he means a Ski Hat! Don't know why he didn't say that in the first place.

Interesting enough coin, but I'm not so sure about the big jump in the bidding. And the seller's ID is somehow familiar ... http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/CHARLES-SILVER-SHILLING-BRIOTS-BUST-/360722536133 Calm down Dave ... Oh, and if anyone did want one (the neater cross ends reverse (Sharp G1/1) is scarcer than the regular issue, the triangle/anchor overmark interesting, though not the clearest I've seen and it has some decent details) the current price if between £70-£80 seems about right. Wouldn't go much higher than that myself ...

Interesting. I know nothing about circulation or not, but I know that 'when I were a lad' a crown was a lot of money. If my Grandpa gave me half a crown as a gift and it would be very welcome! I remember getting one as a prize for my handwriting at school. I could buy a lot of sweets, several ice lollies or a paperback book with 2/6. And that was in the 1960s. So a crown in 1930 would I suspect be a decent amount of money to a youngster and to an adult like getting a tenner. And, as with now, if you saw a design you'd not spotted before, well, I suspect you'd put it aside. Which is not to say a few mightn't have been spent, after all, I'm not sure how aware people were of the scarcity of such pieces. Certainly not like in the 1970s when newspapers were full of lists of which coins were valuable and change hunting was popular. But I'd imagine most were saved as souvenirs, legal tender or not.

Hi William. Your sixpence is, as most coins of the time were, hammered. Which is to say it was individually made by placing a planchet (blank silver disk) between two metal dies and then the top die was struck very hard with a hammer (probably a couple of times) to impress the design into the silver. What this means is that each coin is unique. Quite often the planchet shifts a bit between hammer blows, causing the design to be doubled. Not uncommon with such coins. It was only in the mid-1600s that people started to make coins using machines. Before that it was really only done experimentally. Machines of course use the same amount of pressure each time and combined with machine cut planchets give you a more uniform output of coins. Such as your halfpenny which is an example of early milled (machine made) coinage. My main interest is hammered coinage so I'm less experienced with grading milled coins. But I'd say your halfpenny is Fine, which my book says is "A coin that exhibits considerable wear to the raised surfaces of the design ..." Other more knowledgeable members may feel differently and I'd trust them!

http://stacksbowers.com/auctions/auctionlots.aspx?auctionid=192&sessionid=436 Link to the August sale. It starts with page 10 as that's where the British coins commence but you should be able to search from there for anything else.

I notice there are a few pieces that might be of interest to bronze/cu collectors in the 20th August Stacks auction. Like this: