TomGoodheart

Doh! Yeah, I meant that!

Really, until you know what you're doing it's safest to buy from a dealer. Here for example is a lot of Roman coins available for £33 from a reputable dealer that's a friend of Chris P (who runs this forum and site): Not in fantastic condition, but genuine and not a bad price for seven different Emperors from 600-700 years ago I think! Just click on the pic for the link.

Yup. I believe your coin is from the Provisional Government of China (ie Japanese puppet government 中华民 ) Year 28. Which if I'm correct is 1939. http://en.numista.com/numisdoc/calendar-japanese-34.html

Hi Johnny, and welcome! To try to answer your questions in order; By album, I presume you mean to put coins in? Well, most here tend to use trays of some sort. I have a cabinet, which is a wooden case with drawers drilled with holes to put your coins in, but it weren't cheap! Albums are OK, providing you buy proper ones designed for the purpose since in the old days some plastics used would discolour your coins. But they can get heavy and the pages sag. Trays are a bit more expensive (Chris who runs this site has some if you click on the predecimal.com link under the logo at the top of the page and go to 'Accessories'. Or the generally cheapest option is little paper envelopes. A dealer called Colin Cookesells them. They are made from acid free paper (so won't damage your coins). The only draw back is you can't see the coin! Some people do use the plastic envelopes but these aren't best for long term storage, or for your better coins. Again due to possible damage from the plastic. eBay is best when you know what you're doing. There are bargains, but also overpriced junk! It's more fun to look in antique shops, car boot sales or if you have a nearby coin dealer, in person at a shop. eBay is good to search though to see what people are paying for stuff, but grading (the assessment of how much wear a coin has) can be ridiculously bad. And since better grade means more expensive .. it's important to know a bit about that before trusting ebay sellers! The bulk Roman coins on eaby will never be brillliant condition, but as an exercise in cleaning and identifying, that's not a bad way to do it. However other dealers with websites do sell lots (as in auction lots, ie: a small number together) of Roman coins for ID ing. I think again Chris has a bit he's written about Roman coins here on the predecimal.com site. Probably in time you'll find a range of coins (either of particular value or historic period) you particularly like. Just remember, nobody here minds answering questions (though threads inevitably go off topic a bit!) even to a 'here's an ebay listing number, do you think this is a fair price'. Unless of course it's something someone else wants too. LOL

No! It's my experience that sometimes it takes longer for coins to filter through to some areas of the UK than others. The Darwin £2 is hardly scarce, given the numbers on ebay (and certainly not rare!) It might take a bit longer to find a nice example in your change but eventually one will turn up. Same with these. Personally I've not seen any 2011 £1 coins yet (unlike 2012 copper)! But I'm sure that when they do appear I will be able to find an acceptable example without actually buying one!

Rather more interesting than a Euro from someone that's visited France! A little bit of history in change.

I felt that the marks on both sides were somewhat proud of the coin, suggesting an overmark. Together with the fact that I can imagine something under the mms of the other coin I tend to agree with you Rob. But as to why, that's a different question!

The rarest is probably the Negro's Head which was only struck between November 1626 to April 1627 in small quantities. Next rarest is the Heart mark (Jun 1630- Jun 31). But because the coins were individually made a number of dies were re-used (or their use extended) by later adding a different mint mark, and some of these 'overmarks' are also rare. And a few coins seem to have been made with the wrong, or an unusual, mark not normally found for that particular variety. For example this is not a terribly rare coin, issued during the Harp mark. But somehow two examples survive with the Portcullis mark; so a regular coin made very rare if you can find another with this mark! And it's made even more complicated (or challenging, depending on your point of view) by the fact that there are some coins that are easy enough to find in poor to Fine condition, but to get a better than average example is both time consuming and probably expensive. In other words it's not just the mint mark that determines scarcity, but condition and irregular features not normally found with that issue.

Hi HAXall. Well .... I'm afraid they aren't in brilliant condition! The left hand one (Spink 2800, Sharp G2/2 with the Sun mint mark (Nov 1645 - Feb 1647)) has been badly treated! Possibly it's been driven over, or someone has bashed it about. Without the dents I would grade it Fine (quite a lot of wear, but with design and legends distinguishable). The second (Spink 2799, Sharp G1/2) with the triangle in circle mark (Jul 1641 - May 1643) is about the same (Fine) though some details are clearer. I'd say you paid an acceptable price for the second, the first has to be marked down because of the dents. £12-£15 is about normal for ebay, though of course sometimes people get lucky and they go for more. Interesting pieces of history, but perhaps worth paying a wee bit more for nicer examples if you're planning on collecting the series! .

Nah. I just remember odd things and have a knack with Googling!

Indeed. "The Penny Red The Penny Red was Great Britain's longest running stamp, from February 1841 to the end of November 1879. It was used for the standard letter postage rate of 1d and approximately 21 billion were issued. The 1d Red was a development of the Penny Black with the colour being changed from black to red so that the new black Maltese Cross cancellation could be clearly seen. This change was made following Rowland Hill's "rainbow trials" and "obliterating trials" to find the most sensible stamp and cancel combination to prevent people removing evidence of cancellation so the stamps could be re-used. Basically, his initial choice of very durable black ink for a stamp was a mistake! Until 1854 the 1d red was imperforate. In 1855 the watermark was changed from a small crown to a large crown. The first die was used to produce 204 plates, plus 6 reserve plates. A new die II was also introduced in 1855. This was used to produce 225 plates. Plates 71-225 have the plate number engraved on the stamp and these "penny plates" include the famous Plate 77 which you are unlikely to see outside of an exhibition as it is the rarest penny red and a good example could certainly fetch hundreds of thousands of pounds! The British Library has one on permanent display in the GB selection of the Tapling Collection. this stamp is mint. They also have a used on from the Fletcher collection too. The paper of the 1d red also changed from blued, to cream or toned to white (and a combination of the above!) between 1854 and 1858. A very great permutation of paper and ink shades were used to produce these stamps. The design was modified with letters in all four corners being introduced on 1st April 1864 and the plate number being engraved on each stamp. The reason that letters in all four corners was introduced was to significantly reduce the opportunity for people to reconstruct an unused stamp from the uncancelled parts of 2 used stamps. All 1d reds were printed using the line-engraved method by Perkins, Bacon & Petch (from 1852 Perkins, Bacon & Co) who finally lost their contract of 38 years in 1879 largely due to the fact that their stamps were printed in non-fugitive ink making their stamps more susceptible to being cleaned and re-used. On the 23rd December 1878 The Inland revenue gave 6 months' notice of the cancellation of the contract to print the 1d red. On the 8th May 1879 the Inland Revenue recorded that an agreement had been made for Perkins Bacon to continue to supply the 1d until 31st December 1879. In fact, the last plate was 225 which was put to press on the 27th October 1879 and was used for about 4 weeks, the print run ending at the end of November. This is confirmed by a letter from Mr Robertson of the Inland Revenue who comments on 3rd December 1879 "the printing of the Penny Postage label by your firm having come to a close." I suspect that all concerned would have been amazed to find that their "labels" are still enthusiastically collected and studied by people all over the world 150 years later! Incidentally, the Penny Red was originally called the Red Penny as well by collectors but that earlier term has now fallen away. " People collect stamps by plate number. Why not coins by die? Same difference to me!

A typo I think. He meant to write junc (He can't spell either!)

Out of interest, is anyone registered on the BNTA site and knows what the 'Forgeries' section is about? I can't be bothered to register just to see what there is, but wonder if anyone can post stuff there? http://www.bnta.net/forgeries-login

It looks like it's been squashed. What diameter is it please Ray?

Is that Dolphin Coins trading under a different name? I didn't know that. I used to enjoy flicking through The Sovereign, which had some gorgeous coins for sale if only I could have afforded them! Yes, they became 'South East International Trading' a few years back and the outside of the shop looks more like a pawnbrokers. Bullion silver tat seems to be their mainstay now, in fact I don't know if they even stock coins any more ..

Anyone else think this looks like a (rather poor, probably pewter-like white metal) cast? 150912385037

330800821400 Ah .. makes me long for the old days. Once upon a time I picked up a few coins from Dolphin Coins. And looking back on the stock they had in their 'Double Sovereign' list there are some very nice coins, I wish I'd bought. But now .. well, you just have to look at the grading. That is never extremely fine condition. And as for the other tat they are selling, well, it makes me sad. Oh, well. Times change ..

Indeed. And £200 for it.

I think if you could sort out the bend then it would be quite a nice coin. The detail is good (VF or so, apart from maybe a few scratches). The problem being that it can be quite tricky straightening the things without leaving an obvious crease. But maybe someone feels confident?

Not me. Still searching for that elusive shilling!

Its not ebay though Richard, it's NGC Exactly. And the problem being that, in the US, you can only quote a numeric grade in a coin listing if it has been provided by an approved grading company. You can't quote price list guides such as Spink (even if you don't give a grade, but just offer it for info) if the coin isn't graded by an approved grading company. And you can't list any coin for over $2500 unless it's been graded (and presumably slabbed) again, by an approved grading company. From the ebay blog of an American dealer: "Always return coins that you feel do not meet the ANA grading standards even if a grading service has slabbed them as MS70. However, please think twice about returning a PCGS, NGC, ICG, or ANACS graded coin since they are the most reliable grading services. If you disagree with their grading educate yourself on the ANA standards. I personally no longer accept returns on these four grading services." So if TPGCs are not offering accurate certification or grading, then there's a problem, no?

And what the hell does VF Details mean?? Surely, a coin is either VF or it's not? To me 'VF Details' isn't a grade. You might as well say 'some parts nice' or 'OK for it's age'! ebay grades for ebay crap.

I don't know. But it occurs to me, what's the point of designing a system of classification and then publishing it for everyone to read about if not the hope that people will find it of assistance? And surely, part of finding something useful will be that you will want to adopt it yourself, no? This is certainly the case with collectors of the shillings of Charles I, in that Michael Sharp's system is much more useful than Spink's numeric one (such as S.2793 which doesn't really differentiate within a type group) or Grant Francis' (1b2 etc ..) And Michael's introduction to his paper seems fairly clear that he designed his system for reference and in the hope that it could develop if any further types or varieties were found. The fact that we call a coin Sharp C2/6 effectively gives MS credit. Similarly it seems to me that by using BCW (or Peck or Spink or Freeman etc) notation we are acknowledging their work. As to a new system, while it's your area and you have the expertise, not I, my personal feeling would be that if BCW classifications are adequate, why re-invent the wheel? That's what Roy Osborne tried to do (again with the Charles I series) but to be honest he went into so much detail that the result is just unwieldy and inelegant. While it can be helpful if you can't access or send a photograph, but want someone to be able to recognise an individual coin by description (down to the style of harp and beard shape), for the most part simplicity equals functionality. IMHO .

Interesting that the main bidders have 91%, 30% and 15% bidding activity with this seller.