TomGoodheart

I still have it. I, er, believe you weren't interested ..

I think I paid about £30 for it. I was more impulsive in those days!

I actually would tend to believe that they are locked out already. Personally I always used to leave the back door key in the house, hanging up somewhere. If they do the same and it's inside, then they are already locked out due to the front door being blocked up. When I'm over there in a few weeks, do I have the right to enter the property? I've got a back door key, so it won't be a problem assuming the lock is the original. Just to be absolutely above board, I would give him notice of this. A text saying you will be visiting the house should do. Can you take your estate agent friend too, to avoid accusations you damaged or knicked stuff while there? Yeah, I know, but ..

Half-crowns were certainly a useful denomination right from the 17th century. They were used to buy things and circulated, whereas my feeling is that early crowns were as much bullion as anything. I can't see an average bloke having much use for a crown in Stuart days, as evidenced by the fact that the smaller denominations are much commoner in hoards. Historical interest is part of the hobbby I like. But if you want aesthetic, crowns seem better struck and/or preserved on average. Some of the 17th century half-crowns are very oddly shaped and poorly struck by comparison. It's whichever appeals most to you, both give a decent few centuries scope for collecting! Oh, and to whet your appetite, here's a half-crown commemorating Charlie winning the relay race at school. And that despite the other chaps throwing their things at him to put him off. What bounders! And bravo Charlie! Courtesy AMR Coins.

Can you get the locks changed? Might be worth it for doors the (now ex-) tenants had keys for. Doesn't sound as if they are too bothered about collecting their stuff so you'll need to give them reasonable time to do so and then tell them you'll chuck it or whatever ..

Looking back to my sort of area, my impression is that hammered crowns tend to be found in full-flan / round / unclipped condition more frequently than the half crowns. Now I'm not suggesting you determine your collecting area solely on the reign of Charles I, but if you like a nice round coin then maybe crowns are the way to go? Either way, the earlier you go the more you will end up paying. However, both denominations are popular with collectors, so it's likely the occasional nice piece will come on the market so you'll never be short of coins to aspire to. The main thing is to stay clear of hammered shillings. All those different bust designs? Bah! Much nicer to have row upon row of coins with some bloke on a horse all looking the same.

I sold the fantasy crown for peanuts(I don't even know where it came from ) I have a gold set that I picked up as a curiosity. I wish I knew more about them as I've only ever seen one other set and have no idea of the gold content. I think London Coins have sold a few various sets. I seem to remember the shilling is sterling, but I was collecting monarchs and it filled a gap and was fun at the time. I don't recall much paperwork with it, I just stuck it in a capsule. I'll have to see what details I can find. The portrait really isn't very good!

I have the shilling if anyone wants to buy it off me? The portrait is by Raphael Maklouf who also did the obverse with the coupe portrait between 85 and 97.

Blame it on insecurity. The minute you have natural toning which can take on any form there is an automatic assumption that it's hiding something, whereas a monotonous colour from dipping will show all the detail evenly. Bizarre really when you think about it - so many people who are happily taking a coin that has knowingly been dipped and therefore messed with a bit, in preference to a coin that may or may not have possibly been played with. I don't think it's that, I think it's more the simple fact that most collectors don't care that much, not surprising when you see that the majority of silver coins offered seem to have been cleaned in some way and dipping is certainly preferable to Duraglit. As we've said before some natural toning can be singularly unattractive hence why so many coins were dipped in the first place. Bronze/copper is a different matter entirely... I don't mind lightly dipped silver, got to be EF+ though, anything worn just doesn't look right. A lot of this sellers' coinsappear dipped (though possibly not recently). Puts me off to be honest. I like my hammered coins to look like they have been around for a while, not straight from the mint. As Gary says, if they were 'as struck' it might look better, but worn and dipped .. not for me.

In my experience coins have gotten more expensive over the short(ish) 8 years I've been collecting. I would be very happy to pick up some of the coins I've sold since then, if I only had to pay what I did at the time! I have to admit I was lucky, but when I checked I still have perhaps half of the coins I bought in 2004, either remaining happy with then or having failed to find better examples to upgrade. Real rarities aside, modern coins are easily available. You will be able to pick up a 1970 proof shilling or an 1887 in decent condition any time. But drop back to James II or William & Mary and you'll struggle. So if you see a good one now, it's inadvisable to wait. I started collecting shillings of the first year of issue and for any major bust or reverse change but eventually, as I said, had to narrow my collection or face gaps that would always challenge my budget if the coins were even available at all. I know some people do, but buying one or two coins a year is not much fun for me! So I echo what Rob says. Buy some cheaper recent coins but don't ignore the older ones. And remember, you can always ask people here whether they think a price is acceptable or not. Not that that will stop you from making mistakes, because we all do, but it might help a bit with damage limitation!

Only you can decide (of course) Hello. But if you're still enthusiastic about coins then it seems a shame to get rid of them all. I'd say pick the nicest and keep those as surely they shouldn't take up much space? As for the rest, I presume no other family member has an ebay account you could sell through? Alternatively, you mentioned visiting a local coin dealer a while back. Maybe see if you could sell to them. Or list here under 'for sale' Or of course, there's always car boot sales and the like, but I'd doubt you'd get much as everyone wants a bargain. But most I'd stick in a box or tray under the bed and keep for later.

This help? Calendar.

I don't know where there are easily available photos but here's a guide with pictures.

Oh, we've all done that. Especially with nested comments. Just remember you can edit a post for a few minutes after posting (there's a button at the bottom of your comment). Or if you really mess it up, re-post and either delete the original or ask an admin (like me) to do it. And welcome to predecimal!

Oooh! L@@k! Not often you see a nice shiny BU 1965 crown.... but, .. hang on a minute .. ???? Aren't they meant to be matt? Unless this is the specimen? On ebay?

LOL That's ridiculous!

how thick are some people, the casting bubbles on the obverse are as clear as a pint of stella. They are indeed. But people are buying these things. And at some stage they will no doubt want to sell them and quite likely will be V Disappointed. And while I slightly sympathise with the old caveat emptor, a rip off is a rip off. And a particularly annoying one given that ebay, while clapping on about replicas, counterfeits and certification, have consistently done precisely nothing about such listings. Even when told.

Make a copy of your photo so it's not lost, open the copy in MS Paint, reduce the size to 40%-50%, save it as a jpeg and upload it to Photobucket. When you link to it here it will display in a reasonable size but clicking on it will enlarge to the (reduced) size of the photo you uploaded. A 1.6MB photowill drop quite quickly to a managable 200-400KB on reduction in dimensions. So where's this hammered coin then ... ?

Not me. I was after something else entirely .. Nice penny though.

I'm now wondering if it's Pitman shorthand. Anyone know someone able to read it? I had a look, but the differences between the symbols (particularly those for whole words (known as grammalogues)) are too subtle to guess at unless you have some experience.

To do it yourself, search sites such as CoinArchives.com or mcsearch.info can be helpful. And of course, many international auction companies use hosts like sixbid or liveauctioneers.com to host and store auction information. For ebay just click on 'worldwide' under location and search for completed listings or search via ebay.com or ebay.com.au

A guinea is 21 shillings, so that's 12x21 = 252 pennies. Four farthings to a penny, four quarter farthings to a farthing so .... 4032 1/4 farthings to a guinea. I think!

Some nice coins there! I don't remember seeing the 60/- but I've just been admiring it. If ever I get into Scottish ...

I think it depends on the coins .. for, say, really nice modern (post 1700s) silver I get the impression that American buyers pay more than we do over here. I think there will always be a lesser interest in 'foreign' coins than US ones, but interest is increasing as American collectors realise the disparity between prices in the US and Europe. But if your collection is somewhat specialised, as mine is, it will need someone with a bit more than average knowledge to recognise the rarity of what would otherwise appear to be a bog standard coin in none to brilliant condition! In such a case you might do better here, since the action houses are more likely to have the contacts to make a succesful sale. Similarly there will be specialist dealers here with knowledge of British coins most won't have in the US. But that's to be expected really. EF coins will sell worldwide. Where rarity dictates that you will never find better than nVF, you need someone who recognises that to get the best price. That of course sets aside the appeal of keeping British coins with British collectors. I'm not saying someone in the US won't appreciate the history or the coins. And if there's a huge difference in what could be realised in a sale ... but somehow I like the idea of my coins passing to someone else here, rather than disappearing abroad, perhaps for ever.

Gosh. I think that just underlines either how ridiculously overblown prices are in the US or how unrealistically low ours are. I just can't decide which! I wouldn't expect to pay much more than a thousandth of that for a Charles I shilling for which less than 8 examples are known. In fact most British silver or base metal coins, irrespective of how rare, could be had for, what, under £50,000? I know that a) there are probably fewer collectors of British coins than US ones and that there are probably fewer really wealthy British coin collectors than in the US, but even so ... .. not that I'm complaining! I have no wish to be priced out of the hobby and while there are still quite a few near-unique coins lacking from my collection, long may the madness continue!