TomGoodheart

To be honest, no. I am sure I've seen a picture a bit similar to the one in your window but can't seem to track it down. It's not in the book I thought it was! I assumed that they perhaps used a screw clamp to hold the planchets neatly. I don't know if Dave Greenhalgh (Dave the Moneyer) might have some more information? He makes coins and might know more. Maybe give him a call? Ah, yes. The Civil War pieces were of very varying quality from the excellent (machine made) York coins to the 'blacksmith' pieces. As for siege pieces, as Peter says, they were often cut from silver plates using a pair of shears and simply stamped. The Newark(e) coins are a good example, some even still bearing traces of the decoration or gilding of the item they were cut from. Some Scarborough pieces were just cut any old how and then had the value stamped on them depending on what they weighed. Generally the larger the coin the more trouble seems to have been taken. But I think some of the late Tower issues (between about 1640-45, particularly the (P) and R privy marks when quality seemed to go out the window) compete quite well with the provincial mints for the 'poor quality' title. This for example: Just about central strike but with a very crude portrait and mishapen (though decent weight) flan. Difficult to imagine the moneyer was bothered about anything other than finishing the job and getting off to the ale house!

I've seen a similar picture. The blanks from which the coins are struck are stacked together into a sort of 'sausage', clamped at the ends. Then the sausage is hammered into a round cylinder/rod, thus making the blanks (planchets) mostly circular. You can see the result sometimes in that the edges of unclipped coins are a bit thicker and edge on you can see they have been hammered. Like this one: If you think about it, it's quite clever. The blamks were cut from silver plate, often quite crudely. Hammering the edges of the planchets individually would have been fiddly, more time consuming and likely bent the planchet. Doing several together would have been more efficient. One thing I'm not sure about is whether the technique was used for all coin denominations. I can imagine that it was most convenient for larger coins such as crowns/Thalers. There might have been a size below which it was too fiddly. You also find that the roundness of coins varies considerably, proably depending on how much the coyners could be bothered to do a good job. Late coins of Charles I (1640s) for example are often mis-shapen and poorly executed.

Personally I use the guide in Spink's Coins of England at the start of the English hammered series (page 87 in my 2006 edition). It illustrates a coin in EF, VF and F. Because as others have said, whereas a milled coin can be compared with others to see how much wear it has, hammered coins are more or less attractive depending on more than just wear. Fullness and roundness of the flan. Central or off-centre strike. Thin patches leading to weakness in the strike. They just aren't that easy to just grade, I'm afraid!

Well, then happy birthday to all our, ahem, .. members! Especially the twins, saymajaan22 and saymajaan21! And Pinman of course. The only real member to be celebrating today!

Don't know much about such coins but I found these : finds.org.uk artfund which suggest it's a light coinage penny, possibly Blunt 40. You haven't shown the other side which might help ID further, but a nice find!

Probably best to ask Chris the forum owner about that. What azda said! I can see there is a way to view name history on a profile, which suggests names can be changed but I don't see how! I presume it needs more admin powes than I have. pm Chris (Perkins) if you're keen and maybe see what he can do?

Ah, yes. I collect all sorts (I've just picked up a very nice 1983 fake £1 coin. Appears to be gold plated lead!) But Charles shillings are generally the only coins I actually buy!

And all appear to have a scratch along the neck on the edge of the hair ... very suspicious. And worrying.

[in best chavlish] Is you disrespectin me an sayin I is Old??

There's also a very similar scratch running down the neck towards 7 o'clock that just touches the hair and similar weaknesses on the tops of the ET of AT.ET and [MB.F.] ET [ If this were a hammered coin those features would lead me to think it's a replica but with milled .. could be coincidental die weakness? The scratches however, well, any near identical scratch kinda strengthens the replica idea, doesn't it? Good spot Dave. Hope you didn't pay too much, LOL!

See, I've always thought of myself as a "middle sector" collector. I currently have 66 coins in my collection which I imagine is a fairly small number. Many of them cost under £100 which is about Spink price for Charles I shillings in Fine and it's very rare for me to spend over £300. In condition, they range from Fair (or Fine on a good day!) to 'as struck' (being hammered they all tend to have some defects but say, decent VF). I buy with money I receive at Chrismas and for my birthday and if I need more .. then I just have to sell another coin. Although the last purchase was effectively with money I was 'lent' by Wifey! Will I buy less in the near future? Well, in some ways I already do. There are less gaps in my collection, less opportunities to buy the coins I want because they rarely come onto the market. And I'm hoping to gradually upgrade many of the lesser pieces, but again, the reason I haven't before is because I bought the best available at the time and improvements are again not easily found, even if I had the money. Oh, I dare say that if I had plenty of funds I might well buy a few decent pieces when they come up, since prices seem reasonable. But I'd buy to sell on not to add to my collection. So am I responsible for the middle market bombing .. maybe!

LOL OK, let's (or rather let me) look at this dispassionately. Slabs. Inherently ... I have little objection to slabs! When I first started collecting I bought some Hartberger plastic flips, which are really just fancy versions of card flips; a fold-over piece of card with a hole for the coin and plastic film to protect. And I thought my coins looked quite fine in them! Plus they were protected when daughter wanted to look at a coin I didn't have to worry about it being dropped or sticky fingers ruining it. My main gripe with slabs is actually the associated grading, which I worry makes collectors lazier. Instead of coming to their own decision about grade, buyers tend to accept the slab. But we've all heard of re-slabbing in the hope of a grade improvement. Plus with US grading I do wonder if the average collector can tell the difference between a 62 and 63, despite the price differential, but that's perhaps another matter. The question is, are they buying the coin or the slab? For that reason I wonder if buying slabbed coins is a .. different experience from buying unslabbed? I also find that slabs can hide defects (particularly on edges) and make it difficult to really see the coin. A fairly big negative I think. I've only bought one coin that had been slabbed (but 'freed' by the time I saw it) and was pleased to find the nasty scratch it originally featured on the reverse had gone. It must have been on the slab! (Slabbed on the left. Unslabbed right. Both from dealer's pics!) But my real reason? I just prefer my coins in a nice felt lined tray and the fact that I can pick them up and re-examine them with a lens any time without a piece of plastic between us! Auction houses? That's fine and in the past many big collectors have used auction houses as their dealers and have formed useful relationships and magnificent collections. But for the medium collector like me, the buyer fees add a significant hike to the price and no auction house is likely to phone me and tell me about their latest offerings in the hope of securing my interest. Whereas dealers hopefully remember me! The internet? I kinda thought that we use the internet the same as everywhere else! However the only 'dealer transparency' I've found is from sites that list auction data. In order to get access to the historical data which I need I'd have to pay a (to me) significant amount and I'm not prepared to do that (I could buy a very decent coin with $600/£375!) As for other aspects of the internet, well, I simply could not have assembled my collection without the internet. I have bought from delaers and action houses as far flung as Australia, Germany, the USA from the comfort of my living room. The internet? I like! As for the final bit about hiding collections, like Gary, I don't think that's the case, surely Geoff? Yes, I am not going to advertise to all and sundry that I have a coin collection because people have distorted ideas about the value of such things and I don't want to be burgled (again)! But if people like you or my other contacts know that I have one of the (now 8) known examples of the Sharp G3/2 Charles I shilling, that to me seems to be a good thing on balance. Firstly it gives everyone the opportunity to compare dies and examples, so scholarship benefits. Secondly, if ever I did want to sell then I'd have thought people knowing that there are only x of such coins would help the price, not hinder it. I'm sure I could find a buyer with little difficulty and the fact that I can include such coins in my collection, and people know that, I'd have thought would give my overall collection a little bit more .. kudos, perhaps?

I can only assume the links are malware and they just hope someone will stupidly click one. Because, like probably everyone else here, I'd be so irritated at the way the sites are marketed, I'd go elsewhere on principle. Fortunately, like Peter, I have a comfy sofa and have never been attracted to the idea of having sex with a phone.

I did discuss that with him and suggest that he really doesn't need to start a new thread each time he puts a new listing up on ebay. I thought that if people are interested they will find the For Sale forum. But he seems to like to keep it up to date and as it isn't causing any problems I've left it up to him.

Looking better (Hi Chris!) Did you see my message about the recent ones having a location or jabber as 143040? A couple joined as far back as September but have never posted. Might be worth getting rid of them too? I suspect there are more but if they don't post I guess it doesn't really matter.

Well, I've deleted and blocked what I can. But I don't have the ability to delete members, or in fact block them until they actually post something! So there may be a bit more spam before it's all sorted but I'll see what I can do.

I quite fancy something that isn't really a coin. Well, it is, in that it's a gold Angel, however I'd like one that has been pierced as a touchpiece. I also collect amulets, talismans and religious medallions too, you see. Here's a rather nice example off Antony Wilson's site. Though a silver one would be nice also!

I guess that'd be up to Chris. The only problem I can see is that someone would have to 'approve' the newcomers and Chris isn't on here much. I forget who else is a mod/admin, but assuming there are still a few active, or we get volunteers it could work. Again, it would be Chris who would need to set the level of what admins can and can't do in terms of deleting posts / members etc.

It appears we have had another (rather busy) unwelcome visitor. I deleted around 20 spam messages this morning. I believe I have blocked the 'member' from posting any more. But I've left the last posts that arrived after I'd cleared up in case Chris can glean anything from the IP address and block it. I'll tidy up the last posts later today or tomorrow. If you want to reply on the threads feel free, though I'm pretty sure it's just a bot. I suggest nobody clicks on links as I'm sure you can buy your viagra cheaper elsewhere. Plus any replies will be deleted when the post goes later. Richard

Which will have to do instead of the jaw drop smiley I would have liked. I'm sorry I didn't list anything this weekend as clearly there are idiots about. For I can't believe that eight people would bid on a coin that they haven't seen, let alone one that the seller has illustrated with a picture of a WRL replica. I just wish I'd thought of it, then I too could be £160 better off! hammered 1653 shilling Scam, do you think? Or stupid?

Oh, I thought they were modelled on Stephanie from Lazytown .. ...... ..................... Stephanie from Lazytown ................ Some groat or other

Thanks! It can just go back in the drawer then. I just found it in my browsing (looking for a tray to put the State Quarters Wifey brought back from the US) and thought if it was at all interesting someone here could have it.

Bog standard I presume? It's from two scans. The colour of the reverse is closer to the obv in real life.

Ah, that Sir, is an example of what the coiners at the Mint were capable of, if they took care over hammering a coin! Of course, it's been fortunate in starting it's life as a decent circular flan (most weren't towards the end of Charles' reign and it has to be assumed that quality control at the Mint just got forgotten) It also clearly never came near anyone tempted to clip it. And having never hammered a coin myself, I wonder if a bit of luck didn't come into the fact that the dies were nicely aligned to give a central strike on both sides. But those are the factors that make it a rarity. Less so for the number produced than for the fact that, as Rob says, most of the output was crap to start with and time has not then improved them at all!

Indeed, and Spink's sale in March (1236, Lot 128) was also pretty decent. I guess I just started thinking what a shame I wasn't collecting at the time of the sale (a thought that possibly occurs to us all at some point!), though whether at the time I'd have paid the Hughes price ... not so sure! btw Rob, I don't suppose you have any intel on the Shuttlewood sale? I'm curious about HS0329 (Shilling type 4.4 m.m. ® Untidy strike on squarish flan)) Sadly not illustrated, so unless someone has a coin with the Spink tickets may be impossible to track .. just I have a coin that is on a squarish flan ... (Yeah, I know, very ebay: assuming one's bog standard piece of junk just has to be that coin from that collection, but yanno .. one can hope!)