TomGoodheart

LOL No, I was thinking of just regular coins (Charles I shillings of course) in decent condition. No obvious provenance and while good, certainly not exceptional, with asking prices 50% to double what I would expect. A coin that sold in DNW's November auction for £180 now listed at £325 for example.

Auctions aside, I and a few others have noticed coins going for what would have been considered, at least a year or two ago, ridiculous amounts. More worryingly, these pieces were gone from dealers' lists almost as soon as they appeared. Clearly nobody is going to discuss their customers in detail so it's impossible to know if there are just one or two newcomers picking up these coins or whether there is an actual market demand. I also don't know whether the buyers paid the asking price or not. However it feels as if it will be a while before the buyers of those coins will recoup what they paid. And if there's a downturn ...

Indeed! Even only 12 years ago I slaved like a b*tch for two years to get my one A*, three As and some Bs and Cs (total 9 GCSEs)... so when I see kids on tele every august saying 'I got 73 A*s, but the exams are way harder than they used to be" I have to laugh! Oh, and mine were in proper subjects like chemistry and physics as opposed to david beckham studies and mucking out a horse! LOL Far be it for me to criticise the exams, since I have a daughter currently in the middle of A Levels and of course she deserves her grades, but yeah. Sitting exams in stages (which you can re-sit to boost your end score), not revisiting subjects already examined ... exams are certainly different these days. And I can't help but feel that things have also changed on the university front. I got into London with a C,D and E and went on to work in medical research on the basis of my degree (a 3rd!) Now no decent university is offering many places for less than AAB and increasingly they want at least one A*. On that basis, pretty much none of the people I went to uni with would have even been offered a place ...

Yeah, it's like A and A* at exams. The As are getting so common everyone wants an A* now.

Yeah, I never figured out why that is. The initials are after all of the South Seas Company, whose (Indonesian) silver was used to make the coins. But C SS it reads ... Nice find!

Thanks Chris, I was wondering if the asterix or castle symbols signified anything specifically? I understand the castle was the mark of the Company of Royal Adventurers Trading to Africa (the Africa Company) whose gold was used to make the coins. The company collapsed in 1667 and its facilities were merged with those of the Gambia Merchants' Company to form the new Royal African Company. Whose mark was the elephant and castle. Hence coins after 1675 bear the castle (howdah) as well.

Maria Theresa thalers (which is what you have) have been made in the millions by mints as different as Birmingham, Bombay, Brussels, London, Paris, Rome and Utrecht. Unless it's sparkling new I imagine it would be difficult without personal inspection to tell if it's 'original' (whatever that means for something produced from 1780 right up to 2000). Unless someone else knows differences between the mints?

Well, if you can pick it up for 99p then it might yield a bit of a return when you sell it!

Why thank you Colin. I know I'm in decent shape for my age, but nobody's ever called me buff before! And I just used a little knowledge and Spink's Coins of Scotland. OK, Mark. I hope your friend knows not to clean or mess with the coins? Anyway, you can carry on posting pics and we'll give opinions, ids etc, or if there are quite a few coins in decent condition then it might be worth her/him visiting a dealer, either for a valuation for insurance or with an idea of selling. Members here can likely make a few suggestions, depending on where your friend is based. As to the coins above, I'd be happier if another member or two who know a bit about hammered coins chipped in with their ideas too, as Scottish coins aren't really my area of expertise, though I've done my best.

The last is Scottish too. So let's start with that one. A half testoon of Mary from 1558. Spink 5413. Not worth too much; between £135 and £475. From the photos, I'd say towards the upper end as it's better than Fine. nVF maybe. The first one .. a groat (fourpence) I reckon and though I can't make out which king, I'm guessing Robert II. Dating from 1371-1390 Edinburgh issue and if I'm correct, Spink 5131. About £75 in Fine. The second and I'm guessing smallest, a halfpenny of Robert Bruce Spink 5077. Looks fairly decent so between £500 and £1200? Actually on doing a search if that's the right id, possibly higher, though it's a little smaller than one would ideally like. I could of course be wrong so I'd suggest getting a second opinion! Nice coins. Does your friend have many more? This detectorist seems to have made some good finds.

The original photos maneyer posted were from the cointalk website but whether linked to someone showing off their purchase, I don't know. Perhaps pm him?

Well no one has yet in my opinion come up with a convincing counter argument to my previous state that the amount of toning and rate of toning is in direct relationship to the quantity of environmental damage. The heavier the toning the harsher the environment the coin has been keeps in. Just putting a coin away in an envelope although may be considered as protecting it could actually do more damage than leaving it in open air. I still maintain that although all coins will tone with age a lightly toned coin is better than a deeply tone coin, so we shouldn't be seeking out toning and equating it with quality. I think there's a difference between seeking out and accepting toning. If you try to avoid all toning then you get the situation I believe they have in Germany where coins are dipped and varnished to preserve their state. Whereas the Americans seem to have gone the other way completely. Some coins will tone and, certainly with hammered coins that are likely to have been cleaned at some time, I prefer a bit of toning than the bright shininess like this: And once a coin has toned then I think it does more harm to try to reverse it than let it be. But perhaps it's a personal thing? Shiny bright-as-the-day-they-were-struck Roman coins somehow don't seem so bad to me as the shilling above for some reason.

Hi Mark, The 150kb limit is per post, not day. But if you have a photohosting account like flikr or photobucket you can put a link to the images directly in a post which might be easier. I believe the coin above is a Henry VIII penny. Probably an ecclesiastical issue (minted by a Bishop) though which one, I'm not sure. Hopefully someone else will know.

Your links didn't work for me so I've amended them moneyer. And, no. Burnt caramel doesn't appeal much to me either.

Seeing as you're having a run of luck, why not buy a lottery ticket too? That way we can all see photos of you celebrating your multi-million ££££ win on Sunday.

Back in the day the £ was divided into shillings and pence. When we adopted decimal coinage in 1972 the shilling, which was worth 1/20th of £1 was replaced by the equivalent 5p. At the time, the 5p piece was minted the same size and weight as an old shilling so it would still work in any machinery that was yet to be converted. So basically you have a regular issue 5p for 1987. The smaller size we use today was not introduced until 1990. Sorry to disappoint you. But welcome to the forum!

Unfortunately he just listed a load of coins on a pdf which were to be added to the site later .. but never were, so there are no prices at all. I don't even have a ball park figure as to what he thinks it might be worth. Though of course, I have a low, low figure in mind for what I'd like to pay! It's just wait and see now .. At least I'm off to work now so shall be distracted for the next 24 hours!

Aaand ... still waiting and no more patient than yesterday! Still, it seems a pretty effective way of saving my pennies, so perhaps I shouldn't complain. Though I'm starting to wonder if the price will be beyond my means, or at least what I'd like to pay .. It'd be so much easier if dealers just priced everything they have in stock up front ..

I believe Dave Allen was the Hon Secretary of the Beds Society. He runs Cambridge Coins in Biggleswade. Maybe email him and ask?

I feel a bit like a teenager again. Sitting by the telephone .. waiting. Only this time I'm waiting for an email from a dealer to tell me the price of a coin I'm interested in. Ah well, patience is a virtue they say! Sadly, a virtue I lack!

That's great stuff seuk! Very nice, and some excellent examples too! Makes me wonder if I shouldn't do something with my shillings ... but sadly my medical condition (terminal laziness) makes that difficult! Can I ask what the A (C etc) numbers signify? Are they your own classification of obv/rev types or linked to another publication? (Sorry if that's a daft question!)

I see Geoff hasn't posted for months now and even then, has been nowhere near a regular contributer as he was a couple of years ago. I'm not sure if people become busy with other things; Declan and his house move for example, or lose interest in the hobby, or at least writing about it? Gollum hopefully is ok. I seem to remember his health is none too good .. or maybe his wife found out he was spending money on coins! It'd be interesting to catch up on some of the 'old' members, particularly the youngsters, to see if they are still collecting, or if they got to whatever heights they were aspiring to. (See?! I could have used GeoffT's help there since I'm sure you're not supposed to split infinitives or something!) Emperor Oli perhaps? Or maybe they are all just on Farmville ...

That'll be "collectable" in the sense of putting the bins out for collection. Looks like it was run over at some point. Still .. nice of them to post really big pics so you can see all the detail.

I think the whole market (and not just for coins) has changed so significantly it's impossible to compare today with even 20 years ago let alone the 1970s. Then, as Numismatist says, you needed to buy through the dealers and were limited to what was in the trays on the day you visited, or impressing them enough that they would contact you when new stock came in. There was information about coins, but it was limited to a few journals available on subscription and a handful of books, like North, Peck. Nowadays you can view dozens of coins on ebay alone. You can search auction catalogues as far afield as Australia, Germany or the US online. Instead of being limited to the few people you meet at your local coin club, you can chat to collectors around the globe and compare coins and information without ever leaving home. I myself have built up my entire collection since 2004, almost all online and through contacts with other collectors. I have copies of published papers, am aware of collections and collectors, I might never even have heard about if I had to rely solely on the interests of collectors local to me. And as we know, knowledge is power! Potentially very rare coins can become common knowledge and instead of one or two other collectors seeking a variety it could be dozens or more. Yes, people still keep aquisitions close to their chests but when something is bought from ebay or an auction house it's much more likely another collector will spot it and learn of its existence than 20 or 40 years ago. All of this has an effect on prices in that collectors wishing to specialise can become more knowledgable more quickly and see more examples (and therefore build a better sense of how scarce and so how much to pay) than ever before. People see better coins, better provenance and want them. Yes, there are people who just rely on ebay, just as in the 1970s I expect some relied on their local antique or 'coin and stamp' shop. But if you want to leave that behind and shop with the 'big boys' (sorry Debbie!) I think it's a lot easier to do so than 40 years ago.

Interesting question. Unfortunately in the 1970s I was mostly interested in listening to Black Sabbath and looking for a girlfriend that liked science fiction ... But out of curiosity I looked at Seaby's 1972 catalogue. The catalogue itself is priced at £1.25. Given Spink's is now £25 and although larger I reckon the price of publishing is now cheaper (given it's probably printed in China) I've assumed a similar ratio for the prices quoted, ie: 20x just for fun. Taking the first issue of Charles I shillings (A1/1) which was £11 in fine (prices aren't given for higher grades) in 1972, multiplying by 20 would take that to £220. Whereas the Spink price is, what? £125? Similarly the later common 'Briot style' bust im triangle was £5 converting to £100 today. Whereas in real life you'd pick one up for £50. Of course, that's a pretty random calculation, given that the relative prices for things is not fixed. While a loaf of bread might have kept pace with inflation, not so for a pocket calculator. My first 'scientific' one was £55. Which doesn't compare very well with my daughter's phone which was 'free' on a contract costing only double her weekly pocket money. Given my pocket money in 1972 was about 12½ p and daughter's phone has a brain the size of a planet (almost literally as it's connected to the internet) technology clearly has become (relatively) much cheaper. Which is a long rambling way of saying, maybe coins are still (relatively) cheap?