TomGoodheart

Personally, I didn't see anything wrong with the Cs or the robe decoration. This coin for example, which sold through Heritage in 2008 has the Cs with a small hole in the back and top serif and the imperfectly circular inner wire lines. If that's not enough, the same characteristics are shared with Brooker's 389 and 390. Obviously, that doesn't resolve the weight issue, but in terms of design, the coin doesn't shout 'fake' to me. Whereas the four similar coins I posted in the other thread all have a flan crack from the top of the XII to the foot of the R of CAROLVS and between the D and G. It's also possible to make out that there is a cross shaped scratch across the coin in all four examples. It's when more than one coin shares the identical quirks, in particular dints, scratches or flaws that it becomes simplest to be certain there's something dodgy going on! As for contemporary cointerfeits, unless they are cast from a real coin and silvered then the die making was rarely very professional. This is a fairly typical example. Hopefully most people can see there's something a bit .. not quite right about it.

Unfortunately I don't think I have the admin powers to open a new sub-forum. I'll message Chris and see what he thinks.

And also .. And in case anyone was wondering if they haven't seen all this before, I've retitled and bumped this thread in light of the discussion in "Coin aquisition of the week .." And if anyone wishes to add known modern replicas of coins that might help our members to avoid buying a duff coin, please go ahead. Just make sure you're satisfied they aren't the real deal or contemporary counterfeits of numismatic interest, and please don't slander any sellers in the process!

LOL I saw the Lockdales entry and estimate too! But I was mean and only went up to £250. If I'd got it, I would have sold it on almost immediately!

Well, they are about the same size as shillings ...

I think those seem only recently recognised as seriously scarce, so any example is a good investment. A decent provenance is always an attractive addition. The provenance of the shilling was nice too, but even if I had the money I just don't know if I could justify quite that much given I too have an acceptable example ...

POIDH (Photo please!)

I've bought from Keith a while back, but he's not that near to me and as his lists aren't (weren't?) illustrated and I need more information than SHILLING 1631-2 BUST WITH MORE ARMOUR VISIBLE REV WITH OVAL SHIELD MM ROSE s2783 NEF to tell me if a coin is a particular variety I want or not. So I stick to dealers that have sites, apart from Mark Rassmussen who still kindly sends me his list and a couple of overseas auction houses that do likewise. As I said elsewhere, I have over 50 dealers bookmarked and a regular schedule for checking those most likely to stock what I'm interested in. But really it depends on the type of coins you're interested in. My bookmarks are all geared to hammered Stuart coins and many wouldn't be much use to someone collecting, say farthings.

I have about 50 dealers sites bookmarked, though I only check four daily. After a while you learn which dealers update their sites regularly and which don't. Several have a'recently added' button that is useful. I also have 5 search categories on ebay and have set up an email reminder once a week that tells me if my favourite ebay sellers have added new stock. But then I do spend an inordinate amount of time on the internet. I don't watch TV and only occasionally read fiction books so any morning or evening when I'm not at work, I'm surfing. However I should point out that my collection is not only quite specialised but there are few coins I actually want/need. If your interests are the sorts of coins that most dealers stock, then it should be possible to find a handful of dealers whose prices are acceptable to you that you can check fairly quickly.

Apparently there's some economic crisis thing going on. Not that I've been affected, apart from the threat of redundancy and the soaring price of lettuce .. but I'm not exactly falling over money to spend on coins. That of course hasn't stopped me from still looking at all the usual sites and dealers lists. But I've noticed that surprisingly, the few decent coins that have popped up lately have all been snapped up within hours, despite being, in my view, ridiculously overpriced. (£700 for a Charles shilling Spink 2012 lists at £350 in VF?) Now maybe there's a new (wealthy) kid in town. But if so, they clearly know their way around the dealers, some of whom are not terribly well known. So I'm wondering if anyone else has noticed good quality stock in their area of interest whizzing off the (cyber)shelves? I'm starting to fear that if and when something I want finally does turns up I'm not going to be able to afford it.

Extremely fine: A coin that exhibits very little sign of circulation, with only minimal marks or faint wear, which are only evident on very close scrutiny. Very fine: A coin that exhibits some wear on the raised surfaces of the design, but really has had only limited circulation. Fine: A coin that exhibits consideable wear to the raised surfaces of the design, either through circulation, damage or due to faulty striking. Below Fine is Fair, which is basically recognisable to the extent you can tell what the reign, issue date and main distinguishing features are on the coin, but it won't be pretty! Strictly speaking the hammered coins I collect are graded slightly more generously as follows: Extremely fine: Design and legends sharp and clear. Very fine: Design and legends still clear but with slight evidence of wear and/or minor damage. Fine: Showing quite a lot of wear but still with design and legends distinguishable. but in practice I try to stick to the former criteria, if I grade at all.

I might be interested in any nice shillings when you do! My 'plan' was to collect all major obv/ rev design changes of shillings starting witht the first issues for each reign. But trying to find a cheap VF testoon, some of the nicer James II or W&M examples, plus a Dorien Magens made me realise my pockets weren't deep enough for a comprehensive collection. Gradually I lost interest in modern coins (post 1750 for me) and switched entirely to Tower mint issues of Charles I. I'm considering adding Scottish Chas coins at present. There aren't very many varieties and it makes a change but it all depends on budget really. So now it's sadly, less a man with a plan as man within a budget! And occasionally a whim too. Oh, and I've deleted your duplicate thread as requested PR

Welcome Simon! As you say, silver is at a (near) all time high now. It never seems sensible to me to buy when things are peaking in price. Yes, silver could carry on rising in price, but it's a gamble. And as Generic Lad says, things like Britannias are already at a premium. My personal view is that the money I could use to buy bullion could be spent on building up a nice collection of coins. That to me is a fun thing to do because it involves learning about the coins and tracking down the gaps in my collection. Plus there's the history and art of coins to consider. But it's a personal choice in the end. What you might want to do is to check the weight of silver coins (all the specs for the various denominations can be found online) and work out what the current bullion value of a crown or shilling or whatever is. Then if you spot a silver florin in a junk shop priced at less than bullion you have the option to buy it. Of course you'll need to keep an eye on what people are paying for silver (0.925 for coins). Generally low grade coins are only worth buying if a) rare, less than bullion and you plan on selling soon. But having said that I had a soft spot for a very worn Eddy VII half crown. I sold it to Chris (forum owner) in the end. But for modern coins (post 1816) I'd aim for at least VF or better as most dates really aren't that hard to find.

Plus what they do have needs some serious work! This for example is as any fule kno a coin. Rather tricky to search for specific items on that basis!

The 1933 St Gaudens Gold Double Eagle I believe. A mere $7.5m. If you like that sort of thing. And as for me, I don't spend any income on coins, it's all out of the budget my wife gave me in a generous moment with birthday present and Christmas money added in. Which is restricting at times, but probably if I was given a free hand I'd just keep spending.

Work? On a sunday? 'fraid so. I work in a small care home, so there has to be a member of staff there 24/7. I get alternative weekends off but this isn't one of them!

Somewhere between 5 and 10 cm now, but I'm not going out to measure it accurately I'm afraid! And it's still coming down. Work tomorrow ... I might be walking ..

A few mm here in (very) North Bucks and then it stopped. But it looks like it might start up again before morning ...

Not these. Magnentius as Elvis. And as Jack Black on a bad day. (Both from the Bridgenorth hoard, currently listed on Antony Wilson's site).

I presume you don't mean things like electrum (gold and silver) which was used millenia ago in Greece?

thank's for info,they are alderny coins limited to 500, set of two cased,was interested in the as they are ten pound coins, but the guy is asking over 400 quid for them,so think ill pass them by. £400 compares with what the Royal Mint (who make these on behalf of Alderney) charge (Royal Engagement Alderney £10 65mm Silver Proof £375 +p&P) But then you would need to find another collector of such things to get back your money. As a contrast a silver Brittania coin (1oz silver) costs £58 or so but at scrap value of silver is worth £15. So you're paying an awful lot for the design. Now I'm aware that's the same case for most coins. The cost of what I collect (shillings of Charles I) is vastly more than the value of the silver the coin is made out of. I'm paying for the history. But there are more people who collect coins that have circulated and used to buy things than there are who collect the sort of commemorative pieces we're talking about here. In the end, if you like something and want to collect it, go ahead. Just remember, you'll need to find someone else who likes these to have a chance of getting back your money. I just didn't want you to think that you were buying something people will be queuing up to buy off you, or that will aquire value due to scarcity. The price of silver is, like gold, at an all time high right now and you'd be buying at that peak.

For what I collect, they aren't all that useful. My coins have all been handled and most are toned, some more nicely than others, but touching them isn't going to make a perceptable difference. I don't buy coins by grade, so someone else telling me a coin is VF or whatever is irrelevant. I'll make up my own mind by comparing the coin to previous examples I've seen, what I think is the condition of the average example that can be bought and, most importantly, how much I like it. I can see that for milled copper or bronze, where you don't want finger marks ruining the lustre, some sort of protection is sensible. But there are alternatives to slabs for that. You can get nice plastic flips that sandwich a coin away from sticky fingers for a few quid. The most worrying thng for me is if people stop making up their own minds about a coin and just go by what's on the label. I think learning about the different conditions coins turn up in, about how they commonly wear and how to recognise a particularly good example is part of the hobby. I also think that learning all the various varieties, types and so on is essential. If you just rely on a TPG to tell you your penny is BP1880af, what have you learned?

155.5g silver: scrap value £75. 155.5g silver 'coin' with a diamond stuck in it ... whatever someone is prepared to pay. A quick check of ebay shows one sold for £120, but that doesn't mean you'd ever get that if you sold one, nor that it's 'worth' that much I'm afraid. Since it's described here as legal tender (presumably in Gibraltar) it's worth ... £10. Basically it's a way of buying bullion. The 'diamond' (weight and grade unspecified) is probably worth nothing. Sorry to be unenthusiastic, but really Westminster make souvenirs, that look like coins and then are sold at a hugely inflated prices.

IMA? assuming the 'upside down' version is the right one. Since one of the down strokes is in front of the V shape I think it might be a third letter. The middle bars of the M also forming the crossbar of the A .. but then monograms are always stylised to a degree. This one a bit more than others. If it was a 'V' then the other letters are a bit odd ... not quite a 'W', not quite 'H' ..