TomGoodheart

How about 100%??! Henry VI Groat

There's a thread currently on CoinForgeryDiscussionList about a 1939 Canadian dollar made in the Lebanon which was slabbed by PCGS as genuine. Quality is improving because there's money to be made. I myself was fooled by the coin Rob recently wrote about; I saw a replica on ebay and assumed it was his coin that he'd sold. Fortunately it was light so if I have bought it I'd likely have been suspicious. But many newcomers don't weigh their coins and if they buy from an apparently reputable dealer (and the ebay coin was good enough to fool the seller) they have no reason to think they have anything but a genuine coin. Then they sell it on and it starts to gain a touch of provenance, even though it's just amongst inexperienced collectors... The trouble is, most coins don't have the sort of provenance that would reassure without a decent price tag to accompany them! You'd need very deep pockets (and miss out on some more recent discoveries and better condition examples) if you only ever bought coins that had been owned by reknown collectors. Currently I feel fairly confident I would be able to spot most fake Charles I shillings. But I'm not ruling out the liklihood that sooner or later I'll get fooled.

Um .. . Ebay is but one source of coins. And there are many honest, reputable dealers and collectors out there. If you're bored with the hobby, that's one thing. But if you're still enjoying collecting then why let someone else put you off? Stuff them I say. Find other sources for your new aquisitions. And if that hasn't persuaded you .. well, I'd just suggest not doing anything hasty. You can sell your coins just as easily in a month as tomorrow. Think it over. And if that hasn't worked, well it's been fun and interesting seeing your new purchases, so thanks for that. And all the best. But I hope you reconsider.

I think No 1 may be a half rupee in the name of the Mughal Emperor Shah Alam II (1759-1806), Farrukhabad mint, Bengal Presidency, British India regnal year 45 (1803) KM# 97.1 See #640 on Rupee 1 However the number of dots appears unusual and the flatness and plain edge makes me wonder if it might be a replica? Compare it with this one: http://www.apnaorg.com/articles/subhash-1/ The second appears to be an earlier coin of the same bloke but from the Arkat mint, Bombay Presidency, British India dated 1759 and struck at Calcutta (Rose mint mark) KM# 427 Rupee 2 Clearly I'm using someone else's attribution so can't guarantee that's correct. As for the money, it was fun and didn't take long. I have a decent memory and guessed lucky. If I'm right, that's payment enough!

Not too bad here thanks Chris. Apart from the realisation I'm getting old! My daughter's fault. There she was playing with her Barbies, I look away for a second and suddenly she's off looking at which university to go to! wth??? She's even applied for a job for goodness sake! Ah well. I guess the consolation is that my small collection of coins is older too. Now, if only they were worth more for it ....

Any chance of a pic or two Hello? That always helps with valuations as clarity of the error will be a factor.

Hi James and welcome! Good to meet another penny enthusiast (and not another hammered shilling collector!!!)

Seaby 10th ed 1960 EF (only grade listed) £33/10/- (that's £33.50 fer you young 'uns) 1967 F £60 VF £85 EF £110 1972 VF £90 EF £125 (No price given for F)

As a gap filler and providing it wasn't expensive ... and if it was the sort of thing I collect. I guess I'd compare it to this: Cost me £26 and almost a washer. But I only know of one other example. Which made it worth a space in the collection even though I can't ever see myself getting my money back! Which would make me a very poor dealer!

Welcome Steve. Early 20th century silver seems like a good starting point. I'd suggest a decent all-round book (Chris, the owner of the forum does 'Collectors' Coins' which would be a good and inexpensive starting point). Then when (if) you decide to narrow your collecting range you can get something a bit more specialised. But as to the sovereigns, with gold at an all-time high, I'm not sure they are such a good investment. Always preferable to buy when things aren't popular and sell when others are buying!

Thank goodenss he doesn't seem to have an interest in hammered. I don't think I could bear to see a Brasso'd groat or worse, a proper rarity spoilt like that.

Bargain. You could try putting an 'old British' coin set (Farthing, halfpenny, penny, threepence, sixpence, shilling, florin (two shillings), half crown) on ebay plus the best examples of the other coins. So long as you get a bit of profit and your postage back after ebay expenses you should recoup. Of course, if you have another way to sell you could even avoid the postage costs. And welcome to the forum dan.

Welcome mtwc! As Colin says, nice to see another sharing my interest (though my collecting range is rather narrow to say the least, due to not being as wealthy as I'd like!) I started on shillings generally but the price of testoons and the provincial and siege coins of Charles were too much so I just collect the regular (Tower mint) issues now. Feel free to post pics of any interesting aquisitions if you like. You can add pics up to 150K from your computer or larger images from an image hosting site such as photobucket or flickr.

A number of contacts and I have reported listings like that where the seller is obviously listing a modern repro but descibing it as genuine. It's rare anything happens from the ebay end. You can (and I have) also list such things on forgerynetwork.com but if someone is willing to fork out real coin money for a replica then they are unlikely to know about that as a reference resource. It used to be possible to send a message to bidders on ebay but ebay stopped that, I think to the detriment of collectors. Now it's a dodgy sellers' market and the same people set up new accounts and sell pewter replicas they claim have been found on a regular basis and nothing gets done about it. Ebay should be ashamed.

Pun intended or not. Either way, that deserves an apology. You've lost me there Rob, did I offend you? Of course not. Without grading, it's pointless whether you are using the Sheldon scale or CGS' 0-100. Geddit...........Don't worry, I'll stop now. Ah I see No pun intended kind of wish it was though. Ah. It was punintentional then ...

I think describing it as 'silver' a 'sixpence' and the period as 'Tudor' are all effectively fraudulent as it is none of those. But since ebay has changed everything to make this type of listing easier and unreportable I presume they either condone such behaviour or simply don't care.

LOL Who knows. They may become fashionable! "Will it be the same in the future? Will the prized treasures of today always be the cheap trifles of the day before? Will rows of our willow-pattern dinner-plates be ranged above the chimney-pieces of the great in the years 2000 and odd?" From Three Men In A Boat Jerome K Jerome 1889

Of course, if it's a new obverse muled with the old (portcullis) style reverse, that would be interesting. But I've yet to see one of those ... Apparently 180,600,000 of the old style were issued together with 507,952,000 new 'shield' style coins in 2008. Most likely you have one of each larsselleth.

Light and the wrong colour.

It just doesn't have the 'look' of a hammered coin. It's difficult to explain but there's a lack of crispness to the detail that doesn't seem like the result of either a weak strike or wear. The letters and design are .. rounder .. in profile than I would expect. Not authentic is my feeling. Probably modern.

While I can't find a photo of this particular coin, it looks more like an Ashmore copy than the real thing to me I'm afraid.

From the way the 'R' of CAROLVS is slightly merged with the 'O' I think it's a result of double striking Mat. The coin has jumped a little in the die between hammer strikes (several were often needed to get a decent result) and the design has been restruck a bit out of alignment with the first strike. That's one of the interesting aspects of hammered coinage. I remember one dealer having a coin that had flipped completely over and appeared to have the reverse design on both sides, though on closer inspection it was just possible to make out the bust under the design on one side.

Do I need to edit this thread or shall I just let it run, window cleaning and all?

Unless I am not looking at it right I can only see a 1922 half crown in Fair condition, value around a fiver. Because of its grade, the coin has no numismatic value above its metal content. There are more coins there Red, with dates from 1918 up to Eliz II (1962). But it's not my area so I wouldn't want to guess at values I'm afraid. Oh, and your 'Unidentified' sweetcheeks? I reckon it's a contemporary (ie made during the early 1800s) counterfeit of a George II shilling. Made of brass and not uncommon, but an interesting piece of numismatic history.

Near where I live there used to be a place that was an art store. Companies would donate excess stock of bottle tops, fasteners, plastic mouldings, buttons, metal oddments ... whatever they no longer needed. Then schools could visit and select materials they could take for free for kids to use in craft and art projects. That's probably what I'd do with the pennies if they were mine. Alternatively there are places that have old penny slot machines that people can play with. I imagine people keep a few coins as souvenirs (*cough I did anyway cough*) and so they need to replace stocks so the games and stuff can still be operated. They might be prepared to make an offer, though I doubt it would be much. Or finally, drill holes in them and sew them to a suit. A Penny King and Queen alternative to the pearly ones would be a hit at fairs I'm sure!! Though they'd be *blighters* to have to polish and would weigh a tun!