TomGoodheart

Yes. I'm mostly proud of the fact that she has confidence in her abilities. She has offers from other universities so I'm sure will end up somewhere decent, but one from Oxford would be nice! How did you guess?

.. my daughter has an interview for Oxford Uni. Yeah, it's not such a big deal because they tend to interview almost everyone that remembers to fill in the form correctly and pick a course that they actually offer. And competition is still fierce and even if she were lucky enough to get an offer she'd still need to get the required exam grades, but .. hey, it's three nights accomodation and board for free! We're (Wifey and I) very proud (and kinda scared too!) That's all. Carry on.

My understanding is that coins over 100 years old may be imported free of customs duty and excise duty. If they are not considered to be part of a collection or "collectors' pieces" they may be liable ot vat, but at a reduced rate of 5%. HMG antiques import rules "collectors' pieces of numismatic interest" Proof or a certificate as to the age of the item may be needed. And of course, if charges are levied it depends on you to challenge it.

Hi John! Hope everyone is now well. No broadband for 3 weeks, eh? Tsk, you young uns have it easy. I had no broadband for the first 45 years of my life!

Cool. It'd be interesting to see what you come up with!

Not a laugh, just a warning. A little rogue's gallery of modern copies of a Henry VIII groat currently circulating that was sent to me by a contact. Quality: Quite convincing Value: nothing.

Interesting. I was walking near the local shops the other day and I noticed the Estate Agents had a sign saying 'No savings? No deposit? No problem! 100% mortgages available' and I thought 'Whaaa?' Actually what I thought had more fs and ks in it but ... how on earth, having just had the entire world economy pulled down by sub-prime mortgage probalems and dodgy investments, can they offer such a thing? How do they dare, even? Because the problem as I see it is living within our means. Now I don't inherently have a problem with money. It's very handy. More so to me than a garage full of baked beans anyway! And I can talk from the luxurious position of a late baby boomer. I inherited my parent's house which I sold and so now have savings. But before that I invested wisely, always payed off my credit card bills and had the smallest mortgage I needed. And I didn't rush out and buy loads of stuff I didn't need. Consequently, even if it weren't for the savings, I have no debts (OK, there's the deferred payment for some kitchen units but I have the money ready to pay that when the interest free 9 months is up) Wifey and I have mediocre paying jobs (teaching assistant and care worker) but we live within our means. If we can't afford it, we go without. But there seems to be a generation who never 'got' this. Who just buy what they want and worry about paying later. And now the crunch has come and times are tough, they have no reserves to fall back on, only debt. Seems to me people need to learn not to spend what they don't have. And if they don't have much, to save what they do by buying wisely. But many seem unable (or unwilling) to do so. They feel they have to have holidays and large TVs and the latest phone, even if it puts them further in debt. I think declan and scott are right. We (and those around us) need to act differently. Spend differently. Start looking at 'necessities' and what makes someone rich differently. Because the banks and so on aren't going to do it for us.

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?

Thanks for the photos. I'd say that on the basis of the ones you sent your prices are .. conservative! I know ebay can be a pain but I suspect that on a good day, you might get rather more there.

Thanks. You dodn't say what grades they are. Though the prices suggest less than EF?

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.