custard1966

Do I detect something suspicious about the bidding on this item ? http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/1826-GEORGE-IV-PENNY...1QQcmdZViewItem

I have a double-headed 1960s penny. It's been examined by a couple of dealers who could find no obvious signs of tampering. One offered me around £70 for it (this was about 4 years ago). It'd be worth getting a dealer to look at it to see if there are obvious signs of it being an artificial creation. If it's a genuine mint error then there are people who collect such things and it'd be worth a few quid

I'm just fed up of seeing pennie penny's pennys This one's a bit optimistic http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Extremely-Scarce-183...1QQcmdZViewItem I paid £125 for mine and Michael Gouby has one for sale at that price now.

It's clearly not EF. The reverse is hard to judge from the pic, but I'd say gF to aVF Still worth a few bob though & I wish it was mine

and the obverse

Here's the full coin

and finally,

and more

Bob sent me some pics The overdate is clear, but there's not enough of the coin depicted to grade it - I'll ask for some more

Hi Bob This is catalogued as Freeman 30 or Gouby BP 1861 L Gouby estimates, R8 - 11-50 in existence Freeman R18, 6-15 in existence John Jerrams (in 2003) notes 12 in existence with the best known being nEF and list a price of 1200 GBP To be honest, if this coin really is EF then it's likely to be the best example extant and therefore catalogue prices are meaningless. A fine specimen sold for £1000 in a private sale around a year ago. Hope this helps.

As far as I'm aware this is not a variety that's listed anywhere. Overstrikes are pretty common in the early bun pennies and unless it's one letter/digit over a DIFFERENT letter/digit they do not usually attract any significant premiums or attract any great collector attention. There's one for sale here http://www.onlinecoins.co.uk/viewcoin.php?...4&keepsession=1 but it's seriously overpriced IMHO. A very nice find anyway

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/mid-late-1800s-bronz...1QQcmdZViewItem Hurry, it's a 'must have' for any collector.

Hello custard1966, yep, I´ll give you that one, you are quite right but ask the average collector to pick out the 1926 Modified from two photos and I think the results would be suprising. Hi Gary, You're absolutely right. I'm pretty sure I picked up that tip from somewhere - perhaps Michael Gouby's site, though it's not there at present. It's intriguing that the most obvious difference doesn't seem to have been spotted by any of the major authors.

I have an 1841 penny with the 4 over an 8 This was listed in Bramah's book - which I've not seen - but it's not listed by anyone else. I only have a scanner so I don't know if I could get a good image of it. I'm not sure whether overdates where the numerals are the same are significant. These are very common and John Jerrams doesn't regard them as indicating significant rarity or value.

I agree with Chris on this one, if it can clearly be seen then it should be mentioned. After all the 1926 Modified penny is very hard to tell on circulated coins, unless one knows exactly what to look for. The best indicator is the initials BM and these are not too easy to see on circulated coins. As we know the 1926 modified penny commands high prices and only because it has very minor changes in the design, almost undetectable to the naked eye. I think there is actually an easy way to spot the Modified Effigy Penny which works for even very worn coins Look at the colon between GRA and BRITT on the normal coin it's midway between A and B on the modified effigy it's right next to the A As Michael Gouby says on his website most date spacing variants are not of any special interest - especially when it's only one digit.

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/1-Victoria-Bum-Penny...1QQcmdZViewItem

You should check whether your coins will be covered by your contents insurance. I use this company for specialist insurance http://www.hwint.com/hi/uk/

And poor grammar, punctuation and spelling don't inspire confidence.

and here's another one listing (at least the right coin this time) a ropy old piece and then quoting the price for an UNC one http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/THE-RARE-1918-KINGS-...1QQcmdZViewItem what's wrong with these people ?

and what about this one http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/OLD-PENNY-1933-LOOKS...1QQcmdZViewItem ?

I sent a message to the sender and he's removed the item. At least he's honest.

I don't even know where to start with this one: http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/1917-KN-KINGS-NORTON...1QQcmdZViewItem

I've registered and posted reviews of Peck & Freeman and added Gouby and Jerrams. Hope this helps. Looks like a great idea and a very useful site.

Excellent news. I don't suppose you could persuade them to stop moving all the books around at least once a fortnight I can no longer find the Antiques/Collectables section

I imagine they'll have the same rather unhelpful grading system for copper/bronze where UNC means BU and there are consequently no subdivisions betwen EF and BU. I've heard from a dealer than the 2007 edition will have colour plates.