Sylvester

It looks to me like that Q is struck over another Q? I presume it's not double struck, if it's just that letter then you have a possible Q/Q? Other members opinions? The 1819 and 1820 varieties are listed in the Coincraft 2000 catalogue, but apart from a rarer 1818 with an error edge no other varieties of 1818 are listed. I'll have to try and find my cull grade George III crown and have a look at the 'Q', to see what a normal one looks like, as these coins aren't really my speciality.

It's not one i've come across but it's certainly a possibility, since there are quite a few varieties in this series. Just check to see if the garters are different widths because 1819 coins also have varying widths for the garter. Can you post pictures?

I first noticed things going downhill in around 2004, the 20p in particular seem to be quite prone to all kinds of issues. Here's a 2004, note the lines radiating out from the centre of the coin in all directions. They look like stress marks. A lot of 2004s seemed to have this. I hadn't noticed it much prior to 2004.

The following coins survived decimalisation; 2/- as 10p (until June 1993) 1/- as 5p (Until Dec 1990) 6d as 2.5p (Until June 1980). I get the impression though that by 1980 6ds weren't that common in circulation.

Not necessarily! The last circulating sixpences were withdrawn and returned to the mint in 1980, the exact same year that the 1981 coins would have gone into production!

I hadn't thought of that! That's a good point, I mean there would have been a lot of coins there. Just imagine been able to search through that lot! I could have gone through all the half crowns hunting for silver.

There's no denying that Charles left a lot to be desired as king, but in my opinion Cromwell turned out to be far worse!

In fact excluding the Commonwealth Era (for obvious reasons ) the last English coins issued without a monarch's portrait were either; Charles I Rose Farthings or Charles I Angels. I know nothing about copper coinage so I can't say when coinage of those ceased but the Angels ended production in 1643, beating the silver halfpenny by one year!

The question here is was 1974/5 the manufacture date of these sets or merely the first release for sale date? I just find it hard to believe that the only thing the British Mint did in 1972 was the 1970 sets and the 1972 crowns (ignoring their foreign contracts). There were no sovereigns/gold that year, no regular coinages minted that year. Maybe it could be argued that they minted the 1973 circ stuff throughout 1972? Surely it would have been a quiet enough time to manufacture (if not release for several years) the 1970-73 proof sets? Just a thought.

I have recieved the Dove £2 (1994?) in change before but this was back in c.2004, it was rare you encountered £2 coins before the bimets arrived anyway. With regards to the 2009 issues, i've only found the penny, in my experience the 5p will be next.

Presumably staff at Tower Hill mint had alot of time on their hands, is it possible they might have undertaken some of the work? Surely Wales would have had enough on coining the decimal circulation issues from 1968-1970, but I presume 1972 was a quiet year? Only the 25p issued that year! If the proof sets weren't issued until 1976.

Who knows! It wouldn't surprise me. Out of interest when exactly did Tower Hill mint close? I know the mint transferred to Wales with decimalisation, but were the '1967' predecimal coins all struck at the old Tower Hill site?

Now don't be in such a rush, they are still busy cranking out the 1970 LSD sets! And 1925 sovereigns! Actually when I read the original poster's comments it brought back vague memories of reading about this somewhere... where though now there's a question I can't answer.

I met Andy and his wife at York a few times. Hmm it doesn't look good. There was no warning yesterday that this was going to happen. Luckily I left feedback for my last transaction which arrived yesterday morning. I'd hate to have been half way through an order!

It worked this morning!

A good place to store images of coins you own 'offsite' might be on omnicoin. http://www.omnicoin.com/ Obviously it doesn't help with reciepts, but it means that you at least have photos of your coins in a place where they can't be stolen. Just a thought.

Hello and welcome! There's quite a few penny fans on here.

My biggest complaint is that I'd wish they'd use the Sheldon system! It's taken a while but when I see a number on that system now I can automatically translate it to old school (current school over here!) The problem is by removing the grade prefixes and having a simple numbering system there's going to be a lot of confusion to novice collectors between CGS slabs (Using a 100 scale system) and PCGS/NGC/ANACS/ICG companies (using a 70 scale system). What grades 55 in one is a different grade in another! A novice buying what they think is an AU-55 is going to be disappointed to recieve a CGS 55 (which is VF!) [and I just had to look that up, cos the CGS numbers mean nothing to me yet]. So no I think they should keep the grades as stated to prevent confusion between different systems. Ideally CGS would adopt the Sheldon and then they could lose the grade prefixes. Or better still we could all do it the old fashioned way and learn to grade for ourselves!

My coin catalogues are a bit out of date and my 2000 Coincraft doesn't mention this coin. Is this genuine, did they make Proof 1993 Large 10p coins? Looking at the size of the 10 on the reverse in comparison to the boarder beads it does look like a large 10p rather than a small one. Large 10p

Regarding 5 pound coins, well I've tried spending them and I've been refused. I've even been turned away from an HSBC, a and a Natwest bank with the words "try the post office." In fact the very Post office I bought the thing from for a fiver, didn't exactly like the idea of me turning up months later sending something in the post and trying to pay with it. So I refuse to have anything to do with them now. Same problem with pre-1997 2 pound coins, although they can be spent, due with the public familiarity with two pound coins most likely, but you've got to try hard, With reference to crisp 5 pound notes, I knew of a cash machine in Huddersfield that gave them out by the bundle. I once withdrew 200 quid and got the whole lot in crisp fivers. Surprised a few coin dealers in York with them.

That's very true. I does seem to me as if the annual minting of circulating coinage is now more of a sideline for the mint rather than it's main job. Maybe i'm cynical?

I expect the Victorian collectors felt the same way in 1886, 49 years of the same designs. Of course the problem is the Queen has had a very long reign and long reigns tend to bring monotony (sure the coins get redesigned every now and again but not often). In the early 20th century there were several monarchs who had short reigns and every time the monarch changed generally the designs changed (except for the 1d, 3d and the gold which kept their designs). The modern monotony problem has been kind of amplified by decimalisation where all the previous designs (except the 6d, 1/- and 2/-) were removed from circulation, since the 6d, 1/- and 2/- vanished in the 80s and 90s, we've had nothing but decimal designs for forty years. The 2008 redesign was very welcome (at least for me), but eventually it'll get boring. Ten or twenty years from now when QEII kicks the golden bucket hopefully they'll redesign the reverses as well as the obverses! Just a thought. Edited to add; If you think we're hard done by, just take pity on the Americans, up until the 'clipart' State Quarter program started in 1999, they'd had the following; Cent - Same obverse since 1909, same reverse since 1959 (to 2009) Nickel - Same design since 1938 (to 2006?) Dime - Same design since 1946 (and this hasn't changed as far as i'm aware) Quarter - Same design since 1932 (to 1998) Half - Same design since 1964 (to present) Now that is dull.

Now you guys know why I refuse to collect proofs! I've said it many times, over many years, I generally dislike commemoratives, the rate we're going they be commemorating the fact that the sky is blue. This is why as a general rule I avoid modern coins.

Actually talking of Chinese fakes the US trade dollar is one of the most copied coins out there.

That would explain it, in all my years of collecting i'd never come across a large 1993 10p! However, proofs is an area of coinage that I avoid any contact with (and are thus clueless on) so it would come as no surprise to me if i'd missed something as big as that.