Sylvester

It's the usual problem with these coins; either the portrait is strong but the legends are badly struck or worse still clipped, or the legends are strong but the portrait is weak. Finding coins with good portrait, good legends that haven't been clipped is the Holy Grail of the Tudor era.

I'm seeing a lot of 1997s for most denominations actually. I know they've always been pretty well represented but there's a lot of only lightly circulated 1997s turning up.

Don't clean it! Cleaning it will reduce the value. Gradewise, well there's still a bit of detail left in the dress, the legends are on the whole fairly crisp, especially the reverse. Taking the scratches into account, i'd be tempted to go for a GF.

I've had about a dozen of the old style 2008 10ps, maybe there's a localised element to how the coins are distributed! There seems to be quite a few round these parts. But I haven't seen any old style 2008 50ps though.

Off centre? Errors really isn't my area. I've seen a handful exhibiting this.

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 The last circulating sixpences were withdrawn and returned to the mint in 1980, the exact same year that the 1981 coins would have gone into production!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!

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?