Sylvester

I didn't know I had photos of these - a bit blurred, but the best I can do as I don't have the coins to hand.

It's not fake. It's a genuine coin. The 1920-22 issues were struck with manganese in the alloy, it's that metal which accounts for the awful yellowish streaking coins of this era. My Coincraft catalogue stated it was just 1920-22, but I've seen 1923 and 1925 coins in similar condition, so one wonders. They amended the alloy in 1922 to 50/50 silver to copper. It was modified again with the new coinage designs in 1927/8, they added something like zinc or tin to the copper portion, and coins from this point onwards tarnish much nicer imho.

For a Tealby that's a very clear and well struck coin! They are about the worst produced English coins of all time.

That's a great looking specimen for sure! I think the earliest types are by far the best.

True... Especially since the mint has been withdrawing the cupronickel issues and melting them down since 2013. They'll be rarer still.

Ironically, one if the prettiest hammered coins I managed to find was this Henry II short cross coin. I usually find most short cross coins a bit crude or poorly struck. This one caught my attention immediately. Sure it has a few flat areas on the high points, but it's a cracking looking coin in hand. The photos do it no justice.

I love Norman era coinage, this is one of my historical interests so no surprise really. It's always the danger of collecting coinage of this period in that you could pay thousands for an extremely rare type, for a hoard to then come along and crash the price irrevocably. I will pick up the William I and II coins one day. I did get an Henry I some years ago, I can't remember what type it was. It's locked away. I would have more if I could actually specialise, but I've always been a more general collector, and I keep getting distracted! I got a few Watford pennies though. The only one I have a photo of is below, and it's probably the least well struck of those I have.

Stunning coin, even being clipped. William I is another monarch I've yet to get. I get keep getting distracted by Stephen's!

I dabble mostly in silver coinage and I would concur, most of us are happy with one of each date. That said this might include some slight variants, perhaps overdates if well known or maybe 'small date'/'large date', 'Arabic 1/Roman I' types.

The fakes on eBay are getting scarily good, certainly more convincing than they used to be. As it stands, that George IV is clearly fake, but it's not many more steps to being convincing. They're even doing toned and lower grade fakes now too!

Some cracking coins there! Loving the Anglo-Saxon coinage. I have a few bits and bobs of that myself, but nothing as extensive. I can only muster two line types for Edward the Elder, Athelstan, Eadmund and Eadred, plus a Cnut short cross penny. I too was going down the one from each monarch from Alfred the Great to present.

Wow such a shift. I don't touch Facebook with a barge pole, or any social media to be fair. I for myself have not been a frequent visitor here for many a years, one reason being it became a bit of a copper coin collectors specialist forum, whereas I've mostly been a silver collector, so there was little for me to post constructively on. That been said, work takes up the bulk of my time anyway to be fair. It seems times have changed!

A symptom of the drive to a cashless society? I don't think many young people use cash in everyday transactions, if at all. I guess with no exposure to coinage, there'd be no reason to have their interest sparked by it? I can only think of it as that. Believe it or not, but twenty years ago this forum had a core group of teenage members leading a lot of the discussions! So there was interest from the younger groups once upon a time. In fact, there were quite a few robustly attended forums in the 2000s, very few seem to be left.

Where is everyone? This forum used to be a real hive of activity. I used to struggle to keep up. It seems eerily still these days.

It could be a 'Hand Heller' or something similar, from the German states. Not a series I know anything about. They do have the sunk in square look on one side, but the cross on the other side doesn't look the same. There could be other types though. But as I say, I know nothing about German/Holy Roman Empire medieval coinage.

I seem to recall an abundance of Aethelred II and Cnut coins in the early 2000s - probably from some hoards in the 1990s. I got sick of the sight of every coin from the period for sale being an Aethelred, so I swerved them. I did pick up a cracking Cnut penny though for about £145. It seems they've gone up in value somewhat since. So have no fear, should the Harold's go on the market, they will be absorbed readily. It's always a consideration though if buying ancient to medieval era coinages, rarity is somewhat more fluid.

Groats normally have two circles of writing on the reverse, an inner circle with the mint info, e.g. CIVITAS LONDON (City of London) and an outer circle that states: POSVI DEVM ADIVTOREM MEVM (I have made God my helper). Then the cross and trefoils in each quarter.

The first picture looks like the reverse of a King Stephen 'Watford' type penny. Cross Moline is the official designation. Struck in the 1130s-40s.

Try http://historyincoins.com/ I've bought some fantastic stuff from him over the years.

A gorgeous Edward I coin though, such a superb strike.

Type B

Out of interest, how many of you out there have managed to find the Type A reverse on the 2006 10p piece? These seem very hard to find. The 1 in the 10 points at an edge dot. These all went into circulation and seem to be a mere fraction of the mintage. All the mint sets and the vast bulk of circulation issues are Type B (between dots). See photos below. Thus far I've found 2 Type A's out of change and bought a third from eBay last week. A pretty low result rate for 17 years of searching for them. Rarer than the Kew Gardens 50p? Type A below.

This is my feeling too, but I thought the question worth asking. It'd be nice to find them when they do come out. I don't want to be having to pay £50+ for one from eBay in the months to come.

Well it's a paradox of sorts. I believe the coins without the privy mark have higher mintages comparative to the mint set issues. However, with the full mintage of non-privy marked issues going into circulation, it means they will be hard to find in true UNC/BU condition, hence the need to get them out of circulation as quickly as possible.