Sylvester

That's about the jist of it. Mintmark knows more about it than i do. What i knew was thus; Sixpences (6d) had a rose and were dated Groats (4d) no rose undated Threepences (3d) rose and dated Halfgroat (2d) no rose undated (Although you get rare issues with no rose where there should be one). But i'd bet you've got a threepence. Any chance of a picture?

If it's the size of a modern sixpence then it's definately not an Elizabeth I sixpence cos they were bigger. 19mm and dated it sounds like a threepence to me. Question does it have a Rose behind the Queen's head?

Under Anton apparently. Intriguing...

I agree it was the victim of it's own success also, it's the way these things work out. I dare say the forum could have lingered on a little longer if the size had been reduced in certains non-specific areas.

I think the words 'told you so' come to mind.

Dunno some sovereign collectors collect by date you know!

Do they have mint marks? If you look on the side with St. George and the Dragon, above the date in the ground (you'll see what i mean) there might be a letter, S, M, P, C or no letter at all.

Depends what condition they are in i think. If it's lower grades then selling them separate or as a group won't make too much difference as they'd be sold on their bullion value, which would be the same either way. If they are EF+ to mint state then it might be better to sell them separate.

Not a bad find at all! Yours' has Obverse 1 (stop above king's head is just above and to the left). Reverse 3 (left and right top corners of harp level and crowns just narrower than shields). I've just checked it to ensure it's a recorded variety which it is. These things often turn up with spelling mistakes, shields swapped over so England and France are in the opposite place etc. Always worth while checking.

How did i miss THAT!?! My little pet hate, people getting them the wrong way around... but you were lucky i was distracted by the sixpence.

I think that what you have there is a classic case of what we call clashed dies. That in a nutshell this results when metal is drawn in on one side of the coin more than the other when being struck. In your case the obverse took more metal in than it usually would do, and consequently you get a ghosted image of the obverse showing on the reverse. Hence the other term for this of ghosting. If you look where the raised level drops to the lower level on the reverse it should be in line with the back of William's head on the obverse. This type of flaw is perfecty normal for coins of this period, indeed bronze pennies of George V from 1911 to the mid 20s exhibit the same problem often on a more extreme scale. It is a design fault, i.e the obverse is in too higher relief for the thickness of the metal being used. They solved the problem on George V pennies by modifying the effigy and making it smaller, hence the small head coins. With William III it won't knock much, if at all anything off of the value.

No one knows for sure but when they know where the picture has been lifted from it must cast a seed of doubt into the minds of even the most confident. Which is good enough for me.

Phew... i thought you were gonna blow it there on CU forums for me. For those not in the know, i'm currently conducting an experiment with the picture of the above. Now we know it's AT, however i've had several disagreements with US members on another forum over colourful toning and how to me even the most less drastic (as the one above) is probably AT. Hopefully a whole crowd of them will wade in and say "fantastic", "lovely" or words to that effect. The odd one might know more than i think and spot it's AT. But i bet most of them couldn't tell the difference between a regular (not badly turned out over the top) AT and a natural colourful tone (if there is such a thing). Well the bait's there...

Lemme say one thing first and foremost. When artificially toning a coin you can never predict which way it's going to turn out. It might turn out looking relatively natural (the one pictured could have toned like that naturally, but the environment it was stored in would have been below standards), other times it'll come out all wrong, patchy, spotchy, speckled, bright pink... and you'll think "ahh..." and then you have to dip it and start again. But i'd always stress toning is tarnish. Tarnish is corrosion. Colourful coins are just more corroded than white or light grey ones. And all silver coins will turn black eventually as the silver oxidises. To be honest with you, i would prefer a cleaned coin over an Artificially Toned (AT) one. Usually because most AT coins are hiding something, i.e previous cleaning. So you get two conservation issues, instead of just one.

If i had £580 i would! Just forked out for an Edward the Elder. Hang on only 3 coins? Which one's missing? The £5 piece?

The 1989 gold set! One day i'll buy a 1989 sovereign, it's a must have date.

I should think Victorian 5d's are rare for most years!

More eloquently put than me...

Firstly is it Silver or bronze? Secondly what's it look like (the back side, opposite the Queen that is), does it have a figure sat down, say Britannia? Does it state a value on the coin, penny? Farthing? The more info we have the quicker we can aid you in identifying the coin and any value it may or may not have.

Next question do you know how to grade? If so then; 1911-C £70 in VF, £90 in EF and £120 in UNC. 1918-I Bullion Value only, but should you sell it on say Ebay or something make a point about 1918 being the only year of India mint sovereigns, thus whilst not rare they are sought after by collectors. 1927-P £90 in EF, £110 in UNC If you can't grade then post pictures of them on here and we'll do that. All the others will sell for bullion but you might make a tenner or so more on these by selling them separate rather than just on gold level, because these years have some collector value too.

Well i've got a incomplete date run of BU machin head pennies, 1971-1984... a few dates missing, hopefully i can finish it one day!

Here's a list of sovereigns to pull out and sell separately if you find any of them. I'll start with the 1887 Jubilee head ones and work my way through. I expect you'll find alot of 1910-1915 coins of the London mint and countless 1925s. Not all C mint ones are rare but alot of them are. The ones to watch out for are these; 1887-S 1888-S 1899-P 1909-C 1910-C 1911-C 1913-C ** (This is a biggie) 1914-C * 1916 No mintmark (London) 1916-C *** (£6000 or more in VF) 1917-C 1918-C 1918-I (Not rare but only India issue) 1919-C 1919-M 1920-M ** 1920-S **** (If you find one of these your dealer was careless!) 1921-M *** 1921-S ** 1922-M ** 1922-S ** 1923-S ** 1923-SA * 1924 (Any) 1925-P 1926-P 1926-S *** 1927-P 1928-M * 1928-P 1929-M ** 1930-M * 1931-M * 1937 (Proof only issue always sell as a collector's piece, these are a bit like Hen's teeth, sovereign date and type collectors want them and 1937 set collector's want them.) Any half sovereigns you find with mintmarks just list them on here and i'll look them up.

I was radaring staright in on the shield reverse sovereigns there. Someone's beat me to it though. Definately pull the shield reverse ones out and sell those as collectors coins. But as a former collector of shield reverse sovereigns perhaps i'm biased? Also if you've got any Victorian half sovereigns amongst the bunch it might be prudent to sell those separately as well. Especially ones issued before the old head of 1895. Also any half sovereigns with mintmarks should be examined also, cos some date/mintmark combinations are sought after. Other coins to look out for and sell separately are any Canada mint ones from the Ottawa mint, the mintmark on these should be found on the reverse just above the date (one the ground below St Geo's horse). I think in this case it would be 'C'. 1918 'I' mint soveriegns are always good ones to pull as well, not because they are rare exactly but because some collectors collect sovereigns by mint and India only minted them in 1918, so it's a key date of sorts. I can't think of anything else at the moment.

Interest in State Quarters? Me... shoot me first! Commemoratives on a mass scale and i don't like commems. Money making rackets again. Although i don't mind Decimal British coins so long as they are the stuff that is intended for circulation. Like bronze pennies and normal design £2 coins.

Bit of a difference between the two, farthings being about the size of a modern penny and are bronze. Britannia is sat on the back (reverse) of the coin. Shillings are silver and exactly the same size as an old large 5p piece and if it's from Edward VII's reign it should have lion on a crown on the reverse.