Sylvester

I think it's Edward IV, i can't see and Edward III with those crosses that look a bit like Pat Evans' earings...

From an investment point of view it is a very sensible thing to do, cos the market is not going to subside on them (well not that much), and with each one he acquires and doesn't sell it'll slowly dry up the market and the prices will go up. I dare say some collectors have more than he does. If they do he better hope they don't drop them all on the market at the same time as the prices will drop... (although that means he'll consequently be able buy more at a time his investment will have depreciated).

Is he trying to monopolise the market on the things?

And when you've done i've got one for everyone else on here to identify... cos i haven't identified it yet. And Spinks is very hard to use when trying to ascribe hammered coins to a class/type, it's a doddle with Coincraft.

Ah right... what that means is the coin will have just one of those mintmarks not all of them. If it happened to be a muled example (which yours is not), it could be possible to have up to two of them one on the obverse and one on the reverse. More often than not though there's just the one, so yours will just be anchors. Another coin might have a rose (33) on both sides (or was that a pansy?) I hope that makes sense?

Then it is definately a groat, incidentally so is my avatar.

I think Spink are getting lazy with the hammered section. Right i've just had a look try 2199A Which is class IIId. It's basically the same as class IIIc but the letters on the former are plainer. Anchor exists on the plainer letters variant which yours is.

Gradewise... now this is my failing on hammered Tom will shame me probably for getting this wrong. But top grade is VF, it's not that cos the hair is worn and there is some overall wear... but it's better than VG, i'd say it was AF-F, but grading hammered is a bit of a foreign language to me. Although in all honesty i get far more enjoyment out of owning hammered coins than i do milled. I'm slowly moving towards hammered, very slowly.

Oh that's better, yep that's an anchor alright. No it's not a penny or a halfpenny they look nothing like JMD. It could have been a halfgroat but it doesn't look right for one of those, i'm pretty sure it's a groat. What kind of size is it?

London mint, anchor mintmark, minted between 1485-1509. Coincraft reference number is H74D-040, Valued at £38 in VG and £75 in F. Thanks for the pic of the reverse cos it helped me ascribe it to a mint and a mintmark (hence the sceptical bit, cos i wasn't sure about the obverse one), the reverse one is much clearer. (Although they can be muled) Now i don't find Spinks/Seaby catalogue as easy to use at all with hammered... but i figure the Seaby reference is... S.2199 Class IIIc to them. (Or it was in 1993). Tom's the guy you need for this.

nope round i'm afraid. But the ones on my 1882 key wound silver one are on a square pivot, unfortunately for you that one works and i wear it with my suit vice wrist watch which then has the day off!

Mintmark looks to be an anchor, hard to tell though it's the only one that comes close.

I still need to see the other side... call me a sceptic.

Can i see a picture of the other side please before i say anything?

So you guys might have noticed i've been posting on here alot more recently.

I don't go out in the sun much... too much pollen, too much squinting because of the sun... = headache, and it gets too hot (i'm a shade person). I don't like summer so roll on Autumn!

I had my gold watch cleaned like that... it still doesn't seem to have solved the problem of it not working... I think it needs to go to the breakers for spares. Pity cos it was a nice Victorian one.

And all the new issue news is about stupisd hideous commems anyhow that i'd rather just not know about.

Wow that is a beaut! It just goes to show how much i really don't give copper coins the time of day, i never realised what a nice design it actually was, and it looks alot better in a grey metal. If halfpennies were silver i'd collect them too!

i dunno... i doubt i'll have the cash.

Probably a silky shine?

Don't worry about it at all, you younger members are all regular customers, you really help me out with the Book research and I wouldn't expect the you to pay anything towards this forum, which is basically shaped by you lot. When you're famous collectors you can show me your appreciation by selling to/through me and carrying on buying the odd coin from me. Ah well i've already sold you one sixpence collection what more do you want?

Oh can i see a picture of that coin Chris? I always like non-copper, copper coins cos they just look odd in the white metals. (Well grey really if it CuNi)

Seaby's i think they are now somethink to do with Spink. Auctions, catalogues, books you name it they've done it.

Probably? who knows... She was a big name in the Coin business a few decades ago, i believe she was a Seaby director as well as a coin dealer. I dunno about farthings but i tell you what she did have... an Henry III gold penny. Now when it comes to jaw droppers you can't get much more jaw dropping than owning the most expensive British coin of all time can you? She bought it at auction and it held the record for the most expensive British coin ever sold... since then it's been beaten but by another Henry III Gold penny of all things!