Rob

Agreed! I'd have been very disappointed if this had been my listing 200997037973 ! Even though the reverse is a little messy, it's still a lesser of the E1 denominations, and in a very collectable grade! I've bought it for someone who wants a wall 'mounted' denomination set...I think this'll do nicely! Edit: re post...very tricky, as some people will be sucked in by 'free' postage, and others won't care about £15, providing the coin's £15 less than they're prepared to pay! That's the point. By expecting either free postage or bidding to a P&P inclusive overall price, they are effectively losing sight of the fact that postage has a cost. Not only that, you also have to consider ebay fees, which when added together can come to some 20% of the total. If you want to rely on the convenience of eBay, it shouldn't be unreasonable to expect to pay 10-20% more than you need to unless you are prepared to do a bit of spadework. If I was listing a BIN, it would need to be priced at what I want for the coin plus total costs. If I wanted to be greedy, then I would list at the above plus a variable percentage. eBay covers several reasons for selling. If it is to act as an arm of an existing business, then it should be cost plus, if it is being used as a means of selling off unwanted items whereby you raise what you can, then there is a greater acceptance by the seller to absorb the overheads. Too many ebay buyers look on it as an outlet for sales to be 'disposing at any cost' only. They couldn't be further from the truth. Cross-subsidies invariably distort a market, whether physical, theoretical or imagined.

Postage is a difficult one. Given the cost of signed for postage is an effective minimum £1.79 plus the cost of a jiffy bag, it seems unreasonable to expect to pay less than £2.50 to £3 P&P. That is without adding a bit on to cover your eBay fees. Anything requiring Special Delivery has to be up at the £8 mark unless the seller absorbs the costs, but then you would have to question the wisdom of selling anything on eBay at the moment. If the seller is VAT registered, they have to add VAT onto the carriage charges whether it goes by Royal Mail or not. The post office charges are zero rated, but that doesn't apply to normal businesses. When you see postage charges of a pound or even less, you do wonder what shipment method and container will be used. We all like a bargain with minimal expenditure for maximum return, but I think many people on eBay lose a sense of perspective when it comes to pricing and costs.

£13.55 for a coin with a legal face value of £20! Now that's good business... for the buyer. Methinks 'motodude' drives a Reliant Robin and does shady deals on London estates. Nobody can lose so much that easily without being a real plonker.

I think it's a restrike R56. The top berry looks double cut to me and the ship type is correct for the restrike. The number of dots on the rock is more than one. The wear on the breast may be illusory. As many of the dies were rusted when Taylor obtained them, he engaged in varying degrees of polishing. Without looking at a few images of other R56s, I wouldn't like to say how much wear is seen.

I take it you're a Euroseptic then, Rob? Europe is septic. I personally, am a eurosceptic.

A collector…. it's out there. I concur. I could do with an image of the reverse, given it isn't illustrated in Peck.

Copper and bronze or copper and bronzed? There is a huge difference. Sorry, I meant 'bronzed'! Line up half a dozen of each and you will probably find 4 definite coppers, 4 definite bronzeds and 4 definite maybes. Rule of thumb is that bronzed pieces will have a very consistent tone which is much smoother than coppers. The colour can also be useful in determining which is which. In the case of restrikes, Taylor used a particular colour of bronzing which makes life a lot easier. Soho bronzing is darker.

Copper and bronze or copper and bronzed? There is a huge difference.

Could have said Euronation. Now that would be worrying.

Brilliant. http://forums.collectors.com/messageview.cfm?catid=6&threadid=904709

Misprunt. Go to the bottom of the class.

Hmm. Not sure here. As the average life expectancy increases, this should also delay the demise of those who are below the mean. Unless all the increase is taken up by those who are already healthy but live longer due to advances in medicine, the same advances must also affect the bottom end of the distribution curve. The average life expectancy over the last generation has increased by at least half that number of years, so a 5 year increase in the retirement age shouldn't result in more people dying in employment. Given the acknowledged difference between the life expectancies of those at opposite ends of the social spectrum, it is more likely that those dying younger will be unemployed in the years leading up to the age of 70 - so probably irrelevant to insurance companies paying out for those dying whilst in companies' employment.

Part of the problem here is that too many things are identified as errors when they quite patently are not. Call it misattribution overload.

A photo might have been less expensive.

Maundy or a regular currency piece? Pictures please.

Ah, but DNW & Spink filter out the odd 10000 Churchill et al crowns that plague ebay and you also know that in the main the worst you will find in the auctions is not too far removed from the best you see on ebay. If eBay listings reduced by 90% to where they were 10 years ago, it would be a much more pleasurable experience.

There was value both created and destroyed today. There were a few things that were relatively cheap for the specialist today, but the prices of the Mary and P&M groats beggared belief. If I was paying £2K for one I would expect a very nice full EF and better.

A bit messy on the reverse at 4 o'clock and flat on the crown. Too expensive.

The last year or two these have gone up in leaps and bounds. Not sure why given the monotony of design.

no

It was one i was going to bid on, but to much for me eventually Nice coin that Rob, what was the Price? 360. The same as the second one (2262). The first had less wear to the obverse, the second better struck on the reverse but a little off-centre. If the second had been cheap I would have bought that too.

I thought the Tower halfcrown would do well judging by recent offerings. I bought the Briot milled penny (2118)

I've got one so far, and at less than expected.

Yes, but no more than a few hundred grams?

Thanks Clive, and John for the email. Only another 134.99884kg to go.