Rob

I can't see any trace of a 7

Why? There's no mention of collection in person only. They have a postal service too.

I don't think anyone will argue with that. The question is how?

That is the kind of uncertainty I want to avoid. I need reproducable and stable results under constantly the same conditions in order to have the possibility to compare. The easiest and cheapest way to achieve that is a scanner I only had to find a setup that I like once. I now use the same setup for all coin images and therefore have reproducible and comparable results. How do you cope with differences in toning? Some can be nearly black, whereas others have none.

Finally, this is a camera image of the second coin. http://www.rpcoins.co.uk/c15%20pics/01857.jpg

This is a regular currency strike of the same type.

I find the scanner much better for proofs than currency which are invariably featureless with a monotonous tone. However, it also appears to differ between scanners. The images below were taken using my old scanner which subsequently died, but I can't replicate this with the replacement which gives really flat and lifeless images. This is an image of a proof/specimen depending on whether you back Freeman or not.

It was in the last Downies sale

Although a dull thud is a good indicator of a cast, you would also get a less than perfect ring of varying quality with a defective flan where there is a crack, say, or an inclusion which would lead to a laminated flan.

Clearly a bad time for computers. My accounts computer has just gone on the blink. Just as I was printing off the nominal ledger for my year end. If it could be persuaded to print just 90 more pages I could start with a blank sheet for the new financial year.

I have never bought from them and sold them one coin about 6 years ago. It is still on the list. The 1861 halfcrown now priced at £750 (wt. 12.88g.). I sold it for £200 at the time which I thought reasonable. The current 3 pieces of this date listed are 750, 850 & 950. Unsurprisingly, all have been there a long time.

Yes. James I and Charles I farthings. Richmond, Lennox, Maltravers, Harrington etc

It's a difficult one to pin down because the question is asked of an average across all dealers. i.e. are there are more dealers who are generous with their grading? Equally valid is the question 'are there are more dealers full stop?' In an age when everyone can set up shop on the internet, the explosion in people who can and do use this option means there is less practical resistance to becoming a dealer. If it was necessary to travel to the fairs and do the circuit (with large expenditure on fuel and hotels), then there would be far fewer dealers, but the virtually zero cost of being on-line means that goes out of the window. It would be a fairer question if you took a couple dozen people at random from then and now who only ply their trade as a fully fledged business and attend fairs, issue lists and deal across the board etc as these are likely to be more experienced and you would expect consistent in their grading.

I think that the same inconsistencies existed then as now. Some dealers would grade higher than other and others lower. Actually, not a problem for the experienced collector as long as there is consistency, but a nightmare for the novice when they want to sell their overgraded material at a later date.

Edward III pre-treaty penny of London. EDWARDVS only appears in Ed.III.

I'm not. That was the early 80s when the only thing you would see on the river was a 3 piece suite and a table floating downstream. All that was missing was the TV and viewer. Since then I know someone pulled a 17lb pike out of the Irwell by the Crescent. Things have come a long, long way since the orange river Irk (paint factory) met the purple Irwell (dye factory) below Victoria station.

Looks like his crown, not a moon, with the crescent in the legend part of an S

Peck's from Scouseland. You don't get a lot of goldcrests in Liverpool or anywhere else up here. In fact it is only 30 years since I saw a duck for the first time on the River Irwell having waited 6 or 7 years for such an event..

The initial cross goes back to Saxon times, when I assume it had religious significance. The cross used on medieval coins varied (+ fleury, patonce, pattee etc) by which time you would suspect it was used as an identifier rather than a religious symbol. It's use on coins of the present reign will be a resurrection of a design feature as opposed to having any significance.

Centisles has long been recognised as one to avoid. He could save time and increase his profits by not self-slabbing and p***ing off the customer when they receive the goods in question which will never be the grade assigned on the label by most peoples' standards

It might be the first complete coin known of this type, but the Tutbury cut half on eBay was also a Stephen. It sold for £158. It's quite possible that the half wasn't recorded, as many finds just end up on eBay without people going to the trouble of logging them. I've been looking for an image, but it seems I have lost it for the moment. I suspect it got erased during a periodic clean up of the pictures folder to make space for new ones

Coins of a slightly different style have been given to Tutbury on the basis of the mint reading. Essentially a crude bust of what is otherwise a normal Stephen penny with a voided cross and outward pointing lis in the angles. Your coin with the martlets in the angles was previously known only at Derby. There was a cut half of Tutbury on ebay about 2 years(?) ago. The reigns of Henry I, Stephen and the Anarchy are the least represented of all reigns in numismatic terms, with new mints, moneyers and even types recorded on a regular basis, an estimate that we know of only a third of the mint outputs in this period would not be too wide of the mark. e.g. Last week at the Timelines sale they had a Stephen penny from a previously unknown moneyer at a mint that wasn't known to be striking Stephen pennies (Wareham). Previously it was only known with coins of Matilda during this period. Two lots later was a coin attributed to Cirencester during the Anarchy. A generation ago, this mint wouldn't have even been suggested as a possible location. This period in history is quite fluid at the moment due to recent discoveries such as the Box hoard where previously unknown mints were attributed as a result of the contents. Your coin fills yet another hole in the jigsaw.

To me. All contributions gratefully received. Ta.

If it needs a new home, I would be willing to act as a repository.

Don't know who attributed it, but the mint signature is TVT.