Rob

See, I'll wean you off eBay eventually. You can't beat a coin fair. What you see is what you get, unlike eBay where what you see you might get applies. Coin fairs also filter out the washers, because nobody wants to carry them around for the day. They go into the melting pot as a default action. It's actually quite difficult to find something in less than fine at a coin fair unless it is at the very least scarce or rare.

One to avoid bookmarking. Plastering images of 5 guineas and high grade hammered gives you a false sense of anticipation.

I'm not sure future generations will ever appreciate YOUR collection. They might appreciate their collection, but even if they adopt yours along the way, odds on that they will keep a few bits but throw out more. Collections are quite personal. To have any hope of them continuing what you started you will need to involve them long before you're pushing up the daisies.

You must have been like a kid in a sweet shop. See what happens when you get let off the lead.

Where you go depends on what you want. Ask the questions and you will get answers. Old coins covers a few thousand years of history starting with Lydia in around 700 BC through to decimalisation in 1970 and those decimals no longer circulating. All of us will accept returns in the event of you not being happy with a coin, but first you have to know what you want to collect. There are plenty of reputable characters in the business, but like most capable people tend not to shout from the rooftops. Personal recommendation from a third party is always a good sign.

I would say buy a selection of books first, then buy the coins. I would advise against going too heavily into ebay as ignorance/deceit/overpriced tat are everywhere. If you do decide to go down the ebay route, disregard the assigned grades. As you are a novice, buy Derek's grading book first so that you decide the grade and not the vendor. The beauty of books is that you can decide what you like from the images and then start from a position of some knowledge.

From 1806 to 1811 they were valued at 5/6d, hence the 5/6d bank tokens of 1811. When the first countermarked pieces were about to be issued at 4/6d, the price of silver increased and so had to be issued at 4/9d instead. This increased to 5/- and eventually 5/6d due to the increase in silver prices as a result of the Napoleonic Wars.

I too have suffered your problem. Mine variously tells me to go out and buy some more, but soon after is telling me to sell some. When I suggest things to sell, I'm told it isn't the right ones and when I'm told to buy a coin I've targeted, I'm told I spend too much on coins, even if it is a bargain. Confused? I am. I think the answer is to work a bit harder and with surplus funds in abundance the problems would go away.

Bl**dy text speak. Yes I can see the left of lighhouse as they call it.

In addition to the bubbles, it looks like the flaw has been mostly tooled out which may be one reason for their assessment.

Which will of course decrease their business, so they will put up the costs to customers again and decrease their business further until it goes pop. Bring it on! Sadly this is unlikely as there are enough idiots out there who will not recognise they are overpaying because sellers will have to incorporate their charges in the listing price. If more people realised there is another planet (called earth) apart from ebay, more people could have more things for the same outlay. The number of people who only go to eBay when buying must be quite significant.

Hi Matt. Welcome to the forum. The coin is ok. A little flat in the middle, but round and fully struck up which is a good starting point. You have asked a very difficult question because hammered coinage is so varied that most periods have their own restricted references. Until you have decided where to specialise, a general reference or two would be ok. North vols. 1 & 2 cover up to 1272 and 1272-1662, so your coin would be in volume 2. A copy of Coincraft wouldn't go amiss. The last one was in 2000, but the varieties are quite well laid out and it gives good collecting tips for each type. Spink's Coins of England will give an indication of prices for the various issues. Once you have decided what to collect, your library will need to expand considerably to accommodate the more detailed references which are too numerous to list given we potentially have coins covering 1700 years if you include Celtic through to Charles II.

Knowing the weight would help.

The one in 2007 I was thinking about was Sergy's in this thread. http://www.predecimal.com/forum/topic/3634-1700-half-penny-variety/

As it has been enamelled it will have lost most of its numismatic value, but there are a small number who collect them. The value will be quite low (a few pounds or tens of) in the majority of cases reflecting the small collector base, though quality of enamelling will also influence the price.

Well, none stay at £1 for long, they're on 10 day listings and eBay has support in place for when servers go down meaning that they'll reschedule your auction end, taking into consideration whatever time was affected. Help? Support? eBay? Shurely shome mishtake. Since when did 1+2=3?

That could go either very right or very wrong. To risk selling that much gold and silver starting at £1 a lot is asking for trouble. What happens if eBay goes down near the end?

I would say over-dipped and cleaned from the images

It might possibly contain traces of an underlying 4. Crossing the ball of the 5 is a line of dots which join a small rounded curl in the adjacent field. There is also a possible flat line equating to the foot of a 4 by the 5 base and a disturbance in the upper void of the 5 which would be correct for a 4 upright. There is anecdotal evidence for the time to suggest that die life was worryingly short in the 1840s and so dies were likely to have their useful lives extended by any means possible. Changing the final digit is an obvious means of doing so. I don't think there is an underlying 3 though. IMO people shouldn't get too hung up on whether it is a documented overdate or not. Dies were reclaimed wherever possible, and I think it likely that most years exist with the previous year's date overstruck, potentially on any denomination.

This is Adams 663 which was catalogued in the sale as a 3 over 3, but Colin thought it 5 over 3 or possibly 3 over 5. Whatever, it wasn't cleanly struck. Sorry, the best I can do image-wise. Edit to add: Why does Photobucket add this stupid /url on the back of every image? It appears to be getting progressively more difficult to use. What happened to good old copy and paste?

It may be done to make a political point. Take GC's Henry VIII Tournai groat which is dated 1513. Up to that date, no coin issued in the name of an English monarch had been dated, but for some reason it was decided to date this issue. It can be no coincidence that it was the year Henry resolved to recover some French soil following the loss of Calais nearly 60 years prior to this event and clearly made the political statement that the English were back in France, for which he was duly paid-off the following year. Nice little earner if you can do it. Or it could just be a fashion statement given the earliest dated French coin was 1491 and so the 1513 groat was issued not long after. Based on the design, it was obviously intended for circulation in the local economy.

The reign of Edward VI along with that of his father is one of financial skullduggery. William Sharrington was convicted of producing coin for his own financial gain at Bristol, but was subsequently rehabilitated. Henry VIII (Gordgon Brown's ancestor) completely bu****ed the nation's finances leading to the production of ever debasing currency. Even when the fine silver issues of Edward VI were struck, it was still necessary to produce base small change.

A couple for me. Nothing too exciting though, so my diet will not be restricted to beans on toast if I win them.

That's stupid. Surely they meant to price it at an OTT £325, which would be more in keeping with the inflated price they attribute to their plastic? I will do an uncirculated 1919 1d for less than 1/50th of their listed price

A number of oddballs were struck in 1923 and 1924 such as the nickel shillings etc. The early 1920s was clearly a period when a number of changes were either mooted or implemented. Following on from the changeover from 925 to 500 silver, we also see a redesign of the portraits to eliminate ghosting and a number of private patterns were produced for sixpences (see the Alfred Bole collection) along with larger silver denominations struck in gold. The engraving of a new penny reverse would be entirely in keeping with the experimentation seen elsewhere.