Rob

I don't think there is a great degree of harshness towards your coin per se. The problem is one of many US coins which for the past decade or two have been promoted as rainbow toned where there is no earthly chance the colour was acquired naturally. A coin from 1890 which has a degree of toning is quite acceptable. Your coin has some wear, so an amount of peripheral toning together with some in the recesses of the design is quite normal and is clearly offset by friction to the high points. Is the mark on the cheek on the coin or the holder as this is a bit of a blemish if on the coin and would affect its value? There is nothing wrong with collecting what you like - every single person on this forum is guilty of that. Irrespective of budget, if you like it and it gives you pleasure, take the hedonistic approach and stick two fingers up to those who don't like it. It's a good job there are plenty of contrarians, otherwise there would be no relief from a monotonous diet of bronze pennies. If you could define a true coin collector please let us know, as I'm sure someone will disagree.

I think they ought to be ok for US coinage, but their knowledge of world coins has many gaps with the id frequently incorrectly attributed. It stands to reason that if they can't identify something properly, how the hell can they say what grade the effectively unknown coin is? Grading accurately is based on a knowledge of what something looks like in a state of perfect preservation and varying states of wear.

This is a problem sometimes because you often see grades inflated for age by people who want to sell an item. On ebay, the only way is UNC or EF if old, so everything has its grade upped and the older it is the worse it gets. A rule of thumb seems to be a full grade every 100-150 years back to the start of milled. Hammered is a different matter as has been discussed previously.

The 2006 edition of Freeman is the same as the 1985 edition except for the prices which were changed. A pointless exercise as you will almost never find a coin in an exact grade at an exact price. The prices were never relevant, only the images and descriptions were important. You can pick up a new 2006 for about £25 on ebay, so that sets your maximum. Certainly won't break the bank.

Not sure what you're looking at? the 2 and 6? I'd say good honest wear in the 1st picture Worn die/worn coin. It isn't 6/2 if that is what you were hoping.

peanuts

They are modern concoctions, make no claims to be fakes, or genuine. They are just a pair of obverses and reverses combined to provide gullible consumers with something that they won't be able to sell easily in the future. The 1823 obverse doesn't even look real. Pence, not pounds should be the real price and I would recommend you avoid them. The 1823 'coin' went for £103, incredible!! What's going on there I ask!! Greed and ignorance presumably.

You could never accuse him of lying. MONEY WELL SPENT - WILL RETAIN VALUE AS TIME PASSES! MOST COINS SELL FOR THE STARTING PRICE SO IF YOU LIKE THIS COIN PLACE A BID - THERE'S A GREAT CHANCE YOU WILL WIN! Well, ........ apart from the misrepresentative id - mintstate17

Don't know of one, that's why I'm asking.

Looks normal to me.

Thankfully they don't ship outside the US or take Paypal from non-US accounts. Every cloud has a silver lining.

They definitely adopted the right one.

Depends on what they are made of, what condition they are in and how valuable they are.

Another quality item from mintstate17!!!!!!!!!!!! Not.

You and me both. I wrote up the coin reference file using the description of a submerged swimmer as seen in the hand without looking at any other images. I just assumed the crappy design clarity was considered contemporary excellence. That's a sad reflection of perceived quality when you expect a design to be abstract and only vaguely representative of the subject matter. Still no takers on the last time an unadopted design was inadvertently adopted?

A question to be asked is when was the last incorrectly rendered design issued by the RM? Spelling mistakes in the legend are common enough, but to actually release the wrong design into circulation may be a first. The withdrawn 1887 sixpences were due to confusion with half sovereigns. The 2008 20p and the 1983 2 NEW PENCE pieces were mules with an obsolete design and so don't count. I can't think of any other examples off the top of my head. Clearly they had to reduce the lined design down to the correct size, so you would have thought someone would have noticed unless there were 2 prospective designs, only one of which was adopted. I think there may be more to this than meets the eye.

It appears I've got one of them too. I have to confess being underwhelmed with the series and hadn't even bothered looking.

I dont remember bidding on that one although the words 'silver' and 'halfpenny' in a description would have tickled my fancy had I seen it! Aug 2006... just after I finished at Bolton Street... probably could have afforded £100 then as well! However, I assume this isnt what it went for?! Still, having recently purchased a 1983 Unc set with the 2p mule (unfortunately the seller did know what they had ), perhaps my budget limits aren't as tight as I thought they were! Well, you pushed the boat out for the second listing. The first time it was listed and shilled, you bid £75 and the shill won it for £365. In the second listing I bought it for £370 which was a bit under what I would have paid at Baldwins. First time round on ebay I bid £355, which makes me wonder whether the other bidder had noted my statement that I was going to bid the same again as this person bid £360 and the shill bid £356. Questions, questions. So many unknowns.

They are modern concoctions, make no claims to be fakes, or genuine. They are just a pair of obverses and reverses combined to provide gullible consumers with something that they won't be able to sell easily in the future. The 1823 obverse doesn't even look real. Pence, not pounds should be the real price and I would recommend you avoid them.

Where did you get this reference from? I cant find it on his current webpage? Rascoins website Thanks Rob, for some reason I was still getting his old list via bookmarked page So do I, but the new link came via email with list 22. The new site has the /global22 bit stuck on the end - whatever that means.

Where did you get this reference from? I cant find it on his current webpage? Rascoins website

Just English milled silver for me, maybe I'll have to pretend that it isn't a different 'type' ... Do you know what the shilling went for and if so are you allowed to say? £2750. ex Ashby 2448. Thanks, I have contacted some dealers on-line, and if there are any dealers/members on here that know of one for sale please let me know, I have a reasonable budget for one! So do I

I'm always suspicious of "rainbow" toning - I just can't see how it can be natural? (I.e. with red yellow and blue all present). If yours had just been blue where it's toned, I would have said "great natural toning". As it is, it really doesn't look bad, in fact it looks nice, but.... And is there a huge gouge on the cheek? You can get red, yellow and blue all present at the same time. Neither of these two are AT, guaranteed. I'm generally very suspicious of rainbow toning, but those are beautiful coins Rob. I want the gift from Peck! The second one was gifted from Peck to Rev. Rogers in 1957 as the ticket says. It was then acquired by Baldwins post mortem in 1961 where it languished in the basement for over 40 years whereupon I bought it. AT it isn't, though it is deliciously toned and looks like an oil painting. It is the worst condition of any of my R59 halfpennies, but I felt compelled to create a "Far too nice to sell" category and so retained some duplication. The first one was ex Selig (sold 1999) who got it from the Circular in 1982. The toning patterns are the same now as then, so definitely not AT either.

I don't think any of the British are AT given the age of the pieces. What is more of an issue is the rainbow toned coins that are still in nappies. You don't get modern coins from the last few decades with some of the toning seen. They are invariably multihued concentric circles. The older coins on the site listed have random patchy colouring which is what you would expect for 100+ year old silver.

I'm always suspicious of "rainbow" toning - I just can't see how it can be natural? (I.e. with red yellow and blue all present). If yours had just been blue where it's toned, I would have said "great natural toning". As it is, it really doesn't look bad, in fact it looks nice, but.... And is there a huge gouge on the cheek? You can get red, yellow and blue all present at the same time. Neither of these two are AT, guaranteed. 1807 silver halfpenny P1169, pattern halfpenny