Rob

Having picked up approx 1000 books and catalogues a week ago, I now have about 950 surplus which are obviously too many to list here. If anyone has any specific requirements, please send me an email. You could also see my website for a further selection of items available. I have fairly extensive runs of Spink, Sotheby, Christies, Glens, St.James's, DNW, London Coins, Lockdales plus more, including foreign sales. If anyone wants catalogues and they are going to the Midland this Sunday, I have a table, so can take them down to save carriage costs.

Gold in top grade with no wear and only a couple of tiny marks will win hands down unless the lower grade piece is an acknowledged rarity whose supply is far outstripped by demand. Spink prices them reasonably similarly as a couple of hundred either way is not really here or there, but 1832 is flagged up as a date for counterfeits, so do some homework before you buy. PS. Why do you wink your wife in public, or is it a coded message?

So let's see, what have we got to look forward to... More riots Hunger strikes in Ireland Another pointless war a Miner's strike the Battle of the Beanfield (Dale Farm?) Deregulation of the Financial Industry More riots a nuclear disaster Stock market crash the disintegration of a superpower and the Poll Tax to wrap up the decade... I think it was Mark Twain who said History doesn't repeat itself, but it always rhymes. Do we have a closet FT reader here? Erm, weren't his initials MT ? I'm sure it is entirely coincidental, but the same aphorism appeared in last weekend's FT.

So let's see, what have we got to look forward to... More riots Hunger strikes in Ireland Another pointless war a Miner's strike the Battle of the Beanfield (Dale Farm?) Deregulation of the Financial Industry More riots a nuclear disaster Stock market crash the disintegration of a superpower and the Poll Tax to wrap up the decade... I think it was Mark Twain who said History doesn't repeat itself, but it always rhymes. Do we have a closet FT reader here?

It screams fake at you. A mint mark in the shape of a pomegranate would be a good start. It is found after MARIA on the obverse, and if present on the reverse is after VERITAS.

Okay I hold my hands up......I am an xbox gamer I have never tried Spam........is it worth a go? Bots can also be helpful in getting your rankings up on search engines Did someone mention a 1926 ME? Azda - I couldn't agree more. Spam must be fried, and your wife does have a cracking bot, as I told her yesterday. Colin. Ok, a hands free xbox. How do you control the thumb switches? As for rankings on search engines, I am totally confused. It couldn't find me in the first 26 pages of a google search for "coin dealers manchester", but did manage to find a testimonial for a laundry machine. Weird or what? I guess that must have used one of these bots to improve the ranking, but for what reason is beyond me.

Short for robot (unlike Rob ), i.e. an automatic - software - conveyer of spam without human intervention. Rob is an automated consumer of Spam (or anything else, edible or not) without human intervention, or so I have been told.

Apparently it's called a 'console', and it plays games. Oh, and it fails often and spectacularly. Made by Microsoft. That's about all *I* know. Know all........ I'm still underwhelmed though.

They are only clever if the reader understands what the hell they are talking about. I've heard of the xbox, but that's about it. I still couldn't tell you what it does though.

Both the fact he is able to list the same thing twice and the label on the slab. Maybe it is my screen, but I can't see anything wrong with it, unless it is a laminating flan - but then you have to take NGC's word for it

Thanks Colin & Joey. Both the single coin on the database and the one pointed out by Joey have the halved rose and castle mark. The castle is very clear, being in higher relief to the rose sticking out of the left side and is of a consistent size when compared to others with the same degree of clarity. This must suggest a single punch was used for the mark. Compare that with my halved rose mark and you will see that my coin has a very blundered mark which is typical of filled and recut dies. The castle appears to have a rose shape superimposed on the coin, i.e. the castle was punched to a shallower depth compared to the rose. This would be expected if the die had been hardened previously. Surely on a forum where the number of penny collectors is on an industrial scale there must be someone with an example. The silence is deafening.

Somebody has been playing with a lathe. It won't be a mint product. These crop up on a regular basis.

Do we have a definitive statement or visual proof of this? To ensure that obverses and reverses aren't used in the wrong combination would require the locating end of the die to be different for the two sides. Certainly, prior to the introduction of Boulton's steam powered presses, the earlier mill equipment would have permitted any die to be located in any position. e.g. the William III and Anne double obverse (and reverse) halfpennies. There are also a few Soho and Taylor's related pieces with the same on both sides. This would suggest that the locating mechanism was the same for both dies and so anything could be possible.

The problem I have is that I also have a P&M London penny that looks like this. Not unknown, but I only recall seeing one other example in either the Circular or Seaby's Bulletin a few decades ago. This clearly has the rose mark associated with the Irish issue and I'm assuming that it was a die where the rose wasn't overstruck. I want to get as many images of base pennies of P&M as I can lay my hands on. I'm trying to establish whether the halved rose and castle is actually castle over rose, where the dies were returned to London from York and used for English pennies, or was it genuinely halved rose and castle? The image of mine shows what could be a softly punched castle over rose, where as other images show the rose component to be almost completely obliterated by a strongly punched castle, but still present. The implication being that a halved rose and castle punch didn't exist. I would also like any images of an Irish penny as these are like hens' teeth. Base pennies aren't particularly rare, so someone should be able to chip in with a contribution. Thanks in advance.

As you will be aware, the penny was struck in 3oz 2dwt silver during the reign of Edward VI through to the end of Philip & Mary. Edward VI is stright forward with the London coins bearing the scallop mark and York the pierced mullet, the legends being [CIVITAS] LONDON and EBORACI respectively. The coins of P&M are slightly more complicated. Mint marks are halved rose and castle or castle for the London coins. Pennies (at 3oz fine) were also issued for use in Ireland and bear the rose mark, though were struck in York and read CIVITAS EBORACI. They were struck from called in base coinage of Henry VIII and Edward VI after being further debased. An example of the York penny struck during Ed.VI is below. The London penny of P&M with halved rose and castle looks like this

I'm not sure at all. It's definitely not hammered, probably quite a lot earlier from the look of it. I'm thinking it may be contemporary with Celtic issues, but it would need someone with much more knowledge than I to confirm that. Thank you. Pity I cant change the title to the post to draw more interest. Simon That wouldn't work. The problem is not attracting eyeballs, it's attracting someone who can read the inscription. I'd have a punt and say it's Indian or somewhere in that vicinity, but as to attribution - not a clue.

About VF as I first said. The hair detail isn't the best on many of the small silver issues which makes worn examples look worse than they usually are.

I would hazard a guess at about the VF mark - say £10-15. The pictures are too fuzzy to see the detail.

It is an 1862 threehalfpence which was first issued for colonial use in 1834 and last issued in 1862, though a proof only was made in 1870. 1862 is a better date as the common ones are 1834, 1838,1839 & 1843. The value will depend on the grade for which we would need a picture.

This is the best image I have of one.

These look good. I think Colin is right re the images in Peck and on CC's site. If you look at Cheshire collection lots 2516-8, here you can see that there is general agreement. The possible spanner in the works is the hair detail. Joey's coin looks to be the earlier strike as the 4th ridge in from the right is a continuous line, which it isn't on the 3 lots in the Goldberg sale. That's the only difference I can see. Thoughts anyone?

If it has the same profile, thickness and weight as a 20p, then it is a blank that got through. It should be flat on both sides as the relief is made by the dies. They usually sell for a few pounds at most, so there isn't a fortune to be made, but it's still a nice thing to have.

Surprised? That's why you should always buy the books and then the coins. Most people overpay for items because they haven't done their homework. An ethical seller might list an unc 1967 penny for £1. Less scrupulous people might list the same item for £10, after all, £10 isn't a huge amount of money in this day and age. With a little knowledge, the same £10 might just buy all of the Elizabeth II pennies in UNC once you realise how cheap they are. Would you prefer 8 coins (1953 & 1961-7) for the price of 1 without dropping grades, or not? Silly question probably. A really ethical seller would give BU 1967 pennies away free with other purchases. Will they ever be worth anything? Hm. Not in our lifetimes. Having said that, the earlier Liz II pennies (1961 / 62 / 63) are becoming a lot harder to get in genuine BU. The only really easy ones are 1965 / 66 / 67. I know that, but on the assumption that a business needs to sell things you have to say that everything has a price. The point I'm trying to make is that you have to get a feel for the market and not blindly accept what is presented. This can only be done by research, whether on line or printed is not important as long as it is done. Having done a spot of reading, it wouldn't come as a big surprise to find that some uncirculated coins are remarkably cheap despite being 70 or 80 years old.

Surprised? That's why you should always buy the books and then the coins. Most people overpay for items because they haven't done their homework. An ethical seller might list an unc 1967 penny for £1. Less scrupulous people might list the same item for £10, after all, £10 isn't a huge amount of money in this day and age. With a little knowledge, the same £10 might just buy all of the Elizabeth II pennies in UNC once you realise how cheap they are. Would you prefer 8 coins (1953 & 1961-7) for the price of 1 without dropping grades, or not? Silly question probably.

In this world of information overload I would doubt there being any gems in bulk lots. I have noted Surrey*coins have been selling overgraded polished / dipped coins on Ebay. Iphone underbidder investigations? This is old news. They have been doing so at least since I started using ebay in 2003 and presumably before that too.