Rob

penny's for sale ...... Post cost as follows ( Please read carefully ) UK £1.50 + 50p per extra penny Europe £150.00 +£75.00 per extra penny Rest of world £600 + £300 per extra penny 100 new penny's available have fun. A few points to clarify here. Penny should have an upper case P as it's a proper noun. The cost of shipping Penny around the UK is remarkably cheap. The costs to Europe or the rest of the world is roughly the cost of one bum on one seat in a plane. Presumably Penny is a normal person, though I suspect with a 100 examples of her available it might be construed as people trafficking (or an advert for a brothel)

I simply can't see how this could be done objectively now that they are no longer circulating. What you will probably end up doing is monitoring the periodic release of hoards of so-called rare dates when the hoarder has got fed up holding on to them such as the roughly 4000 1925 halfcrowns sold at Noble earlier this year. The additional need to police ebay for recycled pieces (as this would presumably be a major source of data) would be a pretty thankless and probably impossible task given the quality of images provided. We are also talking about comparing pieces that in the main are common or less common with only a handful of real rarities found in the last 150 years. The amount of data would be mind boggling. Double counting is a big problem. A few years ago when I still listed things on ebay, I had to prove to someone that my contention of a particular Charles I shilling type being rarer than another was true. To prove to the person asking and to ensure I wasn't making a complete tit of myself, I redid the exercise. That required finding examples in general sales only, i.e. random sale data points. Named collections are out because if you use a person's collection as the basis for data, then that person is likely to have one example of each variety they can lay their hands on. Consequently you can easily end up with the erroneous conclusion that a coin which has 2 common varieties and one maybe unique error exists in the ratio of 1:1:1. Serious rarities aside, there isn't an easy way.

At the risk of stating the obvious, they are also missing most detail. Presumably there's 200 euros worth of haircut for a start. I can't get my head round this fascination (and money spent) on blocked dies and random dot flaws.

Ask Mr C very nicely (preferably with a very large amount of dosh) and you are in with an outside chance of the 1718.

Extend the collection backwards in time. There is a multitude of James I & Charles I coppers, and hammered silver will take you back another three or four hundred years.

Nobody is going to stop Spink reprinting anything. If the numbers add up, it will be done. The copyright for Peck will I assume still be held by the Trustees of the British Museum, so Spink wouldn't be in a position to print it in anyway, shape or form without their agreement. The amount of work required to update it is considerable and then you have to consider how much of the revision would be original. The exponential increase in the number of "recognised" varieties is essentially down to their inclusion in one or another specialised tome. Do the writers hold the copyright for the variety? What are the limits to the extent of the revision? The ideal book would cover all varieties compiled from all references, but obviously would be out of date the minute it was produced due to the absence of varieties not previously communicated (of which there will be many). Expanding your library by buying the latest reference is probably the best way of doing things. You need old and new references in any case to tie in descriptions from past periods be it Montagu, Brooke, Peck, Freeman etc. A range of literature is not an impediment because there cannot be an all encompassing volume. Sorry folks, you will have to dip into your pockets until your reference library matches your collection aims.

Nobody sets up an unworkable business model, so the only thorough test of a system's quality is its ability to sort out problems when they arise. All Paypal would have to do is make a human being available (not in Bombay) for meaningful discussion and who has sufficient authority to instigate corrective action. Their insistence on email communication means you have no named person to provide continuity. They can and do ignore inbound emails. When I posted off the relevant documentation to the ombudsman including transcripts of all the emails, the postage cost was over £7. Do your own sums for the weight of paper involved. That they transferred the entire blocked amount to my allegedly dodgy bank account before informing me they had done so and twenty minutes later phoned to say that they had transferred a sum in compensation to the same dodgy account without me asking is a clear indication that the problem lay in their actions. All that only happened because I had waited the three or four months before you are allowed to refer cases to the ombudsman. In the interim, they are sitting on your money which any business needs to use for working capital. Claims that mistakes sometimes happen I cannot disagree with, but multiplied thirtyfold is indicative of something endemic. That's their real policy when things go wrong. On the plus side, the compensation paid for this pattern halfpenny in full, a P1258 ex Boulton.

I'd agree with what you describe. I've seen a few wide 0 over 6 as I recall and they were quite obviously 50 over 46.

Unquestionably ebay is the quickest way to offload stock, but this has to be set against the lottery of the price you wil receive. Another drawback with ebay is that the buyer will invariably use Paypal because it is the easiest option for them. However, if things go wrong and they block your account as they did with mine when I tried to get funds out then your working capital is tied up for the 3 months period you have to allow for resolution before you can pass the case to the ombudsman. Paypal don't offer a one to one for sorting problems, requiring you to communicate by email. Any means of avoiding Paypal is therefore preferable. Yes, a week or weeks can go by without a sale. This is why it is really only feasible to do it as a full time job if you have a guaranteed supply of and customers for large value items. The return on low grade mixed material is greater if you melt it, and much easier to realise. Ebay has a monopoly on crap. Red has covered the insurance question. Just about everyone has a PO Box for the reasons outlined, but that still doesn't stop people being mugged. There have been at least 4 instances of attacks on dealers where stock has been lost in the last two or three years. You have to keep your wits about you. Maintaining a website requires an undue amount of time if you want to photograph as much material as possible. People will always buy what they can see rather than what they can't, that's human nature. I think the trend will be that only high value items will end up on websites. Ebay has such a prolific supply of low grade/value items that frankly, it is not easy to compete and it always offer the chance of picking up a bargain. Conversely you would be an idiot to list high value items on ebay without a reserve, at which point costs become a major issue and so a website offers continuous listing until such time as an item is sold - which can quite literally be years. You can get a lot of traffic onto a website, but how many are different people is open to question and whether they buy anything is in the lap of the gods. I've had about 17000 visits in the first 4 years that the site has been up and running, but that could just as easily be 170 visits from 100 individuals as 17 visits from 1000 people. Most sites don't have a visitor counter, so I can't offer a comparison. You can have as much or as little family time as you decide. Any business at the beginning requires long hours until established. Always assume you will have to pay import vat on coins bought abroad. You can only have a profitable business if you can determine your costs in advance of actually purchasing an item. If the sums don't add up, don't buy. It's always much easier to buy than to sell. My business was already VAT registered before I diversified into coins, so I simply incorporated it into an existing structure, but if you don't have to be registered then I wouldn't bother. Would I want to do it as my sole means of income? No. If you say you want to earn a UK average salary which is in the region of £25K at the moment and you make a 10% return after overheads, you obviously have to sell £250Ks worth to provide the income. You will make more margin sometimes, less on others, but the overheads will always be there. That's a lot of well heeled customers that you have to sell to annually and on a recurring basis. Do I enjoy it? Yes, but it helps to have a laid back disposition.

It's a copy of some description. The obverse legend reads IDG ROSA SINE SPINA with what pretends to be i.m. Castle which was the mark used from 22nd May 1612 to the 28th April 1613, and the reverse has a long cross reverse as used from Edward I through to Henry VIII but with a reversed second N. At less than 1/2" it is the right size for a halfpenny, but James I halfpennies have a thistle on one side and a rose on the other. The next denomination up is the penny, which has the IDG ROSA SINE SPINA legend with the appropriate mark around a rose, but the reverse is TVEATVR VNITA DEVS around a thistle. I hope you didn't pay much, because there is no way it is genuine.

Copies of all ages. Museum Reproductions

The 1968 if correct will be Irish.

From the man who was previously into holes, another gem. Link One questions why anyone would pay £50 for this. It is clipped well inside the inner circle which would have rendered it illegal. Maybe he could use it to plug the hole in another coin. Rather disconcertingly, it doesn't match any Bristol obverse because the gap between sword handle and saddle is too big. Also there is a colon after L and before I which doesn't make sense. He appears to have an excessively clipped forgery. Wow!

Bazaar coin is probably the appropriate phrase. It's most likely a gimmick. If you put £2 coins into liquid nitrogen the middle falls out due to the different expansion coefficients of the two metals. Reinsert the centre piece the wrong way round whilst still cold and you get what you see. How many would you like?

It's still a non starter. So many bulk lots and a maximum of 2 hours viewing minus the time taken to register unless you want to make two trips on successive days.

One to avoid unless you can view in person or alternatively put in a very safe low bid. Unless good images are supplied, nobody with any sense is going to risk being burned. Provincial auctions can have little gems hidden away in the bulk lots, but most people never win on the lottery either.

This of course is where it gets tricky... Not actually my area of expertise but from my recollection, there is no absolute concensus as to which coins were produced in the reign of Henry II/Richard I or Edward I/II/III. Also gets mighty difficult when yoy have to track down a penny of Edwy or Edward the Martyr, or even somebody as well known as Alfred the Great. But we wouldn't do it if it was easy, would we? You might struggle with Hywel Dda given it lives in the BM. You also have to consider how far back you go - Roman times or even earlier?

The 5 could be reinforced and double cut as a result. It looks like it could be a 6 though, so a higher grade example would be nice. ColinG?

I think this James I half groat with the spur rowel mark is over saltire on the reverse with sufficient messiness to possibly be over plain cross too. The obverse mark which is a clear spur rowel is included for comparison. Although no silver is known for saltire due to the fact that no bullion was brought into the mint in this period (according to mint records), the dies would undoubtedly have been made in preparation for the changeover from plain cross to saltire. Because there was so little bullion brought to the mint for coining in the period 1615-1620 due to the market value being above face, the dies from the previous mark were usually recut with the new mark. Small change is known with plain cross over book on lectern and spur rowel is known overmarked with 2 pellets. An educated guess would suggest that plain cross over crescent could also turn up on silver. Does anyone have any pennies or half groats for this period to compare? All opinions welcomed.

You've got it wrong (as does most of the country)

Correct. One of my collecting criteria is that of attributed designers. From Philip Aimer of Tours who designed the Henry II short cross penny in 1180 up to Anthony Foley who did the Biga crown in 1966, I have identified 84 different individuals covering a period of nearly 800 years. Since decimalisation the list has expanded by another 53, and that is up to the end of 2009. In less than 50 years the number of attributed designers is likely to have doubled. That's called taking the p**s.

I await the day when Spink sell a collection entitled "The Property of a Postman". Talking of which, I believe H A Parsons was the last postman(?) to sell a collection. He certainly worked for them.

Copper I like with lustre, though toning can also be attractive on proofs as it tends to be iridescent with the mirror fields. Silver I like when it reflects the age of the coin. 200 year old silver should look just that, not white unless there are legitimate reasons for this such as being hermetically sealed for the past 200 years.

I have a few gold pieces, but find gold difficult to get very excited about. Old hammered gold excepted, the colour is simply too uniform.

You were lucky. I've had letters from America arrive up to 6 months later, one of which had a Philipines Post mark in addition to the one from California. I've also had post addressed to Southampton University returned after a few months with "not known" scrawled on it!! The 20 or 30,000 staff and students would doubtless not be too chuffed to realise they don't exist. On the plus side, surface mail to far flung places sometimes gets there in a day or two, presumably because there was spare capacity on a flight.