Rob

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.

Correct, I am 52. (see title below avatar if this needs clarification)

The fair is organised by Mike Veissid who ran the shop in Shrewsbury and whose business was taken over by Spink. There is a waiting list and if you do manage to get a table it will only be on an occasional basis - say once every few months. Ideally you want a regular table so that people know you will be there every month, but this isn't an option. I know of a few people who would take a regular table, but don't bother give the uncertainty. If you do get a table, you might not know until the day before. Not ideal. I too find it a bit unethical to hijack someone else's forum to advertise my wares. Nothing wrong in having ethics.

That in itself doesn't make it a BBITANIAR shilling. Bloomsbury no longer do coin auctions. I possess 5 lots bought at Bloomsbury, 4 of which I could identify from elsewhere prior to the sale. The problem is that I only ever won 8 lots in total in their sales and 3 of those had to be returned as wrongly described. You wouldn't dare bid to blind on lots, so something as esoteric as a BBITANIAR shilling I would want to see in the hand.

I have recently carried out a survey of Exeter & Truro crowns which has thrown up the interesting fact that all bar one of Brettell's Exeter crowns together with most or possibly all of his half crowns have numbers scratched in the obverse fields. Notwithstanding this desecration of the coins, it has also been possible to reference some of the engraved numbers to lots purchased by Simpson at the Morrieson sale in 1933. Simpson's collection was purchased by R P V Brettell in 1955 post-mortem and over 140 coins in Brettell's sale in 1970 came from this source, any or all of which might be similarly engraved. I therefore would ask anybody with coins from the Exeter mint of any period which are in decent grade to examine them and check for numbers scratched in the field as there is just a chance that you may have an ex-Brettell coin and the catalogue was fully illustrated to corroborate the provenance. It looks like Simpson was responsible, but what is done is done and now we can at least make use of the evidence to help establish where the coins were originally acquired. Brettell also had a Dovey Furnace 4d & 3d together with some coins of Bridgnorth(?) as they were assigned to Coombe Martin and Lundy respectively at the time, so you can also check any examples of these that you might have. Also, anyone having an Exeter crown in their collection - an image of it would be useful as it may be an example I don't have recorded. Thanks in advance.

It isn't BB because the bottom loop of the B should extend further to the right than the top loop of which there is no sign. The top loops of both B & R appear to be the same size, so would expect to see something obvious there was a second B.

Time to get a new set of women then. My wonderful better half has just instructed me to buy a coin or two in the forthcoming sales. It's one of those rare occasions in life when you really want to fulfil the promise to love, cherish and most of all -OBEY.

It's a Peck 1778 with no rocks to the left of the lighthouse. It is somewhat less common than the regular type with rocks present. I've got a slightly toned but otherwise mint state piece for sale here

Very true, some of the South African farthings are really poor in relation to depth of field As promised here are links to King norton's Half Crown Image 1 Image 2 The image doesn't suggest a proof, but if it is it looks to have been badly mishandled or has seen a little circulation.

Sent to Coventry for a weekend away? Surely not. My wife views them in the same way. It's only a short mental adjustment for her to tar me with the same brush.

It isn't the same coin, or if it is it has been dipped and dropped. There are a few toning spots on the Bloomsbury piece and the rim bruise is not clear either. If Azda's coin is a BB, then it must be a very late striking as the R over B of BBITANNIAR and the last A both have associated flaws which are not present in the Bloomsbury picture.

More hijacking. I went to the Midland yesterday too. Don't remember hearing anyone trying to sell 1825 farthings though.