Nightvision

Just a heads up to let you know my local museum is doing a coins and hoards day featuring the Acton Hoard - details as follows: -------------------------------- Nantwich Museum is holding a free public Coins & Hoards Day on Saturday 4 June, 11am-3pm, as part of its Treasures of Nantwich project supported by the Art Fund. Visitors will be invited to view and handle objects, talk with experts about the items on display, and bring in their own coins for identification. At 1pm there will be two free talks: Roman coin expert Matt Ball will be speaking about hoards in the North West, and the British Museum’s Henry Flynn, Project Curator of the Money and Medals Network, will talk about the region’s wealth of numismatic collections. Members of the South Lancashire & Cheshire Metal Detecting Club will be on hand throughout the day to answer all your coin-related questions. The event will also be an opportunity to view Nantwich Museum’s most recent acquisition the Acton Hoard, fresh from its display in the exhibition Hoards: the hidden history of ancient Britain at the British Museum.

Thank you both. I will proceed, in the interests of science and under the assumption I probably can't make matters worse!

Hi again, I was gifted another mixed bag of predecimals this month. Got all excited. First item out of the bag was ... a rusted dog tag. Heart sank. I now have a bunch of coins with rust deposits partially obscuring everything. I attacked a few with acetone, a cotton wool bud and a cocktail stick to see what would happen. After three hours work I was able to rescue most of a german 5 pfennig but got quite high during the process so I'd rather not repeat it. (I'm kidding, the room was ventilated - I just got really bored). Next step, olive oil bath. Or will that most likely be a waste of time too? All tips gratefully welcomed.

The rim is high and the field comparatively thin on this coin, if that makes a difference. I'd be severely worried if it was temporarily sold out as I've committed my feedback now. I'm aware this could be my first expensive beginners' mistake. It is an interesting coin though, I don't dislike it.

The weight with calibrated scales reads 2.30g - better, but an element of mystery still remains. Fortunately I do have access to calipers but at this point I've decided to hang on to the coin. Thanks again for all your input, it helped me make up my mind.

Thanks to everyone for your advice on this, I'll keep you posted as I really need that second weigh-in!

I figured it probably wasn't a minting error; the weight difference is what really concerns me. What margin of error should i allow? There aren't any other obvious dubious signs that I can see, or any odd colour patches but then I'm not very experienced.

This will teach me not to impulse buy. eBay no 400876766637 is a William iv 1837 sixpence. It has a weight of 2.02 grams (I will double check this on a better scale) and the alignment is off by about 200 degrees - basically coin alignment with a little bit over. My spidey senses tell me this is not good and I need to contact the seller, am I right? Sorry for lack of active link, I'm on a mobile device.

Slightly off topic but http://resizeyourimage.com/ is an online tool very useful for anyone wrestling with image sizes for the web. I think it was mentioned elsewhere that 600 ppi is a decent size to show off a coin.

Are there any other coin restorers of good repute to know about? I have some coins begging for their freedom since they were made into brooches.

Ah but after the objective valuation comes the subjective. I wouldn't write it off: there are always completionists looking for a missing date in a run. A few collectors may want examples of counterstamps - People collect for different reasons.

Thanks for the feedback. I figured the reason no one had snapped it up was because of this. But without it the grade would be really high - you can virtually see the twinkle in Victoria's eye. It would be a prime candidate for that coin restorer guy in the States. At any rate, I'm not regretting the purchase. Good point about patience, Rob. I am only just starting out, one just tends to think quantity over quality at this point.

With the advent of technology and the rise of digital currency, and contactless payments etc we might phase out metal and paper currency completely. I hope not, but we don't really know what the future holds. Coins might become scarce after all, decimal or no. The Royal Mint are encouraging a collector culture with their Great Coin Hunts but they are still late to the party. Churchill crowns make nice heavy coin jewellery, I hear. I agree that engraving standards have gone down. Compare the face on Britannia 50p to Britannia on a farthing.

Paulus your site is excellent, I especially like the inclusion of historical details to add context. I had up til this point never seen a Henry 8 groat before.