argentumandcoins

No, it has nothing to do with the Premier League run-in! I just logged onto my ebay account and saw the nice message from HMRC about online selling. It appears that they are going to start to get their teeth into anybody who buys and sells online, and I mean anybody! When you read the terms of online trading it will certainly affect 99.9% of the sellers on ebay (yes even you fellow members who use it to move on swaps). It appears that you have until 14/06/12 to declare your interest and benefit from a preferential agreement, after that your ass is grass. Thankfully it won't affect me at all as I have to declare every cent already. I predict a few high profile court cases fairly quickly this year and after that we should start to see a decline in the peddlars of shite that flood the pages with "£9.99 1967 pennieys from mye granmars draw wot she have had sinse they was maded" Thank you HMRC, thank you.

azda, i sincerely hope that you and peckris both understand that my posts were meant in good faith and also meant to differentiate between the bad that occurs on ebay, those you have highlighted as shill bidders, those who clearly sell the utmost of polished crap, designed to mislead, and the genuine dealer, whom may have had a difference in grading to personal levels. we may all disagree on grade of a particular coin at times with bona fida dealers, that happens, we have different ideas and ideals, different knowledge of a specific coin/dies....etc etc, but it sure must be difficult to be all embracing. azda....how many times have you come on here to ask for die pairings/references for a particular penny.....loads azda....how many times have you asked for a grading on a particular coin...................................loads does that make you or any other here better than CC or Rendell........maybe yes, maybe no. but yes it does make YOU and Peckris and CC and Rendell and all the others here far and away better than the those shill bidders, crap sellers on ebay...........and that was the whole point of my original post....... im gonna leave this forum now................theres clearly no place for a prick like me here. ski I wouldn't worry, ski. There will always be disagreements with people even in the most (normally) harmonious of settings. Doesn't mean they're by default right, and you're wrong. Sometimes they will be and sometimes you will be. Sometimes you will both be half right and half wrong. Whichever, it's not worth putting yourself down and leaving for, as it will all be forgotten in a few days anyway. If you have something to say, say it, and if it happens to upset someone, then tough do dahs. It's life, it's the way it is. You should see many of the comments made and insults exchanged on some forums. Makes the worst of what you see on here look like a Sunday School outing. That's the trouble with fora, a timid gutless coward all of a sudden grows a pair the size of watermelons as he sits at his computer 2000 miles away from the poor recipient of the hurtful dirge. As Mike said Ski, divn't worry aboot it marra. I've got skin thicker than a Rhinos arse so you or anybody else might get me revved up for a minute or two but after that I start to worry about more important things like "can Newcastle stuff the Toffees the day?" Not on this occasion, John. I was hoping they would, too. Pleased for Man City ~ was really Boys Own Annual stuff getting those 2 goals in injury time. On a sour note, I note that psycho Barton got sent off again, and hopefully will face a lengthy ban. Sorry to go off topic, folks The Mighty Mags came "unstuck" against the Toffees Didn't matter in the end with Arsenal and Arry's boys winning. Still a great season for us though. I think City deserved it this year and congrats to them. Barton.... "taxi to Broadmoor" That lad has totally lost the plot. I think Hughes will offload him (or try to at least) as he could have cost them about £95million if Bolton had got another goal.

I was one of Ashleys biggest critics but I have to eat a large slice of humble pie, a Cabaye, Santon, Ba and Cisse for less than half the price of an Andy Carroll looks like a good bit of business to me. Fingers crossed that he invests in the Summer again and who knows where we'll end up next year

I think what they're saying here is 'ow, Burt, it's not fair (stamps foot on floor), why can't we just say NEF? EBay gets away with it, do you really think anyone would notice (winks eye at colleague)?' Godwin gets on the PC replying 'don't worry, I have a plan, and I shall say zis only wunse, let's use our new "eBay Price Guide" to set the estimate (winks at his colleague, and sucks back a little bit of spittle and pea juice from the corner of his mouth)!' So, the first official acknowledgement that eBay are the world market leaders is numismatics, who would've thought it? 'The eBay Auction Price Guide for Numismatists'! The trouble is Ebay worldwide shift more coins (and crap) than all the rest of the dealers on the planet.The Yanks have actual price lists and try to reach exact grading....and we still operate "cash is king" at fairs,auctions and dealers.I did witness an American trying to insist a dealer at the Midland accepts his offer based on his price list....he didn't You always get the odd one trying it on. It's normally "Spink price is only blah blah". I often feel like giving them a Brick Top line from Snatch in reply "When I throw a dog a bone I don't wanna know if it likes the taste or not"

azda, i sincerely hope that you and peckris both understand that my posts were meant in good faith and also meant to differentiate between the bad that occurs on ebay, those you have highlighted as shill bidders, those who clearly sell the utmost of polished crap, designed to mislead, and the genuine dealer, whom may have had a difference in grading to personal levels. we may all disagree on grade of a particular coin at times with bona fida dealers, that happens, we have different ideas and ideals, different knowledge of a specific coin/dies....etc etc, but it sure must be difficult to be all embracing. azda....how many times have you come on here to ask for die pairings/references for a particular penny.....loads azda....how many times have you asked for a grading on a particular coin...................................loads does that make you or any other here better than CC or Rendell........maybe yes, maybe no. but yes it does make YOU and Peckris and CC and Rendell and all the others here far and away better than the those shill bidders, crap sellers on ebay...........and that was the whole point of my original post....... im gonna leave this forum now................theres clearly no place for a prick like me here. ski I wouldn't worry, ski. There will always be disagreements with people even in the most (normally) harmonious of settings. Doesn't mean they're by default right, and you're wrong. Sometimes they will be and sometimes you will be. Sometimes you will both be half right and half wrong. Whichever, it's not worth putting yourself down and leaving for, as it will all be forgotten in a few days anyway. If you have something to say, say it, and if it happens to upset someone, then tough do dahs. It's life, it's the way it is. You should see many of the comments made and insults exchanged on some forums. Makes the worst of what you see on here look like a Sunday School outing. That's the trouble with fora, a timid gutless coward all of a sudden grows a pair the size of watermelons as he sits at his computer 2000 miles away from the poor recipient of the hurtful dirge. As Mike said Ski, divn't worry aboot it marra. I've got skin thicker than a Rhinos arse so you or anybody else might get me revved up for a minute or two but after that I start to worry about more important things like "can Newcastle stuff the Toffees the day?"

On 400x mag you can see the H ghosting, and that's from a digital picture. In hand it would be blatantly obvious what it was.

The plastic the slab was made out of, the colour of the info card, the font style/size/colour etc etc

No need to apologise in my opinion Ski. Thou spaketh as thou fundeth and that is all I expect from anybody in life. I came back at Nick a wee bit strong myself, but we're all big boys on here (apart from Debbie of course) and should neither take offence or harbour grudges. The beauty about coins is the fact that we can agree or disagree about them amongst ourselves but we're never short of something to discuss. The only real answer to the grading issue is to set-up a slabbing robot that graded with 100% accuracy 100% of the time as we are humans and humans make mistakes. The difference between good and bad (people in general) is that the good ones try to make ammends.

I just had a copy of "The Silver Token Coinage" by Dalton delivered today. It's one of those photocopied from the original re-print efforts. Thin card covers and 9 1/2 x 7 1/2 inches but it does the job at a fraction of the price of an original version. If anybody is interested it was from Amazon for £10.16 including postage.

7, but only because I have a good memory and this was on the BBC website about 5 weeks ago? There was another post about it and I think I got 5 first time around (Somalia and Spur Ryal being the 2 that got me)

Sorry but it was never for sale. It has gone to a forum member for a donation to the Air Ambulance and I know he is more than willing to share it around for similar donations to the same charity (whichever area the coin goes to is the one the donation is made at). I could not allow that coin onto the open market as it is more than good enough to draw suckers in and sell for 3 figures.

I mentioned CC, that i sent a coin back to him as i did'nt agree with the grade, he freely accepted the return and got my money back as did Chris Perkins i think mentioned the same. Personally, I expect dealers' grades to be accurate. After all, they will often have more grading experience than the majority of collectors. We are also often told that a dealer will only pay 50% of what a coin might be worth - therefore that is the dealer's profit margin. So when I see a dealer inflating the grade, I see that as an attempt to take an extra profit at the expense of the buyer. I too have complained about CC grading, but at least they are consistent and do accept returns. Nick, with all due respect, your 50% comment is way wide of the mark. I am lucky to buy from individuals at 70% of selling price and I will point out here that does not mean 30% profit for me. From that 30% I have to deduct tax, national insurance (tiny amount for self employed but still a deduction), VAT, advertising costs (presently about £110/month), stationery, electricity, phone, diesel etc etc. I don't want to fall out with you but please don't make ill informed sweeping statements about how much mark-up or profit dealers make. The truth is most of us make enough to get by and getting by means a 20% margin on your sales. I have bought from some members on here and I think you will find I have offered considerably more than 50% of either "book" or asking prices. I have also sold/given to some members on here and again I think you will find I have been more than generous. As for grading I try to be fair to the buyer, so harsh on myself, that comes from being a collector myself. Returns; in 3 1/2 years I have had one coin back without a reason given and 2 returned because the buyer already had those dates but had not recorded them in his inventory. Any decent dealer would give full refunds or offer replacement/part exchange if the customer so required. I am sure that the other full-time dealers on here will give similar reponses to mine in relation to the points you made.

Even the sharpest get stung there occasionally. The most successful strikes on e bay fall into two camps, in my experience:- a) Nice coins with a high initial bid price, which nevertheless is still nowhere near their true value. Would be bidders are strangely put off by the high start price, and often by-pass it completely, leaving someone else to make the only punt at the original price, thus bagging a real bargain. b ) Really high end coins which would be better off in a proper auction. They will sell, for sure, but usually end up at between 55% to 75% of what they could potentially realise elsewhere. It's a real mistake for high quality expensive coins to be put on e bay. Gambling strikes which may or may not pay off, are on those with poor photography, where the coin cannot properly be seen. This often puts buyers off, leaving the speculator room for a potential killing, or to get their fingers burned. There has been (and will probably continue to be) another more sinister ebay tactic; the seller of the major/undiscovered rarity, thta is actually a forgery. 2 examples leap to mind; the 1860 unrecorded die pairing penny about 3 years ago and the "plain edge proof" 1819 Crown that is now on offer at a major auction house with the tag that the edge has been deliberately smoothed. The first coin was an excellent effort and I think I pushed it to about £1500 (I am sure there will be another member or two on here who also had a stab at it). I cannot comment on the second as I did not see it sold on ebay. This type of scam is very worrying, particularly when the forger is very skilled. Another area of selling is the "unable to price it" item. I sell lots of things on there that seem to fetch incredible prices (mainly exonumia) and foreign coins where I need access to a worldwide customer base which you just don't get with your website (or seem not to get). For all the pitfalls of ebay the plain truth is that I need it to survive (where else do you get rid of 1971 first decimal sets?)

I've tailed a few birds in my time but I'm a happily married man now....... well, married at least. Not tailing in the work's car I hope? Gotta be a good pull, though! ;-) The only females that were ever attracted to a traffic car were the sort you wouldn't touch with your mates barge pole

Possibly an article in the BNJ or maybe added by Davies himself as he disposed of his collection via London Coins, much the same way as Michael Gouby adds letters to his own reference numbers when new variants are discovered.

I also have a few "pristine" mirrors lying around. Ebay, land of the dimwit!

Yes, Rob has bought the rights and intends to update with a second edition at some point.

I've tailed a few birds in my time but I'm a happily married man now....... well, married at least.

You can't use blue it's the main colour on my website, so I own it. I like black and white stripes, but not orange. Whiskey and wine, but not together. Port and stilton, but mainly port...... Sorry, I'm having a Peter moment

Thanks for the thought! However I don't really collect later counterfeits than George IV/William IV so perhaps if you could find an Edward VII specialist he'll have better use for it. No problem. I do have 1818, 19 and 20 in brass put to one side for you though

There is a half decent free translator on google. I have used it in the past and although some of it comes out weeding strongly sic the main thrust is usually comprehensible. If you can't take a joke you shouldn't sell on ebay I suppose!

The owner has agreed to give it to Seuk, so if you want to pay me the £3 to cover the Royal Rip off charges and my packing I will send it on to you Peter?

The 2 light coloured patches to the right of the bust are "blisters" for want of a better word. Raised bits of metal that do not give under pressure. The area around the A of GRA has multiple small blobs of extra metal as does the A itself. The picture is not too clear but the patch on Eddies head is really dark and looks like it has casting bubbles in it. The weight is 5.61gms which on it's own does not give much cause for concern. The edge milling (which you obviously can't see in the pictures) is very flat and almost non-existant at some points. The width of the milling does not correspond to the other Eddie shillings. Without a specific gravity test I can't be 100% sure but I am 99.9% there. At first glance I saw a decent 1905 shilling. The pictures make it look more convincing than it does in the hand. I have been in touch with the owner (who lives in Australia) and he has had the coin for over 10 years so it clearly isn't a recent Chinese effort.

I just had this arrive in an assortment from a client as a part ex. My own personal slant would be take a hammer to it and then throw it in a skip.

If Dave has got a star rating I think he must have got somebody to shill it up for him....