VickySilver

Uh, this should not be about egos. Just keep the identity of the place that has become rightly recognised as a decent auction house with respect. Well, at least they didn't go with "Nimrod"!

Ah thanks, when I saw it for sale I had to jump. Sadly, where we live the humidity is not kind to copper and so some of the "redness" has subdued. The lustre however is astonishing. Yes, wish it was the italic date/number 5.

https://dl-mail.aolmail.com/ws/download/mailboxes/@.id==VjN-YoNgdl_7XRxfciTKLGOrLByUaQk198b-E2AX4bWlT0_G_jmE5a7d8Eek-JT9ao1XGH4nkLovJSeSm65J69qU1w/messages/@.id==AA7xRox2TnegYmVpkAwCOFDw_3A/content/parts/@.id==3/raw?appid=aolwebmail&ymreqid=402608f5-e79f-238f-2f2c-5a000a010200&token=dBAJtFy9f4pINgAJ03jj4J8Q_Pwrdk6L88KBc1_OGy7AC9j-z3GnN71mIG4uPe5kw0iOLSDxIOemOommMp53L8b-OYTlrt3wR6T4lP1qjVcYfieQui8lJ5Kbrknr2pTX

Ah, that would be nice (and lazy of me!) always interested in such. Probably never much overall interest but who cares?

I am still impressed by that hoard - has to be I would imagine a bit unusual. How does your coin(s) look? I will try to get a better photo but as usual a bit hamstrung embarassingly.

I had to share these, and courtesy of Richard am able to & the lustre in hand is really wonderful albeit the coin a bit softly struck:

Courtesy of young Richard & plenty of lustre:

Ah thanks for that. I have a couple of the 1970s and will have to look, even at the pattern one just to check. An entire bag? My goodness that is something and must of itself be a scarce event - I hope you have a bit of the story behind that one! I'm just not crazy about those special issue 50p even if technically currency - I think I like the earlier 5 & 10p because of them sticking to the old pre-decimal standards but will not collect them by date (I think many of the coins I collect have gotten nearly unreachable & crazy priced nowadays). The blimp story really good - 2,000? Ouch!

Oh, yes that was a fight over the IMHO obvious with crazy defense on the part of many for the colour - including "respected" numismatists/dealers (the latter label more appropriate) jumping in on the side of this blue colour being somehow a natural attribute. I have a quite rare farthing that some clown cleaned with it giving a thankfully only mild pale blue sheen that probably can not be removed.

What are your thoughts on this coin Pete? Scarce or not? I got two for approx. 14 pounds.

Yes, this type of business model is IMO destroying at least some of the market for GB coins, resulted in great profits and chasing true collectors out of the market in droves. Understandable is a slow(er) upward drive in prices but pump and dump methods with log value raise in "value" of coins reflects naked greed that we see now so often in the market. BTW, I believe the blue color has been imparted to the surface by application of the product "MS 70" which when incompletely washed seems to do this to coin surfaces. I have seen some absolute rubbish about the solvent(s) in it removing overlying toning and revealing supposedly true colors beneath the toning. That IMHO is an absolute load of BS.

Ah thanks for the input! Yea, don't care for those 50 P coins as IMO they are overhyped and not ordinary currency coins generally (although there are some marginal coins to be sure). The 2008 "no date" I agree is entirely overrated and have seen auctions with up to and greater than THIRTY STRAIGHT LOTS! I have heard some rumours, likely not proven that some of the reported 1981 10p mintage were actually 1980 coins. I saw Gouby's coins and had a bit of a laugh as I just got two for 21 USD including tax, shipping, etc. - or about 8 pounds per coin & mine are nice uncirculated coins with decent lustre. I have had a look at some other smaller denomination coins in the decimal currency series and have not been impressed although for some reason I like the large modulus 2p coins... I got one of the Martini 1983 sets featuring the 2 New Pence coin and have kept it in original packaging although the red lustre is beginning to fade a bit despite my best preservation efforts.

Over the years I have looked sporadically at some of the decimal issues and one that keeps coming up as rather scarce is the uncirculated 1981 10 pence. Mintage was about 3.5 million coins, so a fair number struck. Evidently they were largely paid out into circulating channels because recently they seem rather unusual to find, and particularly if an uncirculated currency issue and not one of the more common proofs.This is from the year just prior to the release of yearly uncirculated sets by the Royal Mint. I have seen that there is near zero interest in the decimal series but that on occasion they will sell for 50-75 pounds. How common or rare is this coin in your opinion, and are there other such coins of similar scarcity?

They were printing those off as fast as they could to fund an abysmal cause & rapidly turned almost worthless to be made good on conclusion of the war (well thank God it didn't go their way). To me, I always felt like holding any confederate anything was akin to holding items from Nazi Germany, or possibly worse. Anyway, I suppose these things serve an educational purpose....

Go team! Well, some of these coins are likely so rare that it is luck now but knowledge has a way of enhancing luck!

Thanks Richard. LOL. I even have trouble getting the obverse here but will try again.

Hopefully these posts keep interests of the readers but one of the few areas I have bought in on occasion: The Royal Mint from about 1980 for about 25 years and more struck some scarcities as far as sets and individual coins that some may be aware of. The Bahamas had struck for them souvenir sets in several years (1989, 1991, 1992, 1996) and the year 2000. These came in the 5 coin format and then a very few in the 7 coin format. For the year 2000, the former 5 coin sets were struck in reasonable numbers but although the coins in these cardboard and plastic sets were of excellent prooflike quality, were of normal 1c through 25c denominations that were struck for, and served as circulation coins. BUT, the 7 coin sets were struck in much fewer numbers and included examples of the nicely designed and somewhat famous 50 cents Marlin coin, and the more well-known One Dollar conch coin - both of these had been struck since the inaugural 1966 coins and sets. For year 2000 these were not struck for circulation so the only way to get them is in the 7 coin sets. The 5 coin sets usually sell on ebay for about 8-20 pounds plus shipping, but had not seen a 7 coin set for nearly a decade, and so despite constant searching there and other venues had not found one until just a couple of weeks ago when one popped up at a starting price of USD 9.95. I watched it for 9 days and it stayed at that price so I put out a "nuclear" bid of multiples of that, and low and behold, got it at USD 10.50 plus another 6 in shipping and taxes. Very thrilled with this, and have been informed that the 7 coin set mintage may be about 50 in all with there being some attractive coins included and all basically at the price of a nice Starbucks coffee! I will see if Richard may post pictures of the dollar coin from the set and others if readers are interested. BTW, some other RM rarities include the 1996 Bahamas 7 coin specimen set and the 2004 Falklands specimen set (and proof set which also seems to have a 50 set mintage and coins of copper nickel). The RAM Australian Mint has made some scarcities during these years as well but some of the rarities remain a bit obscure - Mister T knows far more than I about these .....

Gaaak!!!! Well, I collect this type of coin but NOT at this price and glad mine came from a saner time. Nowadays I am most careful with my purchases and only splurge on particular items that I know are especially scarce or have other attributes. I would imagine there are others that have somewhat retreated in this market as well...

I don't know just not the Spink of the past says one who is reluctantly becoming an old-timer... It's just that I used to get so many quality pieces from them, although admittedly many from the SNC when notified early....

I just saw this posted and was appalled (surprise, surprise!) at the quality or lack thereof and the grades obtained. For specifics, check the 1935 Specimen Rocking Horse Crown in SP66 (?!?!) - marks on the cheek are absolutely unacceptable IMO for that grade. And then there is the poor 1965 Churchill crown somehow graded MS65 but given what appears to be a "GVF" or thereabouts in the description. I simply can not believe that grade. As some may know, I am actually a fan of this crown in higher grades - which this certainly is NOT - but this one won't do. I have gradually over the years been filling out the Old Head Regnal years but even with those I'm lacking feel I must pass on this lot for sale. What say our readers?

I suppose the dies were not necessarily even produced at the same time. Who knows, so much controversy. IMO, I do not things always ticked as smoothly as a good clock at the Royal Mint in the good ole days and I never understood how it was that only one reverse might be used for the 1882 (London) coins when it seems at least to me that 2 or three different reverses made at different times could have been made. Always curious to me what gets accepted as dogma, even on occasion without concrete evidence. I was referring to 1882 of course....

I thought that was the 1875 Heaton penny? Regardless, I like the 1864s even without micro-varietals......

Wow, nice then did you happen to notice the date? Many are the Royal Mint 1970 version which is decidedly common. If another date like 1977 or 1979 Franklin Mint uncirculated I would really want to know. There is an ebay seller in I think Washington state that has a 1976 in unc. for over 700 USD which is just far too high (and I have two of that date in any case as it is the most common).