Gary D

If I had that cash to spare, I would. That's one of the best obverses I've seen for it. Nevermind that the 18KN is very much commoner than the 19KN, it's still a beaut. I'd give it houseroom!! Now you're making me wish I'd gone higher. I've missed out on several coins that I'd really hoped to acquire in the last week and have that frustrating serial underbidder feeling! You could always go for this one only £700 Those proof pennies with the mirror finishes are a bugger to photograph

Are they really being purchased or just shilled up by the seller?

That is as maybe but as long as I can remember the two types have been described as "nose to S' and 'nose to VS' nose to VS being the scarcer and them being incorrectly described in Spinks. It's a bit like people using the colon gap to determine a 1926 ME penny as the BM is often weak or goes very early, it's much easier to look at the pointing of the I in DEI. As they say there's nothing queerer than folks.

Don't think you're missing anything - it looks like a bog-standard, perfectly ordinary, average, cleaned example of the Withdrawn Type 6d. Ah good. It's not just me then. I also notice he is trying to sell a much more common 4+D 1921 shilling as the scarce 3+D "nose to S". It's nose to VS that is the rarer one.

Well no one has yet in my opinion come up with a convincing counter argument to my previous state that the amount of toning and rate of toning is in direct relationship to the quantity of environmental damage. The heavier the toning the harsher the environment the coin has been keeps in. Just putting a coin away in an envelope although may be considered as protecting it could actually do more damage than leaving it in open air. I still maintain that although all coins will tone with age a lightly toned coin is better than a deeply tone coin, so we shouldn't be seeking out toning and equating it with quality.

How would you explain the fact that proof coins are usually more toned than non-proof? Surely proof coins would be better looked after than non-proofs, but tone more readily due to an interaction between the metal, the atmosphere and the material contained within the presentation case. Agreed. Proof coins that are in absolute mint state and have never left their sealed plastic tombs, can tone horribly as we all know from 1973 sets. Isn't that due to chemicals in the packaging.

Surely toning is just environmental damage, the more the toning the poorer the coin has been looked after. So a heavily toned coin is bad not good.

Both coins look to be struck without a collar. Not as uncommon as you would expect

Muppet alert. The guy even says in the text that it's a fake. Surely worth nothing. Altered date 1905 shilling

People come and go.When I joined wayback in 2004 there were mainly youngsters at school or just starting Uni. I suppose study ,girls etc have got in the way of coins. Girls getting in the way of coins. When I started collecting coins it was the stuff dreams were made of.

If memory serves me correctly this one has been tried before, maybe the same one.

Just a nine year reign, there's not so much of it around.

Two of my best buys have been in the March auctions. It could be that it's March that's the problem.

It looks as though only about half of the English single coins sold. One or two bargains there, especially the 1934 crown. wish I'd gone now.

Sorry Rob, I didn't record that lot (was having a beer and sandwich prior to the slabbed pennies!) Did you happen to record 1877,1900 & 2210? Regarding the max postal bid, of course these will be pre-sorted and the auction will start at the maximum postal bid as at the start of the auction they will be winning the bids. The floor will then get the opportunity to bid up from that point until the highest postal bidders max is reached or exceeded.

The wear to the reverse looks very flat as though it has been rubbed against a flat surface. Apparently coins are artificially worn by rubbing on a piece of leather. The colour doesn't look right either. The middle eastern fakes tend to tone to a very flat grey.

Try this from Microsoft on the XP (http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows/downloads/windows-xp) Image resizer. Load it then right click over the picture you need to resize, select image resize and off you go. Once loaded it's always there at the click of a button, right click that is.

I'm never sure if it's wear or a weak nose. The problem is that the nose is the highest point so will be the first to go. If there is any rubbing to the front paw I always assume the nose has worn.

I'm in two minds about going, it would be Sunday though. I've got three lots in the auction so please bid freely, I mean feel free to bid.

Sweet Mary mother of Jesus! For the first time since I graduated, I glad of my Chemistry degree! Everything from acid baths to re-plating! And on the subject of verigris - two lines... "Rub with a fine cloth which has been treated with copper soap. Copper soap can be obtained from drugstores." ============================== Having now googled 'copper soap', all I'm coming up with is a fungicide... I wonder if that is what they mean?! Must be available on ebay

These are my main grading aid

Your insurer will also require any coin valued over £500 or £1000 depending on the insurance company, to be listed seperately. I get my few revalued every year.

I'm hoping there maybe one to examine at the Prinz publications table at the London fair on Saturday. If any good then Chris's price seems more attractive! I see they are readily available on the bay for about £180. What I haven't see is the nice cradle that appears on Chris's link, don't know if that included.

Looks good, what is the biggest coin you can get under it and see the whole coin?. The built in ruler sound useful, shame about the price though. £40-50 would have been more realisic by the looks of it.

This is an educated guess type of reply, rather than scientific but ... I have often cleared 'film' (i.e. grease, some dirt, or caked condensation, etc) off coins by immersing in surgical spirit and then wiping that off GENTLY using a microfibre cloth. I wouldn't use olive oil for what you plan to store in a plastic envelope, though a very thin film of it might do for coins in trays, but make sure you reapply every now and then - either annually or when you judge it's needed. But if olive oil is reportedly 'mildly acidic,' wouldn't a continuous film of the stuff eventually have a negatory effect? I seems to vary from manufacturer to manufacture. The stuff we have at home at the moment seems to be completely neutral