Gary D

I'm not so sure. There's a gentleman from Hong Kong who regularly every few months comes on ebay with some very high grade ED VII florins and sometimes Shilling always in a nice date run. Now just how many EF+ Florins are there in Hong Kong/China. This has been happening for some years now, may be legit but becoming a worrying trend. Also there seems to be too many wreath crowns washing around especially because of their relitive low mintage, and 1934s there can be 2-3 on at a time.

The postage is worth more than the coin At least the seller is honest in that they haven't a clue what it is rather than make up some amazing tail about how it belonged to Atila the Hun's great grandmother who passed it the Edward VIII on her death bed and said it that will bring good luck to anyone who clenches it between their butt cheaks whilst singing the first two verses of the La Marseillaise.

I'm sure that we can all believe that this sort of fraud occurs, but proving it is another matter. Ghost bids from the floor are risky for an auction house as it's possible for a sharp-eyed spectator to see that there was no actual bidder. I suspect that auction houses wishing to maximise their profits would prefer to invent absentee underbidders or to employ shill bidders in the audience. I know the only time I even bought a coin from Torex I happened to get it for my maximum bid to the penny, lucky what. The time I lost a coin again at Torex I was the under bidder to someone on the floor who got the coin for the same bid as me.

First, it depends where you live, assuming its the UK, then they seem very much relaxed when opening packets from the USA etc. There is no tax to be paid on anything inside the EU, anything outside can be charged tax, but only if they open the package. I live in Germany, and the bar stewards open EVERYTHING from outside the EU, so i have no choice but to pay 7% on the value over 22 euros, under that is free, so i tend to either not buy outside the EU or ask the seller to drop the price on the customs label. I've also bought from an AU auctionhouse, and they had a very clever was of disguising what was inside. It was like a small book, to thick pieces of cardboard, when i opened it, it was like an advertisement for stamps etc, but taped under that was my 500$ worth of coins, very impressed I'm always amazed at the speed that this forum picks things up, thanks ForumGod Are there no documents (custom's declarations, etc.) that the auction houses are obliged to put on the packets they send out that would get them picked up by the UK customs' bods? I tend to have this happen with the larger auction houses, and recently got charged import duty, and a nice administration charge by the postal company for paying it for me There is no import duty for coins entering the UK but anything over £18 attracts 5% VAT. I have had to pay on a few occassions but what really stings is the Parcel Force fees for collecting the VAT. From memory it's about £12

Here's my two if you are looking to show both varieties

Unfortunately Dave, they actually typed "Good Fine" and not GF or GVF, so perhaps this is actually their grade. Also if i was a Halfcrown man i'd be going for lot 1711, there's actually a few nice HCs in there Comparing it to my GVF and Derek's book I'd go VF and the observe is pretty badly banged up.

I hope they give it a good polish first

The question is how you collect your coins. All of us are on a limited budget, it is just a question of scale. A low ranking local government worker from Steeple Bumpstead may have £1,000 to spend on coins; he could go for one corker or 10-20 middle grade coins. If he goes for the forer then he has a coin, the latter a collection, which would tell him far more about coins and history in general. Mid-grade coins may get hit in a recession but most of those collecting them aren't investors, so it is of little moment to them if they're in it long-term. And if he manages to hang onto his job through the lean years then he will be able to expand his collection exponentially. Collectors of low-grade coins can, in my experience, also be the elderly who are on a very limited budget and want an absorbing hobby for their twilight years - it doesn't cost much and can give many hours of pleasure. We are all different and there is no right or wrong way to collect. Just go with what suits you. Completely off-topic but Red why did you mention Steeple Bumpstead, not exactly the centre of the earth. Are you local to that area?

Sorry missing the point here. Why would showing you collection on the internet and who said it would reduce it's value if you, surely the opposite. When I sell my collectin in about 7 years time I want everyone to know about it as the well known collections attract more attension. Look at Workman, Crooker, Freeman, Cooke, Peck etc. Of course touting your collection around may also attract the wrong type.

The H is not really there. It's because your mind is so used to seeing an H that you are automatically putting one there. If you look really close you can see that it is just a figment of your imagination.

That's closer to UNC than most wazzocks on ebay get to.

£22 postage looks a little excessive!!! Must be for the insurance as 1927 pure silver coins are like hens teeth They could be in pure silver because the picture shows the obverses of two identical pieces. If they were different there would be more reason to be suspicious about the pure silver claim, but as we are talking copies they could have been made yesterday and so the description must be taken at face value. I though silver was debased to 0.500 in 1920?

That's because the maundy 3d and proof 3d are different coins Ok, so if I understand this (please correct me if I'm wrong). There are three different 1911 3d coins: - Currency - Maundy (produced with polished dies) - Proof (produced with polished dies and polished flan) Therefore it doesn't make any sense to say currency proof or maundy proof unless there are exclusive design differences between the currency and maundy dies. And four varieties of the currency 3d Are all four known to exist? Davies has the 1+B as unconfirmed? I've only ever found three of them. Regarding the proof/maundy question. All my 1911 proof series have toned a dark cobalt blue whereas the maundy set it the normal golden colour. Also the 3d from the proof set has obv 2 and the maundy 3d has obv 1.

That's because the maundy 3d and proof 3d are different coins Ok, so if I understand this (please correct me if I'm wrong). There are three different 1911 3d coins: - Currency - Maundy (produced with polished dies) - Proof (produced with polished dies and polished flan) Therefore it doesn't make any sense to say currency proof or maundy proof unless there are exclusive design differences between the currency and maundy dies. And four varieties of the currency 3d

That's because the maundy 3d and proof 3d are different coins

£22 postage looks a little excessive!!! Must be for the insurance as 1927 pure silver coins are like hens teeth

Is this the winning formula. My link

The proof sets only included 8 silver coins. 2/6, 2/-, 1/-, 6d, 4d, 3d, 2d and 1d. If we were to assuming the 3d is part of the maundy series there would be no proof currency 3d.... but are the maundy coins proof or maundy issue. I say proof which would make the 3d a proof currency 3d because the normal issue maundy 3d has a different observe the proof issue.

I don't sell very often on ebay, just to shift some upgrades. After losing a couple in the post now I'll only mail with insurance. I have an outstanding loss whit the Royal Mail for a couple of coins sent to the States. The buyer let the time limit expire before trying to make a claim with ebay/paypal so has lost out there. Lucily I sent the coins insured as it's about £140. Royal Mail make you wait 15 working days before making a claim then once the claim has been made they take up to 90 days to investigate, which will be this comming Monday, assuming they don't mean working days that is. They also expect me to get back in touch with them.

The half crown appears on ebay occassionally. Usually someone has taken the 1910 medal box and put a half crown in it and call it a specimen issue

I did coinex this year and was even more disappointed, even more roman, even more hammered and even more hammered god. Very very little 20th centry predecimal. I thought I'd pulled a flanker by suggesting Mrs D should have a look around the new shopping centre in Stratford and I'd jump on the tube to Coinex, even though there was every chance that she could spend more than me at Mayfair. A major disappointment at Coinex was that a dealer had the 1965 Churchill crown struck without a coller that I had been 2nd bidder earlier in the year at a Baldwins action. I had been kicking myself because I had intended to attend then couldn't be bothered so put on a stupid pre bid and got beaten Anyway there it was in all of its glory at about 2x what it went for at action. Sorry but I just wasn't going to shell out that sort of money, even for a Churchill crown. Grrrr. Mind you still had a result, Statford is an amazing place and the Mrs didn't spend any money.

I don't think it does, Gary. Obverse 1 & 2a do, but not obverse 2 for 1903. See Gouby's website. Reading Gouby's site I take "1903 to 1906 - 3 Obverse dies" to mean that it does. So is the general concensus that it doesn't

Convention has it that if you use a hyphen between stated grades, it applies to the overall coin, i.e. both sides are the same. Otherwise, as I'm sure I don't need to tell you!, it's a / with the obverse first and reverse second. True, I wasn't paying attention and replying on the fly between jobs. Ok, so it's a decent VF, but still not gVF and only a full grade or so over. Therefore, the only question is, what would the price of a Fine coin relative to a decent VF be? A gap of over £5K in this instance seems reasonable given the absolute rarity of the item irrespective of whether you would personally want to pay £3-4K for a farthing in fine. £2K seems too cheap though. If a coin is that rare would the price differential between grades be that great, and would it be more a case of do you want one or don't you.

In the case of the 1693 you already had a guide for VF-gVF, so the only questions that needed answering were 'how many are available and what grades are they?' If all are similar in grade then a reasonable assumption would be the date of the last sale, the price achieved and a multiplier to account for across the board price changes since that date together with a mark down for the lower grade of this piece. If something is sought after (and it's probably fair to say a 1693 is sought after), then maybe half the VF price would be a reasonable target. There are more than a handful of serious farthing collectors out there, plus the esoteric always appeals to someone who wants a quality collection in numismatic terms. Not everything has to be in high grade to appeal if rare enough, though it does help if it looks ok. I would have thought £3-4K incl. premium would not be excessive. At £2K I would have been over the moon if bidding and won it. I know where you are coming from on the question of certain key dates, but the problem with these is that the price is likely to be determined by the number of serious collectors present on the day and hence volatile. On the plus side, if Spink quote say £300 for a coin in their annual tome and you know full well that they always exceed that at auction, then it's clearly time to monitor their website and the Circular closely as you may well pick up one cheaply. They may list higher prices on their site than those quoted in the book, but are unlikely to exceed them by a vast amount. Do the spadework and it will pay off. A couple of coins on the spink site that caught my interest were 2x their book and had flown the nest within a couple of days. On the general subject of coin prices there were two 1935 proof crowns at Coinex, one for £4500 and the other for £6000. Three have gone through auctions in the last 2-3 years at £1900, £2000 and £2200. Baring in mind there is only assumed to be 3-4 of these and I've got one of them someone is trying to make a good profit.

LOL Gary - didn't you try it on with that picture once before?