Gary D

Yes and they look at world coins through american eyes with vastly over inflated ideas of value. There was a guy on another forum asking the value of a 1953 scottish proof shilling. Another american came back with $150, it was soon pointed out that they were common and $15 was closer to the truth.

Ha cracking out coins from slabs is always a nerve racking experience. I have successfully liberated a few using the g-clamp method where you apply pressure until the slab cracks. The practice go with the Lincoln cent was a walk in the park, cracking out an Joseph II 2 ducat coin was not so pleasant, but it came out unscathed. I've cracked all the dozen or so slabbed coins I've bought. I would never pay a premium for a slabbed coin. I must admit it was a bit nervy cracking my PL67 1937 crown.

Both the 1958 English and 1959 Scottish are desirable dates, wouldn't mind a UNC 59 Scottish myself.

Condition will be everything thing but the mexican 50 peso, there is a "buy it now" on ebay for $1495 and the liberty head 20$ dollar from $1200 to $2500. If you are thinking of selling them, coins of that value need specialise advice. Gary

You could always try having a mad and passionate affair with your secretary (or anyone else's for that matter). That would divert her attention and, trust me, she just wouldn't notice those little brown envelopes anymore! I have my many little brown envelopes delivered to work. Mrs D is still suspicious

Wow. Never heard of that before, is that for real ? Where can you buy it - Middle Earth ? No, America lol Does this stuff actually tone, ie build a layer of oxide, or is it just paint?

A very interesting discussion although a bit over my head in places. I would suggest that Spink now days is just trading on past glories, they are no longer pre-eminent in the UK coin world. I would suggest in recent years their crown has slipped in favour of a new pretender, dare I say it, ebay with on average over 5,000 coins a day passing through their auctions. If ebay were to produce a coin guide based solely on the material passing through their portal it would be a far more accurate snapshot of UK coin values, did I hear a cry for regulation. Crazy and nonsensical perhaps, but much closer to the reality of what coins on average are realising. I will leave you to mull over my last thought, "would ebay resist any opportunity to inflate prices to their own gain".

So why do we buy these books if they are that useless. Agreed they are only a ball park but we have to start somewhere.

The 1937 3d looks to be the T of Three normal space to rim and the B of BR to corner variety

Although CCGB is a very good book it's only a guide like any other book. From experience if you buy regularly from say ebay you won't win many bids using CCGB, it's becoming difficult even with Spink, especially for anything half decent.

There is no cost when sending coins to the royal mint. The big problem is it would be several week or months before you heard anything from them. Also I'm not sure what the mint would tell you. I think for them to be interested enough to go as far as metal analysis etc it would need to be very special, 1952 2/6, 1933 1d etc. My limited experience with the mint only resulted in a very bland and non-comittal letter.

I have seen attested modern fakes of fairly common coins in mid-grade condition. A coin which is worth £50 or so, is far less likely to raise suspicion and be easier to sell than an FDC Gothic, but the workmanship is still spot on. If the annual wage you can get at the local factory is only £500 a year, then you don't have to produce many coins to exceed that figure, and the secret of being a succesful criminal (so they tell me!) is not to be too greedy. Being a numiswotsit is dashed hard these days. The weight you quote is close to that of a genuine coin (13.9g as opposed to 14.1), but I'm not sure whether it's within normal tolerance. Perhaps Chris or someone with more knowledge than me could tell us. I had a fake 1905 halfcrown in GF-VF, I also have one, fake that is, in about EF. There is a fake UNC on ebay at the moment with a BIN of £6000. I think these are all from the batch that came out of Turkey about 20-30 years ago.

Although a completely different era the 1943 english shilling is recorded by Davies to exist with a 180 deg rotation and I have a 1948 penny with a rotation of just under 180 deg. Gary

You often see blast white silver on ebay, haven't thay been ultrasound cleared. Isn't that where the term "whizzed" comes from?

We holidayed in the summer near Bad Mergintheim staying with friends. Visited Rothenburg to buy some Christmas decorations and Wurzburg, some nice coutryside around the area. One observation, are the Germans allways pissed as I don't think I met a sober one, certainly make the Brits look like amateurs when it comes to putting it away. We went with some Dutch friends and even they couldn't keep up. Gary

You could always take the coin to a local jewelers and ask them to weigh it for you. The chances are though that unless it's made of aluminuim the weight is going to be within limits. As to posting, a padded bag should be all's that is needed, but not loose inside. I personally would insure it for its approximate value, I don't know how this will effect Chriss or whoever with import duties butthat is their problem not for you to take any risks. Your local post office should be able to advice. Gary

I seem to recall a rumour of a fake coming out of Singapore and I would suggest any fakes will be recent. Is there any provinance with the coin, been in the family for 20-30 years, that sort of thing. Gary

Was this guy a coin dealer by any chance? Perhaps we could have a bit of name and shame here.

It looks like a plated 3d as the Canadian planchet is a lot thiner, see my avatar. This nickel 3d which is part of my own collection has been confirmed by the Royal Mint to be an off-metal strike made from pure nickel. It weighs 4.52 grams and has a thickness of 1.5mm so is possibly a Peck 2371* although Peck considered his to be unique. As Peck's private collection was dispersed many years ago I have been unable to find the whereabouts of his example for comparison. Although it remains to be proven, a likely candidate for the flan used to produce this 3d was the Canadian 5 cent produced from 1942 initially in brass. The reason brass was initially used was because the Ottawa mint was not able to handle the high pressures needed to mint nickel until the1946 5 cent appeared. Another fact that leads me to believe this coin may likely be a trial piece for the Canadian 5c is that at this time the dies used by that mint were produced here in the United Kingdom and a pair of old 3d dies would ideally present themselves for modification for producing trial pieces. Sorry Gary, Your info about the Canadian nickle is wrong. Here is a word for word quote fron the 2010 Charlton Standard Catalogue of Canadian coins. "UNCROWNED PORTRAIT, BEAVER DESIGN, 12-SIDED, TOMBAC, 1942 Nickle is an important component of stainless steel and other alloys needed for producing war materials, so WW II put a great strain upon Canada's nickel producers. By 1942 it was decided that nickel would have to be suspended as a coinage material for the duration of the war and experiments were initiated to find a substitute metal for the 5 cent piece. This led to the adoption of a 12 sided coin made of tombac, a kind of brass. The idea had come from the British 3-penny piece first issued in 1937. The tombac 5-cent was given its shape so that when tarnished it would still not be confused with 1-cent pieces." Also our 1922-42 5-cent pieces were 100% nickel so the presses were not the issue. But the 12-sided design in nickel was dropped in 1963 and the round design adopted again because of longer die life. Before you ask,What is tombac? It is .88 copper, .12 zinc. Hi John, should have kept my source. I took the info from a Canadian coin site just over 3 years ago when I was looking into the likely planchet used for my nickle 3d.

It looks like a plated 3d as the Canadian planchet is a lot thiner, see my avatar. This nickel 3d which is part of my own collection has been confirmed by the Royal Mint to be an off-metal strike made from pure nickel. It weighs 4.52 grams and has a thickness of 1.5mm so is possibly a Peck 2371* although Peck considered his to be unique. As Peck's private collection was dispersed many years ago I have been unable to find the whereabouts of his example for comparison. Although it remains to be proven, a likely candidate for the flan used to produce this 3d was the Canadian 5 cent produced from 1942 initially in brass. The reason brass was initially used was because the Ottawa mint was not able to handle the high pressures needed to mint nickel until the1946 5 cent appeared. Another fact that leads me to believe this coin may likely be a trial piece for the Canadian 5c is that at this time the dies used by that mint were produced here in the United Kingdom and a pair of old 3d dies would ideally present themselves for modification for producing trial pieces.

And always haggle. Your opening line should always be" what will you take for this" I recently got £50 off a BU coin recently. The hardest bit was not to hop up and down infront of the dealer as I was knocking him down on a very rare varity which he was obviously unaware of.

Just a stupid question, but how does die wear account for missing colons, surely for a colon to be missed the dies must be filled with grease or something similar?

It's probably just the reproduction print or scan, but the date seems to rise away from the rim to the right side. Gary

Currently my constant companions are Dave Grooms Bronze coin Varities and Dereks grading British Coins, probably in that order. Gary