Gary D

This is the example I've had for just over a year now.

I asked him the question and it's definitly a ME. He put up the reverse for a short period but I didn't look close enough to see if it was small or large. My guess would be small. The problem with a lot of ebay pictures now is that you can't right click and save as.

It would be nice to see the other side, definitly not 1921, 1922now that would be interesting.

Just a suggestion, perhaps you need to compare the flan size not the finished coin size. The half sovereign may by slightly bigger but have less metal in the design, deeper rims etc.

Yes, yes, yes. Agree with all of that. The asking price for anything slabbed seems to be astronomical compared with the market. Use your own eyes and refuse to pay ridiculous prices for coins. For 'slab' read 'bubble'. Undated 20p anyone. Now one of those in a slab ooooooh

The best place I've found that lists this sort of stuff is Michael Goulby's website (michael-coins.co.uk) Look in GB coin list

The date numerals look a bit thin compared to the two I have, especially the loop of the 5

I was referring to the buyer, but I did very nearly message the seller to make that very point! At the time, there were approaching 1000 of these coins on eBay! I was refering to the buyer also. Someone who has that amount of cash isn't going to be stupid enough to spend it of the 20p

A little bird tells me that winning bid of £5,100 isn't going to be paid ... I see the winning bidder has a big fat zero feedback

I'm yet to find a 1903 type 2, everyone I've looked at has been a type 2a, which has made me wonder.

That's where the radio controlled clock comes in handy. I've found that if you make your bid on the 2nd button, with 12 seconds to go, you'll usually get in with just 3 or 4 seconds left, depending on how fast your browser is. I didn't bid on this coin in the end, though. Was going to, but getting too close to the end of the month. Payday is not until Friday Sorry you weren't successful, Peckris. Oh well, he obviously wanted it bad, so good luck to him. At least I made him pay what it's worth. As for the radio controlled clock - that's not needed! eBay have introduced this cool facility for your Watched items, that counts down the clock in real time and updates bids and tells you your status, without you having to refresh your browser. I was at the cinima at the time with the mrs earning browney points, just used hamersnipe. There was a time when I considered Spink as the high limit but from past experience it doesn't work with ebay anymore. But then still £32 cheaper than the "buy it now" one and looks to be a similar grade.

You don't get £7,000,000 by being that stupid. I notice the number of coin for sale is dropping as quick as the prices now. How can someone sell multiple coins that are supposed to be rare, just the fact they have several makes them not rare. Give it a week and it will all be a distant memory

I've had a Peter Nichols Coronet for about 3 years now. I had the trays customised to suit my collection 1900-1967 Farthing to Crown. I orininally worked out all the varieties that I knew of but have had to get a couple of extra trays made as more have come along and I have run out of space. I'm just in the process of having a couple more done. As to security my cabinet is attached to a wall eye with a computer type security cable. I fixed the plate to the bottom of the cabinet by bolting through to the inside. I also have a snatch alarm attached so that if anyone picked up the cabinet, he'd have to be a big lad, the alarm would pull apart before the cable became tight. I also have a brother who is a bank manager so if we go away for more than a weekend the collection goes into his bank vault. Something I would like and haven't solved the problem yet is to get some kind of flight type case that the trays would slide into for tranportation, a cardboard box is a bit crude to carry a 5 figure collection around in. Anyway I never miss an opportunity to show my collection so I apologize to anyone who is tired of seeing it.

The giveaway is the obverse legend and rim (I agree if it was 'in hand' I could tell in an instant). The rim is quite high, but the clincher is the distance from the legend to the rim. On Type 2's it is always further away - the Type 1 legend is about 1/3 to 1/2 as close. That's worrying about morgan9red. I just bought a BU florin which the photo suggests really is - I hope I don't have to send it back as it cost me not far from book price. You're definitely right. I've just compared, side by side, my 1920 & 1921 shillings, and the legend in the 1920 is palpably closer to the rim, than my (type 2) 1921. You can see the difference if you compare the two links above (the one you posted and the one I posted) I bow to your suporior knowledge, I wasn't aware of that tip.

Actually, yes I did note that '1' was a bit strange looking. No, what I was referring to, is it's the rare Type 1 obverse (1911-1920). I've examined as close as I can and I'm 99% sure it is. Which makes it RARE indeed, especially in that grade. You may be right. Might be worth having a punt on. I'm 50/50 about it being the 1st type. I think I would need it in hand to be absolutely sure. The buy it now example I had already discounted it as being the 1st type as the angle on it doesn't help and the neck looks a bit shallow as with the second types. I recently bought a couple of florins from morgan9red both advertised as UNC, one was about EF and the other a disapointing GVF Looking at the 1 I don't think it's unusual. Looking a my examples of the other 4 types my D.1807 also has a shorter 1 than the the other 3 types

Actually, yes I did note that '1' was a bit strange looking. No, what I was referring to, is it's the rare Type 1 obverse (1911-1920). I've examined as close as I can and I'm 99% sure it is. Which makes it RARE indeed, especially in that grade. You may be right. Might be worth having a punt on. I'm 50/50 about it being the 1st type. I think I would need it in hand to be absolutely sure. The buy it now example I had already discounted it as being the 1st type as the angle on it doesn't help and the neck looks a bit shallow as with the second types. I recently bought a couple of florins from morgan9red both advertised as UNC, one was about EF and the other a disapointing GVF

Small rotations are not uncommon Gary

1878 would be a Type A4 according to Spink. The date below the neck is correct and the number below the sheild is the die number. The sheild should be up side down compared to Queen Vic's head. Not sure about the wreath. Gary

.........Not to mention scanning the lines of coins paraded in those "penny falls" machines in amusement halls, to see if there were any there worth trying to coax out (sad but extremely enthusiastic git that I am) On a saturday morning I would take my £1 2/6 paper round money and go into the Lloyds bank next to the paper shop and get £1 bags of 1d 1/2d etc until I could not make up the £1 any more

Could it be like this one. The crack would stop it ringing

Yes, looks like a filled die, I can just make out a ghost there Gary

Just to put that into context, I've only ever received one 2002 Commonwealth Games £2 in my change, and they are of comparable mintage. If you buy the 2008 baby set from the Royal Mint you get the whole lot brand new.

I have little interest in bank notes, you need to talk to my wife, she can get through them at an alarming rate in the local shoe shop. Perhaps Chris could be persuaded to add a banknote section to see if it would grow with time. Gary

Does he have illustrations, Gary? If so, can you see from them if 1805 is indeed the first obverse? (But in any case, the obverse 1 does have a "full neck" while the shallow protrait has a "hollow neck"). Also, does he state rarities? If he does I should estimate that 1805 will be the rarest, unless any of those low relief varieties is also truly rare. And you're right - Spink have listed those descriptors the wrong way round ! (At least in the 2005 book which is the latest I have). 'Nose to S' is the common shallow portrait (I of Georgivs to space), 'nose to SV' is the rare first obverse (I of Georgivs to bead full neck). Ignore your Spinks, folks ... Apart from a discription Davies doesn't give much more information. There are pictures but they are just close-ups of the areas he's interested in, eg. RGIVS showing bead alignment and IMP showing the tuft alignment. He also doesn't give rarities although he does give a 1982 values in mint condition. 1805 £85, 1806 £42, 1807 £75, 1808 £60 and 1809 £30. I guess you could infer comparitive rarity from this. Gary Thanks Gary, very interesting. I just wonder how many collectors are actually aware of these very subtle differences. Fortunately not many when I'm looking for them on ebay, unfortunately not many when I'm trying to sell them on ebay. Gary

As you correctly say, the variations in the internal corner can make it difficult to determine the pointing. I found that to use the corner as a marker you need to get slightly over the coin and sight the external corner which being sharp gives a good indicator. It's interesting what you say about the documentation of this variety as DaveG38 has it described and illustrated in his excellent new varieties book. It would be interest to know his source as I would be surprised to find that this characteristic had not been previously described. About the middle of 2006 I start to put together an ebook based on a scan of Freemans with a section on the 3d and varieties found since Freeman was last published. This happened to be a couple of week before the Freeman reprint which knocked the project on the head. If anyone is interested in the 3d section I would be happy to email it. Gary