1949threepence

I'd say that was almost definitely the reason. Scott.

The bug bit me exactly 20 years ago, in August 1990, when I received a GEF 1951 two shillings in my change. I suddenly knew I had to get more of these old style coins. Still got it, although I've never collected florins (as yet, anyway.) Before 1992, of course, old shillings and two shilling pieces, interchanged as 5 & 10p's.

I e mailed Chris a few days ago, and got a reply. Here is a copy and paste of the messages exchanged:-

Absolutely. I got it at an antiques/general bits and bobs/coin sale held in a local Church hall one Saturday afternoon. Cost me just £1.50 !! When I was assembling my threepenny bit collection, I found the most difficult of the Elizabeth ones in BU was 1954, oddly enough.

Nice coin & a good starting point for a collection. I agree with others who say that colleting UNC examples is definitely a good thing, even though it may take you longer because of higher prices. It will certainly save you having to upgrade later ~ and trust me, you always want to upgrade eventually. Good luck Very interesting article. I never realised that a 1958 threepence in true BU was so difficult to come by. Ironically enough a BU 1958 threepence was one of the first coins I ever bought way back in 1992, at the age of 14.

I don't! But then I haven't got a bank account, a credit card, a mobile phone, or a postcode either... DVLA is the only one I've not been able to shake off Good for you, Declan

Not a nice thought, but as we all know, what the banks want, the banks get, unfortunately. Pity we all have to have our wages paid into a bank account, instead of in cash. They wouldn't be nearly so powerful then. We'd be calling the shots, and wouldn't be under their control so much.

I can't see why they should be unhelpful with regard to such matters ~ it gains them no friends. Mind you, all that said, it does seem that in recent years the MO of most organisations seems to be one of inconveniencing the customer as much as possible. There's so much rigidity in their collective procedures.

Thanks for the tip, Huss. I've got quite a few coins that I might want to offload, and a quality camera is something I've been thinking about for some time. That looks a good prospect Think about more than coins, 1949. A camera is something you will want for other purposes too, so bear in mind the following : 1. Do you want no more than a point & shoot snapshot camera to keep in your pocket? If so, Huss's camera would be an excellent choice* 2. Are you SERIOUS about photography? In which case a DSLR is the thing to go for (though much more bulky and expensive) 3. Somewhere between the two? In which case the Lumix (which is unbelievably light by the way) would be perfect & cover most situations * but bear in mind that most phone cameras have improved no end recently : if you buy the Canon (above) you won't be getting something a million miles better than what's in a decent phone, though it will do coins much better. So if you have a decent phone already, that's another factor to consider. I know quite a lot about photography, so please feel free to pick my brains (euwww!) if you want more help. Thanks for the offer, Peck. Much appreciated. What I would be looking for is a not too expensive digital camera, which takes sharp close up images. Huss's phone looked just the job ~ although obviously that is on recommendation. No reason not to accept what he says, 100% though. To be honest with you, I don't like phone cameras much. My experience so far has been that they certainly don't give an accurate representation of people, and make their faces look over red & blown up. I had one taken of me recently, for facebook, and I didn't use it because it made me look like a thick, sweaty, country yokel, just back from baling hay. No offence to rural folk, but not the image I wanted to project. A subsequent one taken with a normal camera was much better. That being the case, I don't think I would trust phone cameras to do a good job with coins.

I think we all see want we want to see at times. Here's one that fooled me - a reentered "O" in ONE in a 1903 penny Ebay picture on left No doubt here it's the same coin - another 99p dream shattered David Object lesson in how you can never fully trust photos. Strike that fully 1949 - I know what Photoshop can do! That was just for normal photos, Peck, where no intentional distortion has occurred. Photoshop is for con men, pure and simple.

A useful link, but bear in mind that it isn't kept up to date regularly. For instance, World Coins (aka David Mason, aka MEGHAN) hasn't had a shop in Canterbury for about 5 years, ever since he decamped to Spain. Also, the last time I went to the Worthing Coin Shop was about 10 years ago and they had virtually nothing there and may not even exist now. The guy there looked incredulous when I went in and asked about his stock!!! Yes, I suppose that's always going to be the problem with a list of that nature & length, Dave. They date very quickly as changes occur in the real world, whilst they stay frozen at a fixed point in time.

Useful link, that first one! Unfortunately the second one is only of interest to hammered enthusiasts. Although it says "hammered coins", it does in fact list most or all UK coin fairs. Take a look. You're right - how confusing! (Unfortunately the Phoenix Fairs aren't listed, which are the only fairs in this part of the country) Well, if you think about it, not really. Most coin fairs will feature all types of coins, milled as well as hammered. Ergo: the diary is relevant to all enthusiasts.

Thanks for the tip, Huss. I've got quite a few coins that I might want to offload, and a quality camera is something I've been thinking about for some time. That looks a good prospect

He must have read your post Mark, he's added two sharp photos of this replica Chris -- I wouldn't laugh too hard -- I just checked and the coin realized £101.00 Look at the bid history. It appears an account was set up to place a shill bid to make the item look genuine. Absolutely blatant shill bid, which, it appears, some sucker fell for. Why don't people look at bid histories before they bid, especially if they've been watching a coin, and a low price suddenly jumps dramatically.

I think we all see want we want to see at times. Here's one that fooled me - a reentered "O" in ONE in a 1903 penny Ebay picture on left No doubt here it's the same coin - another 99p dream shattered David Object lesson in how you can never fully trust photos.

You try getting one from your change in decent nick. Yes I know you can buy them, but that's no fun. Well that's what it's all about IMO.

That looks like it's been in circulation !!!

He does have a fair few English coins John, more than i would say was normal for a German dealer, maybe around a few hundred. i think his English coins outweigh everything else he has for sale from different countries. So it might be possible that he reads the boards, although his English isn't that great. Well it was obviously a lesson for me, but he said in an email to me that what he puts up for sale is not always what is for sale, it was in his German Terms of Sale, but what i would say is, why photograph a coin if its not the actual coin you're buying? Ususally a German dealer would state if he has more than a few of the same year coin (diverse Jahrgang) but this did not state this, but as i said, a lesson learned, he also said he will now refuse to sell to me again (big deal i say, there's a million dealers in this world) Difficult one, Dave. Obviously English is not his first language, and he most likely does not read this board. But it is distinctly possible he spotted the anomaly himself, which would kind of lead one to believe it actually wasn't muck, but a real life mini "1". Alternatively, he may have deliberately used a photo of a genuine anomaly to draw in the punters, and then supplied another one. Easy with such an overwhelmingly common date as a 1936 penny. Another possibility is that he has photoshopped a normal 1936, to look anomalous, again attracting possible customers. Maybe it's his only way of offloading 1936 pennies. If his small print doesn't guarantee the coin you see in the photo, then he's got you bang to rights, unfortunately. Although the fact he refuses to deal with you again, shows he's acting defensively. So I'd say it was deliberate on his part, one way or the other. Are there any German coin websites you could use to name and shame him yourself, to stop others being shafted ?

Agreed - they're nothing like Wonder if it's a lurker of this forum, and read this thread? I think that is distinctly possible. Probably safer not to post anything unusual until you have the coin in hand. Mind you many non-numismatic Ebay sellers often do not understand we are interested in a specific coin, and use stock/library pictures. I've been caught this way, but not on anything of value. Nothing enough for me to get too upset bar an explanatory email to the seller. Agreed. Try not to alert sellers if you spot an anomaly. Also, I like the phrase, "the coin you see is the coin you get"

Agreed - they're nothing like Wonder if it's a lurker of this forum, and read this thread? I think that is distinctly possible.

Well according to his profile he last signed in yesterday at 6.30pm, so he's still around. As you say, Dave, there are quite a few spam posts to get rid of.

Very true. I'm trying to assemble an old design 2008 set as well. Additionally, if the old style larger 50p's were still circulating, the 1985 at 682,103 & the 1992 single market at 109,000, were very much to be prized. I remember once getting a 1985, but I can't remember what happened to it. Must have spent it.

Possibly true! If only our coins could talk I actually like the holed one, it's got character I have the same dichotomy between my two narrow date 1879s, one cleaned, one holed. Suppose in 50 yrs time whoever owns them; the cleaned ones will have retoned, but the others will be forever holy Now wouldn't that tell a tale

Andy, the challenge for me is in obtaining coins which minted under 1 million, from my change. Effectively, this is only possible in the modern era, with £2 coins ~ and only 6 of them, although there are other lowish mintages. Earlier generations could do this with lsd. For post decimalisation generations, this is the first time such collections from change have been worthwhile & possible. Although I do wish I'd collected a few 1988 pound coins in UNC while I had the chance.

Pity about the brassoed one, David. That would have been quite a decent specimen, otherwise. This was a $20 coin from US Ebay, just listed as 1875 penny and it does have the scarce obverse variety of reentered legend The other two came from circulation many years ago, still have bad feelings towards the guy who decided to drive a nail through a good penny! me too! Of course it may be the hole that accounts for its relatively good condition. Looks like it's got about, what, 40 to 45 years wear on it. So maybe it was put on a hook sometime about the first world war, and remained there until being re-discovered in the 50's/60's, temporarily re-entering circulation until you picked it up. Otherwise it might have been like your first one. Pure speculation, of course