1949threepence

Well done Cartwheel. You did well managing to obtain all of the Commonwealth Games £2 Issues. They are were, and still are, very hard to find! In fact the first time that I saw one 'In Hand' was recently when I purchased a set of all four of them. lol They definitely are, Rob. I'm still on the lookout for a Northern Ireland flag specimen.

Having now received three in the last few weeks, along with some technology 2009 £2 coins, it's become abundantly clear that they (Darwin's) are not rare at all.

No worries, Mat. Pleased to be able to offer assistance, albeit probably rudimentary. It's quite a painstaking process, actually matching photos to Freeman coin types, and there's so many die pairings for 1860 & 61. Interesting nonetheless, and good experience.

deja vu, Peck !!!

That is very true 1949. However according to this artice from the BBC, they may be more common than first thought. "The Royal Mint said that 87 million of the 29 special 50p coins would come into circulation over 2010 and 2011." Which means that there could be 3 Million of each Design released into circulation. Although, we do have to take into account that people may pull them out of circulation as and when they see them. And we can't forget the inevitable surge of them on E-Bay, so who knows? lol Thanks for the info and that very useful link, Rob.

Talking about £1 coins, I received a 2008 one the other day, and I literally couldn't believe the amount of wear on it. It was like it had been in circulation for about 25 years !!! On the same subject, the relief on 1985 £1 coins must be very low. I'm getting one or two now, where the date has been totally rubbed off.

That's a seriously large collection. Welcome to the forum

I've sent the seller this question:- It'll be interesting to see if I get a reply.

The whole coin is quite stunning, Dave. I'm very envious.

In that case, it's a deliberate con attempt, as you say. Of course, e bay being e bay, are often very slow to react.

Looking at pic 4 again, I think you're right ~ 6 + G. The reason I went with obverse 5 for the first coin, is that Freeman describes obverse 6 as having the "B" of Britt almost touching the head. This is definitely the case with coins 2, 3 & 4, but not with coin 1, which seems to have a slightly greater clearance. However, there's many a slip twixt cup and lip, and I fully concede I may be wrong. Maybe suffering from optical illusions, or whatever

Maybe we should give him the benefit of the doubt. If you look at what he sells, he is not a coin dealer as such. It seems to be mostly toys. There are a few more crowns in his list of items, all of which he descibes as £5.00, as well as a couple of 50p's, accurately described. But the overwhelming bulk of his stock is toys. It is possible he doesn't know the difference himself, in which case it would be a genuine mistake.

It's not a smooth area around where the one should be, suggesting possible tooling by an individual at some point after it left the mint.

Well I decided to look it up, and found it very easily here I've never heard of the seller, who evidently is in Londonderry, NI. But maybe you should report him to e bay, cartwheel, as he is touting a Crown, face value 25p, as a £5.00 coin. There are some who might fall for that. Better yet, ask the vendor directly why he is so doing

What hits me in the eye there, is the apparent scarcity of the 1895 penny.

I'd go GVF on this one. It lacks the crispness needed for a straight EF in my view, and note the lack of hair detail in the moustache.

I've no idea with pic 4, as it is quite well worn I believe the others to be Pic 1: 5 + D Pic 2: 6 + G Pic 3: 6 + G By no means certain though. Pic 1 is clear enough, but pics 2 & 3 are inspired guesses as it is impossible to discern most of the main distinguishing features.

A link to the actual e bay page might be useful

I'd agree that the 1862 farthing, plus the 1862 & 1860 pennies alll shown above, are BU. The outstanding example being the farthing.

That's an interesting concept to think about. If 5,800,000 2011 50p's have been issued, and there are 29 designs, then if divided equally that makes about 200,000 of each, making each one scarce individually. But there is still a high chance of getting a 2011 50p of some description. The trick will be collecting all of them.

Both UNC, but neither is BU in my opinion, Dave. Very nice, nonetheless. I don't have anything of that age in BU. Nearest in absolute BU is a 1903 penny. I'm not sure that BU is an entirely useful term, either. Hopefully, Derek (Red Riley) won't mind me copying and pasting this very useful definition from his website:-

My observations ~ notable how scarce for sale, 1948, 1956 & 1957 threepencies are. Thanks for your hard work on this one, Declan. A very useful and revealing exercise. I'm not quite sure precisely what it tells us quantitatively, but I think it does show up otherwise hidden scarcities. I know when I was completing my threepenny bit collection 2 to 3 years ago, it took me a long time to drop on a decent grade 1948, which surprised me. They perhaps fall into a category of "forgotten" coins. Before the big withdrawal and meltdown, they were not really thought of as scarce ~ although mintage was not excessively high, and in 1948, positively low. Consequently, they were not hoarded. Maybe not even collected to any great extent. Hence they are now surprisingly scarce in the higher grades especially.

Well Done Boomstick. I have only seen one Burns £2 Coin to date. I think perhaps that they may end up being scacer in change than the Darwin £2 Coin? Well done to both of you. I haven't seen any Burns £2 coins yet.

Hi Huss, In addition to what Derek has said, I've noted a typo under "Buy from listings with clear pictures" ~ on the last line of that, I think you mean "hoped", rather than "hopped". I might also add about about watching for shill bids in auctions. Other than that, a very good & comprehensive guide.

For what it's worth, I'm not convinced that the highest grade coins are always the rarest, which means that pricewise what middle grade coins there are tend towards the unc rather than the fine price. I think however that this rule of thumb applies to coins in which the overall supply is strictly limited - the 1918KN penny and 1946/49 threepences being good examples. With the reasonably common Victorian pennies where mid-grade coins are abundant, the opposite applies. I certainly agree that a mid grade 1918KN, for example, is going to fetch a lot more, pro rata, than a mid grade 1893. The overall rarity of the coin comes sharply into focus when set against low grade price/demand vs mid grade price/demand. Mid grade being about VF, I think we'd all say.