1949threepence

Although in fairness, we were talking about the 1882 no H in EF or better.

To be fair, it was rather better than that, the slab describing it as 'fine', although IMHO it was no more than a moderately adequate Fair. Still, I've seen worse, but not at £6k... Yes, you're right. I was perhaps slightly over egging the pudding there, by calling it a flat disc. But seriously, I am surprised anyone would pay that much for a badly worn coin, even a very rare one.

Unreal......why would anyone want to shell out £6k on a date only flat disc ? If he wants to sell it, he might have a pro9blem shifting it for the same price. Now that would be a nice purchase for £6k ~ an 1882 London Mint penny. Neat & re-saleable As far as collecting die coi8ns goes, I have sometimes thought idly about collecting all the die numbers possible from a given year in the 1867-79 shilling series. Maybe one of the commoner years, such as 1872.

Absolutely no surprise. It's a gorgeous coin. I'd have paid that for it, to be honest.

From my experience, collectors don't tend to look like flash Harry's.

It is mostly down to personal motivation, but at the same time, this is often aligned with collective imagination in terms of what particular varieties achieve widespread notoriety, and interest. Quoted for truth

Good point. Though I'm thinking of one Sunday recently when azda got into an enthusiastic verbal exchange and there were around twenty or more posts to go back through (including a change to an earlier page, just to add to the general hassle). If it had been the last topic posted to in that forum it wouldn't have mattered ,as I could have got where I wanted from the top level, but sadly it wasn't. I'll try messaging Chris as you suggest, but it's possible it's just a "feature" of this software. It could be. Many forums these days, use V bulletin, which does have the features you are after. But that said, I don't dislike IP Board. It does have some useful additions lacking on V bulletin.

For me personally, for a coin variant from the mass production for a given year, to be classed as a significant variety, it has to be:- 1) More than a die error 2) More than one or two letters pointing to a different dot or bead, which is only visible through a lens anyway. 3) More than just a tiny handful in existence. That's not really going to generate anything other than a very minute specialist market. 4) Frankly, more than the odd letter or so in the legend being elogated or curled, or whatever. Again, few of them are widely recognised, and they don't hit you in the eye. There are significant and well recognised varieties, such as the 1895 2mm, the 1902 low tide, the 1926 ME, which are easily visible to the naked eye, and of which enough were produced to generate a reasonable market amongst rank and file collectors. But once again, it's down to personal opinion and the collectability factor. Some coins have it, others don't. Whether, for example, the mainstream collector of pennies, will bother with anything from 1860, other than beaded and toothed border, or whether they will feel it's necessary for them to chase separate 1864's for plain and crosslet 4's, an 1865 5/3, an 1882 no H, an 1863 with die No, or an 1841 no colon after REG, is up for debate.

Just as a rider to what I put above, I have to say that on the whole, I find this forum very easily manageable. It's not ultra busy, so it's generally fairly easy to find where you were before, simply by going into your own profile and clicking on posts made. I've been on some very heavily trafficked forums, where there are hundreds of posts every minute of the day: threads can be created and drop right off the front page within a few minutes, if they get no replies. Now they can be tough to find your way round.

Seriously, I agree with you. Although as it doesn't massively inconvenience me, I'm not too bothered. Might be an idea to e mail Chris & see if he can organise a software update.

When I saw the thread title on the home page, it seemed to read "Infuriating forum behaviour by Peckris" minus a comma after the word "behaviour" I wondered what the heck Peck had been up to

Seems we might be heading that way anyway mate. Huge interest at the moment in date spacing and numeral form. Now I've typed that, makes me wonder if all the scary money for minor varities is coming from across the pond ? Well, what I thought was a relatively innocuous remark about the 1879 narrow date penny being, in my opinion, a "minor variety" certainly caused a bit of a stir, for whatever reason. At the end of the day, however, it has to come down to personal opinion. For example, I don't see the 1902 LT penny as a minor variety. I recognise that others may. So be it. What you say above about interest coming from across the pond, may well have an element of truth to it. I cannot imagine too many collectors in this country wanting to pay out a 4 figure sum for what is essentially a clear date only flat disc. That said, sustained interest in these types from the States, can only drive up prices here. Whether that's a good or bad thing, is debatable.

That was my assessment as well, Bob. Superlative example of the coin.

I absolutely couldn't agree more with the principles you espouse there, 400, and I also agree that no sane genuine collector, who collects for the love of the hobby, would shell out that kind of dosh for a very worn example of a minor variety. That said, of course, if there are individuals fool enough to part with large sums of money for what is little more than junk, then there will be no shortage of coin people willing to offload

Agreed. I think that's eduard's best bet for a higher price. I'd grade at about NEF, with obverse and reverse being very similar.

Dream on

There you go......Lot 2034 as referred to above. Not especially impressive IMO

Thanks for that, Hussulo. I've noticed some variations with standard pricing though. Any reason for that ? You've got to remember this is a 2007 price guide so some of the prices will no-doubt be out of date-low but I think its handy as a reference. I didn't compile the prices as they come directly from Chris Perkins' (owner of this forum) Collectors Coins GB 2007 price guide. Cheers mate

Interesting theory. Just as a matter of interest, I wonder how much a real 1933 penny, if released from a private collection, would fetch at auction ? £70,000 ?

Thanks for that, Hussulo. I've noticed some variations with standard pricing though. Any reason for that ?

As do I, but I just felt sorry for Gary. It was however, what I was taught at school. Going back to the initial topic, the last few items I have sold on e-bay have gone for way below what I expected. I just wonder if people are beginning to abandon it, perhaps because of the impenetrable mountains of utter crap that nobody would buy in a million years. Things are going for slightly less than last year. I've noticed that. There may be something in what you say. The number of crap worn coins marked as being "from Ireland" is phenomenal. I'm not sure if anybody ever buys this crap. It's a pity e bay can't have pages devoted to coins marked as EF and above, for serious collectors.

Actually the Pound being in the loo works to my advantage. I was hatin' life back when it took $2 to buy the £1 a couple of years back - and made a big purchase from one of those London dealers. Yep, the principle I referred to only works to full advantage here in the UK

For buyers especially, another potentiality to bear in mind is the pound/dollar exchange rate. If by some remote chance the pound strengthens against the dollar, it will be worth bidding on US e bay. Not very likely I know, but just something to have at the back of your mind. Just in case.

Indeed, paying big for lower quality, because of impatience to get something unusual, is a typical rookie coin collector mistake. One which you usually pay for, sometimes years later So do I ~ and the sockpuppets are easy to spot in a bidding up process. They're usually the ones who only have a very few reps to their name, and never end up winning, but appear very frequently in the few hours leading up to the sale, although never in the last few minutes. It's understandable in a way, and I've seen sellers using this method, and still end up selling for less than book price.

I'm afraid the side by side hasn't worked as two of the images have come out too small. Apologies for this. I don't know about 1937 half sovereign fakes, but as with any expensive coin, it wouldn't surprise me. At any rate there does seem to be a problem. It would be interesting to hear the views of others with regard to this.