Peckris

Damn, no I missed it. I don't watch The One Show usually - don't suppose it's on YouTube is it? Wait one goldarn cotton-pickin' moment - there's always the BBC iPlayer! Was it early, mid- or late in the half hour? (I just lost the will to live trawling through the iPlayer 1 minute at a time, stuff on autism, Lord Rodgers architect, Romeo & Juliet, and basking sharks, but NOTHING on the 50p, unless it lasted for well under 1 minute )

I'd say natural - I've seen any number of 1826 and 1827 halfpennies that exact colour (like my own 1827 for example )

i didnt know that...how does that compare with me loading a cd into my itunes library i wonder? i regularly talk with my local coin dealer about lots in up and coming auctions , no matter how much i talk to him, im never going to beat him if he has a sell-onto client who wants that piece.....at any price. be a shame when big bro stops us from talking to each other on our hobby and our potential purchases. I think that's also a grey area, but as the record company already ripped you off handsomely for the cost of the CD (peanuts to produce), and as they don't sell downloads by and large, they're not going to get their knickers in a twist over you 'ripping' it to iTunes.

Fingers crossed for you Stuart - I'm also a (barely) published writer, with lots of letters, some magazine articles, a couple of pieces for an avant-garde press, and a novel that got 'long-listed' for an Unpublished Novel competition a few years back. So I know what that particular battleground is like, and I wish you every success

Aren't four of those the same thing? Still, there's always fishing...

I have just finished my fourth Picture Book for children...does that count? Been completing the illustrations in the small hours, the only time I've got for such things; very nearly ready to pack them all off to the big guns! The Pumpy Grottum has turned out to be one of my favourite characters, with 'Moley and the Treetop Cafe' my favourite story! It's good to hear about life outside collecting! I didn't know you were a kids' book illustrator Stuart? Perhaps we should ask Chris to set up a new forum, "What We Do When We're Not Collecting". I'm an amateur photographer but the members of that forum are far more talented than I, so I'm a bit shy there (no, no, really..).

Isn't that what sniping is? You don't have to use a sniping tool!Fair enough - I'm a sniper too then. [whine of bullet overhead] this is like one of those old gce questions.my answer would be fred and jim......... and if that aint right its 37 miles in 45 minutes Wrong - the answer is "third party with more money than sense waltzes in and gets both lots" True, true! But it's still technically illegal, like copying a DVD you bought to your own computer

I often wonder myself how often we have bidded against each other in various auctions. Whats your ebay name Peter? You can PM if you don't wish to divulgeMost of us snipe though, don't we? So knowing user names won't help????? Nope. If I want the coin I'm there, 7 seconds to go...

Heads I buy the beers, tails you do!

Hi If it was a brockage (genuine mistake caused at the Mint and unnoticed) the coin would have a monetary value - not riches everlasting! but there are collectors for such things. A brockage is caused by a previous coin sticking to the die and impressing a mirror image of itself onto the next blank coin. You've taken a picture with one side in a mirror, so I had to do a bit of mental recalculation... it looks as though yours is two normal reverses. That's done by someone splitting 2 coins and joining two identical halves together. The milled edge on yours looks a bit suspect - is there evidence of a join there? Or it may be just inside the rim, between the beading and the rim itself. Such machine tooled coins are interesting curios but have little value.

Bother. So am I allowed just to tell everyone that they mustn't bid on any Charles I shillings ever again instead? I hear and I obey

Proving it is the difficult part. Let's say (hypothetically of course) a tiny group of dealer/collectors met up before an auction, at the premises of one of said dealers, and discuss the sale. (not illegal) they compare notes as to the lots (not illegal) they tell each other what they are particularly interested in and will probably bid on(not illegal) Fred says to Jim "We're both after Lots 21 and 22. You seem more interested in 22 while I'm more interested in 21. Tell you what, let's each not bid against the other?"(technically a grey area, but who's going to know?)

By that logic they would have to disregard the majority of overdates and legends repunched. Not if they find it and decide it's an unrecorded variety = more value LOL, true.

For fffff...Bugger! Perhaps the 4 of us should email our top bids to a 3rd party, and the highest genuine bid goes forth, whilst the others bow gracefully out...no point in the winning bidder paying over the odds, eh? I'm interested in 2 of the lizzies - one to keep, one to sell! That, technically, is called a 'ring' and afaik it's illegal!

By that logic they would have to disregard the majority of overdates and legends repunched.

I'd back up what Coinery says. Roman coins are amazingly cheap when you consider how ancient they are - so that's a good choice. If you don't have much income, I'd concentrate on the base metal coins of the later Empire (3rd Century onwards) which means denominations such as follis, AE3 and AE4 (those are generic names for small bronzes). You can find Constantine commemorative types (e.g. 'URBS ROMA') in decent grade (VF) for around £20-£25. If you can run to a bit more, the silver denarius of the 2nd Century on can be had in VF for around £30-£50 each. And the silver-washed antoninianus (3rd Century on) for even less. If you prefer the larger penny over the halfpenny, most regular issues back to 1935 can be picked up fairly easily in UNC, or for a fraction of the price in EF. However, halfpennies are better value for money, being less popular than pennies.

Good! I hope it's not the same one as me If it's not milled, you have NO competition from me

Like you, I can't find any reference in Peck, or any clues there. My guess - and that's all it is - is that it's a private pattern, possibly as a decimal cent (or fraction thereof). Or - I've Googled - it's a gaming token? One of the same date and obverse, but different reverse, was sold for a modest amount on eBay: http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/1846-UNIDENTIFIED-UNOFFICIAL-FARTHING-GAMING-COUNTER-QUEEN-VICTORIA-MULE-/370855482414?clk_rvr_id=528453006097&nma=true&si=7HXyv184ZyMDPNWGxeVTNP3wf84%253D&orig_cvip=true&rt=nc&_trksid=p2047675.l2557

Thanks for the info cristatus, would in interested to hear your final thoughts, as I've got to be a little more organised now myself! My own simple folders with 1567, 1568, etc just ain't good enough any more!I still operate standard excel spreadsheets. One up from the well thumbed note books which still abound. In theory I keep spread sheets printed in my file which I amend manually as I buy/sell/improve ETC It still works for me.(Windows 95 I started?) If I do up grade I will run both systems. I have to say, the only long-term effective software for collecting is a spreadsheet or a database manager. You can buy these "off the peg" software creations, and maybe they will suit you perfectly ... until they don't. Then what do you do? You have to have something that is expandable for YOUR needs, and only spreadsheets or databases offer this amount of flexibility.

I think you are right about the 6/8 Penny Colin. They just don't become available that often. I have been thinking about a offer on it my self. BTW...the 1877 Narrow date now resides in Great Britain! Ha,Ha! No wonder you made a trip around the British Isles. I hope you brought it with you to save the hefty tax bill that e buyer would incur lol Azda, I had booked the trip to Great Britain, prior to obtaining a suitable offer for the 1877 ND, but did take it with me for personal delivery, as a result of the offer. I also want to let you all know how beautiful your country is! My wife and I were just amazed at the beauty of the hills (Mountains), Lowlands, etc. I also had a chance to partake of freshly cought "Haggis" on two (2) occasions! All I have to say about it is you would have to be mighty hungry to eat it on a regular basis! Ha,Ha. Here are a couple of pictures to show how it was served. You can dress it up as nouvelle cuisine, but at the end of the day, it's still a haggis

On a non-CGS basis, right? Do you mean removed from slab before despatched?! I am certainly not expecting any premium from forum members just because some of my coins are slabbed, you lot know better! No, I meant at non-CGS slab prices!!

lol I hear that 'Mrs C' has a few gold and silver coins tucked under the floorboards! Mrs Cunningham? ("Oh James, I heard you were a cunning linguist!" )

LMAO

On a non-CGS basis, right?

I'm guessing you'd lose a lot of the resolution though, wouldn't you?Yes, but it's better than nothing. Really? That's strange. On Macs you can capture an on-screen image and you lose none of the resolution. (None of the DISPLAYED resolution that is - if the displayed image is 300ppi then yes, you'd lose that, but since the images on eBay are for records only, you wouldn't them any higher than your monitor can display anyway. In other words, 72 or 90 ppi will remain 72 or 90 ppi forever, however many times you capture it with a screenprint.) It is input resolution that is potentially lost, not output resolution (which is by definition fixed by the display). As an example, if you have an image that is four times the width and height of your screen (in pixels) then to display it full screen, only 1/16 of the total pixels are used to generate that image. A screenshot will therefore lose 15/16ths of the available data - therefore resolution has been lost. That's exactly what I was saying. But eBay images don't come into that category, except maybe Auctiva full size enlargements, but those might not be download-prohibited anyway? Of course, I'm talking about full size desktop computer monitors here, not iPhones and the like.