Peckris

Agreed - it really doesn't look 'right'. It could be fake, or it could be just a pallid genuine. Even if genuine, the price is absurd. I'd want one clearly better than VF for £450, and that one just isn't. Drab drab drab.

I believe it to to a proof coin because it is in a completely sealed acrylic case which cannot be opened without breaking the case. Didn't try sliding it open then?

Vicky, here are the photos of the '65 in question. Sorry the original photos are too big for posting and hence the small images. (If you want the original images, then log on the cgs website. Type in "20205" in the UIN box. Then you get the images.) It was worth a try I suppose! How is that any different from the normal issue?

100% Genuine - well, that guarantees it's a forgery

Most VIP proofs wouldn't cost any more than a common uncirculated larger silver Victorian coin - say £500 to a couple £K, so we aren't talking megabucks here. In fact a lot of people are prepared to spend far more on currency coins than they would have to lay out for a VIP proof, particularly in the penny department. When you say pennies, Rob, I can't think of any dates where a VIP proof would be worth less than a currency coin. Unless I'm misunderstanding you? I took Rob to mean that a high grade Victorian currency coin (e.g. large silver) would be more popular and collectable than a 20th Century VIP proof. And that people would rather spend out on a currency penny than a VIP proof (not the same date).

At last we get to see what Peter looks like!!!!! Tell you what - that guy makes Norm Peterson look like Brad Pitt! He looks like a cross between Russell Grant and Jocky Wilson Looks like a shot from the film Bambi what with her big doe eyes and his rabbit in the headlights stare. Eyes? She has eyes? Oh yes, so she does.

"I am want lot money off you, out of house now and live in grotty bedsit " lol She is gorgeous, mind I wouldn't mind at all

You can't beat the joys of archaeology On a Roman dig in Cirencester in the 1970s I found a bronze personal grooming kit - a pair of tweezers, a spatula, a hook (nail cleaner?), and a file, all beautifully inlaid and suspended from the Roman equivalent of a key-ring. That was a special moment I can tell you! Almost as good as finding a Julia Domna denarius in VF+ on the spoil tip and knowing that I could therefore keep it.

Most VIP proofs wouldn't cost any more than a common uncirculated larger silver Victorian coin - say £500 to a couple £K, so we aren't talking megabucks here. In fact a lot of people are prepared to spend far more on currency coins than they would have to lay out for a VIP proof, particularly in the penny department. I've occasionally thought about VIP proofs, but unless they are of an existing rarity (1949 3d, say), then I can't see the appeal - most post-1937 VIPs look no better than your average 1950 1951 or 1953 proof coin anyway. It's rarity appeal only, and as you say, much better to get a decent currency 18th or 19th Century coin instead.

what guy?.......i can only see a buxom young wench. I'm the one on the right Her right, right?

At last we get to see what Peter looks like!!!!! Tell you what - that guy makes Norm Peterson look like Brad Pitt!

I'd be a bit suspicious of the 565 bidder too: £55.55 £77.77 £111.11 £122.22 He had a 'choice uncirculated' for sale the other day, which was a right bloody laugh! Actually I should put this in Paulus' room 101, because I absolutely hate the word 'choice' being used inappropriately! I really want to be impressed when I see a 'choice' coin! A 'choice' coin is one that's bought by a 'prize' idiot

Cracking coin? Oh, I don't know - folded, yes, but not actually cracking

and not so often seen in our pockets , but sold as extremely rare on ebay

Did any one see this one? I did bid all I had, but all I had wasn't much at the time so I got my arse justifiably kicked. Is it what it says it is? It doesn't really matter - the winning bid of around £20 was a pretty spectacular bargain even if it was the bog standard 1865! Wish I'd seen it, but I don't go to Australia eBay

Bronze is always yellower than copper, I think that's explanation enough?

Let's find out, then! Hope I'm not too late - but that looks like an obvious cast replica.

Ah, I see. Thanks for that, Accumulator. Excellent pic, actually. It would be an odd die flaw, surely ? Odd, yes. But not much odder than a teensy remnant of a 2? So the jury is still out for you on the question ? Well, not really, ii bow to the experts on this. But I will say that it is one of the most obscure and hard-to-spot varieties of all time, and therefore it's questionable how many collectors would be interested. Even the also-quite-hard-to-see-at-times 1865/3 is a clear overdate, as all the diagonal downstroke of the 3 is there to see, not just a tiny little spur of it.

I'm no hammered expert, but it doesn't look cleaned. Hot water is essential for dirty silver, though I'm not sure where the tin foil comes into it? Another possible "crap remover" is surgical spirit, available from all good chemists, but you would have to apply it gently with a microfibre cloth (you know, the kind of thing opticians give you with every new pair of specs.) But certainly, wash it first.

Got a link?

Another excellent avatar happenin' there, man! What's going on around here, my rose looks awefully boring now! It is my previous avatar, after a fruitful hour in Photoshop..

dos is an old Microsoft operating system. Correction - someone else's OS which Microsoft bought cheap, tweaked ever so slightly (changed the name), sold as MS DOS and never looked back (or forward much, either)

How did you manage to do that? Well... I won that one that Gary highlighted for us right at the beginning of the thread, and the seller contacted me and said he'd found some more 1964s and would I prefer that he send me one of them, that weren't damaged. Not likely, says I, and explained to him why I wanted the beaten up one in the photo, and why no other would do. Well, I'd better go and check the others, says he, and comes back saying he's found 3 of the scarce ones, decent circulated. I'll have 'em, says I, and I'll give you a fiver each for 'em. A little dazzled by my spectacular offer, perhaps, he agrees, and they arrived today. VF, gVF, and nEF. He didn't find any 1965 scarce though. What else is good to look for, he asks? So I tell him about 1962 halfcrowns, and he says he has found 6 x D.2330, and 4 x D.2331. So I got a D.2330 off him too. Not quite VF, but it'll plug the gap till I find better. Now of course, he's trying to get silly money on eBay for the halfcrowns - he put a set of all 4 1962 Davies numbers on, all low grade, starting price £25. No takers obviously. I did tell him that the number of people who collect micros is so tiny, particularly in low grade, that he'd be lucky to sell them at all, but would he listen? If anyone wants the battered one in Gary's link that started it all off, I'm happy to send it to them for nothing, now I've got 4 of 'em. Scott? Not the bashed one, but I'm happy to buy one of the other 2 spares you have.