Peckris

Well, they always ignored Exchange & Mart - would you rate eBay any more highly or more respectable than that?

Unfortunately that's not really a good guide - there's no way to filter "idiot buyers who have more money than sense" out of the results, nor "sellers who are less than truthful and honest", nor "buyers and sellers who don't see it's a rare variety". So how do the "respected" guides filter all that out? When sample sizes are small, how do you tell whether a result is an outlier, like the examples you give, or a genuinely changing trend? As far as I know, respected guides don't take eBay realisations into account, and actual auction houses would only have a small sample of "idiot buyers" (in my opinion), and provided they know their stuff will correct the false impressions of "bad sellers". But you are quite right about small samples; the rarer something is, the greater the risk of unrealistic values.

Unfortunately that's not really a good guide - there's no way to filter "idiot buyers who have more money than sense" out of the results, nor "sellers who are less than truthful and honest", nor "buyers and sellers who don't see it's a rare variety".

Declan, I've seen one or two in no better than fine condition, maybe poorer, so I reckon a few must have done the rounds for a while. One was a 1934! I very much doubt they circulated normally. Not enough were minted for people to be aware of them, generally. Considering 5/- was around a quarter of a week's wages, you wouldn't take a chance on it. Maybe if there was a knowledgeable shopkeeper at the beginning of the 'chain' but they would most likely have kept it. Put it this way - it wouldn't have got very far. 'Pocket piece' sounds the most likely explanation.

Strangely, some silver coins that have been lightly polished are still collected to some extent (probably by eBay collectors who don't know much better). However, bronze and copper coins that have been polished so much they look lacquered like those farthings, are beyond hope and totally ruined and worthless as coins.

Oh, yes it is... Oh no it's not! See the corrected photo in my post above! Now I'm totally confused! It's the highlighted bit in bold that's throwing me! Honest, it really wasn't me! I'd have taken a poorer, more distant, photo and said something like 'there's something odd about this coin. It look like they must've made a mistake at the mint, it's got what seems like a 1 underneath the 2, so damaged, I'm afraid, please bid accordingly,' and hope Dave or Steve spotted it! Oops, my mistake - I interpreted Peter's remark as meaning he thought it was a foreign coin. He should have used a capital C then I'd have 'got' it!!

There are various different approaches. Dave said he takes his outside by natural light, whereas other members have said they use a camera pointing downwards on a tripod, with lights on the coin from two different directions. Someone else said they use a combination of natural light and one artificial light. A macro on its own is not much use, as when you get the lens close to the coin, it casts a shadow on it which defeats the object. On the other hand, my superzoom has something called macro zoom, which means you can get reasonably close from a foot or more away. (My problem is getting the light on the coin that shows its tone / lustre to best effect without angling the coin; without special equipment it's very difficult.) Ideally, you want to take the pictures at the highest resolution you can, as you may need to crop out quite a lot; you can always shrink an image without cost to quality, whereas making an image bigger degrades it. You may find that a new camera's kit lens will deliver better results than an old pre-digital macro, but experiment anyway - you might get good results from your old lens. Oh, one more thing - try to put the coin on a mid-grey background, which will give correct exposure. White will make the coin dark, black will over-expose the coin. (If shooting from a greater distance, then cropping, it's even more important).

Oh, yes it is... Oh no it's not! See the corrected photo in my post above!

Oh, yes it is - it's a prat who hasn't heard of "Flip horizontal" in Photoshop... or rather, he HAS heard of it but hasn't heard of the 'Undo' button!

No, it's not in the series. It's like my 1887 sixpence pattern and 1964 'missing I in GRATIA' sixpence - interesting finds, but not (yet) recognised varieties. Good spot though, Dave.

To answer your third question - Roman coins were minted in large quantities and survive in large quantities too, as many hoards were buried when the legions left, plus the Empire was vast. So I would not be tempted to spend a few pounds on a worn bit of green, whether from eBay or anywhere else. You can pick up reasonable late bronzes - e.g. Constantine - for a tenner, and quite good mid-to-late silver denarii for less than £50. Those scrappy bits of green Roman that you can barely make out the emperor let alone much else, are worthless. Don't go near them.

Yes, that looks a distinct possibility, probability even.

Port and kippers? Euwww.

Not in a month of Sundays.... A 1949 silver threepence? I would!! Actually, at less than half the advertised price it would make a good choice for someone looking for a high grade example. The obverse is more or less unaffected, and there may be something that could be done to 'treat' the red on the reverse.

The Royal Mint's standards have really slipped in recent years. But if it gives you a theme for a collection...

What about the bicenntial quarter? got one of them as well, probably from a roll. Extremely common. They made over a billion of them. For Bicentennials (quarter, dollar, half dollar) the only ones with value over face are the proof/silver uncirculated ones. You can tell this because they have an "S" mintmark. For US coins, there aren't many true rarities after 1955. You've got a few condition rarities but that's about it, the silver coins are worth silver scrap (1964 and prior halves, quarters and dimes are all 90% silver, 1965-1970 halves are 40% silver) but the rest of the intended for circulation stuff is really only worth anything in high grade. There are a couple of varieties (1970 no S proof dime) that are worth quite a bit but most of those there are only a handful known. However, with US coins there are varieties/rarities aplenty when you go back a couple more years. For example the 1955 doubled-die penny, the 1942/1 Mercury dime, the 1943 pennies struck on copper planchets, etc. are all truly scarce coins and command big bucks. If you really want to get into collecting minor varieties, pick up some Morgan dollars and look for VAM varieties. The Morgan dollar is essentially America's bun head penny in that there are so many documented varieties with near date, far dates, die breaks, etc. some which are so tiny that no one notices to others that can turn a $40 coin into a $400 coin. I asked about them. unfortunatly (for me) he sold all of them at a fair). he also didn't have any 1966 pennys except a few in the scrap which were YUCKY You won't find it difficult to get a decent 1966 penny.

I just checked the Royal Mint website, which lists 2011 mintage figures for £2, 50p and 20p, but none for the £1. It may be that it was a late mintage, and therefore they have suddenly started flowing onto eBay?

I agree. But good spot!

Nice bit of wheeling and dealing I think you should have got more than £15 for an EF 1854 penny - but it probably was a bit short of EF?

Thanks for the insight into US platinum coins. It's all a complex area. However, the point I was trying to make was to do with coins whose numismatic value (usually from scarcity) will always exceed the BV - to give an extreme example, the value of a 1933 penny will never be affected by the price of copper. There are sometimes exceptional circumstances - your reference to platinum is nowhere near as extreme as what happened to silver in the abortive Bunker Hunt attempt to corner the market in 1980. For a few months, BU George VI florins went from £2 - £5 to £12 across the board. I can't remember if prices were quoted for EF and VF also, but by the end of the year, prices had reverted much to what they were. Gold has risen six-fold? seven-fold? over the last fifteen years, which is also extensive but not extreme (remember too that gold went DOWN considerably in the 90s); plenty of time for the numismatic market to react. Interestingly that didn't happen to your platinum series, but maybe that is a more specialist market? And perhaps the US market is different in these respects than here in the UK? Your reference to VF 1931 halfcrowns is interesting. They would, I feel, react to changes in the price of silver, as any numismatic value (not that much!) is borderline in relation to the BV. You will note that EF/UNC 1925/1930 halfcrowns don't leap about as the BV changes, which is the point I was trying to make.

Didn't Ray Stevens sing about that in 1975? There's only one thing to say about that coin - "Don't look, Ethel!" "But 'Twas too late, she'd already been mooned!" "Flashed her right there in front of the shock absorbers"

Hi Penguin, welcome to the forum! With reference to your original question, I never upload pics here, rather I link to my Photobucket pics, you can do the same with all similar online photo sites, many of which are free I believe ... Do you specialise in any particular area? And sorry to be ignorant but what or who was HB?? Thankyou Paulus,no specialist area it used to be gin and tonic!HB is a grade of pencil when i started school if you had one you were classed as rich!I have afair few british coins that need a proper appraisal lots of pennys so i try and concentrate on mistakes flaws of which i have a fair few.I also have amixture of euro coins my oldest being a 1877 dos centavo peru coin no gold but plenty of silver.My oldest penny 1899 wide date haven,t checked with mr freeman on the details but its one of the widest 9,s i,ve seen!I will endevour to get some photo,s posted don,t expect wonders with my coins but you decide!Look forward to hearing your area cheers mate! Where on earth did you go to school? I remember HB as the bog standard grade they handed out! If they were B or BB etc, they smudged like crazy and were really only for artists; if they were H or HH etc, they didn't smudge at all but got progressively fainter to see though they would sharpen to a very fine point (I think they were for mathematicians). H stood for 'Hard', while B stood for 'Soft'. No, I never understood that either... B = 'black', as I recall for my O level in TD (technical drawing). We drew feint construction lines in 6H and then drew the finished lines over them in 3H (chisel point). We were told by our TD teacher that HB pencils were for writing (he would throw them out the window if anyone had the temerity to use them for drawing - the pencil not the pupil, that is!) and B pencils were for 'girls'. Very sexist back in the 70s, I know. I'm just quoting. So he was saying "Girls prefer blacks"? Very non-PC in the Noughties

Didn't Ray Stevens sing about that in 1975? There's only one thing to say about that coin - "Don't look, Ethel!"

Other than as a blocked die variety you mean? What I mean is that no stop varieties are usually associated with no date vaieties. i.e there's b***** all detail in the first place. Blocked dies are the usual reason. You might, but it depends on whether the variety was incorporated as a result of someone informing them. Every year I put in a few suggestions, some are used and others not. You have to give the reason so the claim can be verified by a second opinion otherwise you can imagine what the result would be if all the claimed errors/varieties were included (The Elizabeth II brass 3d dated 1952 from another thread springs to mind). Whether they would keep details of the informant is another matter. Informant! Makes us sound like a copper's nark..

Oh p-p-p-p-p-please!