Peckris

Just one more post, old Nick...

I do like the coin, that's why I bought it. It's just the perennial problem of having two coins of slightly differing grades, but preferring the look of the lower graded coin. I flipped a couple of 1902 pennies back and forth for about a fortnight, having exactly the same dilemma! Also, if the leaf didn't reach the bottom of the die, I guess it would be convex...all speculation of course! "Heads I'll buy you GEF, tails I'll buy you AUNC" [a fortnight later..] "Heads I'll buy you GF, tails I'll buy you AVF"

As long as you keep the paper away from the candle flame They don't let us have fire up here Peck, tis too dangerous this close to the wall Pray you don't get a power cut then!

Bear in mind (some people on this forum seem to forget this) that a picture hugely magnified as that is, will show every tiny flaw in horrendous detail. Allowing for that, I would say that the oak leaf wouldn't be a huge problem on a coin the size of a sixpence, and nor would the ribbon which is often not strong. It would barely affect the grade at all, and I'm betting that in hand those defects are very hard to see. If you like the coin, go for it! As for GEF over AUNC, there's hardly a piece of Bronco between those two grades, so it all comes down to eye appeal.

As long as you keep the paper away from the candle flame

The best thing I have done recently is subscribe to an automated off-site back up facility. All of the data on my pc (actually I choose which) is constantly backed up in the background, and I can log in at any time and download the backed-up data. I can even access it from my iPhone or an iPad. The initial backup took about a month to complete (80Gb in my case) but subsequent backups happen almost in real time. The system I use is Carbonite, but I know there are others. Well worth a few pounds a month! I use Dropbox, which is free. I only get 3GB but that's enough for everything except music, pictures and movies (for which I have an external HD). But like your solution, it backs up everything invisibly in the background, so worry-free. I have all word processing docs, spreadsheets, databases, emails, and a few selected pictures. Plus all my browser bookmarks and my address book. A job for tomorrow I think! Haha. DO IT NOW!!!

At the same time, don't confuse the natural 'red' of copper and bronze (see cleaned George VI coin above), with what the Americans call "red" which is the lustre a new coin has which gradually wears away in circulation, or even fades away in the case of some UNC coins that haven't been stored carefully enough.

Ah, one of my favourite patterns in Peck I assume this one is from your collection, Rob? Yes, it's ex-Boulton. You can't get better provenance than that! About 5 years ago in the Circular, there were a couple pages of mint state Soho patterns. All were ex-Boulton. The only halfpenny that was sold was one where I had the ex-Selig piece. So I took all the halfpennies bar one with spots and then wandered around grinning like a Cheshire Cat for a few days. Funnily enough, I only found out because I had phoned to find out where my copy of the Circular was because I hadn't received one. Sometimes you get lucky and to have passed up the opportunity would have been reprehensible. Quite chuffed. Sometimes you get lucky but you make your own luck. I know the feeling of a good day. When I subscribed to Coin Monthly the day of receipt I would be on the phone for anything I fancied in the adverts. Ebay BIN has also been quite good on newly listed. Me too! An absurdly cheap set of first issue Geo V halfpennies in high grade turned out to be ... high grade halfpennies that had suffered fire damage, a fact conveniently not mentioned in the advert. An early lesson for a schoolboy in "there's no such thing as a free lunch" aka "if it looks too good to be true, then it is".

It is a die crack and the first I've seen on this issue, but won't add any value. I agree, but strangely, if there are a few that turn up and they become a recognised variety, then it might later on attract a value. But those are big "ifs". Unique misstrikes or die cracks are very unsought after in this country (apart perhaps from brockages).

The lustre question is somewhat subjective. One orthodox school of thought says that the more lustre a copper or bornze coin has, the more desirable it is. Others (I'm one of them) disagree, preferring to judge a coin on visual appeal rather than a stated % of lustre. To give an example, I would much rather have a copper coin with no lustre but an overall attractive patina, than a coin with 50% lustre, especially if the lustre was patchy. Then there's the quality of strike (crispness of detail), and an early strike - e.g. crisp but without lustre - would probably attract a premium over an UNC coin where the die had had some wear but some lustre is present. As you said yourself, what appeals to the eye is important, and it will be easy to sell later.

A tad??? Only seen such overpriced crap on eBay until now!!! I can remember in the good old Ebay days they were worried about being raped.We must all remember that a coin correctly pictured will reach it's zenith or what the market will pay on a particular day.I start everything at 99p.When you see prats listing £5 coins with the comment of no reserve (£50) I just ignore. I spend too much time on searching Ebay but I still find some gems....and you must admit it is handy. I bought a smashing gunmetal shilling for £25 the seller was not happy but said he had sold a bloody puffin coin for twice that...swings and roundabouts.That is why my trips to the Midland put everything into perspective.To all newbies use your dealers.You could wipe out farthings 1956 to 1920 in UNC for a fraction of Ebay costs.I now mainly search for varieties being tempted on a few others...sometimes. 'Ere, what you got against the 1919 then? I always thought that was one of the commonest Geo V farthings! Peck I was rounding.Before 1920 you get into the realms of 1918 (bright/dark) 1914,15 varieties etc (someone rattled your cage today?) Nah. It's just that - dark 1918 excepted of course - all the farthings from 1917 are pretty common. Or were! Perhaps things have changed.

A tad??? Only seen such overpriced crap on eBay until now!!! I can remember in the good old Ebay days they were worried about being raped.We must all remember that a coin correctly pictured will reach it's zenith or what the market will pay on a particular day.I start everything at 99p.When you see prats listing £5 coins with the comment of no reserve (£50) I just ignore. I spend too much time on searching Ebay but I still find some gems....and you must admit it is handy. I bought a smashing gunmetal shilling for £25 the seller was not happy but said he had sold a bloody puffin coin for twice that...swings and roundabouts.That is why my trips to the Midland put everything into perspective.To all newbies use your dealers.You could wipe out farthings 1956 to 1920 in UNC for a fraction of Ebay costs.I now mainly search for varieties being tempted on a few others...sometimes. 'Ere, what you got against the 1919 then? I always thought that was one of the commonest Geo V farthings!

Ah, one of my favourite patterns in Peck I assume this one is from your collection, Rob? Yes, it's ex-Boulton. You can't get better provenance than that!

The best thing I have done recently is subscribe to an automated off-site back up facility. All of the data on my pc (actually I choose which) is constantly backed up in the background, and I can log in at any time and download the backed-up data. I can even access it from my iPhone or an iPad. The initial backup took about a month to complete (80Gb in my case) but subsequent backups happen almost in real time. The system I use is Carbonite, but I know there are others. Well worth a few pounds a month! I use Dropbox, which is free. I only get 3GB but that's enough for everything except music, pictures and movies (for which I have an external HD). But like your solution, it backs up everything invisibly in the background, so worry-free. I have all word processing docs, spreadsheets, databases, emails, and a few selected pictures. Plus all my browser bookmarks and my address book.

Ah, one of my favourite patterns in Peck I assume this one is from your collection, Rob?

Interesting. Is that Elizabeth I? Aha. Bit more info here: http://www.pccoinsandcollectables.com/product.php?cat_id=6&sub_id=62&pro_id=460 Very atypical portrait, even though we don't really know what she looked like (she was hyper-controlling of her image, would put Disney to shame ). I was wondering about Elizabeth's control over the images on her coins only a couple of days ago! I've got two sixpences on the way, with more diametrically opposing busts you'll never find (4B & 6C), talk of princess meets the hulk! I bought them to cut the busts out for 'RESEARCH,' honest, so will post the pair up as soon as...shocking stuff, Bust 6C is definitely a watershed image! They say her network of spies, informers, and "secret police" were the most widespread ever known. On the other hand her reign was by far the most stable of the Tudors, so maybe there was something to be said for her 'control freakery'.

I was looking at this one myself, it's actually pretty high grade, with little in the way of bag marks, and a superb edge, only a little bit of overspill. I had my eye on it for a retone, but not at that price! My thoughts too. What a shame it was cleaned, it would be very collectable otherwise. And bought at a car boot, apparently! I wonder if it would break their hearts to hear of 'what it could've been worth,' had it not been cleaned? Imagine if they cleaned it themselves to make it look more appealing before listing it on eBay? ( Yet it's already at £160 with more than two hours to go - they may not lose so very much after all. Which says more about the bidders than anything else.

Interesting. Is that Elizabeth I? Aha. Bit more info here: http://www.pccoinsandcollectables.com/product.php?cat_id=6&sub_id=62&pro_id=460 Very atypical portrait, even though we don't really know what she looked like (she was hyper-controlling of her image, would put Disney to shame ).

I was looking at this one myself, it's actually pretty high grade, with little in the way of bag marks, and a superb edge, only a little bit of overspill. I had my eye on it for a retone, but not at that price! My thoughts too. What a shame it was cleaned, it would be very collectable otherwise.

There have been several threads which have addressed that subject in this forum. If you dig a little, you will find where people have listed all the fields they have on their spreadsheet or database. For example, I use FileMaker Pro and my database has many fields some of which are unique to my collecting interests, for example Seaby/Spink values for about 9 or 10 different years ranging from the late 60s to current. Just make sure that whatever solution you adopt, it's expandable for future needs. You really wouldn't want to start all over again in a year or few.

The photos are fine, but the 1882 has no value in that condition and the 1922 is worth little more than a few pounds. Sorry I thought as much, thanks. Any idea why its stamped? Someone messing with it years ago maybe? See my post, just above yours.

The 1882H is simply a curio - worth keeping if you like that kind of thing, but no particular value (the H would normally be under the date between the two 8s, where yours is too worn to see it). The 404 has been stamped on it by a previous owner. The 1922 penny is in an acceptable grade as a space filler, and a cut above the sort of hoarded rubbish leftover from the 60s. It's in GVF grade, probably valued at a pound or two. You'd want a minimum EF though as a collector, but it looks nice.

Wow, the previous post in 2008, and the one before that in 2004 - it's like having your very own TARDIS. Can we expect the next one to be in 2016? (Hopefully AFTER we've gone out of the Euro 1/4-finals on penalties, and Andy Murray has reached his 8th consecutive Wimbledon semi-final )

The strange stamping of 404 around it refers to the fact that your linked page can't be found It could be the first recorded use of the 404 error? The 1922 is the ordinary version (a rare version exists), in GVF condition. Glad SOMEONE got my little joke!

Well if you will go around carrying horses on your back Let alone punching them. Great movie! "Back off or the nigger gets it".