Peckris

Sorry, I actually tried to edit my post to make it clear I meant Britannia's finger, not George V's! The ability to edit some posts but not others seems a bit random! That's the confusion. Spink suggests that both versions of Britannia are possible with the ME obverse for 1926 & 1927. At least that's how I read it. For 1922 you also have an ME, according to them, but "of the highest rarity". Anyone know about these? I assumed the 1922 "ME" was Britannia, i.e. 1927 reverse ? That's what I was trying to say.

"Hammered Coin Very Very Old" ... on one side is "bushes with things flying about". Yup, those are really going to tempt me into a Starting Bid of £500

If they state "shorter index finger" in relation to "modified effigy", they are talking about Britannia's effigy (typical Spink confusion - ironically the 1926ME penny uses the old Britannia not the 1927 reverse!).

I'd agree with that grading - viritually no wear at all. Sound more promising. Here is a picture taken on a sunny window sill. The only silvery hue apparent is from the fields (more noticeable on the obverse) when angled directly towards the light. I will try and capture this in a photo. Yes that looks much more like the normal colour and has lost the silvery hue of your top pictures.

My recollection is that from 15 February, the old money was only legal tender in lots of 2 1/2p (6d), so if you had 5d, hard cheese! Wow, that's a good memory Derek! I'd forgotten that detail completely. What a shame that D-Day 2 is never remembered or marked. That was the true farewell day for pennies and 3d bits. (Yes I remember the Walkers Hard Cheese variety )

Like I said ...

I have no real idea of rarity except that a few people in this forum say they have one. I haven't. I want one! But I'm not cashing in my pension to buy one

I agree with you Derek. It's why we have an independent judiciary, often the envy of the world. It can and does lead to situations where the victims feel marginalised or ignored, which is also not a happy situation, but that's still better than 'mob rule' or inter-family Sicilian-style feuding. You quote the other extreme Dave - I agree that if a "pissed up rugby player" survived that particular crash they should throw the book at him, and I've also heard of cases where 20-years-olds with good reputations have got off with less than 5 years for crashes like that. The fact is, if we're not in the Court, we don't hear all the evidence, nor any mitigating factors, nor the judge's summing up and ruling .. we just get tabloid media spin with its populist playing to the gallery. Exactly. His falling asleep may have been stupidity in that particular case, but the train hitting his Land Rover at that particular moment, derailing and then colliding with a training locomotive seconds after, that is surely an accident. Otherwise you'd have to say that Gary Hart must take responsibility not only for falling asleep (which he should, of course), but also for the precise moment he did so.

In this case, flattery will get you absolutely nowhere Chris! I'd feel obliged to do the job thoroughly and send off for every dealer list going, and spend hours on eBay looking at realised prices, only to end up realising that randomly subtracting from or adding to Spink 2011 prices (up to 15%) would give the same result for a lot less effort! My main instinct is to suggest that pennies - in particular bronze, in particular buns, are going stupid right now in high grades, but I'm not sure that "going stupid" would look quite right written down in CCGB

I'd agree with that grading - viritually no wear at all. See above! I can see why you say that. In general the coin looks brown, but at certain angles it has an almost silvery hue - which seems a little odd. Put it this way, if somebody asked me what I thought it was made of, copper isn't top of the list. Unfortunately I don't have anything to compare it to. Anybody know what one of these would normally weigh? In your pictures it looks COMPLETELY silvery, and that was my first thought : "Aha, a cartwheel dipped to look like a silvered proof". The colour doesn't look right at all. Can you take a daylight photo and upload that? (you only need one face, just to check the colour).

British monarchs were also Electors of Hanover since George I, but Victoria couldn't be, as a female. Is the double-eagle of Hanoverian origin by any chance?

I remember a cup of coffee in the Students Union and a packet of crisps were each suddenly "tuppence", which seemed (psychologically) to be a bargain. But I'm damned if I can remember what they were in 'old money'! If 4d, then we had some temporary inflation going on, but if 5d, then they WERE a bargain. Or maybe one was 4d and one was 5d so it evened out... (I'm sure that's what the majority of cafés did, to prevent grumbles, though I'm pretty sure that preventing grumbles in a Students Union was Mission Impossible ) Actually, we could still use old money too for a few months as well, so Lord knows what happened if you tried to pay for things using a mixture of the two! I'd hate to have been a shop assistant of the time. But I suppose the overlap period was useful - as everything was 'dual priced', you could see if you were being ripped off.

I would go with violence and persistence but otherwise agree with you. There are too many people in prison for non-violent crimes they are never going to repeat (remember the case of, I think it was Gary Hart who accidentally drove a trailer onto a railway line which caused a fatal accident? He was gaoled because he had had insufficient sleep the night before. A case crying out for a community sentence, but instead he got 3 years - a total waste of time and money). I couldn't agree more about Gary Hart, Derek. What happened was an appalling accident. But it was an accident, caused by falling asleep at the wheel. Something that could have happened to anyone. If he'd just driven off the road into a wood, say, nothing more would have happened. But he fell unlucky, as did the train and its passengers. Twist of fate and extraordinarily harsh outcome. Jailing him was wrong IMO. For those who don't remember the case, there's an article about it here Agreed. Intention and motivation count for a hell of a lot. Gary Hart was stupid but no more stupid than the branch line diesel driver who didn't see a red light and caused the Paddington rail crash where 30+ people died. And even though a RailTrack subsidiary (?sub-contractor?) were allegedly responsible for Potters Bar, no-one went to jail over that.

OMG. You actually want updated prices??? I wouldn't be any more authoritative than you, less in fact! Sorry, I misunderstood, I thought you were looking for compositing or layout or textual or proofreading help. I'd best keep my big mouth shut in future. Well, for 5 minutes at least

Oh shucks. "Bidding.." (i.e. none) "..has ended for this item." There went my opportunity whats his name.....ive £125 waiting Blimey - even at today's prices £125 for those two wouldn't exactly be a steal!

That makes more sense. I can sympathise with that even I don't outright approve.

Only collect Edward VII pennies in high grade (EF or better) but you need quite a lot of experience to judge the better examples. It might be better to wait a while, or go for VF examples to whet your appetite? (You can pick up most dates in VF for less than a fiver, 1902 even less).

And scout master Bates Or as the old joke said ... Northern guy enrols his son in a public school and takes his whole family up with him on the kid's first day. "Hello headmaster - I'm Mr Bates, my wife Mrs Bates, my daughter Miss Bates, and my son Master Bates." "Oh does he now. We'll soon cure him of that."

The lower of those two estimates is about right freddyy - probably around £60 a pop.

Pictures are the only way we can grade them - and that's the key to the value. Your cartwheel could be anything from £15 to £120... From CCGB 2009 : 1797 twopence - F £20 VF £45 EF £110 1821 halfcrown - F £20 VF £50 EF £160 You get the point why we need pictures, I hope! Here's the two George III coins and the George IIII one. The 1806 coin is not a third guinea! It's either a penny or a halfpenny, depending on size, but worth almost nothing in that condition. The other two are Fine (give or take) and worth around £20 each. Hope that helps.

If you scroll to the top of this page, there's a picture of the titles - clicking them takes you to Amazon. I don't see any copies of CCGB there right now, but Chris Perkins (whose forum this is) might stop by and sell you one; they are about £6 I think. The Grading book is available on Amazon and on offer at £8.44 right now. I've got both and they are good value, especially for beginners.

Pictures are the only way we can grade them - and that's the key to the value. Your cartwheel could be anything from £15 to £120... From CCGB 2009 : 1797 twopence - F £20 VF £45 EF £110 1821 halfcrown - F £20 VF £50 EF £160 You get the point why we need pictures, I hope!

Really? You surprise me! I thought that was very definitely illegal, as much so as 'ringing'?

I must admit, that thought passed through my mind as well. Overall, you're probably right, David. Best to play it safe. Although we have in the "free for all" ebay laughs slated a few ebay sellers, where's the difference? I'm not sure we've ever been libellous. And where there's been sharp practice, such dealers would hardly like to draw attention to themselves by initiating court action, especially as this would inevitably mean that evidence-gathering would shine a very unwelcome spotlight on their activities.

I've been collecting since I was 15, so 4 years now Seriously though, a looooong time! And you're right about trial and error when you begin - which is why it's important as a newbie to buy cheap, that way if you make mistakes it won't hurt too bad. One suggestion is to try collecting by TYPE. This means getting one of each main type, rather than one of every date. So, for example, pre-decimal Elizabeth II you'd want :- • Crowns 1953, 1960, 1965 (each is a different type, and not expensive) • one each of Halfcrown, Florin, English shilling, Scottish shilling, sixpence, threepence, penny, halfpenny, farthing. You want the highest grade you can get - uncirculated coins from the 60s are usually much cheaper than the 50s (except farthings which only go up to 1956). If you get the two books I mentioned before, they will teach you a lot and help you get started