Peckris

I think die wear SHOULD be reflected in the grade, but not as much as circulation wear. To give one example, my 1919H penny is EF in all but hair detail, which is F at best, due to the dies being used beyond their sell-by date, and hair detail being the first to suffer. Yet I would expect it to be graded NEF as it's just one feature that has suffered. Perhaps that's where a numerical system wins out - but you'd still need the description to state clearly what the situation is (e.g. 'die wear', 'strike', etc).

Ho, ho!!!

This topic explains how (though be aware that the allowance per post has been raised from 150k to 500k) http://www.predecimal.com/forum/topic/7880-posting-pics/

That's almost word for word what I said to Dave - your CCGB price is for mere UNC, while Spink have always made a point of saying their copper values are for full BU specimens. Perhaps £250 UNC and £400-450 BU?

That would explain it Dave - Spink prices are for BU specimens. I'd estimate CCGB would probably give BU as around £400?

Dont forget that CCGB gives prices for both UNC and BU separated by a /

In those extra images it definitely looks cleaned

Bought it Fantastic. You buy something, and Amazon says "Thanks XXXX!" And there's a button saying "View summary of order". So, having just bought the book, you click the View Summary button ... and ... you have to sign in!! Pardon me? How did I just buy the book (which you thanked me by name for) if I wasn't already signed in???????????

Yeah, I asked them the same question. Apparently you just go to the main book section of the website and many of them are reduced. Doesn't tell you which though, you kind of have to infer it from the price. Spink? Poor website? Surely not...

Are we talking an 1874H penny, or an 1874 H'penny? Your title is misleading!

Belated happy birthday to both of you!! :)

You could do a lot worse than pick up that same copy of Sear from the sale (just make sure you order the red-sleeved 4th edition of his one-volume overview of the Roman series - I did, but they still managed to send me Vol 5 of his multi-volume set, which confusingly has the same title... £50-worth... I insisted they send me the correct volume and postage paid packing to return the wrong book. Amazingly, they did).

Ooosh. That's a difficult one. I would personally say that they're not much different really, but Roman fakes are less likely to occur due to the lower catalogue value? As always though, if you can find a good dealer that will go a long way towards putting your mind at rest. Cheers, Peck! I guess you know where I'm coming from however when we see major auctions AND TPGC's all offering fake coins!If it is a simple matter of ruling out the obvious inconsistencies of being hammered, plus appropriate devices/punches then maybe I'm in? I noticed Rob recently bought a nice bit of Roman, so I guess there's enough info on here to muddle 'safely' through it? (Screwed up face) Golly gosh, I'm not an expert on Roman fakes at all. I can only say 'use your own experience and judgement', but certainly posting here would be a start.

Or surgical spirit will do it too.

Ooosh. That's a difficult one. I would personally say that they're not much different really, but Roman fakes are less likely to occur due to the lower catalogue value? As always though, if you can find a good dealer that will go a long way towards putting your mind at rest.

My copy of the 4th edition of Sear ("Roman Coins & their Values") arrived today - £15 including P&P

Rearrange the following words: "the" "really" "they're" "barrel" "scraping"

Nice.

That makes it even more likely that they were patterns, SOME of which were struck to proof standards for inclusion in VIP sets.

DEspite what you say, fairs are absolutely the best place for a beginner to go, and you'd more than likely - if you went to the Midland for example - meet one or two of the dealer members here, and benefit from their advice and experience.

I had the same issue in Safari on my Mac. Then I found a extension which blocks all plug-ins but leaves its window there just grey with HTML5 or FLASH on top. If you click the window, the content then downloads. Which means you can ignore ALL ads!

How about this for BU http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/1863-penny-BU-/331459258624?pt=UK_Coins_BritishMilled_RL&hash=item4d2c82e900 As in 'Bloody Uncollectable'? Presumably the field length isn't long enough to say "Might qualify as GVF if it hadn't been cleaned and there wasn't a bloody great dent in the rim"?

That's MUCH better! (Though small... see http://www.predecimal.com/forum/topic/7880-posting-pics/ ). Nice coin. By the way, you do realise you're in the NON British coins thread, don't you?

Yes, VIP sets are issued in very small numbers indeed and entirely separate from regular proof sets (though presumably indistinguishable under normal circumstances, e.g. 1937, 1950, 1951, except for case of issue). We should assume that F244 was not ONLY from a VIP set (though may have been in them?) but was a trial striking : maybe it was originally intended for issue, but then rejected, and therefore like F243A should be regarded as a pattern. As F244 is (now) a pattern mule, I would have thought it likely that BP 1953 L is also a pattern. It may be that F244 / BP 1953 L (is there any difference between them??) was intended for currency and therefore struck as proofs for the VIP set. Later it was decided that a further change was desirable and therefore the beaded reverse appeared, and was included in the regular proof and specimen sets. I would guess that BP 1953 N was experimental - i.e. a true pattern - and probably after the toothed reverse was rejected, i.e. probably between those and the beaded reverse.

If you can play videos, and you see the content on every website including adverts ( ) then I would say you have Flash.