Accumulator

As Jonathan Ross might say, it's "werry werry ware"!

I think you are right Rob...it probably is a cost code. The letter "x" in most codes means "0", the balance would depend on the code itself. If the first word of the code is "MUSIC", then the cost of the coin would be $1.20 (pounds). You've completely lost me there Bob, on several counts! Sounds extremely cryptic! I guess the seller doesn't want the buyer to be able to work out what he paid for it? Sorry Paulus, Ha,Ha! Generally the seller does code the buying price of a coin, and note it somewhere on the coin holder. In this way he can know what he has in a coin when he prepares it for sale (or has an opportunity to sell it). The codIng might go something like this in a typical code....The code might be..."Music Taker", with each letter becoming a code for specific number. Thus M would be 1...U would be 2...S would be 3, right up to R which would be 0. (1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9-0 = M-U-S-I-C-T-A-K-E-R). You are correct in that most people will not advise the client what they have invested in a coin. Is it any clearer? In this example "MUX" would be $1.20 (pounds)...M=1...U=2...X=0 (X can be a zero, the same as the R in the above code). Interesting thought Bob, I've wondered about dealers using such a system when I see apparently meaningless letters or numbers on a coin ticket at a fair. They can't expect to recall what they paid on every coin, so I suppose this provides an ease of reference. Very Bletchley Park! No doubt the dealers here could comment? That said, I'm not convinced in this case. I feel sure its's an index card for a collection, long before the age of spreadsheets and databases. I've spent many hours in family history libraries searching through thousands of almost identical cards in wooden cabinets. If it's a private index card then there would be no sale price (the coin isn't for sale), only the buy price ($4.00). I'll drop Heritage an email and see what they have to say!

Hard to tell much from the photos. If it was an off-metal strike then I'd expect it to be noticed and removed from circulation as a curiosity early in its life. It would therefore be in EF+ condition. The pictured coin is in circulated condition and therefore most likely plated for fun.

Given that mux seems to be related to the cost, it might mean multiplexed ie that it was originally bought as part of a multiple lot and the costs of the individual items were estimated from the total. That's certainly a possibility Nick, though 'multiplex' sounds a like a modern word to me. I can't recall hearing it until uni in the late 70s (in respect of multiple-channel telecoms).

My 1797 pattern penny has an accompanying ticket, shown below. The size and typeface suggests it's from a card index of the collection. Have other coins been supplied with similar cards and does anyone have an idea what "mux" might mean? I could ask Heritage I suppose,

A penny cabinet without a thermostat? No way. I'm not scraping ice off my 1933 on a winter morning... Sadly, having often search on the keyword "penny" and seen these and similar kitchen appliances appear, I know the seller can't spell! The brand is actually "Henny Penny". Anyone remember "Chicken Licken" and the sky falling in?

Happy birthday to you both!

According to the catalogue it says that you can bid on Goldberg Live, but that just gives page not found. Anyway, I was only interested in one lot, so it's not the end of the world. I'm sure I can find somewhere else to spend my money. Someone at Goldberg told me that bidding was possible through the-saleroom.com when I spoke with them last week, but this turns out not to be true. I phoned them earlier today and am logged in now though, as you say, the site was actually down for around an hour at lunchtime (their time). Edit: I agree about the KN's… terrible. In fact most of their pennies are. I'm not at all convinced by the 1877 proof (especially given the bad die clash, which is completely missing from other proof examples)

Hi Rich, I wouldn't disagree with Paulus. I would say, though, that proper evaluation of the half crown would require a higher resolution photo. When grading above GVF, detail is everything (lion's faces etc.) and that just isn't discernible from the picture. Regarding the cartwheels, Spink is a little optimistic on pricing. At any given time there are a large number on the market and just about every dealer has at least a couple, with eBay regularly listing dozens (in varying grade, of course). £200 is probably top whack for anything less than EF. Coins that are genuine EF to GEF will be around the Spink price you quote, with A/UNC examples £600+, and true UNC around £1,000. The discrepancy you mention is probably entirely down to grading stretch. As Paulus says, we really need a photo.

Or there's Britannia on the 'throne':

Another example of the wardrobe malfunction posted by Peck. A bit less flat-chested than Rob's!

Excellent, Rob. That'll take some beating!

I think that's a really good summary of their relative scarcity. Here's my take, which is similar: 1912H - Really quite common, even in GEF+, and generally well struck up. I see plenty for sale, even on eBay 1918H - Just about all the examples I've seen have the 'mushy' reverse. I've also been told of the hoard that was found in the 80's and gradually dripped into the market. I bought the recent Spink New York example (it wasn't expensive) and am hoping it's slightly better than the norm. At the moment I only have fairly poor photos so will have to wait and see! 1919H - As you say, much less common in good grade than the 1918H's. Much better struck up too. I hadn't noticed the allow problem that plagues the KN's on this coin, but I haven't looked at too many. 1918KN - Well struck and some nice coins around, but never cheap in top grade 1919KN - With these I've frequently noticed the reddish alloy (at least I presume it's the alloy). Again generally well struck nd always commanding the highest prices. £2,500+ for a true BU example, close to prices for the 1926ME. Here's an example of the reddish alloy:

I think this is just about the best piece of advice offered, unless you truly do have endless funds to purchase coins!I wonder how much pleasure there would be in it all if the penny pinch didn't hurt just a tiny little bit? I compare it to buying a classic car on a budget, and struggling to finance the restoration on weekends and evenings! Who would enjoy his classic the most, the man who finally drives his little Triumph GT6 out of the garage for a test drive, or the wealthy merchant or pop star who walks into a London classic car showroom, points, and says 'that one'? Never having quite enough isn't always such a bad thing in the pleasure stakes, there's definitely a relationship! I totally agree, Stuart, not that any of us have lived the unlimited funds dream to compare! A good example for me was the recent Spink New York sale of pennies. There were 20+ coins which, with unlimited budget, I would have bought. In the end I won two, which I feel is about right. If I could afford and bought all 20 then I think collecting would quickly become boring. On the other hand, if I watched all the wanted coins pass without being able to make a single purchase I might feel slightly dejected. For most of us dejection is going to be a more frequent emotion than boredom, but a happy medium is best of all!

There's no real harm in gaining confidence with some lower end pieces, but you can guarantee your aspirations will increase over time. As long as you haven't spent too much, taking a small hit later if you upgrade will be worth the lessons learnt. If you're keen to build a date run then start with the cheaper dates, looking for the best you can find. Once in a while you will come across a rarer coin and know it's the one you want. By then you should have the confidence to be make the larger investment. It's been said many times before, but think of coin collecting as a marathon, not a sprint!

Hurry, hurry…. 105 sold, only one left! I wonder how much the trays are?

Always a shame to see such examples holed I'm struggling to tell whether the Verdi-Care has done anything more than darken the green deposits on the obverse to black. Certainly it's darkened patches on the reverse, particularly around the trident. It reminds me slightly of the old Trustan 2000 (?) liquid used to treat rust on cars. As far as I could tell it just turned the top layer of rust black, but possibly it did stop it getting any worse. Scraping away the top surface just revealed the rust to still be there underneath the coating! I have a couple of coins which are in EF condition but so stained and patchy their eye appeal is zero. I've often wondered about taking them back to raw metal and letting them re-tone naturally over years.

LOL, yes it's got great appeal brg, is there an edge legend with it? Nope, no edge lettering. These are "small-cent" size, so only 19mm diameter, and quite thin. Much smaller than the halfpence and pennies of the "Conder" era. Excellent photos through the slab. I do find it difficult to avoid some reflection.

Lovely example Bob. Not having Facebook (and having no real intention to), I don't have access to the page so I'll no doubt miss out on a few good opportunities like that!

Undated patterns also cause a bit of grief in their placement, not to mention unconventional denominations such as the Victorian RM pieces where you have 1, 2, 5 & 10 centimes, cents, 1 centum, 5 farthings, 100 mils, one decade, 1/20th shilling, ducat, undated, undenominated etc pieces. The same also goes for the rather unhelpful 4 pence halfpenny and two pence farthing Ed. VI countermarked pieces and what about the revalued silver and gold? Do you keep angels at 6s8d, 7s6d or 8s etc.? These cause havoc to any systematic layout. I've decided not to include any other denominations (cents etc.), so this won't be a problem. There is, however, an issue with undated coins. The Joseph Moore pennies were included at the end of the Adams sale, possibly because he didn't own an example of the rare 1844 dated coin. Since the undated varieties are often listed as from 1844, I could chronologically include all of them under this date, though it might be better to have them between the copper and bronze coins of 1860. I'm honestly not sure yet!

Interestingly, FileMaker Pro (a database manager) makes such a thing possible, though I have never ever explored how to do it. Some (many) years ago I did produce something along the lines suggested, for another project. As I recall I used MYSQL (a free SQL database provide by most hosting services) and cgi scripts to produce webpages on the fly. Like so many things, if you don't use them for a long time you do forget, but a few spare evenings spent messing about usually brings it back. Anyway, it's something which will need to wait for a less hectic time!

Welcome Rich! Not a great deal more I can add to all the good advice you've been given. If you do decide to focus on George III there are, as Peck mentions, a really broad spectrum of interesting coins you could start with. My own interest lies in the copper pennies and for these alone one could write a fairly chunky book. I agree with the advice about reading up but sometimes you just have to get a coin or two in your hands for the subject to come alive. Don't spend too much on the first few coins and, even if you later realise they were bad choices, you haven't lost much! As for storage, even for those I keep off-site, I use Lighthouse Quadrum capsules. These are 2" (5cm) square plastic holders with a range of inserts for different size coins. The capsules can be stored and displayed in purpose made trays.

Thanks guys, though, I'm no more sure which way to go than I was before. Actually, if I had the time (which I might do one day), I could provide both options. This isn't as daft as it seems. If the webpages were populated 'on the fly' by selecting from a database of all the coins, rather than hard-coded as at present, it would be just a matter of decided dynamically which coins would appear when any page was accessed. This system would also make it easy to, for example, view only the proofs, only the patterns, or even only the 'rare' coins etc. Anyway, for the moment I'll probably keep things simple and just play around with layouts when time allows.

Did you get it Peter? The price didn't increase, despite this discussion, so I presume they're not that rare?

I completely agree about not buying unless you've done some research and also that there are buyers who simply look at the slab number (which can be in your favour sometimes, when under graded coins come under the hammer). I may be wrong, but I don't think there were any reserves in the EPN sale, which would explain why nothing was left unsold! That said, everything I saw had no problem beating estimated prices (and reserves are usually about 25% below these).