Nick

o***t (2001) I reckon. Although only 11% bids with this seller, and shops for all sorts of other stuff, he's retracted 49 bids. I've been shopping on eBay nearly 10 years and I've never retracted a bid. That one only bid up to 150 on the first listing. Sorry, should have said r***6 - crap eyesight. He won it at the beginning of the month. Definitely r***6 (2630) who is btret46 whose last dealings with british-coins-uk resulted in him leaving feedback "MADE A MISTAKE WITH BID, SELLER VERY HELPFUL AND CANCELLED BID". This is not the first time that this ebay id has popped up with connection to a suspicious transaction.

Ironically. sonofcork bought one of those fake 1864 florins from RD last year.

Some cracking coins Declan. You can't beat a bit of quality. The 1853 sixpence is not a proof in my opinion. The proofs usually tone readily but also have scalloped edges (there is one on the bay at the moment that shows what I mean).

Hmm. That reeded edge is a bit of a giveaway, otherwise it would be passable.

London Coins should only take information from the seller as a guide. Part of what the seller pays for is the experience and expertise of the auction house and they should be the ones stating whether it is genuine or not.

It's not always easy to distinguish between the two as Gary says. Occasionally though, it is obvious, see this example. It is also extremely easy when the designer's initials appear below Churchill's bust like this.

They will have to be kept with extra care also due to the .999 silver which is pretty soft as metals go, very easily scratched.

s***s(2736) is ebay id barrybestcoins.

I would imagine that the vast majority of auction lots are supplied by private individuals, so for the person concerned - they will probably be delighted with the result.

Which will of course decrease their business, so they will put up the costs to customers again and decrease their business further until it goes pop. Bring it on!

Somebody must believe that London Coins are wrong about it being an imitation. Either that or they are plainly an ijut.

They are usually available on the website some time on Monday afternoon, but winning bidders will receive an invoice by email.

They have. It's listed by them as an imitation.

I read somewhere about the 'Offal truth' about Haggis (sorry about the pun) and it being banned in the US. Traditionally it contains sheep's lung and thus has been banned in the US since 1971.

I think most of the recent high-grade fakes will be die-struck rather than cast. The Chinese have obviously learnt that the cast ones are too easily spotted.

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They have an office in Kent, but (currently) hold their auctions at a hotel in Bracknell. 4-6 Upper St SNew Ash GreenLongfieldKent DA3 8JJGrange Hotel Charles Square Bracknell, RG12 1DF

I suspect that the difference is due to it being classified as a mis-strike.

The 1902 proof set he is selling also looks to have been cleaned. Quite a number of diagonal surface lines on some of the coins. Currently at more than £1200, somebody is in for a shock.

It's true the £107 bid was made 4 minutes after bidding opened, but you need other bidders to push the current winning bid up and it took nearly 2 days to pass the £100 mark. Of course, but this is my def of protection/shilling! List a coin, protect it immediately with a bid you won't accept less than (the newly listed brigade are surely smart enough not to place their top bid within 4 mins of listing, with 7/10 days to run, hoping they'll get a bargain?), and then go to bed for the week, forgetting all about it!That's how I see it! ??? It's possible that it's a protection bid, 25% of that bidder's bids have been with that seller in the last 30 days but nothing has been won. It would help to find out the full eBay id for that bidder.

It's true the £107 bid was made 4 minutes after bidding opened, but you need other bidders to push the current winning bid up and it took nearly 2 days to pass the £100 mark.

Sorry Paulus, but you don't seem to understand the bidding screen either. At the instant in question ie 4 mins after bidding opened (22:00:23 on the 22-Aug-13) the only bidder was a***i(1282). Therefore the current winning bid at that point was the opening bid ie £0.01.

In a word, no. It took 3 days.

It's a strange one alright, but I can see both sides of the argument. There are many wreath crowns that look circulated and therefore it is reasonable to assume that some of those did circulate. On the other hand, the total coinage of all of the wreath crown years (excluding 1927 proofs) was only ~35,000 and you would probably find it difficult persuading a shopkeeper to accept the largest face value coin, the like of which he/she had never seen before. Similar to trying to spend a £5 coin today.

The NGC images are rubbish. You cannot discern any of the many scratches and surface marks from their images. If I were them, I'd be too embarrassed to put them on my website. It can't help that NGC take the photos after they have entombed the coin in a perspex slab! True. But Heritage photograph slabbed coins all the time with excellent results. It's not that difficult.