Generic Lad

Anyone here collect Athenian Owls? I've been trying to find an example to buy but can't seem to find one at a decent price point or from a reputable seller. Also, what is a reasonable price to pay for one? Since there are few physical coin shops in my area that deal in ancient coins and no major coin shows nearby I don't want to overpay and kick myself down the road when I realized I paid too much for it. I'd also ideally like to find a Herakleia Owl with Athena on the obverse and an owl on the obverse, but I have yet to find an example for sale and I have a feeling it might be a bit out of my price range.

I just bought a lot of unattributed cut hammered coins online from a dealer that I use fairly frequently for US and some world coins and was wondering if anyone could help me attribute them. 2 I believe are Henry II because from what I can tell from my trusty Spink/Seaby book his reign seems to be the only one that uses 4 of the orbs in each quarter of the cross and would have the cross on the top. Can't seem to make out any letters from the other coin so I have no clue about that. The dealer's pics aren't the greatest pictures, but I was wondering if any of the hammered experts here can help figure out what these are.

Depends on what you want to collect, how much you want to spend and what all is available. Personally I like the Victorian "Gothic" Florin and in worn grades it trades fairly close to silver content. If you have any interest in American coins and there are some available, American "Mercury" Dimes (1916-1945), American Standing Liberty Quarters (1916-1930), and the American Walking Liberty Half-Dollar (1916-1947) are all beautiful coins in my opinion and later years in circulated (but still in decent condition) sell for nothing more than silver content.

After 49&46 50&51 are the rarest brass 3d's. If it was Unc it would be worth a few bob. The one offered looks cleaned (grade looks cleaned VF) I've never seen a counterfeit brass 3d. The .92 in the PCGS genuine numbering scheme is the code to indicate that it has been cleaned. The codes are: 91 Artificially Colored 92 Cleaned 93 Planchet (Coin Blank) Flaw 94 Altered Surface 95 Scratched or Rim Dented 97 Environmentally Damaged 98 Other Damage Hm, interesting, thanks for the info on the PCGS numbering scheme, I didn't know that. And also thats interesting with 1950 being a rare date for the brass threepence, any other rare/interesting dates for UK base metal coinage (both decimal and pre-decimal) that I can keep an eye out for in dealer "junk bins"?

http://cgi.ebay.com/1950-PCGS-GENUINE-GREAT-BRITAIN-BRASS-3D-BO34-/360380195643?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item53e855633b Am I missing something? Or are there a bunch of counterfeit 1950 brass threepence out there? But who sends that to be certified genuine? And then sells it for $75?

Yeah... possibly the 4 as well! Maybe by his maths, its a dollar a year... I wouldn't be surprised if it sells though. Here in the US there is a huge "age premium" for coins that you don't see in most of Europe and condition matters less with US collectors than British ones. Even 19th century coins sell for $$ based on their age, and any coins in fine/very fine condition dating from the early 1900s or before are considered to be in excellent condition. If you buy early milled or hammered coins form a US seller you end up paying much more than you would from a British dealer simply because of the age. Even an incredibly worn Victoria penny will easily sell for $3+ just because most Americans view it as ancient. Best get all that shite out of the jar and get it on ebay Yeah, a crusty George III copper would go for $15+ regularly on eBay, just put down that it was "used as currency in the colonies" and you'll have people bidding $$$$, happens all the time.

Yeah... possibly the 4 as well! Maybe by his maths, its a dollar a year... I wouldn't be surprised if it sells though. Here in the US there is a huge "age premium" for coins that you don't see in most of Europe and condition matters less with US collectors than British ones. Even 19th century coins sell for $$$ based on their age, and any coins in fine/very fine condition dating from the early 1900s or before are considered to be in excellent condition. If you buy early milled or hammered coins form a US seller you end up paying much more than you would from a British dealer simply because of the age. Even an incredibly worn Victoria penny will easily sell for $3+ just because most Americans view it as ancient.

I like this listing: http://cgi.ebay.com/931AD-KING-ERIC-The-Bloodaxe-SILVER-PENNY-COIN-UNC-/110714831690?pt=AU_Coins2&hash=item19c71e434a . I particularly like how its a commemorative coin, in proof condition, and has historical information shamelessly copied and pasted from Wikipedia.

In group 2: The last coin is a coin of Queen Elizabeth I, not sure which denomination because I don't know the sizes, but could be a threepence or sixpence? I haven't studied hammered coins enough to really give you a value (plus, in the US hammered coins are -expensive- and so the price will be different than what you can get in the UK). In group 3: The fifth coin is a Victorian farthing, the coin looks to have about fine details if I was grading it, does seem to have corrosion and pitting. Unless it is a rare die variety, it is pretty common and not worth much in that condition. The sixth coin in group 3 is an Edward VII threepence, it isn't in that great of condition nor is it rare, it is only worth silver scrap value. The seventh coin is a 50% silver 1924 shilling and in the condition it is in, is only worth silver scrap value. Sorry I couldn't be much help on the ancients and medieval, but I haven't studied enough of it to be able to easily identify it, though surely someone on this forum can for you.

Go ahead and post them and we'll try to identify them.

Nice collection! And I understand your pain of trying to find a good dealer, most British coins here are sold as curiosities which mean low grade and you are paying $$$$ if it is old. Most of my collection has come from eBay too, but good luck at finding a dealer, chances are you'll find one you like easily enough over there.

On the gold coin it seems like the easiest way to identify it would be to figure out what monarch's coat of arms it is in the picture. It doesn't seem to match any English king/queen that I can see, so its most likely foreign. From my searches it looks to be most similar to the coat of arms of some of the Burgundy kings such as John the Fearless? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_the_Fearless So it might be early French? I'll try searching some more and see what else I can come up with, I don't have a good reference for early French coins however.

Interesting coin! Wish I could help you with the identification, but if it was a contemporary counterfeit during the reign of William and Mary its in great shape. I'm interested to see what this ends up being.

What are some of the useful reference books for British coin collecting? I already have a (quite outdated) copy of Spink/Seaby's Standard Catalogue of British Coins, but thats about it for British coins. Any recommendations on some other good overviews?

That makes sense, thank you very much.

I recently bought a 1746 fourpence off of eBay, however, I cannot seem to find any information online if it is a Maundy coin or if it is just a fourpence intended for general circulation. In my 1999 Seaby Standard Catalogue of British coins, the design matches the Maundy issue (and I'm assuming the circulation issue also, the Arabic 4 with a crown separating the date) and I don't see any price for the 1746 fourpence in it other than for the entire Maundy set. So is this a Maundy fourpence? Or just a circulation issue?