DaveG38

A good deal of wear. For your money you can do much better. I'd wait for another.

In defence of Azda, I've got to say that I didn't read anything objectionable into his response concerning the grade. And after all, it is the grade as much as anything that will determine value, so it is entirely relevant to the question raised, whereas Fluke did seem to me to go off on one very quickly in his post #6. After that things did go downhill fast, but I don't see Azda as the villain here.

As part of my collect anything and everything strategy, I do collect decimal coins and have a date run of all from 1968 through to the present day, mostly collected from change early in the life of the coin. Thus most are GEF. I also have collected those varieties that exist, with the exception of some of the early 70s five and ten pence types. It's quite surprising what a weight of coins this represents. I keep them all in plastic sheets in a single album (nothing too posh for these beggars) and the sheer weight of the album is becoming unwieldy. I've just done a quick count of them and the total comes out close to 500 circulating coins (leaving out 25p and £5 commemoratives) so there's plenty for a collector to look for and enjoy, especially on a budget.

Still, he does at least explain that he artifically tones these coins, unlike many 'rainbow toned' examples that are claimed to be the result of natural processes!!

Either way looks good for £10!!

Ah, I see. I rather assumed that the coins came with a box when they were first issued, and there should, therefore, be a reasonable number of boxes around given sets have been broken up over the years. Based on what you have posted that's clearly not the case, so the box is likely rarer than the coins themselves, which is a bit bizarre. It's a bit like my 1934 crown which came mounted into a specially printed card. There may have been 932 (or is it 934) crowns struck, but I doubt more than a few had the card mounting, so my card is rarer than the coin - doesn't add to the value though! So, I guess you may be right about the price. The only thing that bothered me is that I always understood that the 1893 sets came in a black leather box with the date on and this one, which I've no doubt was intended for a short set of some kind, was a kind of brownish red, rather like some of the 1902 boxes. It did make me wonder if this was not an official box but some kind of commercial product made for the aftersales market. I was also struck by the gold embossing which seemed to me too like that on the 1927 box, so I did wonder if it was an alternative type for this set. Here's a London Coins set in it's box for comparison: http://www.londoncoins.co.uk/?page=Pastresults&auc=145&searchlot=304&searchtype=2 And here's the DNW one: http://www.dnw.co.uk/auctions/catalogue/lot.php?auction_id=344&lot_id=254

To be fair, for many of the single lots their estimates were not too far out. They were way off for the multiple lots and for the maundy, particularly the brockages and as I say for anything I wanted!!! If I was in for a 1887 or 1893 boxed full proof set then they were spot with the hammer in the middle of the estimate range.

Just come off the DNW auction, after failing to win anything. I was staggerred at some of the prices. A whole group of Charles II /James II maundy brockages were going at £1000 plus per lot, against an estimate of £100-150. A 1937 proof set in gold, usually selling at around £5500-6000, went for £8,500, and the lot I really wanted, an empty box for a short 1893 proof set, went for £650 against an estimate of £150-200. For a bit of leather cardboard and velvet I was willing to go to around £400, and even that was a stretch, considering that it was debateable whether the box was a genuine Royal Mint one as opposed to a contemporary or slightly later product. But £650!!! Shheesh. I know they are hard to come by but that's just plain daft.

Chances are coinery if you get it ,will be at your top bid and not less.Yes, it's not very often I get a nice surprise with proxy bids! Well, I've just won a nice little lot of 5 UNC or near so late victoria sixpences at £180, whereas I was willing to go to £220, so I'm £40 to the good on my max bid.

Nicer than mine. Looks OK. Decent strike, all round even wear ...... just depends on price.

Well, I'm one for a start - that's all denominations apart from gold!! The latter is too expensive and to be honest rather boring, especially the George and Dragon Reverse, used for so many years (or is it centuries?).

Why not buy a genuine antique weighing scales in its box? They aren't usually too expensive and are quite a talking point compared to say a modern digital scales.

It was Scaramanga's gun that was gold.

This is the guy. http://www.crs-stockton.com/index2.html

To be fair a great many of the coins on the so called GB200 list are proofs or patterns and as such are not so interesting to many collectors, even if they could afford them. I don't collect proofs so things like the gold £5 1935, whilst interesting, wouldn't tempt me to buy even if I could afford one. As I see it, it's investors who are going for these coins, not collectors. The real issue is what impact does this have on genuine collectors. Is there a trickle down in terms of prices, or is the rarified atmosphere of these coins completely remote from 'normal' collectors?

That's a pretty good depiction of a lion for 1796. There can't have been too many people who had seen one, either live or in a publication back then.

Lost one Jack Russell terrier: Torn ear, few teeth, three legs, no tail and one eye. Answers to the name of 'lucky.'

Life's too short!

Try this one. A logic professor has three students in his class and he has 8 stamps on his desk. Four stamps are green and four are red. The professor then sticks two stamps onto the foreheads of each student and leaves the two remaining ones face down on his desk. The result is that any one student can see what's on the foreheads of the other two students, but not what is on his own forehead and not what is on the table. There are no mirrors or reflecting surfaces in the room. He then says to the first student 'Do you know what stamps are on your forehead, and the first student says 'no'. He then asks the second student the same question and again the student says 'no.' The professor then asks the third student and he again says 'no.' He then goes back to the first student and asks if he knows what stamps the student has on his forehead and again the student thinks for a minute and says ,'no.' Finally, he turns to the second student for the second time and asks the same question. This time the students says yes', he knows and the stamps are........ For numismatic interest substitute coins for stamps, although how he gets them to stick is a moot point. Don't try it at home with cartwheel tuppences.

Do you mean 1818? They do collectables, including coins.

Nice, but the only gripe I have is that I do wish the grading companies would get them straight in the slabs. Nothing worse than encasing them lopsided. Of course if you intend to crack it out.....

They can be bought in any quantity from the Chinese sellers http://www.aliexpress.com/snapshot/6237744587.html?orderId=63774643856043 I'm always amazed at the price of Chinese goods. I recently bought a telecoms wiring insertion tool via Amazon, and the item came all the way from China. Total cost of the tool and the postage, presumably with both the manufacturer and the postal companies taking a small profit, was just £1.69!!

http://www.ebay.com/itm/321710254959?_trksid=p2055119.m1438.l2649&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT Here is a real bargain...4 1860 YH Half Pennies in the same auction! I have never seen so many fakes show up at once! Jesus, that's not good. The 1860s won't fool many people because they are generally known to be only available in top grade and really rare, but the 1845s will likely generate some illicit returns for someone because they appear in all grades. Unlike the halfcrowns the halfpennies are only descibed as replicas in the small print further down the page, alongside the suggestion of 'great re-sale value' - a clear invitation for fraud by the buyer.

My old friend of '1882 No H, won't sell it to you fame' is back in action again. This time it's a 1853 halfcrown, claimed to be a Victorian copy, but maybe '3 over 7' or '7 over 3.' Oh, and it's a 'rare' filler - I'm not so sure about that as there are others on ebay selling this date including a set of 4 rare date Victoria halfcrowns. They don't all appear to be the same, but from the photos I can't tell, although the shape of the date numerals looks pretty consistent. To be fair the seller with the set of four does make it absolutely clear they are replicas. However, I can see somebody unscrupulous buying the set and selling them on individually as genuine. http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Victorian-Half-Crown-1853-/321711046135?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_3&hash=item4ae778fdf7 http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Queen-Victoria-Silver-Half-Crown-1853-Replica-Coin-/161654704645?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_3&hash=item25a35f0a05 http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Victoria-Half-Crowns-Replica-1841-1843-1848-1853-/321710254086?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_3&hash=item4ae76ce806 http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/1853-QUEEN-VICTORIA-PATTERN-HALFCROWN-FREEPOST-/391079247590?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_3&hash=item5b0e23bee6

It's probably fair to say that those of us who started to build or re-build our collections around the early to mid 1990s have done pretty well over that 20 year period. When I look at what I've had to pay in the more recent 5 years then I doubt there's any profit in it. I've just paid £1800 for a 1841 halfcrown in GF to NVF condition. I'm happy with that, but I don't expect to be able to sell it any time soon (not an issue as it's in the collection) for a profit, and may, even in the long term, make a loss on it. Compare this to a GF to NVF James II 1687 halfpenny bought in 1999 for £70, and likely to fetch around £500 now. And so it is with many of my early purchases, particularly the better or rarer pieces. This all makes for a nice potentially profitable hobby but isn't my primary reason for collecting. Nice to know that I'll make a nice sum back when the time comes to sell, unlike my other half's dresses, which she claims to be an 'investment' but which mostly end up at the charity shop after a couple of years.