pokal02

My top-performing coin (as a % of price paid) is a 1662 crown (s3353) in F, paid £32 for it in the 1980's, Spink price now £250. I would never have predicted that! I think that anything that ticks both 'rarity' and 'excellent condition'will continue to do well, so on a budget of £2500 I'd be looking at a 1665 or 1697 crown in AVF-VF (if I could find one), or perhaps a nice Edward VI /Richard III groat. It's only my opinion though!

I think it's OK to grade this as Fair - probably bang in the middle of that grade range. If you're OK with coins in this grade, you could get quite a few Charles II's for under £100 (1662,3,4,8,71,2,3,6,7,9,80,81) plus 1695, 1696, 1707, 1708. You'll probably have to save up a bit for a Geo I & II (they rarely turn up ibelow Fine anyway - I don't think they circulated much).

As my principal interest has been crowns, getting a date run in VF would be economically impossible!! I started with 'any grade will do' in the 1980's, and it's taken me until now to achieve a minimum of AF (1551-1684) F (1686-1804) & AVF (1818-date). In fact I still have a few rare dates (1665, 1697 etc) that I haven't managed even this yet. I agree that F to VF must be the grades that most lifelong private collectors (of pre-1937 coins) deal in. These sort of grades have seen a more realistic increase than EF (e.g. I bought A 1676 Crown in GF for £90 10 years ago, and I reckon it would now go for sbout £180). The current boom in these sort of grade seems to be in hammered & especially Saxon (a middling - say GF/NVF 1d of Alfred could have been got for £300 6 or 7 years ago - now it's more like £1000).

I've had less spare cash this year and have hardly been able to upgrade any of my crowns, other than nudging a couple of Charles II's from NF to GF. Have been filling in expanding my groat collection (which was one of each reign up to Mary) forward to Charles II & include more varieties, even though I'm having to go closer to F than my preferred VF - think I'll always find something to collect though. Assuming other mid-range collectors are in the same boat, prices of VF coins could drop (or F prices rise?)

One or two silly prices here. £3,000 odd (inc premium) for a fairly indifferent Tournai Groat?? It's not as rare as that. Am not surprised the Henry IV and Edward I groats went for huge prices though. There were two Charles II groats (LOTS 385/386) - I bid for what I thought was the less attractive one (both were described as VF, but I thought the first was AVF and the second GVF), hoping to be the only bidder. A mistake as the second one went for less!! (£130 and £100)

Many years ago I attempted a date run of 1/4d, 1/2d & 1d's (wasn't fussed about grades then) . I completed the ld's (obviously excluding 1933 & 54), but never got 1686 or 1689 1/2d's, 1685 Charles II farthing or the copper 1860 1/4d/1/2d. Have since moved on to crowns - never seen a 1674 (rumour is that there's only one outside museums). Until 10 years ago I'd have said 1665 was the second hardest (of the milled series), but a few have come out of the woodwork recently (only ever seen 2 specimens above F though). 1697 probably second hardest now. 1678 much harder than book price implies.

The same happened to me in a London Coins auction last year (a 1718 Crown was listed as going for £50 over my max but I was invoiced for my max). I didn't mind as I bid what I thought it was worth.