Gollum

Not aware of any, and it is unlikely to exist because each piece is individual, special only to the parties concerned. On the plus side, you might find that the engraving has been done on a really rare coin. I've seen a couple of R6 coins so engraved, which might give a decent financial gain when you decide to sell. Debbie, go here http://www.searchdome.com/ebay/ebay/runNewSearch type in love token and hit run, theres a few about.

Surely not! Much better quality than the early bun pennies David Yeah thats the guy, dead ugly aint he.

Incidentaly my bank had a fit when I went in and asked for £100 of 50p's the guy asked me if I was looking for something with a smile as the boss scowled.

Not when they can already make a fortune from tourists, souvenir hunters, parents, the kind of people who used to buy limited edition plates to hang on their walls, and the poor saps who fondly imagine that annual proof sets are actually worth what they are listed at in Spink. I suppose so but keeping the plate hangers etc happy is one thing, another when it could affect a whole hobby and industry here with no errors forthcoming. Kind of like throwing the dog a bone every now and again. Would you think ?. You could be right - this forum disproves my long-held theory that no coin collector gives 2p about the decimal coins in their change... Tut tut Peck, as a businessman you should know better when every clown on Ebay wants to buy your undated 20p etc etc for over £50. Of course they matter.

Not when they can already make a fortune from tourists, souvenir hunters, parents, the kind of people who used to buy limited edition plates to hang on their walls, and the poor saps who fondly imagine that annual proof sets are actually worth what they are listed at in Spink. I suppose so but keeping the plate hangers etc happy is one thing, another when it could affect a whole hobby and industry here with no errors forthcoming. Kind of like throwing the dog a bone every now and again. Would you think ?.

Let me walk before running first Azda, that was a major achievement for me, I want to learn so badly it pushed me further and faster than I thought possible. However the guy who sold them to me then tried to pull a fast one on the wife when I asked her to go back and get me another pounds worth, he tried to give her a lot of foreign muck whe she asked for the bagged pennies, he also took out all the silver coins so he thought, these coins are not his but what local detectorists found and asked him to sell for them as is, so he had no right to do so as far as I am concerned, especially if they were worth anything and he then told them he had sold them to us, more so as he had already told us that we could have them as are and unchecked the last time !, anyway, it turned out I came home with a silver threepence, a load of farthings and some sixpences he had missed as well as a couple of other coins in that bag. I think the french napoleon coins are ugly !. Still, at least they can export decent Brandy.

Flat coca cola appears to work plus a luke warm bath and a nicely chilled toilet roll. Well you lot have certainly got my brain excited, I went out for the first time in about 3 years today, I went to town and purchased some old copper washers as you all call them for a pound, I did have a panic attack as usual but the wife calmed me down and sorted it out and so it was not a bad day really. At least I did not end up in the Royal Berks hospital as usual with palpitations etc. So now you can all laugh at my copper washers

Having read an article in coin mag about the precision of striking these days, you dont think RM are deliberately making errors to keep collectors happy do you ?

Not all bad it seems, the wife came home from the shop and said I have something you want, I thought "oh god not now dear", and handed me a unc 2010 gg 50p. now if i can only stop this burning and rumbling.

So my son who is 9 and autistic got his dad a lovely xmas present, a big jar of pickled Chillis, and being the dutifull father I had to sit and eat them last night before he went to bed just to let him know daddy liked his present and cared. NEVER EVER DO IT. I now need a 3 engine fire crew to put out the burning. Woke up in agony and dived for the loo, sheesh, I heard the jokes but never thought it a reality. I love you son, but daddy is putting these in the bin.

It is one to miss.All the gimmick gold and silver plated coins are tat. Stick to unbutched currency or proofs. Attached is a Maundy set http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/2000-MILLENNIUM-SILVER-PROOF-MAUNDY-4-COIN-SET-RARE-/160569740483?pt=Coins_BritishProofs_RL&hash=item2562b3ccc3 Looks like he closed that auction down after I asked him why it was so rare. Go figure.

Yep, I am a man with a plan.

Someone explain this to me. I saw this silver 1p that I took to be part of a 2001 maundy set, up for auction earlier, it then got removed as no longer available, then reappeared at the bargain price of £500 bin as very rare, have I missed something. http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Coins-One-Penny-sliver-Very-Rare-/280798610442?pt=UK_Coins_BritishMilled_RL&hash=item4160e6c40a

I dont ever have much to spend anyway, you forget, I am married with kids, and as is usuall SHE gets first dibs on my wallet .

Hi Tom ,thanks for replying. So if I had a 1840 shilling that had say the nose missing and no other imperfections, and a 2001 shilling ( for the purposes of this explanation only !) with identical wear they would both be graded exactly the same then ?. If so the question has been answered for me. I just got the feeling that people allowed the grading criteria to be lowered from one century to the other merely for convenience of the coin they wanted or were selling was all.

Ok. are all coins both from say the 18th century and the 20th all graded with the same criteria. I cant understand why I see some say victorian coins graded as say VF yet the same wear on a post decimal coin is scrap, if the unc version is available even for the 18th century coin ( however rare )surely they should all be using the same grading system and criteria. Or am I watching too many people grading such coins wrongly.

That's not the first edition - which was 1969? 1970? But because the 1985 is more up to date than the 1st edition, and is also out of print, it fetches more than twice as much (usually). I never saw the point to that with regard to prices except to a book collector.

Thank you peter, it is the educational / reference content I need. So that is handy.

Are you really sure you want one.?A Spink and Collectors Coins GB would be a good start. A good read for the novice is Coincrafts 2000 catalogue.Ignore the pricing although it is about right now. Coincraft is a big lump of wood and can also be used to reach those high shelves or change a lightbulb. The old Freeman ones used to go for £100 and the new one £30/£35.Try a library copy. Peter, i already have a spink and CCGB 2011 ( of amazon ), I don't have the coincraft book though, but is it that good, I don't like borrowing from librarys because just when you desperately need to look something up the sods want it back.

Right, The Bronze Coinage of Great Britain by Freeman. Is there any major difference between the old 1985 print and the latest one APART from the prices. I ask because I can get the old one cheaper than the new one.

Ok I don't get it, whats wrong with a fir tree, it's huge and it sways like hell. My bike has lost it's front panels as they got brok when it fell over, not that I use it anymore but it's still mine. I don't uderstand the Biggish thing Pete, way over my head I am afraid . Big Issue. Ahh thank you Nick, the 1933 has dropped now.

Not sure what you're looking at? the 2 and 6? I'd say good honest wear in the 1st picture Worn die/worn coin. It isn't 6/2 if that is what you were hoping. How about this one? There is definitely something poking out from the bottom left corner of the six. 6 over 7 ?

Scratch that itch with postdecimal proof sets! Seriously, they go at auction for no more than half their Spink listed value, they are nice and shiny, and they don't cost a bomb. In fact, when I start looking out some coins for you, I intend to offload some of my proof sets - how does 1974 1975 and 1976 grab you? And maybe one of 1978 or 1979 into the bargain. I bought 6 sets for £15 and 10 predecimal sets for £4 from a postcard fair...they will sit there gathering dust...although one set is BU...can't resist a bargain...offers please in a plain envelope (John can supply cheap envelopes ) Do you mean the blue wallets? I'd say 40p each wasn't a bad price (just over twice face value) - if you can find any buyers! You can't usually find proof sets at £2.50 each -what dates were they? Yep the blue ones.& the proof sets were late 70's (some toned) over 30 years old now.They are a thing that I don't collect but have aquired.I found some old foreign unc sets from the 60's.They sold them in Smiths. As a side collection, I've started to collect pre-1965 US proof sets (working from 1964 backwards - have only reached 1961 so far, though...), the sets can be got relatively cheaply (recently bought a perfect condition 1962 set for only £10 on eBay! The silver content alone is worth more than that, though that really was a bargain) and the 1/2 Dollar, 1/4 dollar and 10 cents coins are 90% silver - I have problems with seeing base metal "silver" coins as real coins for some reason (though don't have this issue with copper...) Only silver coins I have are a 1964 and 1965 kennedy half dollar and a couple of sixpences. Probably not worth a great deal as silver goes. Only the 1964 Kennedy half dollar is 90% silver, the 1965-1970 issues had an outer layer of 80% silver and 20% copper but an inner layer of 20% silver and 80% copper, think it averages out at 40% silver or something like that - a bit like the 50% 1920-1945 50% British Silver I guess! I don't like em anyway, matter of honour, it aint british old chap. Still it's a coin.

Agree! A coin to me has to be a means of trade. Doesn't need to be legal tender, the test is whether it could ever be used or ws intended to be used in a transaction - such as tokens or jetons used for accounting, even communion pieces or theatre tickets I'll also accept proofs and patterns, if they are examples or prototypes of real coins Art medals are not coins. I wish cataloguers would confine such NCLT crap to the back of the book. Spinks take note! Krause are beginning to see sense, moving quite a bit to their "Unusual Coins" volume David (in grumpy old man mode) Well I suppose if you want to be technical about it David, it fits your criteria in one respect, it was indeed intended to be used in a transaction and traded. Whoever wants one has to part with a lot of cash in trade to get it. It's the devil in me I am afraid...

Toning occurs naturally over a long period of time, cleaning toned coins in my opinion would only devalue it because you cannot clean every bit of the coin IE the LEGENDS, so a cleaned coin would be easier to spot. A toned coin basically states that the coin has not been cleaned, some people love toning on coins (Americans are notorious lovers of these) they even artificiallly tone them to try and increase their price so such an extent that its actually ugly. There is a huge difference between naturally toned coins and artificial toning. My opinion and advice would be to leave them to grow old gracefully. I tried to clean my pennies with Acetone as I have some here and I spotted Vicky I think it was saying about it to someone, their worthless so no harm done but I would not do it otherwise, and it failed miserably. I do however have a halfpenny from about 1959 that has a lovely dark gold/brown tone to it and no hairlines so I don't think it has been cleaned. Even though it is a recent coin I think it is pretty even with the tone but I wouldn't like to artificially tone them if I knew how. I was tempted to clean my silver sixpences just to make them shine that little bit more but I resisted when Peter I think it was told me not to, wisdom comes with age and Peter seems old .