Paulus

If it's actually that coin you're getting then it is a fair price. Common year and therefore not bargain of the century but decent deal nonetheless. Don't see how it can be if it's the same coin ... unless you are selling it already Rennes?

Regular I think

I agree, I don't think it is acceptable to delay posting once the grading/slabbing process is completed, after all we prepay SD postage. In my case I received them 2 days after they were marked as 'Completed', so that was good.

im going with the hearts, or no hearts coins......were nearly there and we havent seen it yet...man were good......... Semée, feel me, touch me, heal me... lol, to think that Tommy was about that all along, I shall probably have very weird dreams tonight now! Didn't you realise that "We're not gonna take it" referred to eBay fees and policies? And 'Fiddle about' was really about certain coin sellers!

im going with the hearts, or no hearts coins......were nearly there and we havent seen it yet...man were good......... Semée, feel me, touch me, heal me... lol, to think that Tommy was about that all along, I shall probably have very weird dreams tonight now!

Well, that's EAST!! Any further East and it would be Holland I know I for one would not be metal detecting there! Better ways to spend your time in Amsterdam? The good old 'visiting Anne Frank's House' used to work a treat with parents when I was a teenager!

I received the coins back yesterday (21st March). Overall I am happy with their service, although it took slightly longer from start to finish than I was hoping, if not expecting - a 43 day turn around - to be fair, one of the 8 coins were in the 30-90 day bracket, while the other 7 were in the 30 day bracket (this is based on the submitter's valuation of the coins, anything sub-£200 (price paid not Spink or other value) qualifying for the £11.99 fee but the 30-90 processing time, £200-£2000 is £19.99 and 30 days). I have phoned their offices a couple of times and got straight through to speak with one of the graders on each occasion, who remembered me and my coins and was happy to chat - so that was a good experience and not one I would expect from a much bigger US TPG. So the next stage is to see what I will realise from the coins I want to sell, for reasons of having upgraded and/or change of focus. I intended to sell 6 of the 8, and 3 have already been sold privately, a good result all round and better (for me) than I would have got on eBay, I'm sure, unless unbelievably patient! So the remaining 3 will be offered to Forum members in the first instance, and I will then consider where to place any still unsold - please see the Items For Sale section soon if interested! As usual, all and any comments welcome!

I'll guess at a regulation sixpence or shilling

says he who has been banging up above average pennies like they're going out of fashion! Oops, having a senior moment there, Ski, getting you all confused with pies offerings! Sorry! You must be having another senior moment ive only bought a couple Plus the new one from CC today that you have just displayed (I assume you have bought it, or are you just showing off some dealers' coins on here?!)

Me too - I'm sure he is slowly getting the message! I have sent him a slightly less polite message - knowing that now he has been informed over and over!!

You see that frequently where there are large price differentials between grades. If the seller can manage to inflate the grade by a fraction, it could make the difference of several hundred pounds for a 1905 HC, whereas for a 1902 HC it's just a few quid and probably not worth the effort. How would you grade this, out of interest? Near Fine for me (at best) - Fair Details!

Me too, I really hate Photobucket. Dropbox is a good sync'ing service which you keep a separate folder for on your own computer. One of the things you can do (they supply the folder when you download and run the free software) is put photos you want to share in its 'Public' subfolder. Dropbox then uploads the picture(s) and you get URLs which you can share with people. You only get 2 (2.5?) GB of free online storage, but they boost that by 500 MB every time you recommend Dropbox to someone else and they start using it. I'm on 3.2 GB at present but I have no idea where the "point 2" came from! Another site which seems to me to be friendlier than P'bucket, is Image Shack, where you can upload pictures, get URLs in various formats, and choose whether you want the pictures to be public or private. PB worked fine for me before the recent change, now there are adverts everywhere and it seems more difficult to use, I am looking elsewhere too

The 'lustre' component of the grading would take this into account, the point was made to me that there wasn't a specific category for 'eye appeal'. I also asked about the location of marks, dings etc, and yes, if there are problems in the middle of the face, for example, rather than half-hidden in some design detail, then these would count as more 'serious' problems and the coin would score less. Would it though, bearing in mind lustre has absolutely nothing whatsoever to do with toning. You can have a deeply-toned coin with obvious full-lustre underneath. My point is you could presumably have two full-lustred CGS coins, one with ugly toning, and one with beauty personified, and they would both come out of the computer with the same grade? Duplicate Post

The 'lustre' component of the grading would take this into account, the point was made to me that there wasn't a specific category for 'eye appeal'. I also asked about the location of marks, dings etc, and yes, if there are problems in the middle of the face, for example, rather than half-hidden in some design detail, then these would count as more 'serious' problems and the coin would score less. Would it though, bearing in mind lustre has absolutely nothing whatsoever to do with toning. You can have a deeply-toned coin with obvious full-lustre underneath. My point is you could presumably have two full-lustred CGS coins, one with ugly toning, and one with beauty personified, and they would both come out of the computer with the same grade? I really don't know! I wonder if Bill knows or has a view?

The 'lustre' component of the grading would take this into account, the point was made to me that there wasn't a specific category for 'eye appeal'. I also asked about the location of marks, dings etc, and yes, if there are problems in the middle of the face, for example, rather than half-hidden in some design detail, then these would count as more 'serious' problems and the coin would score less.

Just to add a few things I was told or witnessed when I visited CGS last week: there are 3 graders for every coin (not 2) 'cabinet friction' is graded as wear, in the same way as any other wear there is no specific plus or minus for 'eye appeal' (like there is for some of the US TPGs - apparently) rejected coins may be slabbed but are not graded or valued, and are only included in the population report as 'rejected' their photography is all indoors using a standard desk lamp bulb for lighting, and an Olympus SP500UZ camera with macro, 3Mb resolution, and a white balance adjustment the main factors in their grading (against benchmark coins exhibiting varying degrees of these factors) are: Hairlines Friction/Wear Striking Marks/Problems (bag marks, dings, edge knocks, etc) Lustre These factors are manually assessed against the hundreds of benchmark coins available and entered into a computer program that produces a grade for that grader's assessment. Although they wouldn't tell me the different weighting applied to these factors in their algorithm, I was told that of these 5 the 2 that would count most against a coin's grade were hairlines and marks/problems Coins will also be marked down for 'non-progressive spots' (e.g. carbon spots, haymarking, adjustment lines, fingerprints), and would definitely be rejected for 'progressive spots' (e.g. verdigris) It was all very interesting! I recommended to them that this information should be provided to the paying customer, who currently only gets to see the final grade!!! Incidentally, while I was there I asked more about what it was about my Northumberland shilling that gave the game away when it was (thankfully) rejected in March 2012 ... and I found out something about these forgeries that I didn't know before. Apparently one of the most telling factors is in the formation of the 6 - most of the forgeries have a sharper intersection between the top curve and the circular bit (pardon my ignorance on what these bits are called!):

My opinion: Coin 1 : EF Coin 2 : Fair (scrap value)

I've never seen one finer! If only to stick to examples like that, I'd only have about 4 in my collection! I will always remember where I've seen the finest sixpence of its rare type! Well done for plucking that one! If you die before me, can you let someone know I'd like to have it! Can I have some high-res images? PLEASE! Lol, someone's got the 'I wants' ! Loveliest sixpence I've seen in ages! Would be amazing for any MM but, a considerably rarer type as well, you'll not see a comparable example! ! I can't even conceive of a better one! Eye-wateringly pretty! I have a hunch that Rob's collection is full of such exemplary pieces! What's great about coins like this, is the detail you don't ordinarily get to see on lesser examples, such as the broken shield punch, showing as a fracture in the top right corner! I want to chop that shield out! It's also the rarest of the acorn die-pairings according to BCW, as if being a nice coin wasn't enough! I'm sure if you ask Rob nicely he will send you other pics of his Lizzy I coins, then you will really be in trouble!!!

I've never seen one finer! If only to stick to examples like that, I'd only have about 4 in my collection! I will always remember where I've seen the finest sixpence of its rare type! Well done for plucking that one! If you die before me, can you let someone know I'd like to have it! Can I have some high-res images? PLEASE! Lol, someone's got the 'I wants' ! Loveliest sixpence I've seen in ages! Would be amazing for any MM but, a considerably rarer type as well, you'll not see a comparable example! ! I can't even conceive of a better one! Eye-wateringly pretty! I have a hunch that Rob's collection is full of such exemplary pieces!

Maybe we will get to see Rob's personal collection one day, I imagine it to be rather special!

I've never seen one finer! If only to stick to examples like that, I'd only have about 4 in my collection! I will always remember where I've seen the finest sixpence of its rare type! Well done for plucking that one! If you die before me, can you let someone know I'd like to have it! Can I have some high-res images? PLEASE! Lol, someone's got the 'I wants' !

Yey, glad it is still working for you Rob, it still says 'Copied' for me (but only for a split second!) Just a random scrap silver coin you chose for testing purposes there then!

I would echo everything that's been said so far. I'm still a relative newbie (15 months in to more serious collecting) and I have enjoyed (nearly) every moment of the roller-coaster ride! The main advice I can offer is: Buy the highest grade you can afford (as many, many have said) Come here for advice about anything at all (to do with coins!) Don't spend what you would consider significant money 'blind' (i.e. without seeing the coin 'in hand'), unless it is from someone whose grading and description you trust, or from a dealer who offers a 'no quibble' return (most reputable dealers will do this). This might rule out a lot of high-price online auction purchases (eBay for example), unless you are willing to take a degree of risk Do not trust someone else's grade for a coin (including slabbed coins) unless, again, it's from someone who's grading you have learned to trust Get the reference books that are relevant for your area of focus Do not confuse investing in coins with collecting them as a hobby Learn to grade a coin yourself Only buy coins that have eye-appeal to you - regardless of the grade or rarity of the coin (there's many more but I have run out of steam for now!) ENJOY!

Can't get pic to upload. AT last. Completed? Have you got the 4 coloured Commonwealth Games ones? Now wotcha gonna collect?

Rob, you can still easily paste the pics into the Forum ... with the coin selected, simply click in the IMG code field (it will say 'Copied' when you do this) then Ctrl+V in to your post