scottishmoney

I am of the opinion, especially recently, that the grading companies are overly and overtly optimistic for their submitters. This takes form in over graded coins, and missattributions that bring about significant price differentials betwixt reality and what they state on their holder. I have a Queen Anne crown from 1707 that is testament to that above statement, not only was the E on the crown missed, the coin was overgraded by at least 10-12 points IMO - notice the lack of H. Needless to say, I liberated poor Queen Anne from her plastic tomb.

If said discussion was on the PCGS forum it would have been nuked pronto. That forum is bad that way, no criticism of any kind is tolerated there. Kind of like Ayatollah Khamenei in Iran, you are either with us, or you will be cut down.

Welcome aboard, I have collected predecimal pennies for years, and my favourites are the Aussies by far, there are so many varieties, mints etc. that it makes for a great series, even if it only ran for 52 years. I bought up a hoard of predecimal pennies from Australia several years ago, have found several varieties and earlys like the 1912's and 1914's etc.

I don't think they make a slab for a piece of grape shot like this: Lots of these seemingly ended their lives by being beaten to hell or used as disks to throw at each other or something. Despite the nearly 3 oz size, they were used in circulation for a bit, but then must have been used as weapons or something because most of the ones I have seen are in pretty bad shape. Incredibly they made trial strikes for a bronze sixpence, it was a veritable monster.

I have to admit slabs are something that do nothing for me, I am not impressed by what they say or do. If I keep a coin any bit of a while I liberate it from the plastic tomb. Slabs are something that brings out the militancy in many collectors, frankly I don't care for them. I do not believe they do anymore for circulated coins especially than good care away from toxins etc. There is something to be said for holding, carefully with dry hands of course, a 200+ piece of bronze and appreciating the heft of the piece. Slabs take that away. Flame away you tombers.

Sadly enough some of the most airtite containers around are old US Army ammunition boxes. Problem is, when you buy them, they had ammunition in them at one time, the compounds used for the gunpowder are very highly corrosive. I have some that I have cleaned out, put desiccant in, and use for storing small batteries in for long periods of time before using them. The only coins I store in them are already dark cents.

9.99 for a 5.00 coin, yep, Hanky VIII would have been proud.

The first is a fairly common British conder, but popular because of the reference to the French revolution. The second coin is from Morocco, hejira dated 1287 - about 1880 or so. The third is a 5 reis from Portuguese Angola from 1753. Fairly scarsish colonial era coin from Africa - but my catalogue is old though. The fourth is an Ottoman Empire coin, 20 qirsh or something and I cannot read a date on it.

This last piece is the end of what I will publicise as far as acquisitions: A very rare this nice Charles II Four Merks or "Dollar" from 1681. And the yellow stuff, well, we will just keep that my little secret. Sorry.

The only area of my numismatic pursuits where I make an exception for acquisitions, Scottish of course: James V, Groat, third type, S-5378 Charles II Merk, 1673, first coinage type.

Can you image the other side?

Even with my decent vision I canna see wha'ever said piece is. Might wanna make a bigger image size.

I have watched bidiots bid on "best known" Churchill crowns - most people would pay people to take those ugly abominations. I wonder how many 1967 Pennies are rotting in "best known" holders?

I have a proof 1860 SL Dollar in an NGC tomb that I cannot photograph because of the tomb. Those new NGC holders with the nibs are even worse, they show the edges all right - at the expense of the face and reverse of a coin.

Indeed it does appear to be a very worn Byzantine bronze coin, in reference to the earlier post though, it does appear as though it was placed in the mount upside down.

Authentication is a nice feature, but fakes have been found in PCGS and NGC holders, read up on the Micro-O mintmarked Morgan Dollars in the USA. Grading is one's opinion - I may or may not agree. I have bought Scottish coins in slabs and cracked them out - they were overgraded by British standards, and IMHO American grading is more generous for wear etc. I prefer to buy the coin and not the slab. Many collectors now go for high graded TPG coins, but all I think they are doing is paying more. That is what separates a purist collector from those that are more speculative, a purist collects the coin for what it is, not for what someone else's opinion of it is.

Have a lookie heres: Scottish Coinage

I can just imagine what the assurance/insurance on that beast is too.

With some things, like 19th century medals, it can be virtually impossible to find the medal with it's original case. There was a certain 1904 Louisiana Purchase medal I wanted for several years, but wanted it with at least the original box. It turned up finally, and even with the original paperwork describing the medal, the designer, how it was minted etc. Crazily, it turned up in Northern England of all places. On the other side of the water from where it was issued etc, and with all the original box and paperwork. It does happen, you just have to be intrepid.

Not having specifically seen an 1893, I would definitely put on the search area on feeBay etc. that term in the hopes that one will turn up. I see empties for the Maundy sets appearing every so often and occasionally the 1937 etc.

There are some very dangerous(convincing) forgeries that are coming out of Bulgaria these days, there are well known and documented makers of them continuing to crank out Athenian tets, Macedonian coinage, Thracian coinage etc. I would check out wildwinds.com to research these further.

Curiously the only time I have heard of the BRM darkening coins was the farthings in the early part of the 20th century to prevent them from being confused with the Sovereign coins. They were close in dimension, and in the right circumstance whence the farthing was brand new it could have been confused for a coin worth 960 times as much. I believe they were darkened prior to leaving the mint, up until the mid 1920's by which time Sovereigns had all but disappeared from circulation.

I wonder if the old pennies might make good skeet targets?

I would like to find a victim to send my coins too, but the postage is quite the killer. Maybe I could put them all in assorted little baggies and hand them out to kids on halloween.

Lot of people saved them, because they thought they were going to be valuable someday. Problem is, the BRM cranked them out in huge numbers and they will never be rare. I have myself a couple of bags of halfpennies and pennies that total about £50 or so that I wish I could get rid of.