SEnumis

Snip: Mongo said "To not just have a look and think "thats lovely" when I get each coin, but get the magnifying glass out and make myself familiar with the fine details of each coin." For my two pennorth by all means take out the magnifying glass and be familiar with the fine details of each coin. You will then realise just how lovely they can be as tiny works of art. In other words in my view grading is important, but the higher grades of coin allow me to appreciate more the aesthetics of what can be very beautiful art objects. The grade is a tool we can use on this quest.

Welcome Pies from another newbie. The Standing Britannia Florin is a really beautiful and lively looking coin and it looks in good condition too (I'm not too hot on grading).

Welcome Mongo to what is a fascinating hobby. Coins (can be) true works of art in your pocket.

Again I'm no financier but putting money in a pension fund looks like the tax tail wagging the investment dog - and some of those pension funds really are dogs. A good investment (i.e. one that brings home the bacon in terms of both capital growth and income generation - decide the right balance for you) is a good investment wether tax free or not. Also pension the Government makes you buy an annuity with it! Annuity rates are falling very fast as people live longer, give up smoking etc. I have investments: they might fund my retirement or they might fund my life. I'll stop work when I have the means to do so. My investments aren't tax freebut then nobady says what I do with them. If I want to blow it all on a dozen 1919 KN pennies at UNC I can.

Looking at the godless florin there's also a half florin. Now when I went to school the text books they were throwing out all said a half florin was... a shilling.

Yes keep the bullion separate. I have some sovs that my beloved keeps 200 miles away from me purely as bullion. If they were in my collection I would despair at the condition. My lesson here is always collect bullion coins in person. I learned this because when I collected in person I was sold a nice 1968 and 1974 one. Having the coins sent they were a grotty 1913 and 1930 that were scratched to blazes and had probably come out of rings. Absolutely not collectable but still perfectly acceptable as bullion, and I would be very disappointed to lose money on them. I have some silver proofs in the collection where I paid a lot more than the bullion price. However the coins really are beautiful to look at Fairly Decent Coins ;-) which will give me a lot of pleasure over the years. If I was to sell these I doubt I would make money on them, and almost certain I would lose. Keep the bullion and the collection separate.

Welcome from another newbie! Enjoy the hobby.

I'm no financier but in my view gold is worth holding at the moment - it's extremely portable and highly negotiable. The same applies slightly less to silver.

As I've said I don't know much but I would have thought that if somebody was producing a pattern crown they would make the date correct. 1911 is MCMXI. Have a look at this and see what you think.

Absolutely agree on Solovair - fantastic boots from Northampton.

Whoo hoo TLRs are cool. Haven't used my Yashica Mat 124g in a while having gone digital but some of my best pics have come out of that one.

6/7 same as everyone else the Somalian shilling stumped me!