Sword

The initials GN are not mint marks. They were engraved onto the coin sometime after it has been minted by a private individual. A mint mark has to be part of the original design of the coin. The coin is sterling silver. However, it is only worth scrap value it this condition.

A really good collection! They are well struck examples and most are nice round coins.

Just a thought. No coin fairs, no room bidding in auctions, less lots being assigned etc. Will there simply be much less new stock on the market in the next 6 months?

It's working now.

It's much easier to agree on a price for a problem-free coin than to suggest a value for a cleaned one. For me, I just don't want a lightly polished coin in my collection and would rather have a lower grade honest example. A 30% discount off the problem-free price won't tempt me but others might think differently.

That's fair enough. He does provide very good photos which are of course much more useful than grades. I know I am probably losing out, but I just don't buy from Ebay. I am more comfortable buying from dealers' own sites.

I have brought from him too and he is indeed a very decent dealer. But personally, I would prefer if he grades his coins conventionally using UNC, EF etc. rather than his own scale of "superb - very nice - nice". I know buyers should be able to grade for themselves but I would like the seller's opinion nonetheless.

Apart from the black marks, the 83 is a very nice coin indeed. The braid is very clear. The loss of detail in the top lion is due to weak striking I think. But I agree, the marks are distracting.

I once left an absentee bid on a lot and ended up as underbidder. (My bid was well over the low estimate). The very same lot was offered for sale in the next auction again (obviously it wasn't actually sold first time round) and I was again under bidder after leaving another absentee bid. Believe it or not, it appeared again in the auction after that. There is no doubt in my mind that the auction house has allowed the vendor to set a reserve higher than the low estimate and was bidding on the vendor's behalf against me.

Very nice with clean fields. A coin without significant bag marks is always impressive .

It is anyone's guess whether they will have live bidding though.

You have probably got enough to get started. I like the British Silver Coins since 1816 by Peter J Davies which is much more detailed regarding varieties than Spink. It was published in 1982 and gives the die pairings known at the time.

Might be there is just some misunderstanding. I assumed that the original sentence wasn't written by anyone on the forum. It is a caption to a cartoon pasted in from somewhere. This is an informal forum and people don't always have the time to proof-read their posts. I don't go round pointing out typos / spellings mistakes made by others on the forum and I am certain I have made many over the years.

Now in excess of £18 million raised!

I guess we have a different tolerance towards English usage. To be honest, I am not particularly convinced that commas must be used in the sentence I wrote. The original sentence is somehow different in my view as it contains errors ("your" instead of "you're", "isolateing" instead of "isolating" and the absence of capital letters for "we" and "tom") that are not socially acceptable. I believe that the usage of the Oxford comma is stylistic in nature. It is not technically wrong to omit it even if the sentence is clearer by using it. If a sentence is unclear, then rephrasing it might be a better option than inserting an Oxford comma.

We have discussed the Oxford comma already. I believe it is optional.

Are we supposed to laugh at the cartoon or the linguistic mistakes in the sentence or both? 😀 Truly amazing achievement Captain Moore! 12.3 million raised already. It's the best news story for such a long time.

Thanks very much gents! Really pleased to learn that the coin has some provenance. Cliff, I will send you my e-mail address by PM. Sword.

Thanks. I am very pleased with it particularly as it is round and all struck up. I didn't realise it could the the Bull 212b / 28 plate coin. Would it be possible to post the images in Bull for a comparison? Would love to be able to establish some provenance.

I hope it's OK if I post mine for a comparison of mint mark. I love the S2773 and it is the very first hammer coin I brought. Rob very kindly told me at the time that he thought there is a trace of portcullis underneath the bell. Any more thoughts?

That's a really nice round flan and all details fully struck up. Nice!

As expected, the Maundy coins were posted to the recipients by Royal Mail. The coins were blessed at the Chapel Royal before posting and the recipients would also be welcome at next year's service. They each received the following letter from the Queen.

The King holding scissors instead of sword variety.