Sword

Having read their website http://www.lcgrading.co.uk/ a bit more, I think it was just rather carelessly put together. Under the benefits of coin grading tab, they have forgotten about the change of name and call themselves CGS UK a few times. In FAQ, they mentioned that "LCGS has graded over 40,000 coins as at 2016". Not true unless they are admitting that LCGS is the same as CGS.

Another U-turn from London Coins. Check this out: http://www.lcgrading.co.uk/ Look at the FAQs: The annual fee for joining LCGS is £99. Looks like riff-raff are now welcome. You get a £50 voucher to spend in LCA auctions and another LCA voucher to spend on their coins on the LCA website providing the purchase is over £250. The second voucher is not useful to most people though. I would be interested to know if those people already paid their £99 fee will now get vouchers. No mention of the £499 upfront fee now. They are no longer calling themselves a TPG but is now saying LCGS " offers a third party grading system based on a benchmark coin grading set, and fixed parameters which the graders follow which remain unchanged over time". Personally, my confidence in CGS / LCGS have been badly shakened and I am unsure if I really want to use them again.

I believe it was a company address belonging to CGS. Can't remember the exact form but it was something like xxx@coingradingservice.co.xx

Bill was the chairman of the CGS forum meetings. These meetings were held on the same dates as the London Coins Auctions (in the same hotel but in a different room as the auction). Bill also had an official CGS e-mail address. However, he mentioned that he did not held any shares in CGS and was otherwise just a customer wishing to promote CGS.

Adjustment lines across the centre of coins are not that uncommon. A quick Google search shows up plenty of such examples. One is shown below. I assume the adjustments were made on the blank flans before the striking.

I don't believe it is deliberate graffiti either. If someone wants to scratch a coin with a sharp point, then it is likely that the lines would all join up.

If a Henry cleaner doesn't suck, then it sucks Might be someone should change the title from "helping hand" to "hand of death."

Let's change the subject and post a few nice coins. Unfortunately, I don't have anything remotely exciting left to post. Just a few very common coins.

I think an elevated reserve price is a lot more "honest" than an unjustifiably high postage charge. I am fine with some auction houses charging 20+ % commission. However, I feel cheated if someone were to charge £15+ for posting a coin.

A Jubilee crown I have for a while. (Brought raw and was graded CGS 75 later on).

Now the CGS photo which shows the patchy gold toning.

Here is another example of a coin brought from LCA in 2013 and was immediately slabbed by CGS afterwards. Again the CGS photo is better. The LCA photo totally failed to show the patchy gold toning. I am not convinced that the CGS setup is the same as LCA. This is the LCA photo

Nice coins Paul. With regard to mine. The 1902 crown was purchased in LCA in 2011 and I had it slabbed before it was posted to me. There was might be a two months gap between the dates of the LCA and CGS photos. The 1888 was purchased in LCA in 2013 and was also slabbed immediately afterwards. Hence a gap of might be two or three months between the photos.

The gate price is £25 per adult which is too much in my view. However, this is equal to £6.25 in Tesco's Clubcard vouchers. But most people go to the tower for a day out to see the crown jewels, armours, history and not the coin displays.

There are no raised hairlines as far as I can tell. However, I do think the CGS photos show up details better. E.g. for the matt proof crown, the contact mark on the horse's rear shows up much more clearly on the CGS photo. For the 1888 halfcrown the CGS photo suggests that the lions' thighs might have received slight rubbing and hence the different toning. This is not evident on the LCA photo.

I would say the CGS photos are closer to the coins at hand.

If you shop in Tesco's, you can trade £5 of your clubcard vouchers for a £20 voucher towards admission. Then you have the option of upgrading your day ticket to a one year pass (for free entry to six palaces including Hampton Court) at the end of the visit.

Now CGS photos (later graded as CGS 80)

LCA photos of 1888 halfcrown (described as UNC with colourful tone and some very light contact marks)

Now these are CGS photos (later graded as CGS 85)

I do think CGS photos somewhat better than LCA photos. I will give two random examples. These are LCA photos of 1902 matt proof crown (graded as nFDC)

Charles II portrait punch. It was used as a master tool to make dies. Reverse punch of Charles II.

Trial plates were used to test the purity of coins. These are the Commonwealth and Charles II Plates.