Nicholas

Mine, but a proof - I know cheating... http://s1322.photobucket.com/user/2tearsinabucket1/media/image_zpsd9645b95.jpg.html?sort=9&o=17

If you found it then its part of the history of your pub. That's valuable then as an historical value to you and your son. I'd love to find something like that in my place!

I generally don't swear, but bloody hell that looks good in the photo. I'd like to see it in person-is there a bag of them? I'd be interested to send one each to NGC, PCGS and CGS for slabbing and authentication.. They don't ask for provenance...

Without extensive knowledge of known fake differences, then intuition tells me what is fake. This I guess is really a combination of things you can only do in person: 1. depth of strike 2. texture of metal, especially plain fields (cast metal) 3. The shape of the portrait 4. Colour/oxidation of the metal 5. The sound it makes when struck (lightly of course!) 6. Any newish filing of the rims in places 7. Weight 8. Comparison to known real examples (preferably under microscope) If you only have a photo then it's tricky and rely heavily on the auction house rep.

All the mentioned UK auction houses will access good buyers if you have quality/rare coins and will show much interest very quickly . For middle level material, its better to offer a level of loyalty as a customer and 'shopping around' will inevitably mean exorbitant selling commissions. Sometimes it's best to lean towards one favourite auction house and stick to them.- I think you'll find they'll get to know you, lower their selling commissions and even help you find specific coins. Over the years I have purchased from all these auction houses, but when selling a longer term relationship is much better and I usually stick to the same house.

The 1905 Halfcrown copy in forgery.com looks good in the picture. I can normally pick a forgery a mile away.

I guess the art here is to know when a coin is well or poorly struck. Coin wear is uniform across coin and easier to recognise. Milled: under magnification poorly struck coins lack detail on high or low points of a coin Hammered: strike is rarely even, so judge the strike on the sharpest area of the coin.

It's not an exact science just one of a number of things to look for. For oz coins pre 1936 we use the 8 pearls on kings crown in a similar way.

I look at the orb beneath the cross pattee on the reverse. The wear on the horizontal line across the orb often indicates wear of the coin. No wear is EF plus. Try it. http://s1322.photobucket.com/user/2tearsinabucket1/media/image_zpsced871f8.jpg.html

Agree nVF (sorry to disappoint !)

and You might have to have a word to NGC who graded the coin Proof 62. I'd like to hear their reply.

Ok Final offer aVF!

Agreed

Ok, heres my sequestered halfcrown.... http://s1322.photobucket.com/user/2tearsinabucket1/media/image_zps53ce9fac.jpg.html?sort=3&o=0 http://s1322.photobucket.com/user/2tearsinabucket1/media/image_zps4f76d3bf.jpg.html?sort=3&o=1

When you live a long way away from everyone else you rely heavily on making purchases on images alone and not seeing the real thing. I guess this builds a healthy scepticism as photos can be played with and you never get to see along the rims or see how flat a coin is on a table or its true daylight tone.

I'd keep looking. These halfcrowns are one of the best looking coins around, plenty of history and even with the recent spink price jump, still great value.

My humble opinion no better than Fine, especially for a 1658 issue. Strange grey coloration around rim looks a tad cleaned once. Not really a 'decent one'

Yes. I saw this one at Goldberg too. This is a really nice proof, but probably still won't beat 42k GBP! BTW hard to see the difference between this so called proof and circulating strike...

This coin is close to mint state, With the lines and colouring, you would have to see the coin in person to really know what was going on ie part of the coin production or as wear and tear... In any case you're not likely to get your money back at that price - not in this life time anyway...

If you were to categorise my collection it would not be on denomination but more on period: tudor-stuart-commonwealth.

started with halfcrowns because they were a nice size to look at and store in 4*4 snap holders. Drifting now towards crowns as they hold value better. But also have guineas, halfpennies, shillings., angels and groats ...have owned couple of Anglo Saxon pennies

Only commemorative I bought recently was the latest Australian 50 cent piece with my wife's image- 50th Anniversary of the Australian Ballet... unfortunately Ill never match that. ; (

I only get coins slabbed when selling in the US, else I crack them out for my collection.. (Sorry NGC I know this wrecks your stats)

BTW most countries have import taxes, Australia is roughly 10%. Ouch. So, you'll find that most coin dealers and auction houses declare a trivial low value and describe the package contents as "metal object over 100 years old for numismatic study" or something similar...

Heritage auctions has a huge following and your best chance of market/list price. All coins should be slabbed by NGC prior to the auction and heritage will arrange this at about $30 each (I think) - give plenty of time ahead of the auction. The US market is very strong for milled proofs especially if the NGC grade is MS64,65,66... Non slabbed coins receive little attention in the sceptical us market. If you tell me what coins you have and condition I can suggest which auction house around the world.