jaggy

I think that over grading is a problem throughout the hobby. When I compare coins that are EF or GEF with coins I bought at the same grades from Glendinings 20-30 years ago there is a clear difference. Glendinings were stricter graders than DNW who are stricter graders than London Coins. I don't have a lot of experience with TPGs but I have found that the coins I sent in to NGC have been pretty strictly graded. In fact, it has been something of an eye opener and has made me much more critical of the coins I bid on at DNW or LCA. So when they describe a coin as "about mint state", I take that with a pinch of salt. I did buy a couple of CGS slabbed coins (CGS 82) at LCA, broke them out and sent them to NGC. They were both graded at MS63 whereas, according to the comparisons I have seen, one might have expected an MS64 or MS65. I have one more CGS coin (a 75) being graded by NGC at the moment. It will be interesting to see where it comes out. My guess, based on my own grading experience, is that it will be an AU58 rather than an MS62-MS63 that the comparisons might suggest. I knew that when I bought the coin and factored it into the price I paid. So, once again, always buy the coin and not the grade.

First post in this thread ........ Bought this Edward VII, 1902 low tide for my Edward VII type set.

I don't know much about St. James but every time I look at the Baldwins site I come away disappointed. The site is hard to use, the prices are through the roof and Baldwins simply does not appear to be customer friendly.

When my mother was ill over the last couple of years of her life, the NHS in Glasgow was outstanding. I have nothing but praise for them. So were Glasgow social services. Having lived outside the UK for quite a long time, I do have experience of other health systems and specifically the Swiss and US systems. They all have their pros and cons and I don't plan to get into those here. But I don't think many Brits realise what great value the NHS represents compared to those other systems. The care you get is generally very good and you pay a lot less than either the Swiss or Americans for it. One problem with the NHS is that it is politicised and a great opportunity for politicians to score point and get media attention. So far too much time is spent looking for problems to highlight and saying good things about the NHS will always deliver poorer publicity than saying bad things. Best wishes to Dave and Pete for a rapid recovery.

Lovely coin Paul.

Re: Wives and coins. Some members may recall that I received an unsolicited offer for a 1853 proof sixpence about a month after I had acquired it (I discussed it on here). Anyway, I accepted the offer and made a 68% profit on the coin in less than two months. Needless to say, my wife was most impressed and even more so when I invested some of the profit in buying her a pearl necklace in a Heritage jewelry auction. She now believes that coins are a 'good thing' and that I actually know what I am doing with them. As such, I get no grief when investing part of my money (we both have our own dosh) in them.

I would caution others from clicking on the link above. This is a shortened link. I ran a link scanner on it which came up as 'safe' but that is no guarantee. Given that we have a new user who has started a thread with no information and just the link, I think that caution is appropriate.

I would forward the link to Semra.

I have never sold coins at auction so don't know. There are probably others on here better able to advise you in that direction.

Somewhere around £100 - £125 by the time membership, fee and postage are taken into account. If you can find a private buyer at around £1300 - £1400 that might be a better deal than sending to auction. There is always risk at auction. You might get more but you also could get less. And then there is the auction commission and other costs which will eat around 20% - 25% of what you get. What the auction prices give you is a ballpark figure to start from.

A coin in similar condition to yours sold for £1,700 at London Coins Auction last September. http://www.londoncoins.co.uk/?page=Pastresults&searchterm=1850+Shilling&searchtype=1 Edit: agree with Copper123 above on the grading. Only worth having it professionally graded and slabbed if you want to try to sell in the USA. Paying a membership fee and then a grading fee for just one coin probably isn't worth it.

Interesting commentary Rob. Thanks for that. I had assumed that there were more than four examples around and I note that in the later DNW auction (October 2002) they just state that it is "extremely rare". I should imagine that if we know of 8 then there are probably at least as many, if not more, that we don't know about. At that point, condition becomes more important. The S/I error also exists for the 1820 sixpence but is not listed for the 1817. I only have one example of each and neither has that error.

Also ...... this from the DNW archive .... how great to have one of only 'four known specimens'. Click Image to Zoom Back to Search Results Lot 490 Date of Auction: 20th June 2001 Sold for £620 Estimate: £400 - £500 Shilling, 1817, i of honi over s (ESC –; SC 112; S 3790). Brilliant and practically as struck, extremely rare; believed to be the finest of the four known specimens (£400-500)

First, thanks for all your comments. I tend to be rather conservative with these things so I do appreciate your input. I also had a look in the DNW auction archives for comparative examples and mine is similar to one they auctioned (but did not sell). https://www.dnw.co.uk/auction-archive/lot-archive/lot.php?department=Coins&lot_id=80220 While the error is not as strong/obvious as Michael's above, my coin is a nice example and graded MS63 by PCGS. I bought the coin in 2013 and I'm not sure exactly why as it isn't a sixpence. At the time I didn't notice the error/variety and only saw it now as I was inputting it into my new database. So this is a rather nice surprise.

Would appreciate a second opinion ..... does this look like I over S in Honi (ESC2147)?

I get mine in Walmart. You get a six pack for 10 bob. Actually a nine pack for $15 (I just checked online).

That is our back yard! Our house backs onto national forest.

We live at 4300 feet and we usually get a couple of snow falls every year.

A white Christmas here in Arizona. A very merry Christmas to all.

I have had a 'details' grade for less obtrusive scratches.

Having compared it with my own example of a 1731 sixpence, I would say it is VF to GVF.

Update ..... Citibank closed at $60.04 on Friday. I bought 200 shares at $38.04 last February so that is a nice little profit and they pay a dividend too. For US tax reasons I want to hold the shares for at least a year so not ready to sell just yet. Hopefully, the price will not drop too much between now and then. Alternatively, maybe I will just hold for the long term.

Actually, it is 'arithmetic'.

In my experience, auction pictures can flatter to deceive so it might be interesting if you took your own photos and posted them up on here. I have had four Details gradings from coins bought at LCA, mainly for hairline scratches, and which were absolutely not evident from their photos.

Step one is to decide of you agree with the PCGS evaluation. My own experience with details grading at NGC is that they invariably got it right. On the other hand, I have had a coin which was misattributed by PCGS. I broke it out of the slab and sent it to NGC who correctly attributed it. Step two - and if you agree with the PCGS evaluation - is to contact the auction house. If their photos did not show tooling and the description did not mention it then you probably have a fairly strong case for reimbursement. Step three - and if you disagree with PCGS - is to break the coin out of its holder and either 1) keep it raw, 2) sell it or 3) have it graded by NGC or LCGS.