jaggy

Speaking as someone who likes to buy coins, I would be up the creek without a paddle if nobody ever sold them. But, I agree with you. We all have different circumstances. I spend what I am comfortable with. How much I choose to spend is nobodies business but my own (and that of my wife ). I generally choose not to sell coins because I don't have to. That nice man who manages my retirement money and that other nice man who sends me a pension cheque every month (I took early retirement) means that I can continue funding my hobby.

I don't need to justify or rationalise. I like my coins and I can afford the ones I buy. In fact, I have only ever sold two coins and only because I was offered silly money for them (some may remember that I was torn about selling even then).

From time to time I revalue my coins for insurance purposes. I also compare market/retail value to cost. Needless to say - and quite apart from the pleasure I get in them - my coin collection is far from my worst investment.

I am, primarily, a collector of sixpences. It all stems from those childhood days when 6d got you into the ABC Minors and 6d also got you a load of sweets to guzzle. It is a very interesting denomination going back to Henry VIII with a wide range of varieties, patterns, errors, etc. and with more than a fair share of rarities.

I think you make a very interesting point. As someone who does bid fairly regularly at Heritage, the grade given by the TPG usually makes a huge difference to the price a coin fetches. The idea of the grade becoming a proxy for rarity had not occurred to me. That may work very well for US coins where a large proportion - or at least the more desirable ones - are probably slabbed. But I think the proxy breaks down for British coins where the majority are probably not slabbed. So US buyers of slabbed British coins are applying a faulty standard which is causing them to overpay for coins. If greater numbers of British coins start to be slabbed and graded by the likes of NGC then we could possibly see prices stagnate or even fall as a result.

I bought an 1839 6d proof at London Coins 18 months ago and slabbed NGC PF 65 for £538 ($887 approx including BP).

I bid on a gold 1887 pattern sixpence about a month ago at the Heritage Signature Auction. I bid $5,000 which was around the auctioneers estimates. It finally went for $15,000 ($17,625 with BP). Heritage can be funny. Sometimes you can pick up nice coins at fair prices even sometimes a bargain. And, yet, some coins just go through the roof. I do buy from Heritage but I am not willing to let 'auction fever' get the better of good judgement.

Garrett ... Yep, the third farthings were struck for use in Malta. I have been there twice and it is a lovely place and the people very nice. Anyway, there is not a big date series for third farthings and not a big mintage for each date. So I started picking them up if the quality was there and the price was right. Gives me something to do if there are no eligible sixpences in the auction. It is nice to see the quality of engraving on such a small coin and the Victoria third farthings, in particular, have a very pleasing image of her.

You do get errors ... I have a couple of George VI sixpence errors one which is only struck on one side of the coin and one which is struck on a split planchet. And they did mint 240 million 1967 sixpences so the odd error is not surprising.

William IV Third Farthing.

Welcome to the forum and the hobby. I ended up collecting mainly sixpences because that was a meaningful coin for me as a child (6d got you into the ABC Minors on a Saturday). But it doesn't really matter what you end up collecting so long as you find it enjoyable and interesting.

Rob This is great comment. I had looked at the Brock catalogue a couple of times but always felt that the quality was not really there compared to London or DNW (for example). So I never did bid in one of their auctions. Quality is everything. Quality of the coins on offer, quality of the web site, quality of the after-sales administration and despatch.

The seller dragged the $2000 number off the NGC website. Not sure how they got that. Looks like a computer glitch to me. Clearly the seller doesn't know much about grading or pricing... at least for British coins. But the OP got a good deal so all's well that ends well.

It is graded MS64 and looks better than an EF. I would grade it UNC.

I think $36 was a bargain really, considering its condition. By the way, it's the 1926 OE as opposed to the ME - is that larger? Perhaps, a little. But not rare! Not in the slightest. Value? Possibly around twice what you paid for it, perhaps a bit more. Oh, and don't forget to add on an extra $1950 for the slab. Ha! Beat me to it

It is a nice coin but not worth $2,000. There are two varieties of 1926 sixpence, the old effigy and the modified effigy. The old effigy in UNC is worth around £45 and the modified one around £35. Yours looks like old effigy from the pic (judging by positioning on BM on the truncation). So you gort a pretty good deal at $36.

The big difference between the market now and the market when I started collecting is that the internet has made it a worldwide one. Thus I can bid by email at London Coins (who are a bit behind the times) or online at Heritage or DNW. Most dealers have web sites and I can go online and view their coins. The advent of digital photography has allowed me to see what I am buying rather than taking the dealer's or auctioneer's word for it (other than the few cases where they invested in a photo). Location is much less of a barrier to the collector or investor than it once was. I cannot believe that this has not expanded the market and that it has not had some influence over price levels.

These things tend to be cyclical. If interest rates rise and other investment become more interesting then we will probably see a cooling of the market. I doubt that prices will return to previous levels but they will become more affordable. My own solution is to adopt a more targeted - and less scattergun - approach to the coins I buy.

Within reason Well, look at it this way ... an investor has a $50 million portfolio. They put just 2% into alternatives. That is still $1 million. Sorry, I must have dropped my wallet with that 50 million in. We're talking real world Jaggy, which means for people who do a regulär job and have a mortgage and other outstanding Bills to pay monthly I am talking real world. This is what is happening in the investment world. There are more than enough people with good sized investment portfolios to move this market. And that is one of the reasons we are seeing these high prices. What is happening to 'regular people' is that they are getting squeezed out by the investors.

Within reason Well, look at it this way ... an investor has a $50 million portfolio. They put just 2% into alternatives. That is still $1 million.

While interest rates stay low, 'alternative investments' will remain attractive.

In my student days, a curry cost 75p in the Rusholme cafes. We never asked what was in it.

I know, but I couldn't think of an appropriately named arabic dish. Couscous

Oooops .... didn't even notice

Azda .... I think your photo is of the more common variety rather than JEB on the truncation. I have a few of these. There are a number of varieties/errors with this sixpence in addition to the JEB on truncation (that is on my buy list). For example, there is also R over V in Victoria (I have two of these) and R over I in Victoria (that is also on my buy list).