Paddy

A very merry Bah Humbug to you all! Let's hope the New Year brings a more peaceful and prosperous future for us all.

Yes, I have just had a similar message from Tim. I have replied thanking him for taking the comments in good heart and reacting accordingly.

Not really my specialist area, but I will contribute. Yes, appears to match #455 in the list of evasion farthings. I have this list in the back of the Withers Token Book 2010. There is no picture - just a description. In that it shows no date and there is no back up to indicate where this type was produced. There is also no value suggested, which generally indicates it is fairly scarce. In your pictures I think I can see the ghost of a date - 1798 or similar? A sharper close up might help. Value, as always with these, is a guess. Best market would be in the US where these evasions are closely linked to the earliest US coinage. It could make just £10, or £80 depending on who saw it and needed it for their collection. By the way, your Flickr links give access to all you photos on that site - I hope that was what you intended? 🙂

As a separate comment, I bought at Fieldings auction yesterday, and their service was impeccable. Combined invoice received with 1 hour of the end of the auction. I requested postage online and this was quoted within minutes - £15 plus VAT for lots totalling around £500, which is reasonable. I paid before 5pm yesterday and the coins arrived by Special Delivery today around 14.30. Spot on!

As the coins are now safely in the hands of a trusted friend, I will reveal all. Firstly, an amelioration of my previous criticism: the staff at Lawrences are extremely helpful and have resolved the confusions caused by their systems cheerfully and without quibble. So the criticism goes to their admin system - AUCTIONET - and whoever in management decided this was a good approach to customer service, and made this an obligatory default for payment. Specifically: It insists on sending out separate invoices for each lot sold, The process for requesting combined invoices is complex and requires manual intervention by AUCTIONET, not the auction house, The postage costs are set very high, and by default are charged separately for each lot, with minimal discount for combined postage when achieved, The payment process is buggy - it cannot cope with more than payment per session, so you have to log out and back in for each transaction, By default it starts sending out abrupt "storage charge" emails after only 1 week and with no consideration as to the size of the lots. So my advice would be: if you find out your auction house is using AUCTIONET, be prepared for frustration.

Definitely not the mule and I have messaged him to that effect. If he can't see that the border on the reverse is toothed, not beaded, he can check on the rocks to the left of the lighthouse. On the beaded reverse, there are 3 distinct rocks, whereas on the toothed there is a single large rock.

I have it in the 2016 paperback edition of Freeman, published by the great ROTOGRAPHIC - page 29, 1* and B. Unfortunately mine is 1** and B, which makes it F763 - deep in the appendices.

https://www.predecimal.com/forum/topic/13698-useful-tips-on-windows-for-coin-people/ This is the link to the suggestion

You can also do a selective screenshot of just the image. See the tip I posted under useful tips in the technical section on here. Saves a lot of faffing around.

First cartoon to make me laugh out loud in a while:

I think I'd like to wait until I have my coins safely in my hands before I insult them directly.

Auction One gets worse and worse! Automated emails from them last night - If I do not collect by Friday they will charge £5 per coin per day storage fees! Unbelievable. My point about the difference in buyers commission was more about the expectation that with such high commission levels they should be geared up for great customer service. The reverse seems to be true. If anyone is desperate to find out which auction house I am talking about, please PM me. PS: Have now spoken to them and they assure me they will not be making the above charges. If so, why have their computer send out such annoying emails?

"I wish I could gnash my teeth at you..."

Yes, the first auction house was quite a large one - long established and holding posh sales roughly monthly as well as clearance sales fortnightly. Until fairly recently they were family owned but I believe they have been bought out and this maybe why auctionet has entered the scene. They only do coin auctions once a year - I hope they have got themselves sorted out before the next one.

Lots of great comments about The Coinery - I have sent them a link to this topic for their information. No comment on the appalling experience with Auction One - do I take it that this form of poor customer service and over-charging is taken as normal?

The auctioneer introduced himself as Richard something, but I cannot remember what surname he gave. I just assumed both Richard and Guy are involved in the operation.

Yes - Guy is the chap running The Coinery auction. The bank transfer was to his account. I have no idea if Guy is on here somewhere.

I see @The Coinery last visited in 2017, so even if they are related to the auction house, they are unlikely to notice the comments here!

I don't know - I hope so.

I decided to splash out on a few coins last week and ended winning lots at two different auction houses: Auction One on Thursday (I will not reveal the name for fear of being accused of libel): I won two lots totalling £265 before commission, Commission 30% including VAT Confirmation of lots won received same day but with requirement to create account at auctionet, so I did that. Links to invoices received next day (Friday) - two separate invoices. Logged into auctionet to request postage. Could only be done separately for each lot. Total £39 for two tiny coins. Spoke to auction house - had to email auctionet to get the invoices combined, so did that. Received reply Monday - complicated explanation as to how to request combined invoice through the auctionet website. For this they would give me a "generous" discount of 30% on the postage, bringing it down to £27.30. Oh, and they would post within the next 1 to 3 weeks. At this point I cancelled shipping requests and paid the total for the coins and commission. That had to be done as two separate transactions on my card and required me to log out of auctionet between transactions before the second transaction would process. I have now arranged a friend to pick up the coins in the next few weeks and I will get them when we next meet up. Auction two on Saturday (The Coinery - happy to reveal their name as service was impeccable): I won 5 lots totalling £585 before commission, Commission 19.2% including VAT Invoice for all lots combined, including postage, received a couple of hours after the auction finished. Postage £13.15 plus VAT, Paid that evening by bank transfer. Confirmation of receipt of payment and postage received first thing Monday morning. Coins received by Special delivery, all correct, Tuesday Lunchtime. Needless to say, Auction house One is now off my favoured list! The Coinery I will happily use again and recommend to anyone.

Thanks for that! I will amend my notes accordingly. If you want it on Rarest pennies, feel free.

Going back through my penny collection I came across this one identified as 1* and B - therefore F8B. I can't remember how or when I came to that conclusion as I am not usually too attentive to varieties, and it may have been discussed on this forum before. Is that correct? If it is, I would have thought it would be imaged on rarestpennies, but I can't see it there. If it is wanted there, please feel free to add it.

Bought and received - all great, thank you.

I think I'd like to go for that - I have 174, 176 and 177 so that fits in neatly. I'll PM you.

Great link @Sword. The drawing from the OP appears about half way down and the debate is whether it is Elizabeth I or Mary I. I don't think Mary Queen of Scots is suggested.