Paddy

Ah yes - but that one is 1923 and it is 1932 I need to upgrade... 😊

This one needs a long lesson in grading I think. This is the coin that attracted my attention but when you look at her others, she is consistently 2 or 3 grades out if not more. Grrr! https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/1932-GEORGE-V-SILVER-FLORIN-EF-SPINK-S4038-ESC-952-NICE-COIN-AND-RARE/352419988545?hash=item520dde4441:g:iC0AAOSw~AVYqTqj

I think the only substantially scarce 2p is the 1983 with New Pence instead of Two Pence. Some other dates were issued in sets only - 1972, 1973, 1974, 1982, 1983, 1984 - I think, and are so a little scarcer than normal. The tales of the 1971 being scarce are a classic case of "Fake news". I am leaving out proofs and trail coins - that is a different area all together.

My first experience of computers was on the Durham University Mainframe in the late 70s. The machine was actually in Newcastle, which added to the slow response. It was water cooled, so occasionally we got the message: "Sorry, the computer is down. The plumber has been called." . They had just moved from tape readers to card readers programming in Fortran IV as previously discussed. In my third year I was allowed to use one of the new "Green screen" consoles - there was a waiting list and sometimes it was the middle of the night before I got on. Nothing much has changed - there was an entirely word based adventure game on there - a bit akin to dungeons and dragons - and that soon occupied too much of my time! About then the first PCs arrived - a Commodore PET with a whole 1k memory, programmed in Basic and with a cassette tape to store your efforts on. All the professors were very snooty about it and insisted it would never catch on. I was as pleased as punch when I created a worm chasing its tail game - you can still find them on older mobile phones. Ahhhh! Nostalgia ain't what it used to be...

I have never been diagnosed as such but have come to same conclusion for myself over a number of years. I thinks some indicators: - get on better with things than with people, even get emotionally attached to inanimate objects more than people. - able to focus intently on mental games for hours, but get bored quickly making idle chatter with people - Love "ticking the boxes" collecting and filling gaps in a collection. Love sequences, similarities and differences in a collection - can remember facts about things - periodic table, history, coins etc - with no difficulty but forget people's names in an instant. - find "unfinished business" intensely bothersome. - have to focus to be understanding and tolerant of other people's faults, but can't see the problem with my own! Anyone else tick a few of those boxes? 😁

Very nice but I think your £50 per month budget would be blown for the couple of years! I suspect that lot will make more like £500 to £600 at DNW - they generally under-estimate. You have 3 or 4 coins in there that a dealer would move on at over £100 each, the 1718 quarter Guinea well over £200, so with the other bits quite a good lot. (The "Quarter" Farthing is actually a "Third".)

I have long had a theory than both IT and collecting (along with certain brain focused games such as Chess and Bridge) are particularly attractive to people with a low level (often undiagnosed) autism. The need for high focus of concentration, attention to detail and retention of large amounts of data seem to work together.

Ah yes - I did Fortran IV at university on punch cards. I hereby formally apologise to Ian Pickles for shuffling his deck when he wasn't looking.

PL/1 with DB2 and IMS/Db to start with, then another another little known application development suite called Sapiens (RAD). Then much more into the Business Analyst side for Insurance companies - a lot in support of the sales process. Eventually all got too stressful and cost me my marriage so I got out of the rat race. EASYTRIEVE rings a bell somewhere but I cannot remember what it did or where I met it!

Early Retired now, prior to that I had a Travel Agency for 12 years, before that I was IT Consultant on IBM Mainframes (Like Peck) both with IBM and other companies. Before that I was British Army - Royal Engineers all round the world. I collected coins for a while as a child and then got back into them while I was being a Travel Agent (too little intellectual challenge there!).

Another interesting way of building a collection of "foreign" coins has been taken up by one of my regular buyers at market: He wants one decent coin from every country or territory that is or has been under British control at some stage. It is a surprisingly long list - I saw a map online somewhere suggesting that there are only 22 countries in the world that have not been occupied at some time in whole or part by the Brits! He came with a list - and I promptly added a whole load more - Ionian Islands, Demerara & Essequibo, Straits Settlements etc. There are other surprises: Israel, Iraq, Afghanistan and the United Arab Emirates are all ones I would not have thought of.

... and to get back on topic I found this site which has some good pictures of most of the proclamation coins (and a few others): http://www.triton.vg/proclamation.html

Any chance one of the moderators could move all the political ranting in here to the Dog Pit so that we can get on with the very interesting topic of the Proclamation coins?

I had to have a laugh at this one! I know many dealers who love to use "Near" and "About" to justify Fine, Very Fine and even Extra Fine grades, but I have never seen anyone use "Near Fair/Poor+" before! https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Rare-1672-Charles-II-Silver-925-Shilling-Near-Fair-Poor/292656589612?hash=item4423b12b2c:g:mogAAOSweqxbWiKQ

Peck hits many of the ones I would suggest - Pink Floyd being my ultimate favourite. A few others: The Strawbs, Greenslade. Moody Blues (though they get a bit poppy sometimes), Emerson Lake and Palmer... Here is Greenslade as they are probably the least know of the above:

I am not the person to advise you on Grading coins - I don't do it myself at all. I can see that encapsulated examples make appreciably more than raw, so it may be worthwhile. Mintage for 2005 is quoted as 12500 in Proof, 45542 in bullion. This is not hugely different to other years - Proof coins in 2009 and 2010 were 16000 but in other years around there range from around 8000 to 12500.

Does appear to be a Proof coin - I assume you have checked it is Sovereign size and not half sovereign as both had the same reverse in 2005. As to value - you have done OK but not stunningly brilliantly. If it had it's original box and certificate it would make over £400, but without those they make only a little more than the bullion coins. Actual price as ever will depend on how much someone wants one. There are far more of the proof half sovereigns that have sold on the net recently, and these are only making bullion value without their boxes. But you certainly haven't lost out, as long as it is genuine!

The example @terrysoldpennies has given shows to me the most normal indication of the crude fakes around - they have an almost cartoon-like quality with all the lines in the depiction too thick and uniform, as if they have been drawn with a thick pen rather than an artist's brush. This may be as a result of using a computer to generate the image? The genuine coin in his example shows much finer artistic detail. Sadly, as he suggests, we cannot rely on the forgers continuing to get it so wrong...

Thanks - I will remember for next time. I watched it tonight and even have it recorded on my old-fashioned freeview box. (I don't watch enough TV for Virgin or Sky but I could do it on the internet.)

Probably get it on catch up? (Don't ask me how - I here everyone using this expression but I have no idea how to do it!)

Tonight;'s Antique Roadshow gave two coin outings: A 1933 Penny introduced by someone from the Royal Mint at Llantrisant (though he never actually stated that the example shown was genuine) and a lovely Slave token. Stand by for lots of daft enquiries!

Yes - some great tips there! Just to reiterate a hint I put elsewhere, you can also use brackets for things to include. The minus sign "-" means exclude - the plus sign "+" means must include but putting in nothing defaults to a "+". So: (1903, 1913, 1927) +shilling -(florin, jersey) when used within British coins means "Give me anything in British coins that is dated 1903 OR 1913 OR 1927 AND has the word shilling in the title, but leave out anything which also has the word Florin OR Jersey in it." I use this to search for shilling upgrades in multiple periods without also seeing too many florins (because they are often described as "two shilling") or coins from Jersey (which often are described as "thirteenth shilling" or similar. You can save these searches in Ebay - the only problem at the moment is the title of your search will be the full search string you have entered. On occasions they change it so you can edit the title and give it a sensible name such as "Shilling upgrades" but they keep turning that function on and off!

Nice looking coin but I would say the price is considerably high. It may be "XF" US style but not "EF" UK style. When I get a chance I will look out a spare I think I have which is a similar grade as I recall, and would be a lot less money. As to holding for you - I don't know. Each dealer is different and it may depend if they know you from previous business. Equally if they have had that one in stock since 2007 I suspect they will delighted in your interest!

Sorry - you've gone One Step beyond...

Welcome to the madhouse! I am sure you will have a lot of fun here. It seems you have already learnt a painful lesson with your Guinea purchase - I am sorry to hear that. Are you not able to return it for a full refund? I won't try to answer all your questions at once - others will chip in soon I hope. A few thoughts: - Telling wear from poor strike will come with experience and can be very difficult in some cases. The main thing is that wear should only be on the highest points of the design. If the coin looks flat and lacking detail in the troughs, then it may be a weak strike - or even a copy. - The two main variants of the 1787 shilling (with and without Semee of hearts) are equally common and seem to have no difference in price. Far more important is the eye-appeal of the particular coin you are looking at. - As you have learnt, pay no attention to the grades claimed by sellers on Ebay. (A reputable coin dealer, Third Party Grading company or auction house is a different matter, but even then opinions will differ.) Go for the coin that appeals to you most. You can go for TPG graded coins if you wish, but you will pay a substantial premium for these. I prefer my coins free of plastic! - Unslabbed a decent VF+ to EF 1787 Shilling should be easily achievable in your budget if you are patient. They are not scarce coins. I hope that helps and I look forward to seeing other opinions.