Paddy

Thanks Jerry, you are of course right! Not my area at all so I assumed when I was pointed to the Montmedy coin and it seemed to fit that it must be right. Disappointing reduction in value but still a nice find.

In case anyone here is interested, I have tracked this one down now. It is ND (1364-1383) Luxembourg - Esterlin with Lions - Wenceslaus I See the link below for a fuller description. The only auction price I can see indicates one in better condition sold for £922 in 2013, so quite a nice find! https://en.numista.com/catalogue/pieces95611.html

So if I read this thread correctly, this one from my collection is 8 and J?

I have to say, it is not just Ebay that is flooded with fakes at the moment! In my area there are a number of local low grade auction houses that regularly list coins that are clearly fake, but still get substantial bids. When a supposed "Kruger Rand" sells for £80 you know there is a problem - if it was genuine, it should be £800 to £1000, if a fake £8 max - so someone thinks they have got the bargain of the century. Most disturbing recently were two Morgan Dollars - 1879 and 1880, both with the CC Carson City marks, which should be an alarm bell in the first place. A few seconds examination confirmed they were not Silver (though not magnetic and approximately right on weight). One sold for £48, the other for £250. I was so annoyed I wanted to shout out in mid-auction! Is there a mechanism for reporting auction houses selling fake coins as genuine to trading standards?

Further searching suggests the four lions rampant may be the arms of Owain Glyndwr Prince of Wales. He was alive 1359 to 1415, which would fit with the style of the coin, but I can find no reference to any coins being issued by him...

Thanks Stuart, that clinches it. Consider this query closed - only the "Crusader" coin to resolve now! Thanks again.

Thanks for that and you are probably right. My concern was that the images for the type 4 obverse do not fit very well with this coin - particularly that the hand on the sceptre on my coin is much higher up. Is this discrepancy normal? Thanks again

Thanks for that and I believe you are right, so we can call this one closed. Thanks again.

Last one for now I promise. What is this? Clearly not standard English and I thought maybe Crusader, but if someone can point me in the right direction it would be much appreciated.

Another one I am struggling with - low grade I know. Best match I can find is S1722, which makes it pretty scarce and I can't believe I am that lucky! If not this, then what?

Can someone please help me nail this one down? In Spink book this seems to match S1347 best, which makes it Richard I type 3, but the moneyer on the reverse I can read ...ILLELM ON N... which would seem to be Willelm in Northampton or Norwich - but that does not fit with a type 3 coin. Have I got it all wrong? :-)

When I said "Indian Subcontinent" I meant that quite widely. You will need to include Afghanistan and maybe a few other countries in the area. Good luck!

I don't have my books to hand but I would guess Indian Subcontinent or Sri Lanka/Ceylon 18th or early 19th century. Each State has its own name for small coins like this - including Fanams. It will be a search through Krause to nail it down I fear.

An interesting thread - I certainly had never noticed the change in the 20p obverse design. For years I have put away one of every coin each year from circulation, upgrading where possible to the best I could find. Here are my examples from 1991, 1992 and 1993. Now I can see clearly the change from 1991 to 1992 - the most obvious indicators to me seem to be the distance from the tip of the crown to the edge and the angles in the points of the bust. Now I just need to spot a 1992 with the smaller bust!

I would still go with VF+ to NEF - the loss of detail on the helmet and a few bits of wear on the high points just holding it back. It will be interesting to see what the graders say - please let us know when you get it back.

I am a bit unwilling to enter into this thread as there seems to be a lot of unnecessary testostorone behind some of the posts. My feeling is that any opinions on coins are valid but should be espressed in polite and respectful tones. Not all of us can afford perfect coins all the time and the joy for many of us is in the acquisition, not the possession. Being derogatory about other people's coins here certainly risks putting them off using this forum and may risk putting them off coin collecting all together, which is in nobody's interest. IMO the coin posted is around VF+ bearing in mind that farthings of this date were darkened by the mint so the tone is appropriate. Value is more difficult - in the end it is what someone is prepared to pay for it, so if the OP was happy with the price they paid, then that is it's value to them. As to grading, personally I don't go for that at all - I prefer to keep my coins in the raw so I can examine them when I wish to. Equally I have few coins that are good enough to warrant grading and having some of my coins in plastic coffins would throw off the balance of the others. But I completely understand other's desire to have their coins graded, so don't let me put anyone off!

As others have implied, 1946 and 1949 are always quoted as the scarcest 3Ds. I find the 1946 in used condition will only make £2 or £3. The 1949 does a little better - £4 to £6. In Uncirculated condition, or near so they will go for a great deal more. The 1950 in any condition is proving scarce these days and if you have one in Unc worth tucking away!

Hi @youliveyoulean and welcome to the forum! I do not collect the Silver proof decimal coins myself, so I do not know much about their relative scarcity without referring to books or the Royal Mint website. Chris Perkins book "Collectors Coins - Decimal Issues of the United Kingdom", which is much promoted on the home page, lists mintage figures for most Decimal Silver proof coins, so that would be a good basis for you exploration.

Yes - I had got as far as the Gallo Belgic Staters - I just needed to know the other side was blank. Not really my area - I have two books that vaguely cover it: Standard Spinks (my version is 2011). Closest match in here is S11 - but that expects a zigzag below the horse, which yours clearly isn't. R P Mack Coinage of Ancient Britain 1975. Here it is M27 and describes a "Decorated exergual line" beneath the horse, which may cover yours but may not! The pictures in Mack are so poor it is difficult to be sure what they are looking at. From your recollections of what Philip said, it certainly does sound unusual and probably something the British Museum would like to see. From your picture it certainly looks more like a figure covered with shields - possibly a funeral ritual? That's as much as I can help - I hope someone else chips in.

Wow yes! That guy must be seriously deranged, but the sad thing is, no matter how much the authorities may fear he is dangerous, until he does something crazy they can't detain him. In the old days we had asylums for this sort of person - now we only have prisons. He deserves to spend the rest of his life in one now, but if he had been identified and detained earlier, his victim would still be alive and he could have been dealt with more humanely.

I think the Americans would say: I take the Fifth!

Welcome @Paul O to the forum! Very nice looking coin - Can you post a photo of the other side? Also some idea of scale and weight would help. Where did you get the understanding that the symbol below the horse is a torc? Did you get an identification of which coin it is? It certainly doesn't look like a torc to me, so it may have been a mis-identification in the first place. With a view of the other side I am sure someone here will be able to tell you more.

I agree wholeheartedly with Paulus! I set myself a huge target initially - one of each and every British coin (date and type) from the start of milled coinage to date. In the early days I was filling gaps quickly - not much challenge in acquiring most 20th century pre-decimal coins, but still satisfying as the albums filled up. As I knew exactly what I wanted, I could lable the slots in the album for the coins that were intended to fill them, and so filling gaps became a very visible accomplishment. As time went on, it became much more difficult to fill gaps. Ebay got a lot of my business but soon the prices of the few remaining became prohibitive. Auction houses turned up a few more, but then I got into buying "job lots" either at auctions or through adverts in the local paper. With these I get the great satisfaction of searching and sorting through everything, labelling up for onward sale anything outside my area, and then (joy of joys) comparing any within my area to the current place holder. If the newbie is better than the old, then a swap is made and an upgrade achieved. A spreadsheet became a necessity to keep track on where I was, and the collection steadily improved. Only more recently have I got into photos - mainly for sharing on forums like this. At present I only have a scanner, but with the next bonus I must get a decent camera set up going so I can do better. In the meantime - the thrill of the chase to fill gaps or get an upgrade. Only today a 1748 halfpenny upgrade from barely Fine to GVF!

Sorry for rattling your cage - I only posted images of the thing, I didn't make it.

We don't seem to have a slot for British Colonies so I guess these belong here. Picked up yesterday in a job lot - not had any of them in hand before: Gibraltar 2 Quarts 1842/1 Essquibo & Demerary 1 Stiver 1813 St Helena Halfpenny 1821