Paddy

When I was at university I went through a barbed wire fence (backwards while drunk) and it raked my face on the way through - but I ended up with fewer scratches on my face than that half crown!

What should the weight be? Spinks does not give weights or even ranges - is there a good online source for such info?

Certainly dodged a bullet! I don't think I would go more than £20 on the lot - and did you see the postage charges?

I have no problem with questioning or even attacking the TPGs. I stay out of these arguments simply because I do not "get" the whole principle of locking coins away in plastic coffins. For me the joy of "collecting" is finding coins - often in unexpected places and at low prices - to add to my collection, regardless of grade. When I can, I improve the grade of the coins I have and move on the redundant ones. The thrill is in the hunt and filling the gaps. Graded and encapsulated coins seem to me much more of an investment or commodity based game, which is alien to me. Hence I do not give a fig for the debates back and forth on which TPGs grade how and which system is right or wrong. If I like a coin and I can afford it, I buy it. If it happens to be in a plastic coffin, I will break it out - unless it is so valuable it makes more sense to sell it on as it is. Watch me get flamed for stating my opinion - another reason why I usually stay out of these debates.And @ozjohn please don't leave - this forum moves pretty slowly, so the lack of opinion from others is more to do with the number of people watching.

I am no expert but that looks entirely fake to me. I hope the buyer realises as soon as he gets it.

OK - I have done that. I am not great at spotting small details but as far as I can work out: 1972 - One set, Type A, no frosting 1973 - One set, Type A, no frosting 1974 - Two sets, one type A no frosting, one type B with frosting, 1/2 P also frosted 1975 - Two sets, one Type A no frosting, one type B with frosting, 1/2 P also frosted 1976 - One set, Type A no frosting. All the type As are in my older collection, which I have had for about 15 years and came from one auction together. The two sets with type B I picked up at a different auction about 5 years ago. I hope that helps! I admire the work you are doing on these but I'm afraid I am NOT going to become a decimal coin variation collector!

... and here is the hand-written story behind it:

Here's a bit of fun - I picked up this today as part of a job lot from auction. Obviously the medallion, which is penny size, was based on a bunhead penny, but I suspect no recognised variety. Interesting tale behind it - I will post the hand written history in a separate post as otherwise I wlll be out of space...

Thanks for the thought but I am far from an avid collector of Victorian Shillings and certainly don't have the funds to start building a selection of Die numbers! Part of my reason for asking was that I picked up a fairly worn 1878 Shilling and I was struggling to work out whether it was Spinks Third head or fourth head, which correspond to Nick's 5th and 6th bust above (I think). With the benefit of his pictures I believe it is 5th Bust which is slightly scarcer than the 6th bust for this date (I think). The die numbers query came out of finding the 1878 was die 9, and there is also an 1873 with die 2 - both low numbers in the scheme of things - and I wondered if that made them more or less scarce... Which left me uncertain as to which to keep and which to move on. Thanks you all for your help!

Are there any good online resources to help with collecting Victorian Shillings? Two queries I can find little help with: 1. How to tell the various bust types apart - particularly bust 3 and 4? 2. Die numbers - what range of numbers were made and which are more or less common?

I picked up this Shilling today amongst some other stuff with the aim of putting it into my own collection. I notice a big fault on the reverse - this is a raised uneven band of metal beneath the lettering. Is this to be expected, or is it some sign of a fake?

Here is one of mine for comparison.

For identifying unusual foreign coins I find Numista excellent as you can search on devices included in the design of the coin as well as country, metal, date etc: https://en.numista.com/

Just to add, the brass threepences are worth checking through - two scarcest dates are 1946 and 1949 and these may be worth a few pounds even in circulated condition. The rest, unless they are stunningly bright and new, are 10p a time jobs at a carboot sale.

OOOOOH! That is one I would very much like to have!

Whoopy-do! Just what I always wanted - a corner of the room in which to hide my face!

I think this would work well if they used genuine solder (as we are familiar with in Electronic) as the joining material. My experience is they more often use a Silver alloy to braze the pieces together. This is much stronger, but also has a melting point close to that of silver, and so is much more difficult to remove. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brazing

I agree completely with Ukstu - there is no way you could break it down well enough to salvage the coins for numismatic interest, and these things do sell reasonably well as jewelry.

Could someone please confirm which Penny this is? I believe it is Edward I Class 10 but it is for a friend in Thailand so I want to make sure I am right before going firm.

Anyone need to stock up on Churchill Crowns? https://www.easyliveauction.com/catalogue/lot/1dca8780764590f01dc5eb167892a6a7/0af8d24542e81eb9357e7ef448a6646f/fine-arts-antiques-jewellery-silver-and-quality-co-lot-321/

No problem! I am in North Devon if you are passing. Or you can buy them - 50p each plus postage! And I have similar stocks of 1972 to 1981 Crowns. I buy up job lots for the odd interesting coin but inevitably keep acquiring more of these modern crowns, which all go into a box on the basis that "One day I'll find a use for them". If I had a patio, they would be propping up the chairs by now. Curtain weights maybe?

OK - I have checked my stock - I have 66 Churchill Crowns here in various states of preservation. I find it difficult to tell much difference in the size of the Cs Hs or Rs, but there is a wide variation in the size of the teeth around the rim. It would be too simple to say there are 2 varieties - it seems more as if there is a continuum of variations from barely the tip of the tooth showing to a complete triangle, sometimes almost detached from the rim. In some cases the length varies from one side of the coin to the other and from Reverse to Obverse. My observation would say these are not varieties as such, just variations in strike. I can hardly photograph all these, but if anyone is seriously studying them I would be happy to lend them to you!

With all the Specific gravity discussion in this thread - is there a convenient kit for measuring this around? I have the scales, it is the volume measure (presumably a la Archimedes by immersion in water) that I need.

Good grief! If that is a satin finish, I am a milionaire! I have a box full of them somewhere.

I have never had a problem with pop-ups here, but then I have them turned off at Browser level. (In Chrome).