Red Riley

I wonder how many people pressed the 'enlage' button!

Hi syorks, welcome to the forum. Anything on this subject should begin 'speaking personally...' and so speaking personally, I doubt that sufficient will be melted down to affect the price. I have sold gold coins on e-bay and have found that there are so many sellers and buyers that the market price is almost always met and to be honest I have never encountered problems with either e-bay or paypal. You should make sure that all coins are sent out special delivery and you get cleared funds before sending them. You may find that some buyers are overseas and this may cause a problem with the maximum postal insurance available. Also make sure that the territory they are in has a (comparatively!) good reputation for honesty e.g. USA, Australia, Western Europe; some people say Canada has caused problems and definitely don't sell to China or Russia!

What will you do when your library closes?

Yes, I hadn't thought of that, but perhaps the best answer would be to list coins under their initial value i.e. 6/8d for an angel rather than 8/-. All academic however as I can't see it happening.

Sadly I agree with you, and the 1863 looks to have received a little polish, so unfortunately not very much.

Why do I always find myself being a contrarian? For years I collected halfpennies because they weren't fashionable, although the shillings were more popular. There's me getting fed up with the serried ranks of date runs that all looked the same, so now I specifically look for something to differentiate one coin from the next. Monarch, metal, denomination, mintmark, mint location, designer, error, metal provenance and design feature all provide the opportunity for diversity and has the benefit of something unfashionable always being available. I still can't wean myself off the halfpennies entirely though - some of my patterns are too attractive. I would have to say that my collecting activities did shift from date runs, which I guess is how we all got started, to a much wider spread of coins, eventually not only from this country but from the U.S.A. and Europe too. So from that point of view, I agree with you. Nonetheless, collecting by monarch would be just the other side of the coin (!) from the date run - serried ranks of coins all bearing the same design. To the layman, the most interesting collection would be one where the collector has employed a completely scattergun approach, producing an historical overview of a nation (or even several nations') coinage. However, if you are producing a guide book, some logic has to be employed in its arrangement and using monarch rather than denomination strikes me as faintly bonkers. This is particularly true in the Mediaeval period where what coin was produced in which reign is still a matter of debate and no absolute agreement has been reached. Other anomolies inclue 'posthumous' coinages of such as Henry VII which bear his name and portrait but appear under the coinage of his son, Henry VIII. I suppose the reasons are largely historical (but why did anyone ever think this was a good arrangement?) and if starting again, Seaby's, Spink's or whoever would just follow the trend and go with the much more logical denomination/date method.

While we're on the subject, I think splitting coins into monarchs rather than denominations is bizarre as that just isn't the way most people collect e.g. I collect pennies not King Edward VII coins in general. I know it would muck up their numbering system but as things stand it is a right pain to look things up bearing in mind most other publications and/or websites go by denomination. Or is it my republican tendencies coming through?

I think you are right, they are based on such subjective criteria that they are more or less useless. A better comparison would be to estimate what % they represented of National Average Earning (NAE) but such statistics don't go back anything like that far. However, if the 2p - 3p statistic is anything like correct, in real terms that makes our current decimal penny the lowest value coin ever to circulate in this country (assuming that RPI has doubled since the 1/2p went out of circulation). In America of course, it is worse - the Lincoln cent being worth even less.

I have to say I find this sort of error, which is human in nature, very interesting whereas I am afraid those due to mechanical failures such as blocked and minute alterations in the positioning of letters and teeth leave me cold. This coin was produced some years before universal primary education (1870 rings a bell) and many of the mint workers would have been illiterate so would not have spotted their faux pas. Alternatively, the guy who punched the letters in may have had an off day, was thinking about something else? Who knows, but it's great fun to speculate. Or perhaps I just come from the romantic wing of numismatics.

I'd say from the pic it was about GEF ~ for reference I paid a flat £50 a year ago for a choice BU one. No I can't see any wear either within the limits of the photograph but what is more it seems to have good eye appeal. £20 would be a snip.

Sorry Peter

Why, are you sitting in a jug?

Well, nothing in the UK, they were minted purely for Malta where they replaced a local coin called the 'granno'. Even allowing for the relative poverty of Malta, their purchasing power must have been minute. Looks a nice coin and a very good picture.

As far as I'm concerned you can put it in Morecambe Bay!

I can just see the advert now; 'L@@K rare 1967 Clacking Penny - a great opportunity to purchase this internationally acknowledged rarity' and in the small print; 'a few edge knocks due to the number of times I have dropped it on the pavement'. Hmmm... Go for it!

I have around 30 coin books; Peck, Gouby, Rayner, Spink, Groome and CCGB are pretty much indispensable. I expect to see this increasing exponentially in the coming years despite the attractions of the internet.

About a tenner currently but 0.900 silver so may be difficult to sell for scrap in the UK.

I've either bought from or sold to him. Seemed a genuine guy.

I don't know whether it is a first to lampoon your own listings, but here is a beauty I am currently selling (or attempting to sell) on the Bay; http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=170597433310

Almost as interesting now would be to work out how it came to be in your aunt's possession (curiously I found a reproduction Elizabeth I 3d in my mother's effects). This type of facsimille is often used by film/TV or even amateur dramatic companies for period dramas, so did she have any connection with that type of thing?

Re 1876H penny To be fair on the seller, he is pretty much laying it out as it is. Despite the possibilities, it is not a coin that I would particularly want.

I don't know the correct weight, but at 40mm. it would be a crown. The weight however is about two-thirds of what I would expect the genuine article to weigh.

Hi Gary, I've sent you the links to a couple I have for sale at the moment. Derek

I doubt if it's a proof set. They issued PVC packs of business coins, many of which may now have gone gloopy.

Before going to the trouble of scanning/photographing everything, why not just put up a list of what you've got and we can eliminate anything that is never going to be of any value. The 1946 & 49 threepences are both representative of scarce years, so unless they've been run over by a train will have some value as will the KN pennies. The maundy 3d you mention was actually a regular issue at the time, and unless virtually uncirculated will probably be worth little more than its metal content. And a final word of warning; don't raise your hopes too high as to value, most accumulations like this, although interesting are rarely worth a huge amount.