Red Riley

You might want to sell the 20p sooner rather than later, as prices are well over their peak now. Although it may never be valueless, the prices will eventually reach a low level and stay there for a long while as it becomes clear that this was a classic bubble and supply vastly outstrips demand.

It's amazing the potty things people do with coins. I seem to remember when I was about 16 rubbing down a newly minted 2p with sandpaper to see how close I could come to simulating wear. The answer; not very. Why did I bother? God knows. All I know is that I spent the ruddy thing and you never know, it might come up as a curio at some time.

That's a great picture, Huss. I had the problem that I had to get good quality pictures whilst leaving the coin perfectly round so that I could remove the background mechanically, so had to take them head on. Theoretically it is possible to re-shape circular objects with Photoshop, but in practice almost impossible to do and the end result makes you feel seasick! I tried all sorts of methods of improving my photographs including three point lighting, flooding with light etc. In the end, I found the best method was to take the whole lot - camera, stand etc. into the garden on a sunny day and take photographs there. It is fair to say that silver coins photograph far more easily than copper/bronze which can be a nightmare!

Looks like a single exergue line and both 5 and 2 recut, so thankfully nobody has ruined a perfectly respectable 1950/51 penny. I suppose one could argue that with the time that goes into making these things, they would be justified in charging a reasonable price. On the other hand they're still bloody fakes!

I think (hope) that this will prove to be a bizarre anomaly from someone with the resources of Roman Abramovic and the common sense of a blancmange. I wouldn't bet my last 1933 penny on it though!

The only possible flaw I can think of is that a slabbed photograph is a record at one point in time only. Whereas a slabbed coin which remains slabbed can only deteriorate through chemical action with its environment, all manner of things can happen between the slabbed photograph being taken and the 'naked' coin which has been sloshing around in a collection, being sold (the only point at which the photograph would be used) - perhaps the most obvious being 'cabinet friction', it may also pick up fingerprints etc. I can see where you are coming from on this, and I think it would be largely acceptable to us collectors, but may be viewed with suspicion by the dreaded investor.

I don't know so much. Looks like quite a good forgery and I would expect it to realise a decent price.

Thanks for that, I'll give them a try.

Sorry missed this bit out of my last post. Anything post war is what I'm after. I'm trying to put together small representative collections of the larger and older nations.

Looking at it, I think she's planting an oak sapling. Rather evocative I feel.

This may sound an odd request, but my collecting needs have taken a strange turn... I would like to track down BU examples of pre-Euro i.e. 1980s or 1990s coins from the major European nations - France, Germany, Italy; dates immaterial but really not the sort of thing dealers stock. Any ideas where I can get them from? By the way does anybody agree with me that the obverse of the 1980s West German 50 pfennig is a corker?

Somebody either knows a good forger or a good website!

Why so many? If minor changes in design don't count then we have only one reverse and eight distinct obverses. It's really a case of what turns you on, and I'm afraid hyper-varieties just don't do it for me, I'd rather broaden my horizons and go collect roubles or something. If you have 500 varieties of penny, then that's fine if it's what you want. 120 does actually include a fair few varieties if you work it out. I'm sorry if I sounded a bit dismissive, I didn't mean to be, but for me a collection that I couldn't make interesting to a non-numismatist (and few would be enthralled by varieties of the 'pointing to gap or tooth' type) just wouldn't do.

A man after my own heart! But it really is difficult to decide what is a 'real' variety and what isn't. My 1860-1970 penny collection stopped at a grand total of 120 coins becaue that was all I could fit in my cabinet, and there's precious little left that floats my boat. If you read Michael Gouby's 'British Bronze Penny 1860-1970' , he certainly draws the line somewhere; (re a 1937 obverse 'variety') ' Some pennies in 1937 have the upright limb of the 'P' of 'IMP' pointing directly to a tooth in the border, rather than just to the right of the tooth. As this is the only discernable difference, the author feels that it does not warrant an extra entry'). Can you imagine the 1863 penny guy explaining to his nearest and dearest why he has just spent £19k on a penny and how it differs from one worth a fiver?

Probably a worn die. Fairly common in bun pennies and unlikely to have much additional value. Wouldn't bin it though, it's a Royal Mint narrow date and although they come in 101 different varieties, all are at least comparatively scarce, so might fill a hole for someone.

Almost certainly a cracked die. A few more coins and the die would have fallen to bits, at which point the machinery would been have stopped and someone would have started going through all the pennies in the bin to fork out the faulty ones; yours clearly escaped. This type of problem was much more common with early bun pennies. Interesting, but sadly not valuable.

Looks as if it could have suffered a bit of cleaning and reverse a lot worse than obv. (normal). But at £15 I suppose...

Errr, you mean 7 different types, surely! Your comments are interesting, but confusing to me. When these coins were in circulation, every man and his boy collected one of each date, but once you got them, then what, hence the interest in varieties. The fun to me was finding them in my change. I would never have dreamt of going to a coin dealers. It was the hunt rather than ownership that was the fun part of coin collecting for most people. The trouble with coin collecting on ebay is that its taken the fun out of the hobby. No one has any interest in the coins in their pocket any more (2008 dateless 20p being the exception), which is a shame, as that's where the new generation of hobbyist will come from. It seems that most people who hunger after coins are entrepreneurs looking to make a profit, rather than true numismatists. To be fair, few people have taken much interest in the coins in their change since 1971, but after an initial slump where prices remained static for many years, the hobby picked up again from the 1990s, so something is enticing young people to become collectors. You couldn't deny the enthusiasm of the regular contributors to this board, but few I would regard as anything more than collectors/numismatists who may do the odd bit of trading on the side. Entrepreneurs need a market to make a buck and one where one entrepreneur just sells to another soon ends in tears.

Coins are: 1) No idea. What metal is it? Post photo? 2) Farthing, halfpenny or penny. All are common, so would have to be in pretty stonking condition to be worth much. 3) Either a farthing (2.5cm.) or a halfpenny (2.9cm.). The hole would probably render it largely valuless though. 4) At 3.5cm. the cartwheel penny is the closest match. 5) Given the size disparity, probably a twopence (4cm.). Scarcer than the penny but post-mint engraving reduces any value drastically. If you want more info specific to your coins, post photographs; condition is everything in the coin world. From your descriptions however, I really don't think they will be worth very much.

Phew! That would not have been cheap...

I've seen quite a few well circulated 1953 pennies on e bay. There were just over a million minted, so there is no reason to suppose they didn't circulate in a similar manner to say, the 1951 threepence, or the 1952 sixpence, which are of similar mintage. My understanding is all 1953 pennies were issued in sealed PVC folders with the other coins of that year so in that sense they are different. Doesn't mean they couldn't be cut open and spent though.

True - but I'm always amazed that a unique 1952 halfcrown spent 15 years in circulation before being spotted. It just goes to show ... Older collectors have told me of the 'pocket piece' - a coin which through any reason, usually for being unusual is pulled out of circulation and kept in a pocket/purse for years and years and... Explains a lot of unusually badly worn coins - including a 'Fair-' wreath crown that I kept for many years (not in my pocket I would hasten to add!)

I believe they went in 1887. Bizarrely some were dated 1888, but they were produced for British Guiana.

My late father worked in shops from about 1937, and he recalled a superstition among the staff that if anyone spent a crown in the shop, then someone would get the sack! Think he might have been getting confused with the more real dangers of the double florin, but it does show that crowns (probably late Victorian) were still occasionally used at the time. Winding forward a bit, c. 1970 I acquired a 1960 crown from the butchers up the road which they had taken in as legal tender for half a dozen pork chops or whatever. I still have it, and it clearly has some wear.

Fractional farthings (the only one legal tender in the UK was the half farthing) were demoneitised in 1869 at the same time as all other copper issues. I am 99% certain the crown is still legal tender (otherwise why did they make them after 1971 - if they were not legal tender they would not have been coins but medals). Believe the silver 3d, although it left circulation in the late 50s remained legal tender until 1971. For all I know, the double florin is still legal tender.