loose54

Good afternoon all, I have just come across this seller on ebay. He is knocking out counterfeit coins like he is making them in his own shed. He is saying that they are forgeries but in his own words they are 'indistinguishable from the originals'. Some of the coins are obvious copies and would be very likely to fool most but there are ones such as this 1932 crown which in all honesty could fool even an experienced collector from photographs. I can understand why people collect contemporary counterfeits, I myself have a few, as they are historically interesting, but the production of coins such as this can surely result in nothing more then someone down the line getting badly stung! http://www.ebay.com/itm/1-CROWN-1932-U-K-REMAKE-UNCIRCULATED-/301337280421?pt=US_World_Coins&hash=item462919ffa5

Better size reverse image...

Hello all, would I be able to get some confirmation on the variety of this 1861 penny (no sig either side) I just purchased please. Nearly there to getting my head round some of the Freeman's etc!! Thanks!

Wow! I didn't even known an example in MS64 existed! The nicest I saw were the examples in the Laurie Bamford sale ('05 I think?). Is that an auction piece? It must have set you back a small fortune!

I have purchased from the dealer before and have received coins as promised all OK. It seems in this case he got it wrong but I will receive a full refund so the only real risk was on being out of pocket for a couple of weeks. Also, if the coin was a clear confirmed die letter then it would have certainly been a good bargain for the price I paid for it. I would never personally 'throw a coin in the bin' because I believe it will always have some, if only minute, value to someone, somewhere. B&C Collector, thanks for all of the different reverses, are they all your coins?

That was my feeling on the matter. I used that same photo for comparison earlier and thought the die letter in the real thing has the top in line with the base of the lighthouse which would place the bulge on my coin higher then it should be. Do you think its quite clear it isn't the die letter variety I was promised?

Hello all, I bought an 1862 Halfpenny from the States and it arrived today. It was not photographed but the dealer was a member of the ANA etc and before I bought it I confirmed he had a refund policy. Anyway, it was sold to me as the very rare die letter C variety but I am struggling to see the die letter myself. I don't know if the seller was thinking it was the bulge next to the lighthouse or possibly below the lighthouse which I have circled. To me, the bulge to the left of the lighthouse seems to high to be the letter C and the circled 'C' looks too low and too far from the edge to me. What do you guys think?

Picked up this rare 1878 Wide Date Halfpenny. I had been looking for one for a while so it was quite an outlay but I'm happy with it as I haven't seen a better example and even the Nicholson collection didn't have a wide date currency issue

What does everybody think about this? http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/1933-OLD-BRITISH-ONE-PENNY-COIN-/121380829663?pt=UK_Coins_BritishMilled_RL&hash=item1c42dc79df&nma=true&si=HCTIP1LDS82i9wPh3gKl%252Bawq6ic%253D&orig_cvip=true&rt=nc&_trksid=p2047675.l2557 Sold a few days ago for £1550. It had a pretty interesting story line with it (not particularly well written and from a seller with very low feedback). I remember that one of the 1933 pennies known was stolen from under the stone of a church, the same church that this seller is claiming to have found this penny near. It does actually look remarkably like one of the Andre Laurillier proofs to me, maybe there's some substance in it! I tend to see people giving a rough valuation of £50k for a 1933 penny but just personally I think one would make much more then that if found today. However, even if this were the real deal I don't think it would be allowed to be sold. I seem to remember a few years back a lady took a batch of 10 1933 $20 coins to be authenticated and when they were found to be real they were all seized and taken back by the mint as they could only have been gained illegally. Surely that would be the case with this penny (again - IF - it were real) and the buyer would lost out on 1500 quid? What do you guys think? Interesting nonetheless!

Guys, Is it me or is this a sadly mis-attributed 1879 penny? I am struggling to see that date as being small or narrow... http://www.ebay.com/itm/Great-Britain-1-Penny-1879-AU55-BN-NGC-bronze-KM-755-Small-Date-1P-SCARCE-/371088609577?pt=US_World_Coins&hash=item56669ad129

It has the LCW below Britannia and LC Wyon under the bust.

Could someone please confirm the variety of this 1860 penny for me please, the Victorian varieties are the one area I would love to get comfortable with because I think it is a fascinating series. Thanks for any help!

That is a smart idea with the letter! I may have to request that the sellers do that! I don't begrudge paying the 5%, especially if it is not even every time but that £8 handling fee Thanks everybody!

Hello all, Recently I have been buying a few coins from the USA. However, when receiving them I am getting some customs charges on certain coins but getting no charges on other coins. For example, I bought a £200 coin and it got to me with no additional expenses, in the same week I bought an £80 coin and I got £11 in customs charges before it could be delivered (£8 of the charge was a Royal Mail 'handling fee' and the actual charge was £3 something). I was told that the fees are random because apparently customs just pick out parcels at random off a conveyor belt and check them but I don't know if this is true? I am looking to buy some coins from the states soon, maybe around £1500 worth but wouldn't like to be hit with a huge import charge! Does anybody know the deal with charges or could offer some clarification? Thanks everybody!

Hello all, I have this 1908 penny that I took out of a bundle. I am trying to get with grips with all of the Edward varieties as there appear to be some minute variations! I believe the rarest variety is the 1*+C if I am correct? I count this coin as having the 1 in date pointing to a tooth and the date covering 11 border teeth whereas the others in my bundle have 13. Are there date spacing variations for the 1908? Sorry for the poor scans, it is new and I am just about getting to grips with it. Thanks all, Jack.

Hello all, I have been directed here as I was told this is where the Penny experts hang out! Would you be able to confirm the variety of this 1861 Penny for me? Is it 5+G? Thanks All!

Hello all, I was wondering if you could help me with this interesting farthing. It is dated 1840 and it has a few unusual features. The first trident is shorter then normal, with this date obviously having the scarce two prong trident variety, and it has clashed die attributes as similar to the 1840 piece in this post. They are weaker then the example posted here but are in the same positions as is a key feature with the 2 prong trident. I have had a 1840 2 prong before and the prong was even shorter i.e non existent but I have seen other examples with varying lengths. I also note that the 1839 2 prong variety in the Colin Cooke collection had a prong similar to the length of this but being a different year it may have different attributes. In the opinion of the experts on here would you say this is possibly a 'mid point' variety between a normal specimen and the two prong trident? Any opinions or information would be greatly appreciated. Thanks all, Jack.

Thanks for the input guys. I must say, considering how difficult I found it to obtain one I would suggest a fiver or 99p is probably slightly too low! I am very impressed that you had an example in NEF, must surely be one of the best around? The only other examples I have known of as comparison is one that sold years ago on ebay for about £85 in almost fine and an example went on ebay a couple of months ago for £55 in similar grade but the seller didn't know what he was selling so it went to a keen eyed buyer! Thanks for the advice and I reckon I will hold on to it for a while

Hi all, I recently acquired a nice 1840 farthing with the two pronged trident on the reverse (the same as the more common 1839 variety). I haven't seen any sold in recent times so I was just wondering if anyone here had a suggested value for it. The coin is around fine but with the variety nice and clear. Thanks all!!