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damian1986

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Posts posted by damian1986


  1. Hi, I've just joined the group and recently saw a post regarding a 2+A 1953 Farthing that someone was after. I have one of these in EF with some remaining lustre and was wondering (A) if the person was still looking, and ( B) what value would it be as I can't find any prices for this coin anywhere. Pete

    Can you post a picture? Someone's always looking :)

    A currency issue in UNC with ~ full lustre and you're talking a lot of money but I think a steepish fall in prices for something with wear.


  2. A new coat of arms design?? Didn't realise there was one until I saw Shane's profile picture.

    http://www.royalmint.com/shop/The_Royal_Arms_2015_United_Kingdom_1_pound_BU_Coin

    Surely this should be the new £1 design - why both?

    It's superior to the new design IMHO and incorporates Timothy Noad's Heraldic Beasts into the design which I've always liked.

    Edit: Just realised that's because the new £1 design isn't for this year :rolleyes:


  3. est Ed.VIII is probably the halfpenny reverse uniface. It's currently in a 65(?) slab and last sold for around £3000-3500. You might find another pattern uniface for less than 10K, but after that you are talking £20K and up.

    MH Coins has it for sale at £5,995.

    Welcome. You have joined the inmates at the asylum. :):unsure:

    Learning takes time and you just have to buy a few coins on the way. If eventually you decide to specialise and get rid of a few, if you've bought good coins with appeal they will sell ok. But really there's nothing wrong with 'liking everything'. It's probably not the way most people collect, but if you enjoy the coins you own, it's not really a failure IMHO.

    It's hard work. I've bought quite a lot of coins that just fill gaps or meet certain goals and then get fed up with them because in and of themselves they don't really do enough for me. Or I buy something and it starts to feel like it doesn't "fit" or seems surplus to requirements. None of it really matters so long as the individual coin is something I'm really happy with.

    The reign of George VI is not very interesting (IMHO!).

    BUT actually... there are a bunch of coins I own / would like to own just because. Because. The 1937 crown, the half crowns of the reign, the wren farthing (it's the first time we saw the design in circulation), the halfpenny features the ship, the pennies were darkened at the end of WWII, we saw the introduction of the brass threepence, the shilling was issued in 'English' and 'Scottish' variants, ...

    Then you think, well how can I have so many coins for George VI but only say 1 or 2 coins for Charles II???

    But then how is it possible to own only one coin for George III?

    And what about the provincial token coinage? People spent the stuff. It saw the birth of the steam milled coins. And how many counties are there to collect from? One from each?

    What about the French coinage? The French sow Francs inspired De Saulles standing Britannia on the florins of Edward VII. And then there are a bunch of others of numismatic / historical interest. Not to mention some of the early Austrian and German Talers whose designs are exceptional and can be had at a fraction of the cost of the later hammered and early milled British.

    Then there are some medals of historical and numismatic interest, not least because this is what the engravers seemed to spend their time doing when not designing coins.

    Then you reach into the bathroom cabinet for a couple of downers to level out.


  4. This isn't meant as a whinge but coming into collecting relatively recently it wasn't as an investor but as a collector. My desire to purchase coins isn't fuelled by how much I can make on them. When that desire is lost, or the motivations are replaced with an investor mentality, what happens then? If collectors aren't around to inform the investor market then they might aswell be trading in numismatic futures :lol: - devoid of emotion and personality and substance in the context of the history of our coinage.

    I'm going overboard but two things that wind me up about that article - and I'll defer to you lot because you are the ones in the know, BUT:

    1. Barring the odd blip, were coins ever a poor investment anyway?

    2. "Companies can fail" - so what? Grow a pair and commit to something instead of sitting there drooling over your unresearched Triple Unite in VF.

    Edit: a bit harsh the more I think of it considering how much money is invested in startups and other small businesses. Don't want to sound like tooo much of a prick.


  5. ..and I don't want any slabbed coins haha.

    It's whether the one in the slab is worth what they're asking, can always smash it out. I had a look and don't think it is, looks really weak.

    On a related note what's the best way of removing coins from CGS slabs? I find NGC really easy just hit them on the side with a hammer, with CGS I end up getting the saw out and it's a nuisance.

    ^Sorry, thread hijackery


  6. Re-post - surely these boxes don't even go for a tenth of that (I haven't checked!)?

    Good fine or better with some inverse staining and a few edge knocks. Books at no one gives a shit and is one of only three million viable methods of coin storage.

    Only joking... apparently people do give a shit - link.

    You could buy a first edition Dickens for that... No words inside just the binding, but you've got to start somewhere right!!?


  7. More yap yap yap on slabs , yawn

    The conversation moved away from that to P&M and then Rob's collection so the thread did pretty well in the end no?

    Anyway the odd whinge is good for the soul :ph34r:


  8. Well i'm losing interest, everyone's asking a fortune whether it's a problem coin entombed or a real quality piece that's going on commission. Just spotted a Philip & Mary 6d going for £4,500, it's a reasonable coin considering the issue but meh come on. Not so sure 2014 was the best time to begin forming a collection if it's gonna cost X days wages to pick up some early/mid 20th century silvers in a decent grade.

    Okay so it's a stupid price to ask but what happens when the next 5 CGS-graded mediocre coins make their way onto fleabay at a silly price and no alternatives are available to commerce?, someone pulls the trigger on one eventually.

    Whinge whinge whinge, I know I know.


  9. Or none of thr above :D

    Not an option :P You may interpret the poll as "which do you dislike the least?"

    I don't mind the latest although I didn't vote for it.

    I wonder if her majesty will look younger the more we (or rather you lot) rub her up a bit.

    Those wrinkles might be the first to go.......

    Rub her up a bit eh. I hope not.

    I'm undecided on the new design I guess if this poll was carried out in 1998 the same reservations would have been had about the IRB design.

    Gillick the clear winner up to now, the youngest and only predecimal portrait what could be expected :P but she didn't do a wonderful job as Cecil Thomas (whose own design lost out to Gillick's), by all accounts a bit of a genius with the sculptor's knife in hand, had to re-touch the thing for coins issued 1954 onwards. So I'm stuck.


  10. No, I'm a Royalist long before I will ever be a republican.

    The comment relates to how little detail there is per unit surface area on today's coins compared to times gone by. Greek, Roman, Celtic, or even Saxon coins had a very good level of detail by comparison, but clearly were not subject to the far more rigorous operating conditions demanded today. The design must reflect the functionality of the die, i.e. first and foremost it is just a tool.

    John Bergdahl, one of the current mint engravers, gave an enlightening talk at the BNS meeting in Manchester a couple years ago where he discussed the question of allowable relief in the design. It's remarkably little, even when magnified prior to reduction, we are talking typically of less than a mm relief (0.7mm was a figure mentioned for one design in question). There isn't much room for error and given the portraits of Tudor monarchs are in similarly low relief, I think it is probably better to applaud their efforts whatever technological period we are in. 500 years ago, regular die failure was part of the expectation, whereas today, die longevity is considerably more important given the capital cost of the equipment involved. It needs to be working to earn its keep.

    Scott. First time I saw the boar's head, I thought it was a woman with her possessions over her shoulder too. It's amazing how conditioned we are! The traveller in childrens' books is always depicted in this manner, but how many books contain a reference to a wild boar? Not many I suspect.

    Useful to know thank you.

    Much better than Genesis.


  11. This is something that bothers me too.

    The below is much more impressive so let's not discredit the designers too much on this one!

    I think that the designs out to be the best that they have ever been!!

    Using CNC machines for producing dies would seem to be so much better than the older reducing machines; my understanding is that dies can be produced relatively quickly now by scanning the sculpted surfaces rather than having to trace over them for 3+ days or however long it took.

    And also, the designers tend to use a mixture of digital technologies along with traditional clay and metal work to arrive at a final sculpture - some use the digital technologies to fine-tune a design having done most of the sculpting by hand, for example. Either way there's an abundance of technology available to creatives to do as they please and the software is in no way limited in what it can do.

    So a couple of things I wonder:

    ( a ) is there a mandate to design coins conducive to lower production costs (by limiting the relief in designs)?

    ( b ) has the improvement in technology actually brought with it a dumbing down of the creative hand? (an analogy might be: calculators and computer software reducing the need to practice mental arithmetic)

    ( c ) do designers really get given enough time to produce quality work? The best designs are usually underpinned by days, weeks, months of thought and are inspired. If it's just a case of getting designs out of the door then what do you expect.

    ( d ) presumably the pressures of each strike are really set at the bare minimum in order churn out high volumes. A proof striking of this design will give you a better idea.

    c8b8aa0fae8db62d39343d0bb4762780.PNG


  12. Welcome.

    Florins are not the easiest to collect if you want mint state pieces. If you do - then the best of luck. If you don't, you should do ok. :)

    I want a mint state Godless and haven't seen one in the past 6 months. I thought I just wasn't looking hard enough.

    Hello Potlings.

    Well I have a really good one that's going up soon. For all the reasons stated you normally have to make compromises depending on how deep your pockets are.

    Regards

    Mark

    There are so many coins that I would like to own that I can easily pass on something and get something else.

    Florins have such wonderful designs that I like to see them near their best. A Julio-Claudian Sestertius that's lived in the ground for 2000 years, not as big a deal.


  13. Well this is all good to know anyway.

    It puts certain coins into perspective.

    Don't want to be getting into bidding wars at auctions.

    But jump onto the next nice one that comes along seems to be the lesson here.

    The EF from DNW is the sort of coin that would grade very well in an NGC holder or something. I have seen a few florins around the MS63 mark that show wear but seems to be all about the surfaces with those lot and nice surfaces it does have. Not so keen on the edge knock though.


  14. Welcome.

    Florins are not the easiest to collect if you want mint state pieces. If you do - then the best of luck. If you don't, you should do ok. :)

    I want a mint state Godless and haven't seen one in the past 6 months. I thought I just wasn't looking hard enough.

    Hello Potlings.


  15. DNW are trying To do 1 sale a month and The March sale already over 400 Coins listed. As Regards To the Tokens i won amd the REV figure i'm not really sure who or if it's referencing some Scottish figure, i bought them due to Dundee being my home city, PROBABLY paid too much for them but they have a quirky die problem on the arm where it seems detached

    If you look at the upcoming auctions at DNW, March, June, September, November, December (!) - you'll see that they're not accepting consignments for any of them.

    Whether that's because we're outside of the window for each sale or because they have that much already consigned in advance...???


  16. What i'd like to know is what has the emloyment statis of the finder got to do with finding a hoard?

    Nothing. It's really just a shit piece of journalism all said and done.

    Local press outlets are under serious pressure right now and so it's no surprise that they're putting out so much drivel. The Daily *cough* Mail still like to think of themselves as serious and authentic journalists but the reason the website is so littered with shit is that they have to find ways of monetizing their website - can't live on the newspapers they print alone.

    And sensationalist, vacuous crap you wouldn't want to wipe you arse on sells well.


  17. Won these today at DNW. D&H 3 one in silver is uniface amd the other is in copper. Dundee, Angus, my home town :)

    I like how a lot of the Scottish tokens show the city arms. Nice uniface piece!!

    Is the reverse making reference to any particular figure?? From the death covered mountains of Scotia he come. What a legend.

    There was a Richard I penny, class IVa that is Ex. W. J. Conte that I missed. It got bid up to near £500 so too much anyway for me. I missed out on an Henry III penny 1b at London (again!). They raised the estimate this time around and it wasn't as good as the last and I was being way too tight-fisted in my pre-bids --

    But actually I don't think it was a very good sale on the whole. Anyone agree?

    That was the one I came second on. As a Richard I it was very good, but when a bid of 460 is nearly 600 with the juice and postage then, well, they aren't that rare and the obverse was slightly double struck. Never mind, another will come along. Apart from that, I was underwhelmed with the offerings.

    I thought it would do pretty well that one Rob. The last DNW sale wasn't very good either but a couple of the early pennies were very aggressively bid up.

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