Colin G.

Definitely, keepsakes were made for loved ones before departing to the far flung corners of the world fighting for the Empire!! I have a few on farthings which I collect. Not many of them about, sign of a cheapskate I suppose

Phil, There are some good fairly cheap coin albums about nowadays. The Optima range from Lighthouse is quite good and I have had no trouble with them, other than the odd pocket splitting due to the stiffness. I have got a raft of old pages because I changed to pages that could hold the 50mm coin flips. If you want me to drop you a couple in the post so you can have try them let me know as a newbie I will throw them in the post to you free of charge. The albums and spare pages can be bought from Chris on this site, where I sourced my pages from

Welcome to the forum, always good to see a new face!!

Thansk for that, it's a great read!!

Scans are wonderful for detail, sharpness, and evenness of focus. They are dreadful for tone and lustre. Anything blown up that large will show the tiniest scuff, dig, etc, that aren't apparent at normal size. I'd be more worried about some evident wear showing up - but even that may not be apparent at normal size. I agree scans are essential for comparisons, detailed studying of the same denomination, but will always show every flaw. They will even show tiny patches of verdigris not visible to the naked eye if you look close enough. Scan a coin, then photograph the same coin, you will be astounded at the difference. Surprisingly cleaned base metal coins can come up very well under a scanner and seem to suggest lustre that is not there Scans for study, photographs for admiration, recording and selling every time

Don't they just give it a genuine tag and not a grade, or has that changed?

that worked, thanks Peck how big is it, send it to me and I will host it for you?

The farthing issue is certainly a worry but I suppose human error is always a potential, if it becomes a common issue that's when confidence will drop. The big issue for me with the mule was that PCGS defended the attribution

The wonders of modern technology, Dave's phone has a mind of it's own

I think I can see the angle of the 7 top right, but everything else is just not visible to me, but that may just be the image

He is not the only grader at CGS, there are a panel of graders, who determine the grade depending on the denomination, it is no different to PCGS or NGC, I remember when it was being set up receiving some literature where they were actively looking for graders to cover fields they specialised in. I always find I am defending CGS on this froum for some bizarre reason, but it is not the case, just that the experience I have had with London Coins and the very limited experience I have had with CGS have been very positive. It was an old topic on here previously about an 1860 mule farthing which put me off the US grading companies http://www.predecimal.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=3156&st=0&p=24942&hl=+1860%20+mule&fromsearch=1entry24942. I have to admit I would rather have an English coin graded by an English company/dealer, I know it does not guarantee a positive result, but it must improve your chances of getting someone with expertise on the coins of England

Perhaps they are going to dish out some free gifts free sovereign with every enasement

And that must be their target market, along with the authentication benefits For the seasoned collector/numismatist then it becomes a matter of choice/storage, and this the market that will be the hardest to break, but it seems to have captured a large portion of the market in the USA, so is it inevitable that it will slowly happen over here? I am not necessarily an advocate just condiering the facts

I think the appeal is either to people who strive to have the best, and if they are not willing/experienced enough to determine that by themselves, they will collect a highest number. This may also be true for investors. It inevitably reduces the risk to buyers. It is also a method of confirming authenticity on a scarcer piece, or piece that can be easily misattributed to give confidence to potential buyers (although this is not always a certainty as we have seen in the past!! ..... mistakes do still get made) Finally, for some people it does offer a long term storage option, and I would also say will inevitably help should the need ever arise to make an insurance claim. I don't know yet whetehr there is enough confidence out there yet for CGS to say with certaintly that it adds value to a coin. Because people will inevitably see that CGS AU 75 as not being UNC, and therefore it may put off some buyers who may in fact have wanted the coin in its raw state. I think it is those rarer coins where it will add value, but on the more modern/common coinage, you would do well for it to pay off.

When in hand there is no mistaking a proof in my opinion, unless it has been mishandled or had some degree of wear. they just shout PROOF at you when you see them, photos just do not capture a majority of the proof qualities unless you bounce light off it at the right angle Standard photo Angled photo of the same coin

Woohoo...dream find, well done whoever it is

I did chuckle at that post...I also get those looks at work

Charges and time periods taken from their website 1 Economy Under £200 No picture £ 9.99 30-90 days 2 Standard Under £200 Computer archival picture £11.99 30-90 days 3 Normal £200 - £1999 Computer archival picture £19.99 30 days 4 Deluxe £2000 - £4999 Computer archival picture £35.00 15 days 5 Premier £5000 - £9999 Computer archival picture £49.99 10 days 6 Star Over £10000 Computer archival picture £75.00 5 days

Oh go on then, send us the images via e-mail to colin(at)aboutfarthings.co.uk, and I will crop them and host them for you But not all 200

I have never had a problem, just play the idiot and say, I've got this, I think it's x, what do you think it is ? I think if you tried it every week, you'd get a different response, but as I say, they've always been very helpfull to me. Sounds like he is trying to pull a fast one, why not offer the £550 in the first place? You can also try the Fitzwilliam museum they also will offer advice/identification, and are generally very helpful (or so I have been told).

You are quite right that I don't know all the ins and outs of databases (or spreadsheets for that matter), in fact I find computers incredibly depressing things to use as they frequently don't give me the answer I want - usually because I don't have enough in depth knowledge of a program. All I need is something that I can understand and use easily to provide me with the information I am seeking to collate together with an image of the coin which I can compare with an illustration in another catalogue and so record the new coin within an existing provenance, or I can generate another known example of that type. In the case of the example above I know that its provenance is ex E W Wigan (collection bt by Rollin & Feuardent 1872), H Webb 560, J G Murdoch 194, G Hamilton-Smith (1913) 126, K Vaughan-Morgan 336, V J E Ryan 1307, J R Vincent, J G Brooker 1153, 3 x SNC references, A Morris (from Roddy Richardson) and finally me (from Lloyd Bennett). It is no help to have the details neatly tabulated out of view from my perspective as the list of names immediately tells me which coin it is, just as the auction catalogue will have a list of past owners underneath the description. This is why putting all the names into one box works so well for me. Any system that requires a single field entry for each name dismembers the provenance. Having a link to the image allows me to compare a new catalogue reference with an existing provenance. I have been giving Sion a few pointers on access, and would be willing to do the same with anyone, the basics are surprisingly easy, and then its a case of tinkering!!!

Thanks for that Hus, it will give me a chance to try and at least study images of one!!

I think my wife dreads it when I say, well that's a new combination...it's just my strategy for keeping hold of them!!

Strangely neither I nor many of the other dealers that I speak to use Spink for pricing purposes. What I do use it for is to check the price of one coin against another e.g. in my opinion a 1916 half crown in EF is worth £x; I have just acquired a 1917 in similar condition, will this be worth more, the same, or less? The actual prices, I tend to ignore. I would totally agree, I can not remember the last time I priced something based on Spink values. I have bought 1 or 2 hammered farthings on that basis, but they were coins I was willing to buy anyway, so it was just a double check that I was not way off the mark, and because the sale needed to be quick!!

See what I mean about differences of opinion!! I agree that clarification could help, but it won't happen anytime soon and would possibly take some of the fun out of it!!