Michael-Roo

Yes, that's the collection coin, and what a beauty it is. A keeper!

The reverse:

To be frank I think £200 would be optimistic and I doubt you'd even get back the £155 you paid eighteen years ago. But you're not looking to sell so value doesn't really matter. Remember, this one of mine, a little better than yours and sitting in a world wide shop window, didn't sell at £75.

The notes on the envelope look to be in Colin Cooke's hand.

This is the 1673 'no obverse stops' farthing from the Colin Cooke collection. Graded Fine, which clearly it isn't. Comparable to your coin, though the reverse looks a little better. I'm having difficulty matching the two from the photos. Are you sure they are one and the same?

While provenance and pedigree will always carry a premium it is terribly important to grade accurately when assessing value. The two examples sold through LCA were accurately graded by them as 'bold fine' and 'better than fine and bold', though the latter had inexplicably been rebadged as near extremely fine when offered for sale by Coins and Banknotes. If you compare your own coin with the two LCA coins you will see immediately it had been overgraded when sold to you as 'a bold fine'. My own assessment of your farthing would be no higher than very good (VG). With regards to scarcity, these are not the 'extremely rare' variety they were once thought to be and while those in grades above fine will always be sought after and achieve decent prices mediocre examples are not difficult to find. I have five 1673 no obverse stops farthings in grades fair to very fine+ and with both reverse dies for normal and wide dates. Joe Lee (farthingshalfpennyerrors.com) also has five in grades good fair to good fine+. As for value, my advice would be look to the LCA sales and adjust downward accordingly. There's one on eBay (wide date), which is a little better than yours, being offered for £190 but the listing has been there forever and I doubt it will sell at that price. You'll see I've included photos of three of my five with this mail. These I grade 1) near fine 2) bold fine 3) very fine+. Last year I had the near fine coin listed on eBay starting at what I considered a very fair £95. After several months of no interest, and after having reduced the price to £75, I cancelled the listing.

You're probably right Chris, though it's the typography I find most disturbing.

I know nothing of your wife's poetry but if you're going to self publish maybe spending a few quid with a graphic designer would have been a good idea? I doubt that image would scrape a pass for a 4th form art project. And before you all start whinging, I have 35 years experience in publishing so I know what I'm talking about.

Just now reading in the 'More Pennies' thread about the B over R 1862 penny which sold on eBay recently and it being only the eight known example it occurred I'd not shared this here. A 1694 halfpenny with the MVRIA error in the obverse legend. Before now both Rob and myself had believed there to be only three in existence. Mine makes four. Extremely rare, and to give this some context; there are now six 1695 DEI GRATIA halfpennies recorded.

It does Ian. I'm pleased to own it. Oh, by the way, eighth, not eight. Apologies.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/cbbc/shows/hacker-time https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=Hacker+and+Dodge

I like that Richard, it reads very 1950s sci-fi pulp fiction. I'd make a weeny editorial change your synopsis to include more than just the one all-loving deity which inhabitants of the newly discovered planet have, for millennia, slaughtered each other in arguments over the non-provable existence of. Oh, and, in our house, the idea another living, sentient, creature should need to die simply for us to be fed was long ago dismissed as bol**cks.

Should anyone ever tell you collecting is for sad anoraks I suggest you refer them to Hacker T Dog.....

Very interesting Chris. Is there even more 'enhancing'?

Hang on a cotton-pickin'-minute.... In good faith I bought a coin I believed to be a proof, struck in silver, with an attractive blue toning. What's this brown jobby you've sent me? Joking aside; I'm gobsmacked. You're absolutely right Mike.

Lovely!

That fake ceiling was criminal. Well done sir, and a lovely reclaimed space. It reminds me very much of the Barnston women's institute hall which is around the corner from us and where you'll find a plaque informing you it was the venue at which the Beatles appeared for the first time in the suits Brian Epstein had bought them. Yeah, yeah, yeah.....

Absolutely.

What a shame.

😮

Ah, I see you've deleted 'getting on with important things like genocide' and have replaced it with 'get on with the important things like supporting Ukraine'. The question remains: what does one have to do with the other?

How can you conflate the two issues? Or do you mean you have information about a genocide Johnson and Sunak are planning which the rest of us are yet to be made aware of?

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/apr/10/stench-entitlement-now-oozing-from-rishi-sunaks-home-as-well-as-boris-johnsons