Stuntman

Good stuff, thanks. I'll bring my old schoolboy 'washers' with me then, it would be nice if these could find a new home now I've started collecting slightly better ones. Only slightly, mind!

I'm hoping to attend this coin fair for the first time this coming Sunday (13 Dec) and am looking forward to seeing a great variety of coins at first hand. Just a couple of questions for the regular attendees: Do they allow re-admission? I was considering getting there in the morning, possibly visiting some other places nearby over lunchtime etc, and then going back to the coin fair in the afternoon. Would any dealers be interested in buying pretty ordinary coins from people attending the fair? I have some honest everyday shillings in Fair to Fine grade; similar coins are for sale from dealers for £5-£15, so the coins are worth more than bullion value but not by very much. Equally I have some run-of-the-mill silver coins that are are probably just worth bullion but otherwise nice enough for a young/novice collector. Any money that I received for these coins would get recycled into a new purchase. However, I don't want to ask if the answer would clearly be no! Thanks in advance!

I agree. Or at least renaming to 'what jewels has he bought...'

Very tasty. Most envious!

Quite right, I like it as well - and very well bought

Chris has a 1924 sixpence for sale on the site at the moment... http://www.predecimal.com/sixpence-1924-p-21432.html (I'd say this was slightly better than Brian's but not night and day better)

Really enjoyed reading all four of those. Thank you to everyone involved.

He hasn't replied to me yet either.

Nice coins again Non, I do like the shilling. I'm hoping to get to the December Midland fair. What makes it a biggie?

Cheers Gents. Paulus, it looks like the seller still has that Gothic crown for sale, although he does appear to have sold another one that he had graded as EF for £1100 (ES0046 on his site).

Is it brass, rather than gold?

Today I've been looking at a dealer site that I hadn't come across before, and I would welcome the forum's collective opinion as to the grade of these three, and whether the prices seem reasonable. I'm not entirely sure that they are actually currently available for sale. I've emailed the seller regarding the first one as it's a coin that's definitely on my wants list! 1693 W&M shilling - up at £180 http://www.coinsandtokens.com/excel/england-coins/silver/silver-coin-pics/ES0027.jpg 1861 Victoria shilling - up at £130 http://www.coinsandtokens.com/excel/england-coins/silver/silver-coin-pics/ES0005.jpg 1847 Gothic crown - up at £1195, seems good value if true? http://www.coinsandtokens.com/excel/england-coins/silver/silver-coin-pics/ES0019.jpg Thanks in advance!

In my novice opinion - the proofs (certainly the modern ones) hold a lot more visual appeal, but they don't have either the honest charm of the bullion coin or the close connection to the gold price. And I feel happy handling the bullion sovereigns whereas you wouldn't, shouldn't or couldn't with the modern proofs. I'd rather spend modern proof money on an older bullion coin such as a nice Victoria shield reverse, or perhaps a Guinea or fractional guinea. I've only got a few modern bullion sovereigns but I'd love to add a small handful of older ones at some point.

Wow! When you say "a bit of gold"... My goodness!

Think of it as a hard cross country run combined with an army assault course and you're in the right area. Having done both of these in the past (passed the Army regular commissions board as a teenager, but chose not to join up) I would reckon on it being a lot of fun. But hard work. If you can run 10 miles and do 50 press-ups then you'll be fine.

That one and the florin are just lovely. Very special!

I certainly think it's an attractive coin, and I'd be pleased with it if it was mine.

I'd put it in the same ballpark, certainly GF+ at least.

It's interesting, we will all have different priorities for our own finite pots of money. Perhaps it's whatever gives us the most bang for the buck (to build on Damian's quote above). I'm a sucker for engine noise, steering feel and a capable chassis... Back to Non's coins - the 1817 halfcrown is my favourite. Just lovely!

I certainly wasn't intending the post to appear boastful, so I apologise if it came across that way. And the car's perhaps only NVF given its considerable circulation, or maybe 'Bold VF for issue'... In any case, I am out of work at the moment so any funds are being used extremely sparingly until I start earning again. No coins, no cars, no art... and only a little bit of whisky

I have one of these - an 06-plate Cayman S that I've had from new since March 06. Nearly 90k on the clock now and I still love driving it. Much like coins - quality is indeed the key. I've never regretted pushing the boat out for the Cayman, even when it's thrown me the odd big bill. Sorry for the thread hijack Non. I love your halfcrowns. When funds allow, I'm aiming for similar ones too!

Update: after 8 days of immersion in olive oil plus some light prodding with the softened and blunted cocktail stick, there has been a significant reduction in the amount of brownish deposits on the two threepences, but I think the general eye appeal might be a little worse. This is because there are now a few patches of lighter colour (being the underlying alloy colouration, I think) which makes it look as if the coins have been cleaned/scraped a bit. I don't think I've done that with the cocktail stick. The George VI coin seemed to get a bit darker in overall tone (which made it look worse to me), whereas the Elizabeth II coin seemed not to change in overall tone. So overall, I don't see it as an improvement so I'm not going to do a similar thing with my 1946 and 1949 coins. I might just give these a gentle wash with detergent and de-ionised water and then carefully pat dry. They're nice enough as they are: fairly good honest coins.

's fair enough Colin Cooke had an 1841 Halfcrown up for sale earlier this year - graded as EF, looked pretty nice from their pictures, and was up at £5500.

As per my olive oil thread, I've found that 2 weeks immersion in olive oil clears up quite a lot of that verdigris on the .500 silver. Certainly worth a try in the first instance if you haven't got any acetone handy, like me.

What's the forum consensus on grade? I would say Obv GVF, Rev NVF, no idea what this would translate into as a CGS number...