Silliness of the "Un-researched Purchase" Variety

[DrLarry]

well done sorry to nanny you LOL  I just didn't want you to get tripped up. 

[Peckris 2]

8 hours ago, Madness said:

Purchase price = $750

If I sell at $600 I'll clear a bit under $550 after fees and costs.  Add this to the $200 refund and I'd almost make my money back.

I'm not too upset: I've made some much more expensive mistakes than this.  Take the time I was obssessed by vacuum tube (valve) audio amplifiers.  Spent thousands in bits of glass that lit up when you ran electricity through them.  They made great music, but the difference in sound produced by different tube variations and types was mostly only subtle.  Also got into building and modifying tube amps.  Do you know how much it's possible to spend on boutique capacitors?  

You live and learn.  I'm far less impulsive these days than I was five or ten years ago.  I also have far less money!

Although I'm too disabled to use it now, my Ion amplifier - though solid state - was designed to give a similar reproduction to valve amplifiers. 

[Madness]

Sold guinea for $455 AUD.  $150 AUD loss.  

🤢 🤮

[Madness]

....

[self-pitying rant deleted]

....

Edited August 20, 2018 by Madness

[Peckris 2]

8 hours ago, Madness said:

Sold guinea for $455 AUD.  $150 AUD loss.  

🤢 

Could have been worse, I suppose. And MAYBE $150 will prove worthwhile in the long run for the experience gained? We've all been there!

[Madness]

Yes.  Could have been worse.  Thanks Chris.  

Was tempted to chuck in the coin-collecting towel earlier, but I'm enjoying the research too much.  The coins will be like small symbols/reminders of what I've learnt, as well as things of beauty in their own right.  Great pathway into corners of history I've not explored or even considered.  

Edited August 20, 2018 by Madness

[Madness]

Well, my coin collection has officially started, if in fact two coins constitute a collection.  Both of these was purchased from Michael Gouby.  The 1787 shilling is a thing of beauty, graded by Michael as EF+. A faint scratch on the obverse prevented him from selling it as "practically as struck".  This is the less common variety without the stop of George III's head.  

The second coin is a 1787 sixpence in EF? condition.  It's obviously less visually-appealing than the shilling, but has an interesting flaw that I might bring up in another thread.  Certainly worth having, at least for me.  

I was tempted to throw in the towel after my first experience, but I'm now officially hooked.  Off to look at auction offerings!   I've got some spare money from the guinea sale burning a hole in my pocket.  

Edited August 29, 2018 by Madness

[Bronze & Copper Collector]

21 minutes ago, Madness said:

Well, my coin collection has officially started, if in fact two coins constitute a collection.  Both of these was purchased from Michael Gouby.  The 1787 shilling is a thing of beauty, graded by Michael as EF+. A faint scratch on the obverse prevented him from selling it as "practically as struck".  This is the less common variety without the stop of George III's head.  

The second coin is a 1787 sixpence in EF? condition.  It's obviously less visually-appealing than the shilling, but has an interesting flaw that I might bring up in another thread.  Certainly worth having, at least for me.  

I was tempted to throw in the towel after my first experience, but I'm now officially hooked.  Off to look at auction offerings!   I've got some spare money from the guinea sale burning a hole in my pocket.  

In that case, "Welcome to the asylum"...

[Madness]

It's true that knowledge is power.  It's also true that a little knowledge can be a dangerous thing.  I'm not sure which of these two statements is true in relation to my most recent purchase:

 

 

I would guess that this coin should be graded at aVF at best.  I paid 60 GBP for it, despite suspecting that this is a few multiples more than the Spink value for a 1787 sixpence in this condition.  Why was I willing to pay this much?  

1. It's the only example of a 1787 sixpence with this combination of features that I have seen out of the 200 in my growing database: with-hearts/with-serifs-on-7's/7-strings-on-harp.  I have another image taken by the seller from a different angle and taken under different lighting that prominently shows all seven strings. There are possibly other coins made from the same die, but they appear to all have only six strings.  This die match has yet to be confirmed.

2. It's the most prominent example of an off-centre struck 1787 sixpence I've come across to date.  By the way, is there a technical word in *numismatisian* for an off-centre strike?

This isn't an example of madness of the "unresearched variety".  Rather, I think of it as an example of madness of the "I've-researched-and-want-it-but-have-probably-paid-too-much" variety.  One of the unavoidable dangers of attempting a complete collection of varieties and dies of a particular coin is that the only remaining examples are very hard to find, in poor condition and possibly both. 

How much is something like this worth?  To most people, probably very little.  To me, much more.  Would anyone care to guess what the market price would be for something like this?  Is it crazy to pay over Spink?  

Edited September 10, 2018 by Madness

[jelida]

It is not crazy to pay over the odds for a coin that is probably very rare even if a minor variety if it fits in the collection you are building. The Spink catalogue does not cover every possible variety, and when a coin is unlisted the value is what it would fetch correctly described in an auction battle between two people who want it. It isn’t a massively expensive purchase, and your research when completed and published on this forum or elsewhere (why not work towards an article in ‘Coin News’ or a similar journal?) would add value should you ever sell.

Jerry

[Madness]

28 minutes ago, jelida said:

It is not crazy to pay over the odds for a coin that is probably very rare even if a minor variety if it fits in the collection you are building. The Spink catalogue does not cover every possible variety, and when a coin is unlisted the value is what it would fetch correctly described in an auction battle between two people who want it. It isn’t a massively expensive purchase, and your research when completed and published on this forum or elsewhere (why not work towards an article in ‘Coin News’ or a similar journal?) would add value should you ever sell.

Jerry

It would be nice to have something published, but I'm afraid I'm far too "newly-minted" and lacking the patina of experience and general numismatic knowledge. I'm only two months into this hobby/obsession. I think I'd need to approach someone much more knowledgeable than me to review the work before presenting it publicly.  

Edited September 10, 2018 by Madness

[Bronze & Copper Collector]

3 hours ago, Madness said:

It would be nice to have something published, but I'm afraid I'm far too "newly-minted" and lacking the patina of experience and general numismatic knowledge. I'm only two months into this hobby/obsession. I think I'd need to approach someone much more knowledgeable than me to review the work before presenting it publicly.  

Many have collected for years before learning where their passion lay. Consider yourself one of the chosen few to have discovered yours so soon.....