L@@@K!

[TomGoodheart]

Wey hey!! eBay item 3973731654 Over £60!!!

Strangely, I have one of these too (in fact I have two)!!

Would anyone like to buy it? To you... only £30 (plus P+P)

Do these people not know what they are doing? (duh!)

I don't know whether to feel sorry or laugh.

No seriously... the topic for this thread is... as numismatists, do we have any responsibility to advise people not to waste their hard earned pennies on dross or should we breath a sigh of relief and say " there, but for CCGB2005 and a few years experience, go I?"

For what it's worth, on the few occasions I have tried to 'interfere' in market forces it has proved a thankless task... Anyone else had any more positive experiences??

Oh - for anyone who doesn't recognise it.. the 'coin' posted is available at the Jorvic centre in York. While excavating the site two coin dies were found and duplicates were made that visitors can use to strike their own 'coins' out of pewter blanks for £1 or so.

[Sylvester]

Would this coin happen to have the obverse legend of...

AETHELSTAN TOT BRIT (Or words to that effect?)

Cos there was one knocking about on ebay a few days back

[TomGoodheart]

The very same... and now there are two on eBay (neither one is mine though!)

[Rob]

No seriously... the topic for this thread is... as numismatists, do we have any responsibility to advise people not to waste their hard earned pennies on dross or should we breath a sigh of relief and say " there, but for CCGB2005 and a few years experience, go I?"

For what it's worth, on the few occasions I have tried to 'interfere' in market forces it has proved a thankless task... Anyone else had any more positive experiences??

Yes we should where the item is not as described to the detriment of it's value. Both for dross and for high value items if it is apparent someone is trying to pull a fast one. My own recent experience includes a Pontefract 1/- which was on ebay around Christmas time. It was high grade and worth about £3000-3500, but the seller didn't say it was plugged reducing this value considerably. I only found out when the prices realised list for the provenance given indicated that the item didn't sell at the auction. On a day when most things were 30% above estimate, this piece should have made £2K easily and so an unsold piece with an estimate of £1300 ie £700 below market value or so sets alarm bells ringing. Suffice to say a piece with the same errors in the same description (think copy and paste), but this time not pictured and with a note to the effect that it was expertly plugged appeared in the next auction where presumably the vendor acquired it. I informed the high bidder and it saved us both bidding to probably 2-3 times its value. The vendor was asked if it was plugged and he denied it, but confirmed my suspicions by sending a hi res scan. You don't casually acquire a Pontefract 1/- without doing your homework, it's just too much money to risk. A foreign seller could have been difficult to chase too.

As an aside for the instigator of this thread, whom I presume is the same tomgoodheart. I am still a bit miffed over the AVSSPCE, but a good rare piece struck from different dies to Brooker 425. It looked as if it could have been from the same obverse die as 427 with the colon stops, though doubtless you will tell me.