Edward III penny and a cautionary Royal Mail story.

[jelida]

During the first week of May I spotted a 'Silver Hammered Penny King Edward I' for sale as a Buy-it-now' on Ebay, £38 total including Ebay insurance and 48hr Royal Mail Tracked delivery. As the coin was in fact an Edward III florin coinage penny of Canterbury, and quite scarce, I bought it and tracking showed that the vendor posted it on 10th May. Over the next 48hrs or so it tracked to the Birmingham MC sorting office - where it stayed. After a fortnight I spoke to the vendor who contacted RM and received an unhelpful reply and no coin. After 3 weeks Ebay gave me my money back within 24hrs of my claim as suggested by the vendor and I wrote the coin off mentally with much regret. It is noteworthy that with the refund Ebay actually state that if the purchase is subsequently found it can be kept and they do not have to be informed. Well, it was delivered out of the blue by postie on Thursday! Only 8 weeks in transit! The vendor and I have exchanged several cheerful emails and I get to keep the coin for nothing!

As far as I can tell the coin is S1547, N1122 (VR) and DIG Obv 1 rev Ai. 

Jerry

[Coinery]

We’re just getting ready to fly out to Germany for a wedding, so can’t comment at this point.

Interestingly, I hadn’t noticed the DIG Galata guide until your post, another book to buy!

[copper123]

Yes , royal snail do things like this very often now since they started their double digit price increases about five or so years ago ,

Disgraceful service

[scottishmoney]

I've had several rather less than commendable experiences with Royal Fail in the past few years.  A couple of them stand out, the purchase of a Scottish square £1 note from 1909 that seemingly took a long detour for four months about four years ago - I worked with seller, filed a claim got refunded and the out of the blue the parcel showed up and I paid the seller for the note.  Then about a year ago a parcel with some 19th century banking memorabilia dropped off the face of the earth in London - same thing, worked with seller got refunded and then like six months later it showed up.

What a contrast - I frequently get several parcels, even large parcels from Ukraine all the time with complete tracking and despite the fact they are at war with Russia - parcels come through with efficiency.  Ukrposhta is an enterprise that tries to deliver despite the circumstances - Royal Fail is a sad excuse.  Now auction purchases from the London auction houses have to come either DHL or Fedex. 

[Rob]

I think every postal service in the world has been wanting at some point in time. We all have our horror stories to relate. 2 stand out in my case. My worst was following the purchase of the unique F689 (incorrectly slabbed as a P1983) and a P1156 (4 known) in the June 2006 Heritage sale. As you may anticipate the parcel went awol, with nothing heard of it until the following January/February when it reappeared back at Heritage. I had been refunded months before, so the first question they asked was did I still want it given it hadn't been signed for the first time round? A rather silly question given the parcel had just come from the Philippines! And no, I don't live on the outskirts of Manila.

However, there was a positive outcome, because I pointed out the error in their shipping policy, which was to only have the parcel tracked in the destination country. I enquired how they could know where it was at any point, and how I could be sure the parcel had in fact been sent out at all and wasn't residing in the collection of a Heritage employee, even if I was trying to keep an open mind at all times. They got a bit miffed at the insinuation, but within a week or so had revised their international shipping policy such that the parcel was tracked at all times, whoever was the carrier. Hooray. Common sense prevailed and persists to this day, but only once they had actually read and absorbed the emails.

The coin in question is seen below. It differs from the P1983 which has the oak leaves in the outer circle pointing in the opposite direction. I am not aware of any others, nor a  P1983 in private hands, but if anyone knows of one, I'm all ears. A Peck miss given it was illustrated in the Nobleman sale (1922) lot 399.

 

The second involved a parcel of Northumbrian stycas shipped to an address in Paris 10 or 12 years ago. Fully tracked, but nowhere to be seen - until it resurfaced in Tahiti. We know the Vikings got around a bit, but that would have required a major rewriting of Viking history books had the parcel been lost in the South Pacific.

[Ukstu]

Nice piece Jerry. Glad it turned up in the end. 

My daughter's birthday card arrived 2 weeks late in April. My Nephews is now also 2 weeks late. Both posted 2 weeks in advance of occasion. I wouldn't mind but the distance it's travelling is a mere 38 miles inside the same county (Lancashire)

They really are the pits.

Stu.

Edited 2 hours ago by Ukstu