a little bit of silver for you guys to look at

[Jay2]

Ditto. I'm delighted to see all these great examples of historic silver.

It's inspiring me (i.e. making me jealous) to get some of my own! Keep 'em coming. A little history of how you guys acquired your favourite ones would be cool too. So we can get an idea of where these gems are unearthed, be it coin shows, auctions, flea markets or whatever. I'm learning quite a bit.

[Jay2]

While searching ebay recently I've had to start adding " -plated -copy -reproduction " to my search phrase. It seems there's quite a lot of modern forgeries, and not all of them are going to be up-front about it by actually including those keywords I remove. Unfortunately by searching this way, I remove listings for people who label it something like "NOT a Reproduction."  

[Jay2]

Can anyone tell me, are all coins designed fully cognisant of the way in which they will wear down? Do engravers know well before a design goes to mint that the brooch, veil, hairbands etc. will smear off first, in a specific order, and are higher relief embellishments sometimes added to certain coins as a 'sacrifice' to preserve the face of the portrait?

I guess the raised outer rim of most coins is the first line of defence against wear, preserving all features at least until the next minting cycle. I kind of wish they'd have had more foresight and made some kind of sacrificial sturdy alloy rim or something. Is that something they do with modern coins? A hardier metal in raised rims.

[CarlosSilver]

Some beautiful coins there @shortstack68

[CarlosSilver]

4 hours ago, shortstack68 said:

Generally in these grades you'd be looking at spot, they were minted in their millions

This is true although the crowns had a much lower mintage. There were only about 150,000 crowns minted in 1894 for example. Low for a circulated coin.

[Jay2]

@CarlosSilver Which year had the highest mintage silver crown, and does that make it the one most likely to be bought closer to spot?

[CarlosSilver]

2 minutes ago, Jay2 said:

@CarlosSilver Which year had the highest mintage silver crown, and does that make it the one most likely to be bought closer to spot?

1889 had the highest mintage of 1.8 million. Then 1890 at just under a million. These are the most common dates seen on eBay although it's not always easy to get a great bargain there. Car boot sales are often a good place.

Condition is key though, good grade crowns can sell for hundreds of pounds.

[Agpanda]

Is this farthing worth more than 10£?

http://www.tradera.com/item/341703/265472368/farthing-1894-england

[Jay2]

I've just discovered there's two nick-knack / vague vintage stuff / antique stores right next to one-another near here, which apparently have coins. Hopefully this is a game-changer for my online-only approach to silver and numismatics. I'll probably go just to look around the first time; take some notes, maybe even some pictures if they're cool with that, and do a bit of research when I get home so I'm not buying blind or getting over-excited. Fingers crossed.

So I thought I should share pics too.

Other than an Edward VII Sixpence and a tiny George VI 1920 Threepence, this Half Crown is the only piece of historic silver I own - the rest being huge amounts of coppers. I'm positive that will change soon.

 

[gavinfry]

thanks for all the info guys i dont think i will melt down any coins as i can see a higher value market from all the responses i have had seems like great site for info and advice i will show some other of my pick ups soon

[sovereignsteve]

6 hours ago, CarlosSilver said:

1889 had the highest mintage of 1.8 million. Then 1890 at just under a million. These are the most common dates seen on eBay although it's not always easy to get a great bargain there. Car boot sales are often a good place.

Condition is key though, good grade crowns can sell for hundreds of pounds.

Judging by the numbers you see for sale and their prices, I would have thought the 1887 crown would be the highest mintage.

[Jay2]

@sovereignsteve I was wondering that myself. Doing a bit of ebay browsing on them tonight.

[Jay2]

Anyone know what this one would be worth?

[CarlosSilver]

9 hours ago, sovereignsteve said:

Judging by the numbers you see for sale and their prices, I would have thought the 1887 crown would be the highest mintage.

The 1887 crown has a mintage figure of 173,581 with 1,084 proofs according to my reference book. 

[CarlosSilver]

@Jay2 I'm not claiming to be an expert on coin grading but that 1891 crown looks in decent condition. The main points of wear are usually seen on George’s sword, the muscle definition on the horse and Vicky's jewellery and hair.

I could see someone paying £40 for that. 

[sovereignsteve]

11 minutes ago, CarlosSilver said:

The 1887 crown has a mintage figure of 173,581 with 1,084 proofs according to my reference book. 

With it being the Queen's Jubilee year, It's logical there were more minted, the extra interest and the proof sets produced will see to that. Also, more coins will have been put aside for collectors and as souvenirs, which will mean lots more coins in UNC and high grades will have survived. This will keep prices generally depressed.

[CarlosSilver]

16 hours ago, shortstack68 said:

1887 was her jubilee year and a design change, the new design wasn't well received at the time they were issued. If you buy the book Collectors Coins GB or CCGB for short you can find mintage figures in there plus a much more better price guide, although these can always skew, but i know the author and he brings this book out yearly and does a lot of asking specialists about their thoughts on pricing, he's also the owner of predecimal.com which also has a fantastic forum for older numismatic coins

+1 for the CCBG book

I'm on the Predecimal forum, it's coin geek heaven. Some fantastic advice and knowledge. I love lurking there.

 

[Goldhooked]

Great thread this, can we resurrect it?  I've hopefully got a fairly large amount of pre-1947 GB coins on the way that I got for a decent price.  I'm hoping there's some rarer ones in there.  Going to have a look for the book suggested above.

@Jay2 did you have any luck finding anything interesting in those 2 shops mentioned?

Does anyone have any luck at car boot sales or are there too many people in the know nowadays?

[Goldhooked]

I take it this is the right book - http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Rotographic-Collectors-Coins-G-B-1760-to-1970-C-Perkins-2016-Latest-Edition-/132273110700?epid=1088931955&hash=item1ecc177eac:g:vOEAAOSwk1JWgp4f ?

I can't see a 2017 version?

[Jay2]

15 minutes ago, Goldhooked said:

@Jay2 did you have any luck finding anything interesting in those 2 shops mentioned?

Does anyone have any luck at car boot sales or are there too many people in the know nowadays?

Yeah there were piles of silver crowns dotted around the place, with a vague pricing of "usually £25" from the staff. I didn't get any yet, but it will be a great place to complete sets!

An occasional Sovereign or Half will come in too, so I'd phone them up first to check. Those were £250 and £125 flat price for the last couple months. They tend to go quick, to my surpise.

Car boot wise, you could ask @Madstacks about that. Some time last year he picked up a few Sovereigns way under spot and worried they weren't legit, but they were real. He makes a mission out of car booting I think, on his Youtube anyway. I would guess most people outside the hobby over-value the old silver coins and under-value the gold, but I have no experience of it.

[Goldhooked]

Got my first small lot of half crowns today, a run from 1932-1938 with an extra 1934.

No idea if they're anything special but looking on eBay for example, the 1934 seems to have sold recently for anything between a couple of quid and £15.  There was even an accepted 'Best Offer' listing that was originally priced at £45!!  Why the massive spread on these?

 

 

[Jay2]

I wish there was a way of knowing what those Best Offers were, but I suppose that would disadvantage bulk sellers by tipping their hand on acceptable offers.

The spread has to be due to grade or rarity. The 1934 had the 2nd lowest mintage of its non-proof kind at 2 million. If you look on places like Numista you can often get a good idea of collectable grade pricing ranges: https://en.numista.com/catalogue/pieces2754.html 

Or look at past auction house stats to see that the high-grade ones can go anywhere from £50 to £200 slabbed and perfect. http://www.londoncoins.co.uk/?page=Pastresults&searchterm=Halfcrown+1934&category=9&searchtype=1 

Another potentially useful resource for grade pricing I sometimes dip into: https://www.catawiki.com/catalog/coins/countries/united-kingdom/2936077-united-kingdom-12-crown-1934

[Jay2]

The nice thing about Numista is the live Bullion Price at the bottom of each page for specific coins, to give you a bidding guide on ebay if you're only buying coins for silver.

Or use this handy (if ugly) calculator page: http://www.silverrecyclers.com/Calculators/gbcoin_calculator.aspx  (click the GB flag for £ cost).

Pick the silver coin from the menu, then enter quantity of that coin below. Press enter and get your bullion price of x coins.

 

They do this for many world silver coins if you go back to the home page and look at the flags on the left panel.

[Goldhooked]

39 minutes ago, Jay2 said:

The nice thing about Numista is the live Bullion Price at the bottom of each page for specific coins, to give you a bidding guide on ebay if you're only buying coins for silver.

Or use this handy (if ugly) calculator page: http://www.silverrecyclers.com/Calculators/gbcoin_calculator.aspx  (click the GB flag for £ cost).

Pick the silver coin from the menu, then enter quantity of that coin below. Press enter and get your bullion price of x coins.

 

They do this for many world silver coins if you go back to the home page and look at the flags on the left panel.

Yes, I've been using that 90's looking website - it looks horrible but its really useful

I've got Numista saved in my links too.  I also found the latest 2017 version of the book mentioned above and ordered a copy - http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Rotographic-Collectors-Coins-Decimal-U-K-C-Perkins-2017-Latest-Edition/132227996094

*edit* - doh!!  Just realised that's the wrong book, that's the decimal one!!!