SidS

I really don't like those silly privy marks, slapped on like an after thought.

I'm struggling to think of any countries where a half crown would be legal tender? Would it be 12.5p (on the UK standard), 25c (on the Aussie standard) or 30 new pence on some standard that's just been invented? It's just an odd denomination all round. A crown I could have understood - as 1980, 1981 etc.

Ooh no, I really like the George II young head coins, they were my favourite alongside the Charles II coins. The old head wasn't so great though.

Poor old George I... although I have to say, having once collected early milled coinage, the George I designs were always the ones I was less enthusiastic about.

Iffy hair on the right one, some rippling? I'd steer well clear of this pair.

There's either an abrasion or an indentation of some sort on the left one - right on the sideburns. Some jeweller's test cut?

I once got a phone call from the HSBC fraud department out of the blue, shortly after I had made a foreign currency payment. I told them, "yeah right, scammers, well you can **** off." Then hung up. When I searched up the number to see if it was a scam, it was actually from the HSBC bank fraud department! 😁 So much for "we never phone you".

They're not actually silver bars, they're silver plated gold bars, it beats a decoy safe. 😉 Anyone who cracks the safe and sees them will think, "oh c**p, all that time getting in and it's just crappy old silver..." 😁

They made coins after 1980? 😲 😁 I can honestly say, although I do have coinage from the modern era, nothing less than the millions/billions. I suspect my rarest would be the dateless 2008 20p (mintage unknown) or the circulation only die variety of 2006 10p, in which I have only seen one coin from every single 2006 I've checked over the past 15 years.

Ah rotary dial. I still have one of these as my back-up landline!

Ah, still on a typewriter, manual or electric? I'm still using quill power myself. 😉

My I've bought tons of stuff from Dorset Coin Co! I thought £80 looked expensive too. I was buying half sovereigns monthly at £35 a pop back in 2001-2. Occasionally I'd splurge on a full sovereign priced in the £58-£70 bracket. Shields were expensive then at about £80-£120 a go. Remember this was the era of Brown's bottom where the gold price was being kept very low by all the central banks selling off their gold. Funny old times! 😁

Gosh cheques, yes I remember the days when it was postal order, cash in the post or cheques to pay for eBay purchases! I don't think I ever used postal orders, but I certainly used many a cheque and sent cash, generally bundles of dollars over to the States. I bought A LOT from the US back before the current extortionate postal service system came in on eBay where they add about £18 postage onto your order plus taxes. I got a lot of my early days silver from the US. Fakes were always a risk but now they seem as common as real coins. I've been buying on eBay since 2003 and most of my issues have been in the last few years, none of which were PM related. I stick to sellers I've used before, with good feedback. If buying from a new seller, I check their other sale items to gauge quality or issues. Then I check their feedback. I also only buy if the photos are clear enough to be certain that the item is genuine (assuming the photo hasn't been stolen from elsewhere). I do as much as I can to protect myself. I sold PMs on eBay from about 2012-2018 (mostly lots of junk silver but also sovereigns and half sovereigns). I never had any problems. I never posted abroad. I always included clear photos of obverses and reverses and also a photo of the coin/s on a set of scales. In group lots, I'd list all the dates individually. I would also give clear descriptions of the coins, drawing attention to any problems, cleaned, holed, polished. In fact I made more of a fuss about the defects than anything else. If you make it clear from the off, the buyer doesn't have a leg to stand on complaining about a clearly listed and photographed defect. I also nearly always had a £1 starting price with no reserve and left it to the whims of the Gods to see where the price ended up. I didn't want to pay for Buy It Now.

Interesting to note that no central banks hold silver. The last real stockpiles (beyond industrial or bullion brokers) went when silver stopped being used for circulating coinage in the 1960s/70s.

I dunno flatware takes up a lot of room! 😁 Coins are fairly compact.

Don't buy silver. Says someone sat on a pile of silver. You'll not really make many gains from it. I buy it because I like it, I don't expect to make any money on it.

As much as I prefer the new £1 coin from an aesthetic point of view. I miss the old £1 coin because there were so many fakes that it was great training ground for identifying the diagnostic tell-tales of forgeries. So many types and styles, cast, struck etc. You could easily handle dozens over the course of a month or so (the main reason the coins were withdrawn) and learn to distinguish between wear and knock offs. Still we have the £2 coin.

Totally agree, eBay is not really safe to buy from now, even I'm struggling to tell the difference with some fakes. I can only be thankful that my pre-1920 quest is winding down to the final hundred or so dates that are left, most of which are threepences and sixpences, which appear unscathed at the moment. The gothic florin fakes are scarily good. Even the young head halfcrowns are starting to look the part. Sometimes the only thing that gives it away is the statement "this is a space filler plated coin". In all honesty, sometimes I really cannot tell. And this is a numismatist of 34 years saying this. It breaks the heart.

It really scares me how good some of the Victorian era fakes have become. I'm buying from trusted sellers now, even if I have to pay over the value. It's still cheaper than using dealer lists.

Looking at what they did last time, I wouldn't be surprised if Charles' image appears on coins even a year after he's gone. Like all those Elizabeth coins dated 2023!

Matte are proofs, just a different type without the glossy fields.

The lustre is off because it's been polished. As others have said, ex-jewellery, that's why it's been given many a good shine. Many years of constant polishing will give this worn appearance. I've had many ex-mount guineas that looked exactly like this. Almost water worn in appearance.

Looks like a proof to me. The hair detail is so crisp. Other people may have differing opinions. A lot of the cleaning damage is on the fields, I wouldn't be surprised if this is from a cased set.

Hard to tell. The hair and beard detailing is exquisite, I wouldn't be surprised to find it had been the proof version. As others have said, shame about the cleaning, but I wouldn't call it terrible. It doesn't look anywhere near as bad as those polished coins and you still have lots of high grade detail undamaged by the clean. I wouldn't turn away such a coin.