Opinions on the grade of this 1916 half crown please

[Bruce06]

13 hours ago, SidS said:

I don't know how I forgot those to be fair. Shame they ditched it for the rather insipid cruciform shield design.

If you want another good looking pre-decimal silver, the oft forgotten Britannia groat is a gem too. Tiny little things, same diameter as a threepence, but oh so wonderful.

Agree the Groat is another attractive pre-decimal silver piece.

25 minutes ago, Stuntman said:

Britannia Groat, you say?  Here's the last of the line, an 1888 specimen.

The only one I have!

I agree about the shilling, florin and halfcrown designs mentioned but I also have a soft spot for the 1927-36 florin design too.

In fact, florins are a really nice denomination for the type collector because there' aren't too many different types and many of them are attractive designs.  Godless, Gothic, Veiled Head, Standing Britannia etc.

Lovely one, thanks for sharing.  I don't have any Groat so far, and agree the Florin have many attractive designs since its inception in 1848/1849.  

[Stuntman]

5 hours ago, SidS said:

A lovely specimen!

I too like florins. I thought about sticking a date collection together once. A lot of money for the gothics though. Although, I do have a full date set of circulated florins from 1887-1967. Nothing to write home about though being F-VF grades.

I have tried being a type collector. I always end up chasing the dates though.

Wow - that's quite some date run, especially since you will have 1891, 1892, 1905, 1925 and 1932 in there.

I have a 1905 and 1932 but I would love an 1892 with decent eye appeal.

Thankfully when it comes to UK predecimal coinage I am very much a type collector who has 'a little bit of everything'.  At least one example of pretty much every denomination (I don't have any Bank Tokens or Dollars), and at least one example of every monarch from Charles II onwards apart from Edward VIII.

Some in good grades, some not, some rare, some not.  This covers about 160 coins and gives me an eclectic mix.  While in an ideal world I would like to add the collection, I haven't bought since 2019 and since then have concentrated on the modern precious metals!

UK predecimal completionism requires dedication, patience and deep pockets!

[SidS]

50 minutes ago, Stuntman said:

Wow - that's quite some date run, especially since you will have 1891, 1892, 1905, 1925 and 1932 in there.

I have a 1905 and 1932 but I would love an 1892 with decent eye appeal.

I've got full low grade date runs of all 'silver' coins from 1887-1967 (except for threepences, wreath crowns and the 1893 jubilee head sixpence).

I'm now working on filling all the Vicky young head gaps that I can. The crowns are done (minus the gothic). I've already made good progress on the half crowns, shillings and groats. The florins of the 1860s are going to be a real problem.

The goal is a low grade set of all 'silver' from 1816-1967. It's going to take years.

[Stuntman]

@SidS- amazing, what an endeavour.  Best of luck. 

I'd love to see pictures of your 1903 and 1905 half crowns, for example.  The 1905 is very valuable in any grade, as well you know!,

As is the 1905 shilling.  Those two 1905 coins are perhaps the most desirable of the 20th Century.

There is/was a chap over on predecimal.com called Paddy who is another date run completionist for pretty much every denomination.  I think he had a market stall in Devon where he bought and sold coins over many years. 

I haven't been active on that site for years, but I think he put up various galleries of all his coins.  They were in various grades and he just loved filling gaps and finding upgrades to ones he had.  Very impressive.

 

[SidS]

52 minutes ago, Stuntman said:

@SidS- amazing, what an endeavour.  Best of luck. 

I'd love to see pictures of your 1903 and 1905 half crowns, for example.  The 1905 is very valuable in any grade, as well you know!,

As is the 1905 shilling.  Those two 1905 coins are perhaps the most desirable of the 20th Century.

There is/was a chap over on predecimal.com called Paddy who is another date run completionist for pretty much every denomination.  I think he had a market stall in Devon where he bought and sold coins over many years. 

I haven't been active on that site for years, but I think he put up various galleries of all his coins.  They were in various grades and he just loved filling gaps and finding upgrades to ones he had.  Very impressive.

 

Ah the old pre-decimal site!

I was a member on there for many years. I haven't been there in a long, long time. It got taken over by copper/bronze coin nuts. The sort who love slight varieties. Silver and gold rarely got a look in and so I visited less and less over the years. As a generalist who likes more of a broad sweep, I became the odd one out.

I think I've found more like minds here - even though most of you guys aren't numismatists - at least we all have a deep love of precious metals.

Yeah the 1903s and 1905s weren't the easiest to find.

The rarer 50% silver coins were easier, simply because I bought a few completed Whitman sets.

There are a few gaps if the modified effigy variants are taken into account during the mid-1920s, but I don't worry too much about minor details like that. On quite worn coins it can be so hard to tell which is which.

I've got at least two 1905 shillings. Same goes for 1889 small head shillings (I've got more of those than the large head variety).

Edited February 28, 2023 by SidS

[Bruce06]

2 hours ago, Stuntman said:

@SidS- amazing, what an endeavour.  Best of luck. 

I'd love to see pictures of your 1903 and 1905 half crowns, for example.  The 1905 is very valuable in any grade, as well you know!,

As is the 1905 shilling.  Those two 1905 coins are perhaps the most desirable of the 20th Century.

There is/was a chap over on predecimal.com called Paddy who is another date run completionist for pretty much every denomination.  I think he had a market stall in Devon where he bought and sold coins over many years. 

I haven't been active on that site for years, but I think he put up various galleries of all his coins.  They were in various grades and he just loved filling gaps and finding upgrades to ones he had.  Very impressive.

 

 

1 hour ago, SidS said:

Ah the old pre-decimal site!

I was a member on there for many years. I haven't been there in a long, long time. It got taken over by copper/bronze coin nuts. The sort who love slight varieties. Silver and gold rarely got a look in and so I visited less and less over the years. As a generalist who likes more of a broad sweep, I became the odd one out.

I think I've found more like minds here - even though most of you guys aren't numismatists - at least we all have a deep love of precious metals.

Yeah the 1903s and 1905s weren't the easiest to find.

The rarer 50% silver coins were easier, simply because I bought a few completed Whitman sets.

There are a few gaps if the modified effigy variants are taken into account during the mid-1920s, but I don't worry too much about minor details like that. On quite worn coins it can be so hard to tell which is which.

I've got at least two 1905 shillings. Same goes for 1889 small head shillings (I've got more of those than the large head variety).

I'm also member of predecimal site as well, and yes, most of their discussions are related to penny n halfpenny, but sometimes they are talking about silver as well though not frequently doing so.  Maybe I'm still green, i love to read posts at both predecimal n TSF daily to grow knowledge about coins.

Talking about Paddy, there were some posts weeks ago over there mentioned and concerned about him, as he was last active in Jan 2022, also similar day in another coin forum.  @StuntmanDid u come across Paddy recently?

[JTerry3]

8 hours ago, SidS said:

Ah the old pre-decimal site!

I was a member on there for many years. I haven't been there in a long, long time. It got taken over by copper/bronze coin nuts. The sort who love slight varieties. Silver and gold rarely got a look in and so I visited less and less over the years. As a generalist who likes more of a broad sweep, I became the odd one out.

I think I've found more like minds here - even though most of you guys aren't numismatists - at least we all have a deep love of precious metals.

I'm signed up there but rarely post as it doesn't seem a very active forum sadly. Sometimes I'll look at the top / newest thread in one of the sub-forums & last post is from a year ago! And even in the main forums, it could still be days. 

Here there's much more activity going on even if most of the contributors are stackers & not collectors or numismatists as you point out. Btw I'm also a like-minded generalist. 😄  

[JTerry3]

Anyway less yapping, more coin pics. 😅 My example of the Edwardian Florin:

[artalien]

 

1 hour ago, JTerry3 said:

Here there's much more activity going on even if most of the contributors are stackers & not collectors or numismatists as you point out.

Guilty as charged! Only joking. That's a great looking florin mate. You guys are posting some interesting content and the images are a joy. I wish I could contribute more but I don't have the knowledge to do so. It's great to see activity on this thread and I thank you all for posting. Keep them coming 🙂

I bought a florin on here and it is perhaps my favourite coin behind the rocking horse crown.

Edited March 1, 2023 by artalien

[artalien]

[SidS]

As promised. The dates are very faint on the florin and one of the shillings. The others are very clear though.

 

[Stuntman]

I love seeing a really rare coin that has had a proper circulating life.  Those 1905 shillings and 1905 halfcrown absolutely fit the bill.

Just think how many hands those coins passed through, probably all of them blissfully ignorant of the rarity of what they were holding.

Here's my 1905 shilling and florin - I don't have a halfcrown.  Again, these are fairly well-circulated coins that didn't cost the earth.  Bought them both in 2015, from memory, on separate occasions.

 

[Bruce06]

14 minutes ago, Stuntman said:

I love seeing a really rare coin that has had a proper circulating life.  Those 1905 shillings and 1905 halfcrown absolutely fit the bill.

Just think how many hands those coins passed through, probably all of them blissfully ignorant of the rarity of what they were holding.

Here's my 1905 shilling and florin - I don't have a halfcrown.  Again, these are fairly well-circulated coins that didn't cost the earth.  Bought them both in 2015, from memory, on separate occasions.

 

Nice👍, I am yet to have any 1905 silver, hope to secure 1 soon.

4 hours ago, SidS said:

As promised. The dates are very faint on the florin and one of the shillings. The others are very clear though.

 

Together with the 1848 and 1851 shilling in another post, you have many scarce-rare silver coins in your collection, nice👍

[SidS]

21 minutes ago, Stuntman said:

I love seeing a really rare coin that has had a proper circulating life.  Those 1905 shillings and 1905 halfcrown absolutely fit the bill.

Just think how many hands those coins passed through, probably all of them blissfully ignorant of the rarity of what they were holding.

Here's my 1905 shilling and florin - I don't have a halfcrown.  Again, these are fairly well-circulated coins that didn't cost the earth.  Bought them both in 2015, from memory, on separate occasions.

 

They're certainly better grades than mine. That florin is a beauty!

I think with these it's always important to go for the clearest date possible.

Too many nicer looking half crowns than mine, have more detail but the 5 is always real weak! So is it a 3, an 8 or a 5?

Yours are so crisp that there's no confusion whatsoever.

Edited March 1, 2023 by SidS

[SidS]

1 minute ago, Bruce06 said:

Nice👍, I am yet to have any 1905 silver, hope to secure 1 soon.

Together with the 1848 and 1851 shilling in another post, you have many scarce-rare silver coins in your collection, nice👍

There's a 1854 somewhere too.

1850 is going to be a BIG problem though! That and 1863 are the only two I'm missing.

The florins, we'll not talk about because the 1860s just scare me.

[Bruce06]

6 minutes ago, SidS said:

There's a 1854 somewhere too.

1850 is going to be a BIG problem though! That and 1863 are the only two I'm missing.

The florins, we'll not talk about because the 1860s just scare me.

Wish you can complete the shilling's soon.  I see there's 1863 shilling at fine grade selling at Croydon, but they don't have picture, so don't know if it's good or not.

For Gothic Florin, it's a beauty and very hard to find a decent and reasonable priced example now, as price go up a lot in past few years.  

[SidS]

28 minutes ago, Bruce06 said:

For Gothic Florin, it's a beauty and very hard to find a decent and reasonable priced example now, as price go up a lot in past few years.  

The problem with gothics is that they don't look so good in fine condition. They really have to be VF to really appreciate them.

Although with the rarest ones I guess I'll have to go with the old Vicky silouhette on a poor+ example.

[Stuntman]

18 hours ago, Bruce06 said:

Talking about Paddy, there were some posts weeks ago over there mentioned and concerned about him, as he was last active in Jan 2022, also similar day in another coin forum.  @StuntmanDid u come across Paddy recently?

Hi @Bruce06 - no, I was last active over there in about 2019 I'm afraid.  Last predecimal coins I bought were in 2019 and I've resisted temptation so far.  Met a couple of them in real life at the Midland Coin Fair.

[Groundup]

Was this coin faked much...

If yes. Are there any telltale signs.

[Groundup]

My thoughts are this isn't genuine.

But I know absolutely zero, any input would be appreciated...

[Zhorro]

9 minutes ago, Groundup said:

My thoughts are this isn't genuine.

But I know absolutely zero, any input would be appreciated...

Agreed - it looks like a cheap copy.

[Groundup]

Thankyou for replying.

When I compared it to the genuine article above.. the trident and hair look off.... But good to get confirmation... 👍

It does a good ping test and non magnetic, so can I assume that it's still has silver content... 

[artalien]

13 minutes ago, Groundup said:

It does a good ping test and non magnetic, so can I assume that it's still has silver content... 

It's a very good grade. I honestly can't tell. I know very very little however. Specific gravity test maybe to be sure it has silver. Are the dimensions correct, weight?

Edited November 6, 2023 by artalien
thinking on my feet

[Stuntman]

It's absolutely not genuine I'm afraid.

[Petra]

It doesn’t look anything like old Edward does it😮🤔