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Ætheling

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Posts posted by Ætheling

  1. On 9/15/2021 at 6:02 PM, SMS said:

    Take a picture...it'll last longer!  I personally have a couple of coins that are in slabs, but mostly as part of my "slab type set".  But, I generally do like to handle my coins.  Far too many "collectors" buy slabbed coins to have them "rot" away in some safe deposit box somewhere and admire them by digital photo.  I see no reason to have the coin if you are simply going to admire it through photos or your own personal "glass window".

    Agreed!

  2. I can only assume that is one of these UK 50p coins. Pretty much what Mark said to be honest.

    Since about 2004 or so I have noticed reduction in quality with some of the circulation issue coinage. It's no surprise really given the ever increasing mintages and the various extra steps to prepare them, striking in harder metals (such as steel) and plating etc. All will be more time consuming. Hence, coins are turning up defective on occasion. Looks like you found an interesting error. The 20p coins are always good to look out for, they often have extra lumps of metal or die stress issues. I even once had a 2p coin that had lost part of its copper plating on the obverse and had the steel out in the elements.

    Even better for you is that it's one of the commemorative issues. Might even be worth a bit extra.

  3. I would surmise perhaps two blanks going into the die simultaneously, one gets the obverse, one gets the reverse - where they meet they are blank or have a faint impression. That said I'm not entirely sure on how such an interplay would actually affect the blanks themselves, I can only assume that the dies are set to operate to the correct required thickness of the blanks and the correct pressure. Two blanks in there at once would no doubt increase the pressure between the dies, possibly damaging something?

  4. Well you know me, I might not visit as regularly as I ought but I do try and pop in every now and again. Glad to see you're still here Art! What are you up to these days?

    There's still a few names I recognise from the old days.

    Finishing that quarter set took some patience, as the money was not always available and coins were not the priority, but I think they were well worth the wait!

  5. After 30 years of being a coin collector I've finally managed to accomplish something I've never done before. I finally finished a collection. The way it normally goes is... I buy, then I lose interest, then I sell. Then I buy, and repeat the previous actions.

    I have not really collected coins for a long while, sold most of the collection off years ago - hence my absence from this website for so long. I have the odd regret about the coins that went.

    However, there was one set I kept, simply because I think they are beautiful coins and although they were mothballed for years, I added a coin to it every once in a while. Started this set back in 2008 when I was still a semi-regular on this forum, the first two were a 1917-P and a 1929-P. Somehow these two coins managed to evade the big sell off and more than that they even gathered accomplices like a rolling snowball. It was slow and tedious work but last summer I purchased the final missing piece of the jigsaw.

    So now I have a complete date run of P mint SLQs from 1917-1930 (I couldn't afford the 1916, so I just ignore that one). All are MS63-64 FH coins except for the 1921 a MS-63 non full head and the 1930 an MS-65 non FH.

    Here is the last one, 1926-P. Guess I'll have to eat my words about hating slabbed coins!

    Do I dare to contemplate the D or S mint products? I dunno... they are a lot harder to crack. Maybe I'll try for an S mint circulated set or something more affordable. Maybe AUs? Or perhaps I'll just save up for years and see if I can crack the 1916 in VG?

     

    1926.jpg

  6. I was about to put this on eBay, just assuming it was a bog standard worn 1696 crown. So I photographed it, looking at the photos and the coins I thought oh it's a 1698, looked in the coin book and then though, wait hang on there ain't a 1698. So I've looked at this coin every which way, in natural light, artificial light and thought hard 'the last digit is a 6', but as worn as the coin is, it certainly looks more like an 8 - however, looking at 1698 halfcrowns the 8 is a different shape to what I have here, it looks like a 6 which turns at the top and comes back to make an 8. I can't find any evidence of any overdates for these 1696 crowns, which was my next logical thought. The edge date is OCTAVO as per 1696.

    The coin weighs 28.5g and is very worn. Silver ring when dropped and it travels down a magnetic silver slide as one would expect silver to. I though perhaps a forgery was the next logical conclusion.

     

     

     

    SDC11888a.JPG

    SDC11887a.JPG

  7. I got an interesting 'error' coin (so to speak) a few months back. Sadly I can't post a photo these days because I don't have a camera.

     

    It's a UK 2p coin, copper plated steel. But the copper plating has flaked off of the obverse so the head of Lizzie is mostly bare steel, but there's copper plating around the legend areas. It almost looks like a bimetallic issue. There are no scraping marks, so I presume the plating just didn't take.

  8. I'm quite envious you know, you guys in the states have so much more history as far as current 'circulating' coinage goes. (Same for Canada and Switzerland too).

     

    For those of us in the UK we only go back to 1971, not particulary exciting really. Although I realise this is maybe still better off than eurozone countries that only go back to 1999. There was a time back in the early-mid 1990s that old predecimal coins would turn up unofficially every now and again; usually farthings, halfpennies and shillings. But these days I don't even see those. Occasional Gibraltar, Isle of Man, Jersey coins, but they too are all from the decimal era onwards. Clad US dimes also turn up frequently, as well as the bronze 2 eurocents.

     

    I'm always on the lookout in my change for anything with a monarch other than Elizabeth II on it - so often disappointed though.

  9.  

    What Clive said!!! :bthumbsup::bthumbsup::bthumbsup:

     

    It's always nice to visit you guys, because no matter how long I may be away, I always feel like I have a home here. Everytime it's just like I never left! I never intentionally leave, it's just other stuff keeps getting in the way!

  10. Hi Everyone!

     

    Yes It was my 30th birthday yesterday and I actually was thinking of you guys. I got your card in the post Art and that got me thinking I've got to get back on here for a visit!

     

    So thanks for last year/this years Christmas card Art it was a delight! :)

     

    An update on what I'm doing these days.

     

    Well i'm still working with children as a teaching assistant, I now also have two other jobs as well. I work as a private maths tutor on Sundays and I also work as a children's playworker during the school holidays! I thoroughly enjoy it. Hence why I've been struggling time wise to do much else.

     

    How are all you guys and gals on here?

  11. Well, I just talked to a UK expatriate... and apparently the word "Britain" has a very nebulous meaning. ("Great Britain" means the island, England, Scotland and Wales, and Edward I "Longshanks" gets the win there as being the first to rule the whole thing, apparently.) Go back far enough and "Britain" could include Brittany in France, since it was inhabited (and still is) by Celts of the Breton tribe.

     

    The UK currently consists of "Great Britain and Northern Ireland."

     

    I was certainly thinking of "The Island of Great Britain" when I wrote my reply. So I made a mistake there, but I am not sure what the right answer actually is. I don't know what the original poster meant by it; I know a lot of Americans sloppily use it as a synonym for the UK (and for that matter, a lot use "England" as as synonym too).

     

    Some of us in England have been known to use England and Britain interchangeably; it really annoys the Scottish, Irish and Welsh (and with good reason too) - not that we do it on purpose it's just misuse of the term Britain.

  12. I didn't join til 2006 when the current incarnation was barely a year old. Since many of you have "June 15" (or about then) 2005 as your avatar start dates, maybe we should have a Coin Frenzy on or around that date.

     

    I like that idea. Yes we could have an online celebration of 10 years for the forum in it's current format! That'd be cool. Afterall it's given us a lot in those years, otherwise we wouldn't keep coming back!

  13. Hey guys something I realised the other day, I've been around here a while (on and off, mostly off in recent years it has to be said), but I joined this forum in May 2003...10 years ago! (Art must have been here about as long too), where does the time go? The forum was fairly new around that time too, maybe been online a year... perhaps not even that!

     

    Should coinpeople have a happy birthday? ;)

  14. That's why i'm not generally in favour of slabs, the slab should not (in an ideal world) make a coin worth more. It should just protect and be a guarantee of authenticity. The old saying of 'buy the coin and not the slab' should be paramount. But I believe the 'grade/price inflation' of slabs has already taken root.

  15. Coincrafts 2000 catalogue.A good reference (available 2nd hand)

    North Volume 1 & 2(about £45 each)

     

     

    Coincraft is quite good actually (although it only does the major types). North is the 'bible' of English hammered so to speak, unfortunately trying to use it is a lot like wading through mud. I feel you really need to have a general grasp on the hammered serieses before you go delving into the North catalogue, a bit specialist.

  16. You're most welcome. Don't worry Christmas sneaks up on us faster and faster each year. Just keep enjoying your life. How's about an update on what you're up to?

     

    I'm still working in education as a teaching assistant with 10-11 year olds, which i've been doing since 2008 at numerous schools (generally on temporary contracts).

     

    I went through a very rough patch from Sept 2010-Dec 2011, the new headteacher at that time was a nasty piece of work and bullied many of my colleagues, several had mental breakdowns and quit teaching for good. I was really struggling with stress myself by November 2011, I applied for other jobs in desperation and as luck would have it I managed to find another job and escape! The new school I started at in Jan 2012 is much nicer, much more supportive and even better in May my contract was made permanent! So now that I have some job security I can start planning more long term, for the first time since I left university.

     

    As a sideline I've also been working weekends since December 2011 doing private tuition for children of a similar age. So I've been working 7 days a week for the past year, i've not had much time to do anything really! But at least I am much less stressed!

     

    Occasionally, I still buy the odd coin to fill in gaps in the collection, but I'm attempting to save up to get my own house (probably renting rather than going through mortgage route etc.) Although no great rush on my part, i'd rather have a decent block of cash behind me when I decide to fly the nest, so to speak! ;)

     

    How are you these days Art anyhow? What have you been up to?

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