ColonialCoinsUK

You did better than me, i finally found some coins I need to complete some sets and was just packing them up to send for grading next week - never mind

Documenting your journey putting together the Zimbabwe coins (and the Italian) has been fascinating - I think it just highlights the level of commitment and how difficult it is to do this and I have no doubt that world coins from this period will become mainstream for collectors at some point. The Award is very well deserved.

Many congratulations, I never realised there were so many coins depicting 'wildmen' or the story behind it. Very well deserved.

Very nice coin and a very interesting/complex period in history. I have only ever seen one example 'in person' but it will come as no surprise that I have some Ormonde sixpences somewhere!

I hope everyone has a good year - surprised I didn't have an 1822 so just a 1922.
 
 

Congratulations on the new addition. 

You are doing a lot for a PhD student, sometimes you just have to focus on things. Having organised a number of conferences I now decline politely 
I am spending the weekend going through draft dissertations for some of my students - also with feline 'help'!

Thank you for your kind words! I do my best to preserve nice examples when I stumble upon them, even though they are no longer my primary focus. Some years are difficult to track down in higher grades as the lower denominations typically circulated for over a hundred years. Beyond long circulation periods, many of the halfpennies and farthings were melted to produce lightweight counterfeits.  
Oh, just 3000 short of a full set? Wow, I hadn't realized how expansive Napoleonic medals were, but it makes sense given the importance and the contemporary society's general disposition towards medal collecting. I am sure you will find an interesting story to tell with the ones you have! 

Congratulations on finding an example, Italian coins, over many periods, seem to very difficult if you are trying to complete a date set and top quality examples of anything are scare with prices to match!

Yet more varieties of the Napoleonic 20 Lire!
 

I was interested in a coin at a recent auction with an estimate of 600-800 which I thought was a little low and wouldn't have been surprised at 1200 - it went for 3500! It was a top pop but was the 2nd most common issue of the series to find in uncirculated condition, I will wait for an ungraded example to appear.
I think top pop coins are attracting bids that really can't be justified - often 5 to 10x just one grade lower - sometimes I think that the coin doesn't warrant the grade at all and people are buying the label. I am more than happy with a grade below 'top pop' as long as the coin is nice

I love that quote!
Droz seems to have got around a bit, as did a few other engravers. There have been quite a few 'not recorded' and 'unique' gold Napoleonic coins and medals appearing over the last year or so - some of these have been from the 'bonaparte family' and in their possession since their issue.
I wonder if the Dutch, Italian and Westphalia branches of the family have decided now is a good time to sell??
The gold version seems to be a reworked die and/or struck over another medal - I am still trying to identify this

This reminds me of something King George III purportedly said when presented proof pence pieces by Sir Joseph Banks in 1797 (Tungate, 2020). Upon accepting the proofs, he also took a business strike example and, while handing it to the Keeper of his Medals, said, “Take care of this. I like one struck for common use better than a fine one”. This quote seems fitting given that the gold medal you mentioned was undoubtedly struck for a specific purpose, while the copper version was likely for “common use”. I am sure that I firmly fall in the minority here, but I would much prefer a finely preserved copper piece to a gold specimen independent of the price.
Assuming my eyes are not playing a trick on me, it appears that Droz engraved the obverse bust. I think it is very cool that despite our areas of focus being very different, we can count Droz as a commonality. Of course, his tenure at the Soho Mint was troubled, but nonetheless, he played an essential role in the early days of its formation.
On any note, I enjoyed the write-up! Thanks for sharing!

I was interested in a coin at a recent auction with an estimate of 600-800 which I thought was a little low and wouldn't have been surprised at 1200 - it went for 3500! It was a top pop but was the 2nd most common issue of the series to find in uncirculated condition, I will wait for an ungraded example to appear.
I think top pop coins are attracting bids that really can't be justified - often 5 to 10x just one grade lower - sometimes I think that the coin doesn't warrant the grade at all and people are buying the label. I am more than happy with a grade below 'top pop' as long as the coin is nice

Thankyou - managed to get to look at the lots today - even though I have no hope in ever owning one I got to see a gold 5 guinea and it always amazes me how heavy they are!
Saw this and thought you may be interested - from the catalogue, I tried taking a photo but it was much darker than the listing.

Thankyou - managed to get to look at the lots today - even though I have no hope in ever owning one I got to see a gold 5 guinea and it always amazes me how heavy they are!
Saw this and thought you may be interested - from the catalogue, I tried taking a photo but it was much darker than the listing.

Congratulations - I have several #1 sets but for most of them mine is the only set!Quite easy to do in the 'World coins' - move to the dark side the possibilties are endless

Congratulations - I have several #1 sets but for most of them mine is the only set!Quite easy to do in the 'World coins' - move to the dark side the possibilties are endless

Congratulations - I have several #1 sets but for most of them mine is the only set!Quite easy to do in the 'World coins' - move to the dark side the possibilties are endless

Great coins, as my username is based on my interest in British Colonial issues the history of the EIC is fascinating.
Quality British colonial prices have been going up for a while and are now silly, banknotes are even worse. Top grade Napoleonic coinage is the same - I missed out on a coin recently that I was prepared to break the bank for at £3K which was a bit above current catalogue prices (even put some lots into auction to help cover it) and it went for over £10K I wonder who bought it and why?
I am currently looking at some of my low grade sets to see if it is possible to put a series of good examples together for less then £500 per coin - probably means no gold and no crowns and needs to be a short set. It may have to be a 'on paper' set

Admit it... you just like making things harder on yourself. 

So sorry to hear what has happened, we have been following it on the news here in the UK.
A friend here was flooded out (we tend to get floods rather than burst pipes although we had -13oC/9oF a few weeks ago) and they had to move out for 6 months as it took that long to dry the place out - cool and damp here in the north of the UK so hopefully when the weather returns to normal it will not take that long in Texas!
My wife has decided that, as her parents now have solar and all the utilites bills have just gone up, moving our off-grid plans forward is now a good idea.

Although unlikely, part of me hoped to see a rapid rise to >$50 as I could have sold my bullion silver for a very good profit and released funds for more numismatic items  - it would have generated plenty of space too!
Babylon 5

There are some fantastic custom sets demonstrating real knowledge of specialist areas in world and ancient coins - something I can only aspire to.
Some of them haven't been updated for a while which is a shame as they are impressive, this means they are not on the first page but you have go through the whole list looking for them!!
There are lots of varieties, both known and those yet to be discovered, which I find an interesting challenge, for example the known 1820 inverted 1 sixpence in the pic is still the only one graded by NGC so it was nice that it received a MS64 grade when I submitted it - NGC deemed it 'non-competitive' so it scored zero points though

I like your sixpence! I have bid on a few of them over the years, but I haven't successfully obtained one yet. 
There is an interesting story about Droz and his move to London. As it turns out, he brought an entourage with him, which no doubt further inflamed the already suspicious Royal Mint officials. Long story short, Droz was carrying a secret new contraption in his luggage, which was used to apply a lettered edge to coins. It was this new technology that initially caught the attention of Boulton and soon became a selling point in his attempts to secure a coinage contract from the government. Droz's move brought a lot of skepticism, and his luggage was subsequently seized by customs officials and later inspected by Royal Mint officials. From the contemporary correspondence, it appears Boulton nearly had a full panic attack over the entire situation. Luckily the Royal Mint officials overlooked the gadget, and his luggage was eventually returned. At the time, his contraption was of the utmost importance. Ultimately it played little role in the Soho mint's happenings, mostly because Droz was too despondent to do the work he was already paid to do.