I'm tempted by this: http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/George-i-...147831?hash=item2a6b704b37:g:MeUAAOSwRjNXNiX1 The thing that puts me off is that it is just too clean. Am I being over paranoid? It seems to be priced mid range to VF so in my mind a reasonable price, albeit for a cleaned coin. I also have a bit of a gap and this would fill it nicely! What do you think?
We must first assume that the coin is greatly overexposed, and probably brighter in the images than in the real world. That said, I sincerely doubt it survived three centuries in this condition, so cleaning at some point past is a given. If your opinion of grade is EF-ish, it's probably a deal at VF money.
It looks likely dipped but not overdipped and not hairlined and starting to retone. A great candidate to put in a Manila envelope for a couple years and let it retone. I don't hate it
I'm with the general consensus here - it probably had some kind of cleaning done to it, but it also doesn't make my eyes ache either. I'm no expert, of course, and I'm only judging by the posted photo.
Thanks chaps. I have some other bids in and will make a decision after I know how much I have spent. That said, he also has a Lima sixpence that would fit nicely!
Nice, if you like I could holld on to it for a few years or decades til you decide what to do. Just kidding, I'll bet it has less shine in natural light, I think its really nice coin
He says in his reply to my question "The coin is richly lustrous with gold and silver toning - exactly as it says in the listing.". An answer that doesn't add much more! As is always the way, there are loads of coins that I'd like to buy all coming to an end much at the same time as well as this one. A rather nice Threehalfpence, a beautiful 1821 sixpence (that is currently where my money is tied up in) and an Association shipwreck recovered 1696 sixpence and this and the Lima.
Just remember this - if it bugs ya now, and it obviously does by your own words, it'll bug ya even more later
I guess that is the truth of it. The thing is I think this is a coin that would be over £200 had it not been cleaned. Is a bit of dirt and toning worth £152+ ? The answer is that if I could hold the coin, I'd know it. In this case that is not going to happen. I'll know what I have spent in a couple of hours time - and I know you are rights ND bear your thought in mind.
Another way of looking at is to only buy coins that you are completely - 100% - happy with exactly as they are when you buy them. If you even ask your questions, or even attempt to talk yourself into it, or even consider that you could change or somehow improve the coin, or "settle" for that coin - then it is not a coin you should buy
It does, actually - this coin should not be "richly lustrous" at that level of wear and the toning could not possibly be more than, say, fifty years old. It would have progressed far further (we know the exact physical progression of silver sulfate toning) in three centuries unless extraordinary circumstances of storage intervened. I'm not willing to believe that coin survived the Industrial Revolution both circulated and untoned. Perhaps a Mint State piece ensconced in a formal collection, but not this coin.
