I was lucky enough to be in my local coin shop when the man who sells them most of their ancient and world coins was there.He invited me to look through his stock and buy whatever I wanted,with permission from the store owner of course! Most of the items were a bit pricey for me until I came across a George II sixpence in seemingly mint state,bright silver and full lustre.It had been priced at $225.00 and marked down to $75.00 because he had become convinced that it had been cleaned.I eventually bought it for $60.00 despite the cleaning because it is so beautiful. The pictures don't do it justice because I tried using a lamp which give it a golden look but the flash pics show it as it is.
I really like it despite the clean. It gives me an ideaof how good these coins would have looked when new. Price wise i can tell you that $225 would have been way, way over the top even for a non-cleaned specimen. These things sell for about £75 in problem free UNC in the UK. Most i encounter are high EF's, AUs or low Uncs and they are priced between £35-£65.
Sylvester,the 1758 6d. is the one that always turns up in this series.I have got a 1737 Roses & Plumes 1/-,plus a 1746 'LIMA' 6d. as well.I am not really strong in British coins.I've been concentrating on British Commonwealth,especially British Africa. Aidan.
If anyone knows sixpences of this era then it should be me. I used to have a date run of sorts from 1674-1787, i was only interested in the sixpenmces and from a few years of trying to get one of each date i can tell you that the following dates turn up ALL the time; 1674, 1693, 1696, 1697, 1703V, 1711, 1723SSC, 1732RP, 1739R, 1741R, 1743R, 1745L, 1746L, 1757, 1758, 1787NH and 1787H. I got fed up of seeing those dates by the end. Other dates that are considered 'Key Dates', actually by the time i was winding the collection down were becoming infuriatingly common. 1694 and 1750 are not as rare as it's made out (they're expense but seemingly if you want one you can find one!). If you wanted 1710, 1717RP, 1720RP, 1726RP, 1736RP or 1751 then you really can forget it. You can't find them for love nor money. Although i sold all of my sixpences off now i still take an interest in the series and one day i hope to return to them. Of the set i had managed to acquire i had the following; 1674, 1675/4, 1675, 1676/5, 1680, 1683, 1693, 1694, 1696, 1697 (obv 1, rev 1), 1697 (obv 3, rev 3), 1703 Vigo, 1711, 1723SSC, 1728, 1728P, 1728RP, 1732RP, 1735RP, 1739R, 1741R, 1743R, 1746L, 1750, 1757, 1758, 1787H and 1787NH. Which was about 1/3rd of the way to a full date run. I stopped because the grades varied too much for my liking (i'm a perfectionist) and although most of the coins were VF with a few EFs and an AU 1750, some like the 1680, the 1703 and the 1735 were more like F or VG and i can't live with grades that low... I figured i'd probably get into a continuous upgrade cycle and i'd never get out of it again. So the collection went on hold whilst i figured out what to do. And that's when the Æthelstan penny turned up (after 13 years of waiting for one i wasn't going to let that one escape) so it was bye, bye sixpences. Oddly i don't regret doing it either.
Dealers in Britain, most of which are on the internet so it counts as both. I never buy coins on ebay.
