La Cointessa has a new post about a silly offer on eBay of 1700 cents in a jar for $1000. Seems obvious. But we all make mistakes. Last weekend, at the coin store I always go to because the club members show up on Saturdays, the lady behind the counter said that they just bought some Conder tokens. Among them was a Coventry Godiva Half Penny. They had it at $20 wholesale and $50 retail and I bought for $40. When I got it home, I went online to attribute it ahead of looking it up in Dalton and Hamer. The name of the town was misspelled HINKLEY for HINCKLEY. So, I came here and asked. Conderluva (Mike Dlugosz) identified it as a contemporary fake. Yours is a 242. As per Arthur Waters 'Notes on eighteenth century tokens' 1954. 231-237 (1792) are genuine issue Lutwyche manufactured the genuine pieces but was known counterfeiter / mule maker because it was profitable to sell to collectors. So he is likely responsible for 238-246 (1793-95) which are counterfeits. I don't have other details handy but will look through other resources when I have more time. Mike (Post #650 in "Let's See Your Conder Tokens" https://www.cointalk.com/threads/lets-see-your-conder-tokens.107719/page-33#post-3346281) I have another project going and I needed some small change from World War II, so I went back to the coin store on Tuesday to get war nicks, etc., and I showed them the comments. They were monumentally unconcerned. I did not ask for my money back; and they surely did not offer. To me, it is a lesson learned. The coin still fits into the Conder matrix. I can use the coin in presentations and articles as an example of why you need to know what you are buying before you pay for it. A few weeks earlier, I was in on a Saturday morning just to treat myself to some coins. Mostly, I like examples of interesting things that I can talk or write about. Sometimes, I just like the coin for itself and therefore for myself. I bought about a dozen coins and several ornate Hungarian banknotes. Among my choices were a farthing (1901: last year of Queen Victoria) and a half farthing (1843). What I liked about them is that they support a narrative about rising standards of living: the need for small coins shows the supporting floor under comparative poverty. Anyway, they added everything up, gave me the cool guy discounts on some stuff, and the total came to a bit more than I expected. But, OK... Maybe the total in my head was off... When I got home, I realized that while the farthing was a $10 coin marked down to $8, the half farthing was not a $5 coin, but an 85 dollar coin. (Oddly enough, glasses don't do you much good in your pocket.) Nice coin... happy to own it... now... and for a long time to come...
We all make our mistakes Mike. And I'd venture that anyone who thinks they haven't is only fooling themselves. I once bought a counterfeit Pillar dollar, only counterfeit I ever purchased, but I did it and it was an in hand purchase to boot ! And while buying fakes is without doubt one of the most common mistakes there is, made by collectors and dealers alike, grossly over-paying for coins and buying over-graded coins undoubtedly lead the pack when it comes to "my own fault bad bargains".
