Is there a decent & convenient price guide for 18th century British coins?
airplanenut
Posts: 22,170 ✭✭✭✭✭
I routinely use the PCGS Price Guide for initial research on US coins. I don't rely on it for absolute values, but it's good at giving an idea of what dates are more or less expensive, and the same for grades within a date. It gives me a lot of information up front, and from there I can dig deeper to determine the absolute values I'm looking for (such as by looking at auction records for a single date and a narrow grade range).
Is there a similar resource available for British coinage, particularly 18th century? I have an idea in mind for a type set of sorts that I'd like to put together, and anything that can help focus what specific coins to consider and research further would be a great help versus starting by looking in detail at date, denomination, and grade out there (which is a lot).
Comments
"Coins of England & The United Kingdom - Pre-Decimal" does that. Was Seaby/Spink, now Sovereign Rarities. It's not good for specialising in a particular series, especially hammered, but it's what everyone uses and had price guides updated annually.
No better guide than auction prices. Just my opinion. Prices change, this is a volatile hobby. If I were expecting to pay for coins what is listed in guides I would be without a collection. Many auction houses have their results on line.
This is probably your best and cheapest option:
https://www.tokenpublishing.com/shop/product/8120/800
Doggedly collecting coins of the Central American Republic.
Visit the Society of US Pattern Collectors at USPatterns.com.
One option is to search by date and denomination followed by NGC coin value and hopefully it will provide a basic price spread by grade. I have been told the prices might be similar as found in Krause. Putting together a GB 18th century is a tall order depending on the grades sought. Also be mindful that gradIng across the pond is different than it is in the States. A type set by Monarch and denomination would be a challenge. You might consider adding a Spink Catalog as a reference to help shape your collecting interests. Best wishes in your collecting pursuits.
Experience the World through Numismatics...it's more than you can imagine.
Understood, but that’s the next step. Right now I’m just looking for something basic to narrow things down, then I’ll look at auction records to help determine what I should actually pay.
I’ve got an old copy of Spink lying around… just need to find it. I wasn’t sure if there might be something online with a much bigger spreadsheet of prices (which is much easier to look through as a quick starter) like PCGS has for US coins. And don’t worry, I’m not going as big as you might think. I have a little more research to decide on one of a few directions, but it won’t be a huge set… it will be one I’ll enjoy and brag about.
I only have one British coin that I bought recently.
I guess you already went this route...
For values, I go in example to the PCGS site, then to the Search edit bar, and typed the coin to search, for example:
Then for this case, it can show something like this:
Select the coin to look:
Then I try to find one coin that can then have a PCGS (like in this test case) certification link.
And then just see any prices:
Kind of a mickey mouse step, but works for me.
Great Britain Coins
https://www.pcgs.com/pop/greatbritaincoins
HTH
Numista is a good source for most world coins.
"Coins of England & The United Kingdom - Pre-Decimal" is the British equivalent to The Official Red Book. The thing I most like about it is that it has actual-size images of each coin, making it fairly easy to determine what a particular coin is.
I refer to my copy constantly when looking at/for English/British coins.
There are separate volumes for coins of "Scotland, Ireland and the Islands", along with the Anglo/Gallic (Normandy, Aquitaine & Poitou); and for British Decimal Issues.
They're all available on Amazon.
As for prices, I usually go to Heritage Auctions' historical listings.
Steve