five and a half months later

trozau

The British (UK) Coin Registry set started back in the last week of May 2003 and today there are only 55 sets registered. Of the 55 registered, 44 are Terner sets registered initially by PCGS when they started the British Coin registry. In effect, there are only 11 registered sets from members/collectors after 5 1/2 months.

laurentyvan

Hey, give it time- all things come to those who wait; meanwhile it'll be easier to have a top set, right?

cosmicdebris

My Eddie VII set will never be fully PCGS slabbed.

Bruce

I have no part of registery sets!

MacCrimmon

One tiny, tiny problem may be the fact that the UK registry is currently centered solely on gold. A set of UK gold by any category prior to E7 would be a challenge in nice, no problems choice AU. Opening this registry to copper, bronze and silver would 'expand the universe' substantially. Most of the 'big' UK collectors in the US that have been at it for 20+ years are probably very much like their UK counterparts in Britain; they're just not interested.

One thing to consider is that these older, established collections/collectors can grade/assess the merits of a coin very well on their own; in fact, probably far better than any graders at the TPGs because these people are specialists in their fields. They know from 20+ years, etc. if a given date comes fully struck, if the color is right (i.e. alloy variations common to a given year, ect.). They also might just prefer that no one outside of a small circle of colleages know of their collections. My guess is that akin to the inverse of the "registry" mindset, they get a thrill out of you and I, other UK collectors not knowing the extent of their collection.

The last point is akin to the Early American Copper guys having a whist match from time to time. The whist match is basically putting two collectors examples of dates or variety on a table side by side, and having a group of collector friends compare and score each coin, and thereby totaling up the winner. But it's a select group of 'appreciative' collectors viewing the event, and it doesn't happen often......yep, it's Old School, or a very finite slice of "registry" that few people see.

So, IMO, it will take many years for this arena to 'take off'. However, like Terner, it's probably a safe bet that somewhere, sometime we'll be treated to vast, mindblowing collections of UK copper and silver on this side of the pond through some of the major auction houses. Maybe PCGS is waiting for one of these minor denom. collections to "kickoff" those areas, like with Terner and Belzberg on the Canadian side.