Where is the best place to find value GUIDES on English Hammered Silver Coinage?

Coin Finder

Anyone know?

THanks!

Tibor

Coincraft a large coin company in London issues price guides. They
seem to be very reliable. There may be others. I would wait for other
feedback from forum members, then check Amazon. Spink also issues
a price guide. The Spink book maybe a little easier to use. Both guides
deal with other issues including Hammered coinage.

JCMhouston

I recommend Coins of England by Spink.

RobP

The best place is your research notes where you will have stored results from past sales in the area(s) in which you have an interest used in conjunction with several price guides. As part of that research you will also have noted the number of different examples you can find.

All the price guides lump nominal types into the same group with a standard price. However, a group is not a homogenous entity and will contain scarcer/rarer varieties under the general umbrella. You may well have dozens of one variety in the same group as one where only one or two examples are known. Clearly there is likely to be competition for the rarity from specialist collectors, but without doing your own research you are unlikely to recognise it as such. The numbers on slab labels are best ignored for hammered as they only muddy the waters and are usually overgraded using the acepted criteria for milled coins. Some issues are invariably 'mushy' strikes, while others always appear crisp. This varies from mint to mint in the Saxon series, it can also vary across time within a reign. As struck can be virtually flat, whilst worn coins can be relatively mountainous in detail. Only by knowing your subject can you assess what a fair price would be as the unevenness of strike with the hammer doesn't lend itself to standardised grading TPG style.

The big problem is that yearbooks can only give a rough guide to pricing, but as these vary wildly from one publication to another for what is nominally the same coin, without having done your own research you might as well pick a number out of a hat.

If in doubt, the best bet is to buy the 3 or 4 current yearbooks and take an average. So Spink, Coin Market Values, Coin Yearbook and if you extend the principle to milled coinage, you can add Collectors Coins GB. As each publication is quite cheap, the added knowledge doesn't come at a high price. You will soon identify which ones have lost the plot for which period.

coinkat

Coins of England-Spink

The newer editions are good

Nap

Rob's advice is spot on.

Hammered English coinage is 1000 years of coins. Spink book is a good starting place, and I recommend you buy it, but if you want real info on a detailed series you will have to start watching price trends.

US coins are much easier to value, with the PCGS price guide, a copy of the CDN, and Heritage archives, you can come up with a reasonable price for just about any US issue.

Of course that will not help you with R6+ capped bust halves. Similarly there are many varieties in English hammered, of which not all are popularly collected.

Coin Finder

Excellent advise from all thank you. I have started my research with King Henry the VIII and Elisabeth the First hammered Groats.....

RobP

<< <i>Excellent advise from all thank you. I have started my research with King Henry the VIII and Elisabeth the First hammered Groats..... >>



Beware the modern copies of the H8 groats which are quite numerous, including a few which have ended up in slabs. This is not a problem for E1 groats to my knowledge. I suggest you refer to the forgery network and use it as an additional book.

coinkat

Buy the Henry VIII shillings instead