That's about how I play the game as well. I get on to a type, these Swiss rappen for example, and I want to fill out a date set. I travel to visit a little shop, or find a seller at a show who has world coins (not that common in the States), and I get every single date he can provide, that I don't have yet. I am not “waiting for the right coin”, every coin I buy is the right coin at that moment, and I have no regrets for having multiple examples of some.
Jamais l'or n'a perdu la plus petite occasion de se montrer stupide. -Balzac
I fully agree. I too try to find the best coin I can to fill a gap, although I do really love unusual coins. Nevertheless, much of my coin collecting is focussed on upgrading my collection and finding the best possible examples of each coin I have.
For example, I found this unusal coin just a couple of months back in a bag of coins from an antiques dealer who appears to only value silver or gold coins…
As you can imagine, I was happy to relieve them of their burdon. 😁👍🥷
On the other hand, I also found this upgrade earlier in the year in a charity shop and it cost me less than a couple of pounds, along with a few other coins…
Both of these coins gave me the most enormous satisfaction, as I spend very little in monetary terms on my coins. For me, the beauty of Numista is being able to share these finds, regardless of whether they are seen as valuable or not by other people. Otherwise, it's a bit of a lonely life we lead as collectors. Your thoughts?
1846 UK Halfcrown - scarce coin to find, despite a common date for type
Also not every upgrade will be night and day or 180 degrees, rather than a 2 to a King, this is a 2 to a 5.
First one I bought a year - probably about Good to Fair (American Fair2, not UK Fair which is like Good to VG) - nightmare inducing.
And its even been cleaned.
The one I bought last month - probably higher VG grade (VG10 for Americans) - okay its not grand, but its a lot better than what it replaced.
Seriously 1840s halfcrowns - this is as good as they get if you want to get change from $100. Also not cleaned.
Even better is the upgrade cost me just $35 and the original I stupidly paid $40 for.
A Halfcrown was a lot of money back then so it would have made sense very few people (except the rich) would have held on to one at that time, so it’s possible yours was in circulation well into the 20th century and was likely put aside when the silver content was reduce in 1920 from sterling to 50%, then afterwards it made its way to New Zealand.
Or alternatively and the more likely scenario it made its way to the country and circulated until New Zealand introduced their own currency and your coin was kept as a souvenir.
Hi to whoever is reading this. Did you know that TYPEWRITER (on a QWERTY keyboard) is the longest word you can type using only the letters on one row of the keyboard.
Its not often upgrading happens much with me now, but it still does and here is a good one for you.
1889 UK Halfcrown, actually a very common date of 4.5 million minted, but harder to get than 1887 and 1888 as no one was collecting 1889 coins as souvenirs anymore, so the majority of 1889 halfcrowns did their job, namely become circulating currency and circulate they did!
This was the 1889 halfcrown I had in my collection. I had owned this coin since early or mid 2020, when I was new to collecting coins and this example is easily VG at best, maybe a slightly nicer reverse - but its pretty worn and cleaned. They can get much more bad than this and this is still an average, undamaged example. These coins circulated at least until 1920 unimpeded and up to 1947 afterwards in many cases.
And here is the upgrade, a coin in EF or slightly better condition, great detail and a nice tone and best of all - not cleaned. This is definitely a great upgrade.
Even better is this coin was cheap and now all my Jubilee halfcrowns are better than average condition, its a design you want in nice condition as there is just so much to see.
I may even have another upgrade coming soon.
I love coins. Especially silver, gold and anything really old.
Member of the Royal Numismatic Society of New Zealand and the Auckland Numismatic Society
One of my last upgradings is this 1/4 Real 1791 Carlos (CAROL.) IV minted in Santiago, Chile:
Despite the fact that the mintage of this tiny coin (12 mm, 0.845 gr) was quite high for that time in Chile (ca. 252.000), finding them in a nice condition is not easy.
Despite mintage, would be hard to do it as this coin is so small and they were easily bent, damaged or even lost.
I love coins. Especially silver, gold and anything really old.
Member of the Royal Numismatic Society of New Zealand and the Auckland Numismatic Society
For me, a good indicator of the condition on most Irish coins is the detail on the three loops at the top of the harp, as these seem to get worn very easily.
For me, a good indicator of the condition on most Irish coins is the detail on the three loops at the top of the harp, as these seem to get worn very easily.
Yup. As a child, I was obsessed with getting the Woodcock on an old 1/2d and new 50p. Finally got both only last year. Although, these two below are pretty good…
As much as we appreciate the flurry of posts here LCD63. I would prefer
actual upgraded pieces. There were 2 posts there, one showing a token and another showing 2 different coins.
I love coins. Especially silver, gold and anything really old.
Member of the Royal Numismatic Society of New Zealand and the Auckland Numismatic Society
Fine to good Extremely fine. The previous coin had a really nice reverse, mainly as this type had a fairly high rim, which protected the inner detail fairly well. But the portrait side was in high relief and Victoria's features and all her gee gaws and trinkets became misty and evaporated quickly.
However Victoria on the before coin was much more worn in the VG level, the after coin is close to EF (Some hair under crown still a bit flat) and much more detail with pearls, earrings, veils, medallions and crown details all showing.
1908 Halfcrown, Edward VII and George V have the same designs, but the former have a much flatter rim, meaning the design wore much quicker. The more beautiful Art Nouveau designs of his coinage, look great but all the high relief meant they wore quickly and badly.
The low rim wears lettering and shields very quickly on a near Fine before coin, even on the near EF after coin, the wear is still noticable, the shield edge is quite thick, whereas on a UNC coin, its undetectable, however there is almost no mist on the inner details unlike the more worn coin, which is still pretty acceptable for Edward VII Halfcrowns. The wear is even too, as the quality of striking hit a high point in this era. No wars or skimping on die and metal quality, meant that some fine coins were flying off the presses. To me, these types of coins are the absolute peak of coinage for the masses. Much better than the droll and generic garbage we get now!
The gruff bald daddy bear appearance of the king (A 60 year old bald obese man) meant that you see very little change between grades, but a beard and tufts of hair became more visible in higher grade pieces, but give aways are a complete sharp ear and for UNC pieces a full moustache, expressive eyes and evidence of some lip under the moustache. Generally if one wants to grade Edward VII pieces - always stick to the tails side, as there's very little going on hair. This contrasts with the jewels, veils and crowns of his mother.
I love coins. Especially silver, gold and anything really old.
Member of the Royal Numismatic Society of New Zealand and the Auckland Numismatic Society
The 1875-79 Swiss ½ francs are hard to find in higher grades. I am quite happy to have this nice XF 1875, and my old one barely even G, goes to the back of the book.
Jamais l'or n'a perdu la plus petite occasion de se montrer stupide. -Balzac
That is a massive improvement, its like the coin on the left 100 years ago!
I love coins. Especially silver, gold and anything really old.
Member of the Royal Numismatic Society of New Zealand and the Auckland Numismatic Society
Just found a massive upgrade to my collection of Austrian 10 groschen coins during the past few days…
These coins used to be common place in any bag of mixed coins I found locally, but recently have become somewhat unusual. It's not an especially rare coin, but it was nice to get a replacement for the corroded 1952 coin I'd kept as a filler. I just have the 1951 and 69 coins missing now to get a full run (as well as the set coins from the last 3 years of minting). Most of them are in VF/VX condition, which is good for a common circulation coin found in the small change people brought back from their trips to Austria almost 25+ years ago. That's apart from 1953, 61, 66, and 67, which aren't as bad as the 52 but could still do with upgrades.
I have complete date sets of all the Philadelphia minted coins of Cuba, excepting the gold, and the ABC pesos.
It's not a difficult set to make up, but there are of course key dates. The 1916 40 centavos is about the most uncommon, in high grade. Today my VG example is supplanted by an AU piece in a PCGS slab.
Jamais l'or n'a perdu la plus petite occasion de se montrer stupide. -Balzac
I don't usually upgrade unless I get a really good deal on a better grade coin, or I find one in a bulk lot. There's too many other coins that I want to buy, without spending money upgrading coins I already own.
For me it has to be a net improvement of at least 2 full grades like VG to VF or one grade for rarer coins (Like the 1846 Halfcrown I got a while ago from Fair/a Good to VG). But I could upgrade for aesethic reasons and even downgrade say in the case of a heavily corroded and stained coin in “Fine” for that same coin in bright and clean gVG.
There are more upgrades than I show, its just usually I don't photograph low grade pieces and thus finding the before and after shots is part of the exercise. This coin was decent, hence why it got photographed. I likely bought it in 2019 or early 2020 (The Covid first lockdown era) at a time I was seriously collecting halfcrowns only and before I diversified into everything else. I had much less money then as I was earning minimum wage and my well off partner was fully alive and well.
Just one more upgrade to show - 1899 Halfcrown
My original coin in near Fine condition, this is a very old photo (2020ish) and it as on a table I threw out in 2023 - 2008 plastic and I stained with leftover fence stain in 2016). Its not bad, but looks out of place next to coins in VF and EF condition.
And here is its replacement, basically a decent EF but likely cleaned in past. The coin is quite good with some weak strike in the middle of the shield. This design is beautiful, but you really need high grade examples to appreciate the design elements fully.
I will unlikely upgrade this piece again, unless its stunning fresh UNC with no evidence of cleaning, polishing or tampering and at the right price.
Next coin I will show soon, is an 1890 Double Florin, as my current one is pretty worn (About as bad as a double florin gets).
I love coins. Especially silver, gold and anything really old.
Member of the Royal Numismatic Society of New Zealand and the Auckland Numismatic Society
Yes but its valuable scrap metal now. The melt on a battered 90% dime is like $4 or so American.
If I should do all upgrades according to type, I would never have a free moment again and all of you would be sick to tears of Victorian Halfcrowns and Florins! For America its fine as the average design lasted around 20 - 25 years before an upgrade (Until the 1950s at least), but with Britain, we can have rulers and designs lasting decades. Some coins like the threepence had the same design for over 100 years (Excusing a very minor crown change in 1887, a 1834 threepence looks really similar to a 1926 one and the 1821 Maundy 3d looks the same again as a 2021 Maundy 3p).
And Victoria Young head coins, that young head was on coins from 1838 to 1887 or 50 different years!
I love coins. Especially silver, gold and anything really old.
Member of the Royal Numismatic Society of New Zealand and the Auckland Numismatic Society
I had only got the Before coin some 18 months ago.
Its in the high Very Good to low Fine level, and is a decent piece, but given my 1887/88/89 coins are all high VF/EF coins, this was a sore thumb and for the type, any example under Fine is rare (This will stay in my B collection).
Here is it's upgrade
This is full AU and so grubby, no way it could be cleaned or polished (Its less colourful in the flesh). But look how much sharper the detail is there and its actually better than the other three.
And a bonus upgrade coin - yes its more British big silver, but its not Victorian - its George V!
Not especially bad, this 1935 florin is a bare fine and average state for a coin of its era. Its a bit dull though.
The upgrade is described as Toned UNC and it looks UNC, however they have I think confused “Toned” with cleaned and thats likely why it cost just $58 (The double florin was $170 and $75 of that was silver value). Its still a pretty coin and I love the detail.
I love coins. Especially silver, gold and anything really old.
Member of the Royal Numismatic Society of New Zealand and the Auckland Numismatic Society
It doesn't happen often that I upgrade, yet today I upgraded my Dutch 2½ Guilders 1969 fish from mildly circulated (left) to UNC straight from a coinbag (right). When I was young these coins went for 25 Guilders each, even in circulated condition when I remember correctly (late seventies/early eighties), due to their artificial rarity created by hoarders, which to me was a lot of money back then. I got my circulated coin as a gift from an aunt, so I'll keep it. Today I got 10 of them in UNC condition for in total 25 Euros. N#736
Besides coins I love geometry. The avatar consists of each of the 35 hexominoes used precisely once. With the 5 large yellow shapes placed like this, the solution for tiling the remaining 30 hexominoes is unique.
I love those coins, I got exposed to them by one of my Mum's friends in the 1980s, she was Dutch and when Mum visited her, I got to play with her coin collection which was full of these coins, there were at least 20 of the 2½ guilders and the same of 1 guilders. I remember some were paler and a different type (I was like 7 or 8 and knew little about metals) and realised these were silver.
Now I have around 115 Guilders of the old Dutch coins (Although that includes 25g in the 5g coins of 1988 onwards).
I also have some of these, and these are definitely not upgrades
A global silver lot I bought in 2020, most are 1950s and 1960s Dutch silver coins, most I kept and some I sold. There are some smaller older ones and a couple of colonial guilders, along with much foreign material (Worn Mexican pesos), but the stars were 6 rixdalers dated 1959 - 1964 and 12 silver guilden 1954 - 1967. Also the big 10 Guilder, theyw ere cheap due to wear, damage etc.
These I bought cheap early this year, I have 7, 1929 to 1932 and 1937 to 1939. Pretty much melt as despite being gVF to EF, all of them were cleaned like this and were only 72% silver, still 18 juicy grams of silver each in them.
I love coins. Especially silver, gold and anything really old.
Member of the Royal Numismatic Society of New Zealand and the Auckland Numismatic Society
An upgrade of the tiny ½ Real 1810 JP, Lima imaginary bust of Fernando VII (1.69 gr)
Napoleon invaded Spain in 1807 and King Carlos IV was forced to abdicate in 1808. His son Fernando VII was proclaimed King of Spain; his “official” portrait reached the American colonies very late (the Lima mint received it only in 1811). In the meantime, the authorities of the Viceroyalty of Peru decided to produce coins with this imaginary bust of the new King in the years 1808 (very rare), 1809, 1810 and 1811, all with the assayer's initials J.P.
Due to change shortage, this royalist coins circulated till the late 1820ies and early 1830ies, together with the new republican Real coinage, which began to be produced by the Lima mint in 1825/26 (after a failed intent to introduce small copper coins in 1823) . That makes it very hard to find pieces in higher grades.
A friend of mine gave me yesterday a little box with about 30 copper and/or bronze coins, which belonged to his late brother who was a passionate collector of world copper/bronze coins. The little box remained forgotten after the collection was divided between the children and partially sold. Most of the coins in the box are from the late 19th, some of the early 20th century: Italy, Spain, Brasil (a beautiful 20 Reis 1869), France, 3 Chilean Centavos (unfortunately no upgrade regarding my collection), some German Pfennigs and 2 UK Pennies and 1 UK Halfpenny. At first, I didn't pay much attention to the dates; only today in the morning I realized that the three British coins were all dated 1896 and that the two Pennies were quite different in grade :
The first Penny:
The second Penny (unfortunately with an oxidation spot an obverse, but nevertheless ….) :
One acquisition with upgrade included !! 🙂
…… and a very used (and holed!!) Halfpenny:
Well, as you can imagine, this little coin-box was a nice and unexpected Xmas surprise for me!
The second 1896 penny is definitely a better one, practically VF and the first is the more typical “misty” example in Good to VG. As you may know I wrote a whole big thread on Britannia pence a few months ago and 1896 is not a super rare date, but it is one where finding decent coins is hard as most 1896s are found heavily worn and in poor condition.
This is quite strange as the new style of penny introduced in 1895 was a huge improvement on the 1860 - 1894 bun heads, which wore very quickly and most survivors that are not exce[tionally expensive, are misty and worn dated discs. The 1895 and 1896 pennies however are also misty, but from 1897 they get better and most 1900 or so pennies are VG to Fine.
Also the coins were supplied by 3 mints Heaton, Kings Norton and Tower Hill and the darker chocolately ones like yours suggest the metal was supplied by Heaton (Only a few years are they mintmarked as striking was done there).
I love coins. Especially silver, gold and anything really old.
Member of the Royal Numismatic Society of New Zealand and the Auckland Numismatic Society
Not as valuable as the beautiful riksdaler from above, but every Peru-collector will know, it is not easy to get this early 5 CENTAVOS in higher grades:
So good to see the Upgrading craze is catching, here is one of mine for you, again its a British and Victorian era (Barely) coin.
Original 1838 Britannia groat, misty and worn - probably bought in an old collection around 2020 - VG condition
Upgrade I got a week ago, this is EF and has some natural lustre and tone, its night and day difference!
I love coins. Especially silver, gold and anything really old.
Member of the Royal Numismatic Society of New Zealand and the Auckland Numismatic Society
Agree, what a stunner! Just discovering the joys of the late Roman follae!
I love coins. Especially silver, gold and anything really old.
Member of the Royal Numismatic Society of New Zealand and the Auckland Numismatic Society
