The Wedding Coin: British Sixpence

Something old
Something new
Something borrowed
Something blue
And a silver sixpence in her shoe

The British sixpence is equivalent to six pennies. This denomination of coin was used by the British empire from the mid-fifteen hundreds to 1967.

Back in the middle ages, people were very superstitous. They used good luck charms to ward evil spirits away. In the 1600s, it was custom for the Lord of the Manor to give the bride a piece of silver, a sixpence piece, as a wedding gift.

The tradition continues today for a bride to have a British sixpence in her left shoe as a symbol of good luck. Some brides wish to find a sixpence minted in the year of parents or grandparents birth, wedding or other important family occasion.

This wedding tradition can be continued through the generations. You can place the sixpence coin in a wedding album and pass it on to daughters (or daughters-in-law) to wear as a token of good luck on their special day.

You can find the sixpence we have available on eBay by clicking here. Or by going to http://stores.shop.ebay.com/Daves-Collectable-Coins and searching "sixpence".

How to Distinguish 1981 Type 1 and 2 Proof Coins

In 1981 two varieties of "S" mintmarks can be found for all proof coin denominations. The minor details will vary from coin to coin so any coin you look at may not look exactly like the picture shown here, however the following characteristics are what you would use to determine which variety it is. The first one is commonly called type 1, and is the same mintmark that was used in the later part of 1979 and all of 1980. Type 2 proof coins were minted starting later in the year.

Note: Some type 1 coins have very clear mintmarks while some type 2 coins do not, so how clear or well struck the mintmark is does not indicate the type.

Type 1 Characteristics

1. This mintmark has smaller and more rounded serifs (the bulbous or ball-like formations at the beginning and end of the "S".)

2. If you look at the mintmark you will notice it has a dome shape like a bead of water.

3. The center loops of the "S" are also more of an oval shape.

Type 2 Characteristics

4. The mintmark has larger serifs.

5. These serif bulbs tend to look flattened. You will also notice that the mintmark has more of a plateau or more flat surface than the type 1.

6. The center loops have more of a circular shape.



To see more sample pictures of type 1 and 2 mintmarks from each denomination, click here.

To buy your 1981 proof coins, click here.

We are now selling BU coins in the mint cello!

Hello! If you have not been to our coin store for a while, we have added many new items that we did not offer before. The most recent is a wide variety of coins in Mint Cello - the coins haven't been touched since leaving the mint. These items all use a stock photo so that, coupled with less handling time for us, we can offer them at lower prices. They are not graded except to pull out any obviously spotted or damaged coins and are otherwise in the same condition as when they left the mint. We are offering many of these in sets of P and D (or P, D and S if applicable to the coin) for even more savings! Come to the store soon to see the new items.

Thank you and have a great day, Dave

"Unsearched" Defined

(As used in the eBay coin market)

Have you ever noticed how frequently coin sellers on eBay advertise groups of coins as "unsearched"? It is such a banal term on eBay that I have come to ignore it, except to occasionally chuckle to myself when I notice it as part of an obvious attempt to increase sales of an inferior product.

I have yet to find a group of coins that I think is truly "unsearched". The history of most circulated collectable coins is as follows: They get circulated for a few years until a collector finds them and puts them into coin albums; the albums get sold to a coin dealer when times get tough or by the grandchildren who inherit them; the coin dealer dumps them in buckets (watching for the obvious high dollar coins as he does, of course) and sells them to other collectors or dealers; the collectors or dealers sort them by dates or categories and sell the majority to other collectors or dealers, except for the nicer ones they pick out that bring higher dollars as individual coins or match an empty slot in an album; the majority then get mixed back in with larger groups of similar coins which then change hands (sometimes after being stored for a while) again and again, getting sorted for notable coins at many steps of the way.

One imaginable way to acquire "unsearched" coins would be to find a horde of coins someone has been pulling out of circulation and stashing away for many years without any knowledge or regard for the value of any particular date or condition of coin. Such a lot could be a fairly random sampling of coins and may possibly contain its fair percentage of the higher dollar coins -- but then as the dealer who purchased it, how would you know if it was such a lot without searching through it? And very few dealers I know would be able to resist the urge to look through it to find those 1909 S VDB pennies that must have gotten into the group.

But if most circulated coins go the route of changing hands from dealer to collector many times over, what really does "unsearched" mean here? Except for that very unlikely circumstance above, it seems to me that it wouldn't mean anything really useful about the coins. Although in all fairness, it could have a bit of value to the seller in that it gives the coins being sold an aura of mystery, generating a feeling of "there could be something really valuable in here!" without, unfortunately, conveying any truly factual information about the coins being sold.

If a guy is more or less honest about it when he labels a group of coins as "unsearched" to sell on eBay, he could mean that he hasn't personally searched through them. But they are almost certainly very far from being "unsearched". Even if the eBay seller hasn't personally searched through them, the constant weeding out process as collectable coins change hands over and over keeps most of the better coins carefully accounted for in the hands of collectors or dealers.

Another route that some coin dealers resort to is to label a group of coins as "unsearched" and then carefully make up a group that would be acceptable to the buyer, possibly throwing in a few nicer coins to ensure the recipient will be pleased. While this method does have its merits (if done fairly it should result in a happy customer and adequate profit for the dealer), it is still a bit dishonest in my opinion.

I personally prefer to be blunt and state what is contained in any group of coins I sell. If I am selling a random scoop from a bag of coins that have been picked through for high dollar coins, then I say so. If I am selling a lot of cull coins, that is how I promote it. And if I carefully make up a group of coins with a variety of different dates, including some higher dollar coins, then that is what I say in the description of the lot.

As a buyer on eBay I often think to myself: Wouldn't it be nice if everyone simply stated exactly what was being sold?

Best,
Derrick Enders
Dave's Collectable Coins eBay Store
(a division of FAS Coins Inc)

1964 D Kennedy Half Dollar Mintmark Location

The Denver mintmark on the 1964 Kennedy Half Dollar is found on the reverse side, right below the the right foot of the eagle. In the above picture the mintmark is indicated with a red box.

This is the only year of the Kennedy Half dollar where you will find the mintmark in this location. All later years have the mintmark on the front of the coin, below the bust of Kennedy.

FAS Coins Inc.

FAS Coins Inc. was incorporated by Dave & Derrick Enders (Father and Son) and is doing business as Daves Collectable Coins on eBay.com. We offer a wide variety of US coins and Canadian coins, including: Flying Eagle, Indian, Wheat and Memorial Cents, Buffalo and Jefferson Nickels, Barber, Mercury and Roosevelt Dimes, Standing Liberty and Washington Quarters, Walking, Franklin and Kennedy Halves, Morgan, Peace, Eisenhower, Susan B Anthony, Sacagawea and Presidential Dollars and Proof Coins. Visit our coin store in eBay by clicking here. http://stores.shop.ebay.com/Daves-Collectable-Coins?refid=store