Editorial standards

Our Valuation Methodology

Every price on MyCoinage is a realised auction sale — a transaction where a coin actually changed hands. We never publish asking prices, dealer "catalogue values" or estimates. This page explains exactly how the data is sourced, processed, and verified.

17,286Verified realised sales
4,655+British coins covered
0%Auto-rejected as suspicious
0%Asking-price contamination
Live Most recent verified sale: 1 Crown - George IV 1st portrait at £42.30 on 4 May 2026 via ebay_uk · view coin
Core principle A price isn't a price until somebody pays it. Asking prices, "Buy It Now" listings still on the market, catalogue estimates, and dealer retail tickets are all opinion. Realised sales are evidence. We track only the evidence.

What goes into our prices

Sources we use

  • Spink — UK auction house, founded 1666. Numismatic specialist; weekly catalogues. We capture hammer price plus published buyer's premium.
  • Baldwin's of St James's — UK auction house, est. 1872. Strong on Victorian and milled silver. Realised prices published online.
  • Noonans (formerly Dix Noonan Webb) — UK auction house. Strong commemorative and decimal coverage.
  • London Coins — UK auction house, mid-tier specialism. Published realised lists.
  • eBay UK — sold listings only, filtered for buyer-protection eligibility. Active listings ignored.
  • NumisBids — aggregator covering smaller UK and European auction houses.
  • PCGS Auction Prices Realised — international PCGS-graded coin auction history.
  • NGC Auction Central — international NGC-graded auction history.

Refresh schedule

  • eBay UK sold listings: continuous, on a rolling 24-hour cycle
  • Auction house catalogues (Spink, Baldwin's, Noonans, London Coins): weekly within 7 days of each sale
  • NumisBids realised lists: weekly
  • PCGS / NGC auction archives: monthly
  • Spot prices for melt calculations: hourly during LBMA market hours
  • FX rates (GBP/USD/EUR): hourly

What we exclude (and why)

NEVER published as prices
  • eBay Buy-It-Now listings still active — opinion, not evidence
  • Dealer retail prices — reflect markup, not market
  • Catalogue / price-guide estimates (Spink, Krause, etc.) — published estimates, often dated
  • Forum / community-quoted prices — unverifiable
  • Auction-house pre-sale estimates — opinion of the auction house, not realised prices
  • Asking prices on collector websites
ONLY published as prices
  • Hammer prices from major UK auction houses (with buyer's premium where reported)
  • Sold / completed eBay listings (filtered, never active)
  • Documented private sales with seller + buyer attestation (rare; flagged as such)

The seven-step verification

Every price entering the database passes through automated verification before publication. Anything that fails any check is auto-rejected and reviewed manually.

  1. Melt-floor check. A silver shilling can never sell for less than its silver content. Below-melt sales are flagged as suspicious.
  2. Denomination match. The listing's stated denomination must match the catalogue coin's denomination (with abbreviation expansion: "50p" matches "50 Pence" etc.).
  3. Foreign-origin filter. Listings with overseas-only descriptors (e.g. "Australian sovereign") get rejected from UK-coin attribution.
  4. Plated / replica filter. Listings containing "gold-plated" / "replica" / "novelty" auto-rejected for genuine-coin attribution.
  5. Multi-coin set / bundle filter. Listings selling multiple coins as one lot (e.g. "complete set of all 29 Olympic 50ps") rejected from per-coin attribution.
  6. Year-mismatch filter. If the listing's stated year is more than two years off the catalogue coin's year, the attribution is rejected (with auto-reattribution to the correct year if found).
  7. Variant-signal filter. Subvariants (silver proof, gold proof, piedfort, coloured) are detected and matched to the correct catalogue subvariant rather than rolled into the base coin.

How prices are aggregated to grade tiers

Coins are graded on the Sheldon scale (1-70 for PCGS / NGC) or descriptive UK grades (Poor, Fair, Fine, Very Fine, Extremely Fine, Uncirculated, FDC). Each grade has its own market price — an MS-65 sovereign sells for very different money than an MS-60. We maintain per-grade price tracking:

  • Latest realised price: the most recent verified sale at that grade
  • Latest source: which auction house or platform recorded the sale
  • Last sale date: the date the coin actually changed hands
  • 90-day median: resistant to outliers; a single absurd hammer doesn't pull the average
  • 30-day percentage change: short-term price-direction indicator
  • All-time price range: bounds for context

What our prices are not

  • Not a quotation. A price on this site shows what someone paid, not what we'll pay you.
  • Not an insurance valuation. Insurers typically use replacement value, which is higher than realised auction. For probate, HMRC uses open-market value, which is what we track. For insurance, multiply the realised price by 1.2-1.4× depending on rarity.
  • Not investment advice. Coin prices move; past sales don't guarantee future returns.
  • Not condition-specific to your coin. Realised prices are at a stated grade. Your coin's actual grade may differ.

Editorial integrity

  • No paid placements. No sponsored coins. No "premium listings."
  • No AI-generated guides or content. Every guide is human-written and reviewed before publication.
  • No affiliate-only price recommendations. eBay-affiliate links exist but never influence which coin pages we publish or what prices we show.
  • Errors are corrected publicly. If we get a price wrong and a verified source contradicts it, we update with attribution.
  • Dates of update are stamped on every coin page (look for "as of {date}").

Citing our data

Journalists, bloggers and academics are welcome to cite MyCoinage data. Suggested format:

"As of [date], the [coin name] sells for [price] in [grade] (MyCoinage realised auction data, mycoinage.co.uk/coin/[slug])."

For data extracts, raw downloads, or methodology questions: contact us.

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