Guides
All guides
Everything published so far, grouped by category. Pick a category, or scroll down for the full list.
Browse by category
Hallmarks, makers, patterns
Silver
8 guides
Browse silver →
First editions, bindings, jackets
Books
6 guides
Browse books →
Penny Blacks, collections, covers
Stamps
5 guides
Browse stamps →
Sovereigns, silver, grading
Coins
8 guides
Browse coins →
Campaign and gallantry medals
Medals
5 guides
Browse medals →
Estates and house contents
Probate
6 guides
Browse probate →
Guide
How to sell silver
How to sell silver in the UK: four buyers, the three weights a quote is built on, and why a Scottish scrap dealer cannot pay cash for it.Price guide
What silver cutlery and silverware are worth
The price of sterling silverware starts at its weight. What a canteen makes at auction, which pieces weigh nothing, and how the pattern moves the figure.Guide
Rare silver marks: the ones worth checking for
A British mark is rare when the law that required it lasted months, or when the office that struck it closed. The short windows, and what each one tells you.Guide
Silver makers' marks: how to read one and find the maker
A maker's mark is the initials of whoever sent the piece for assay, struck in a shaped punch. How to read one, and the registers that turn it into a name.
Guide
How to read British silver hallmarks
Four punches, read left to right, tell you what the metal is, where it was tested, when, and who made it. This guide walks through each one with real pieces.
Guide
Scrap value or auction value? How to decide what to do with old silver
Every piece of silver has a scrap value, its weight in metal, and some have an auction value far above it. How to tell which before you sell.
Guide
Silver date letters, explained
Every assay office stamped a hallmark date letter that changed yearly. How the cycles work, why the shield beats the letter, and how to find the year.
Guide
Solid silver or plate? Six tests you can do at the kitchen table
Most inherited "silver" is plated. Six ways to tell if silver is real, what EPNS and A1 actually mean, and what a house full of plate is worth.Price guide
Children's books and annuals: what sells
Bonhams sold 136 Ladybird books for £125. What children's annuals make by the box, which three to pull out of it, and how to date an undated annual.Guide
How to sell old books
Where to sell old books depends on which of three piles they fall into. The rates a book saleroom publishes, and why books escape VAT on commission.Price guide
Harry Potter first editions: the one that is worth money
Harry Potter first edition value turns on one book: the 500 Bloomsbury hardbacks of 1997. The points that identify one, and what each printing has made.
Guide
First edition or first printing? The difference that moves the price
"First edition" on a copyright page does not mean what sellers think. What the trade means by edition, impression, issue and state, and where the money goes.
Guide
How to identify a first edition, publisher by publisher
The rules for spotting a first printing differ by publisher and by decade. A working list for the houses whose books come up most at auction.
Guide
What makes an old book valuable
Age on its own is not it. Demand, scarcity, condition and the dust jacket decide what old books are worth, and the jacket alone can be nine-tenths of it.Price guide
What a Penny Red is worth
Penny Red stamp value starts at 10p. Which of the three issues you have, where the plate number hides, and the one plate that is worth a house.Guide
Where to sell a stamp collection
Four buyers, and the figure that picks between them. What a dealer pays against a philatelic auction, what the charges take, and what to keep together.Explainer
First day covers: are they worth anything?
Most first day covers are worth pounds, a few are worth hundreds, and the date is the difference. What a valuation looks at, and how to sell a box.Guide
How to value an inherited stamp collection
Stamp collection valuation starts from one fact: catalogue price is not selling price. How dealers read an album, and what they actually pay for.
Price guide
What a Penny Black is worth
The world's first postage stamp is common, famous and misunderstood. What decides a Penny Black's value: margins, plates and the colour of the cancel.Price guide
Crown coins: which are worth anything
Most crown coins are worth their 25p of legal tender, the Churchill included. The silver dates before 1947, the cases that add value, and what each crown holds.Price guide
What a half crown is worth
A half crown holds 13.08 grams of fine silver before 1920 and 7.07 grams after it. The three standards, the dates that are scarce, and the 24-year gap.Guide
Selling gold sovereigns: what you will be offered
What a bullion dealer, a coin dealer and a saleroom each pay for a gold sovereign, the net proceeds on each route, and the paperwork a seller is asked for.Price guide
Gold sovereigns by year: what the date tells you
Which reign and reverse each sovereign date should carry, the years none were struck, the 1925 coins made in 1949, and the dates that are not bullion.Price guide
What a half sovereign is worth
A half sovereign holds 3.66 grams of fine gold, which sets the floor. The reverse that dates it, the years none were struck, and why it trails a sovereign.
Price guide
What a gold sovereign is worth
How much a gold sovereign is worth: the bullion floor set by its 7.32 grams of fine gold, what a dealer pays against spot, and the dates that sell far above it.Explainer
How to grade a coin, and why you must never clean one
Six words describe every coin's condition, and each step changes the price. A short course in coin grading, and the one rule that protects value.
Guide
Old coins: what actually sells from the tin in the drawer
Most tins of old coins are worth less than their owners hope. The categories that carry value, the ones that do not, and how to tell them apart.Guide
How to identify a medal by its ribbon
British medal ribbons by colour, with the official description of each: the First and Second World War ribbons, the two that get swapped, and the crimson ones.Price guide
What a Victoria Cross is worth
A Victoria Cross makes six figures at auction when the action carries the lot, and £46,000 when it does not. What the market has paid since 1884, and why.Guide
Where to sell medals
Where to sell medals in the UK: specialist auction, collectables saleroom or dealer. What Noonans and Warwick and Warwick charge, and what an unsold lot costs.Guide
How to research a medal from the name on the rim
A name, a number and a regiment on the rim can find the man, his battalion and his battles. The free records to search, in the order to search them.
Guide
What war medals are worth
What British WW1 and WW2 medals are worth: value follows who received it, what for, and whether the group is complete. A guide for the people who inherit them.Explainer
Gross and net value of an estate
Most probate applications ask for five estate values, not two. What gross, net and net qualifying mean to HMRC, and where the contents figure lands.Guide
Valuing jewellery for probate
Probate value is the open market figure, not the insurance one. Reading the metal floor off the fineness mark, and the marks that date a piece.Guide
Estate auctions: how a house's contents are sold
What a saleroom does with the contents of a house, from the valuer's visit to the account of sale, what 42 lots cost to sell, and the figure HMRC wants.Guide
IHT407: valuing household and personal goods
The IHT407 schedule box by box: which items are listed on their own, the £1,500 line, what open market value means to HMRC, and where the total goes on IHT400.
Guide
How to clear a house without giving away the two things in it that were worth something
Every cleared house had something in it. A room-by-room house clearance list of what to set aside before the van arrives, and how to get an opinion for nothing.
Guide
Probate valuation of house contents: what HMRC expects
The executor has to put a figure on everything in the house for probate. What HMRC means by value, when a valuer is needed, and the mistakes that cost money.Auctions
Auctions
3 guides. The category page also has recent sale prices.
Guide
How to sell antiques: the three routes and what each pays
Dealer, saleroom, or a listing you write yourself. What a £500 object returns on each route, when a dealer's offer wins, and the two rules on the way out.Explainer
What is this worth? How to find out, in the order the trade would
A valuer asks four questions before quoting a figure. What they are, where the mark hides on each kind of object, and why comparables come last.
Guide