Leaderboard

Portcullis looks wrong , but otherside is quite convincing .

I also liked The Two Ronnies Swedish phrasebook... F U N E X ? S, V F X F U N E M ? 9. V F N 10 E M (girl walks by carrying large ham) O - U F M !! O K, V F M O K - M N X 4 2

A modern 'latinisation' inspired by Monty Pythons The Dirty Hungarian Phrasebook - "My hovercraft is full of eels"

Agreed. Oh, and happy new year to you too Stu. Long time no see etc.

So that's nearly 2 and a half times the value of 1p ! Even the 2p is worth less than a farthing.

I have checked using an inflation calculator previously. 1 pound in 1961 is worth £22.43 today. So a farthing would be worth 2.3 pence.

Yes, keep the name but apply it to something else. The original d was a denarius, a silver coin. Perhaps the 10p could become a 'penny'? Yes, they could be just in sets for the time being - the denomination could therefore be 'one pence' and not a 'penny' as such. After all, a penny has been a silver denarius, a Saxon sceat, a small medieval silver coin, a Maundy denomination, a copper trade token, several types of copper coin, then a bronze, finally a (now worthless) steel decimal 'bronze'. You do realise that the 1p is now worth less in real terms than the farthing was when demonetised in 1960?

Ian was very lucky with this coin in that there was a remarkably good surface preserved under the verdigris (green areas) and under the oxide (brown areas). Held to the light, the field almost prooflike, and had I stripped the whole coin to a reactive surface and then evenly toned , this sheen would have been lost so I decided to tone through the existing, which could be taken further over time. When I first saw the coin the verd looked almost waxy, and I wondered whether there was an organic element, so I tried a couple of organic solvents - acetone, DMSO, petrol- which had no effect on the verd but did at least remove any contaminants that might have blocked the verdicare. Under the microscope it was clear that all the discoloured areas of the coin has experienced corrosion, being both very hard and adherent. Working each side sequentially, reverse first, it took about a day of Verdicare to start to soften the corrosion and enable a gentle picking off with the needle, in tiny plaques; I had to take this very slowly in sessions of an hour or so, microscope work is hard on the eyes and neck. I suspect it took 15 to 20 hours of microscope time. The fields were mostly done with the polished tip steel needle, he detail particularly the denticles with an orange needle on insulin syringe (courtesy of our late diabetic cat). I was always working through a thin layer of Verdicare. A very steady hand is needed, and pressure on the verd rather than the coin. There was a good cleavage plane of reddish oxide on the surface of the coin, which helped a lot. My feeling is that the coin, while not perfect of course, has come out better than I expected Jerry

Here's a reply she sent to me last week when I suggested that she be careful not to give it away as it is an extremely valuable coin. "Hello im not going to give it away I don't have to sell the coin if I don't want to I have already asked ebay but I have read about the coin and mum really did live very near to the church and grandad lived at 25 acre road straight opposite the church I was going to do as mum asked but that was before they told my mum basically to sod off but the vicker was willing to stand graveside for 15 mins talking about God for 700 pound but wasn't willing to bless mum in the church that didn't go down well especially when people was still allowed in i was a girl when we used to look for the mice on the furnishings in the church and i know about the penny I looked it up myself but I dont know the authenticity so I can't list it as authentic ebay said i cant but im not about to send it in the post with what's going on there is nothing open thanks to boris and i really won't pop it in the post would you . And mum didnt like dealers So I don't have to sell it if I don't want to mum has other coins gold silver anyway I have to go to work Regards Michelle" This raises various questions, i.a. : - If not using commas was a crime would it result in long sentences? - 'the mice on the furnishings' - Robert Thompson? I wonder if Thompson is known to have made pieces for St. Cross Church? - Is a Vicker someone who is trained to apply Vicks? etc etc

Ten years later, I got this White Whale! DIdn't at first even know it existed but here it is. Now if I can only find the stablemate 1984 FM Specimen Set!