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I picked up a couple of lovely young lady's the other day , I think they must be twins VICTORIA and VICTOEIA 😊 I'm not into Farthings much but these came up so I jumped at them . The E in VICTOEIA is extremely clear with just the tip of the long downward arm of the R showing.

F111, 2/1. Its a very pretty coin. Jerry

Here are up to date pics of the 1877 F90 penny from a 'deceased estate lot' in Sydney, Australia. Not a thing of great beauty, but in fact better than most so far on Richards site (I make it 6th best, probably...) Jerry

Yes, I know. The wife is trying to use it as I write. Ideally what is required is a program that you speak into and translates. Got a week or two until the govt. gets its backside in gear. We are taking in a 41 year old mother, while her 21 yo daughter is not far away with a family where there is someone of a similar age. They don't speak English or German though, so there might be quite a lot of hovercrafts full of eels

Here is the Stephen Album 'Medusa', really nice with toned lustre peripherally. Expensive I know (over £2900) but a nice clear Gorgon's head. And missed the VAT! Jerry

I always think they look so much better once out of their plastic slabs.......

My recent St James purchase just landed, pleased to say the import duty cost less than the import duty I paid on a £19 calendar at Christmas last year, that cost me €10 whereas the duty on a £400 coin cost €7.96

Very pleased to have now obtained all three reverse types of 1826. Rev A: no central line down saltire, Rev B: thin line down saltire , and Rev C : thick line down saltire.

Very pleased with this 1918H penny. It's clearly not UNC, but takes pride of place in my collection, for the simple reason that it's an unusually sharp strike for a 1918H, which even "UNC" with full lustre, are often very poor strikes, with all the attributes of a worn coin. This one has a good breastplate and also reasonable hair detail.

And a cheap $10 wide date 1889.

I have to say that I don't think we could have wished for more considering we took in someone with whom we have nothing in common for as long as it takes. She will have been here for 4 weeks this coming Friday. Language is a bit of an issue as it is proving difficult to find her work where there is minimal customer contact, but every day I hear a few more words used, so hopefully within a few months the communication problems will reduce. The first few weeks have been a bit labour intensive on my part carting her around to get the basics sorted such as signing on, registering with a doctor, taking her shopping, trying to teach basic English and write benefits logs and job applications etc, but that's part of the deal when there's no common language and will ultimately pay off when she is able to stand on her own feet comfortably. Frankly, the above post where someone claims they have spent a lot of money on the refugee is complete b******s. Additional costs for taking someone in - a gas safety certificate and some energy, set against which the host will get £350 a month paid in arrears for the first year. There's no obligation to feed them at your expense, though most would at least until cashflow is established. The host would be quids in if calculated on an honest basis, even if food was provided. How much does a set of house keys cost for God's sake?

Really pleased to have obtained this ex Copthorne collection 1853 copper proof. You don't see many copper proofs from the Victoria era, so when this one cropped up, with provenance, I decided to snap it up.

Whilst not in the same league as the last couple of pennies, I was nevertheless quite pleased to obtain this 1903 open date. It's only GF, but is much better the the VG example I've currently got. Was well worth the upgrade as it is very difficult to obtain any 1903 open 3, above a well worn VG. Although I am aware there's a very nice GVF specimen out there.

Oh dear! When I posted this, I was simply illustrating the way in which the stained glass in the Palma Cathedral illuminates the place internally. I did so by referencing the photograph which was used a decade or more ago on the cover of my wife's first poetry book. I had no desire to open up a debate about the quality or otherwise of the image used, or its suitability for a book cover image so I'm slightly taken aback at the comments this has generated. Just for the record, this image was used for the front of the book, with the stained glass circular window alone on the back cover. The image is not photoshopped in any way. The colours were captured in the moment. As far as the fourth year student jibe goes, all I will say is that I make no claims to be a designer, but if this got me a pass I would be quite happy, as it took all of 30 minutes to produce. All it needed was a quick scan of the photo, a bit of contrast sorting, chopping it to size for the cover, and insertion of the text, and saving as a .jpg file, no more than half an hour tops. The choice of the photograph was my wife's and I'm quite happy with her choice. We wouldn't have wanted to bother using a graphic designer, with the expense that entails, since she has no pretentions of becoming the next poet laureate, plus with self-publishing, she just sells small numbers of her books locally. Neither she nor I have any expectations beyond this.

HALP 7+G eBay. Spotted amongst a group of 16. £14.

Very pleased to have captured this absolutely superb 1857 Bramah 23a penny (no serif on 7 of date) in not far off UNC condition for a very reasonable sum. There are two very slight marks, one just under underneath the date and the other to the immediate back of the Queen's neck, but apart from that it's flawless. Seller sold as date only example, and to be honest, it would have been cheap even for that.

been dabbling on and off, not bought much recenly, and forgot about the site for a long time, found plenty of exciting things, not bought much in the past 12 months (few edward Ist), have been going through variants or my pennies, and decided to see if I could tick a few off, was looking for 1908s... and found a 8 coin worn penny lot on ebay.... and landed this instead

Scientists claim to have discovered a planet with intelligent life. This planet is populated by a number of species of flora and fauna and is effectively “run” by a race of bipeds who seem to be at the highest evolutionary level. This race is incredibly arrogant, claiming to have been created in the image of the all-loving deity that many of them worship, yet appearing to only tolerate the existence of lower evolutionary species as long as they either provide entertainment as pets or curiosities, or provide food for the bipeds, for which they are bred and killed on a huge scale. The “master race” is also incredibly hypocritical in that they go to extraordinary lengths to ensure that handicapped members of their own societies can lead a full life but have no scruples in mass extermination of other members of their species whose culture and beliefs differ from theirs or whose territory is rich in products which they desire to own. Where can this planet be ?

New arrival (halfcrown)

In order to complete my date run of sterling silver George V halfcrowns, I have got a presentable rather than a high grade example of the 1913.

Bought this from a collector in Russia - very interesting experience. Emails go through electronic interpretation smoothly and officially they are not allowed to export any coins (and maybe other objects) older than 50 years (or something like that) but it all worked pretty smoothly. He contacted me via my rare penny website.