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Rob

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Everything posted by Rob

  1. Too many people are anxious not to cause upset, but you need to call a spade a spade. Russia may take a typical empirical stance in its treatment, and may be only one of several players operating in this manner, but there's nothing wrong in specifically calling them out for what they are doing because the reason for and scale of the operation demands it. They are the major aggressor on the world stage at the moment because the war is the only really significant conflict between two nations on any scale, and with Russia promising to go to the next place which wants to be free of Russian interference when they've finished in Ukraine it would be a moral abrogation to just shrug our collective shoulders and say Ah, but they are an empire, so excuse them. Obviously there are other active areas of conflict such as Myanmar, various African states or Gaza to name but a few, but these are generally internal affairs despite attempts to draw in external parties. The problem is that they all have the same modus operandi. Legitimate military targets are hit, but this is accompanied by a very healthy dose of indiscriminate shelling or bombing of civilian targets.
  2. I didn't. I was quoting Paddy's post and expanding on their innate inability to take on board the right of alternative cultures to exist. Any neighbour is viewed as a threat to be conquered/pillaged/eliminated. Problem is, that requires them to claim the world, because up to that point they would always have a neighbour. Saving grace is their inability to breed fast enough to replace losses in continuous conflict.
  3. They've had the same mentality for hundreds of years. The problem is not that they believe themselves superior, also that they also believe in destroying the cultures they overrun and the Russification of everything. They've been killing Ukrainians for centuries for what they are. Or take the Circassian genocide where they reduced the population from 1.5m to 30-40K in a few years as a result of starvation and forced migration. Any neighbour not under their control is to be invaded and at the least, a puppet installed. Dudayev was precise in his 1995 analysis of how Russia would turn out post the collapse of the Soviet Union. Then they killed him........... All this crap about denazification is complete bollocks. There are Nazis in every country on this planet - usually a small percentage. Problem with Russia is that they are in power in the Kremlin. Hope springs eternal that one day they will make the connection between their actions and why only the likes of Trump and Orban think Putin is great. Then they can drag themselves into the 20th century.
  4. If the brake is on it won't matter. However, one should not tempt fate.
  5. RB is red/brown, RD is red, BN is brown, C is cameo, U is ultra cameo, and based on M having no big numbers, I assume it means it's a minger. This really is a triumph of marketing over gullibility. How do they scientifically determine what constitutes cameo or deep cameo? It's all in the eyes of the beholder, or maybe a sop to the submitter. After all, this got an ultra cameo rating, conveniently ignoring the repair. Before and after pictures. In the slab - £21K ($30K) hammer + juice to the US dealer who bought it, and something on top of that for the client.
  6. I got the wrong end of the stick with the initial post. I took the missing horizontal bit to be the weakness in the right arm of St. George's cross - where the arrow was pointing. Jerry's point makes sense. FWIW, none of the 92s here have a missing line.
  7. Rob

    Possible error.

    No, there has to be some play in the press as things are never going to be a perfect fit. The point I was making was if the edge milling is as it should be, then it is not an error. If the milling is missing, then you have an out of collar strike See above
  8. Rob

    Possible error.

    Is the colour right? It looks very washed out. It could of course have been harshly cleaned. Weight correct? As for the original question. There is a bit of lateral play in the press. If the milling is good, then I would say not an error.
  9. Rob

    Ebay's Worst Offerings

    Unquestionably. A gold halfpenny formerly in my possession had a large scuff to the cheek which was subsequently filled and magically achieved a proof 64 cameo grade 6 months after I sold it. It sounds better and sells better than unc details damaged, and adds to the TPG coffers. And it cost the US buyer in excess of $30K in 2010, but hey, he was happy as it had been certified as genuine and not tampered with. Doubles all round - everyone's happy. If they are going to have variable standards for certain high price items, it would help their reputation if they introduced a special label to reflect that.
  10. Rob

    Ebay's Worst Offerings

    The problem is that if you mention it in the US, which is the main market, you either get pilloried for questioning the system, or completely ignored so as not to rock the boat. The US is too heavily invested in the label culture for many to raise a finger - and so standards change. TPGs have 'special knowledge' that allows them to get away with things nobody else is. Many things are incorrectly attributed, so all you can do is make sure you understand your field and exploit their mistakes. Anything cleaned which isn't will usually bring a good bonus. Anything repaired but passed as a straight grade will bring a good bonus when it shouldn't. It is well known they have variable standards across the board. In terms of British coins they are from 6 figure coins downwards. Norweb's Petition Crown has been noted as having initials and a date scratched in the obverse field for at least 170 years and in my view was pierced, or an attempted piercing made and subsequently filled. Graffiti has been nearly polished out, but anyone with any knowledge will know this. It didn't stop the TPG giving it an AU53. Presumably the large fee for grading outstripped the details fee?
  11. Just a worn die? Wear is rarely completely even. Logically, I would expect the first point of contact to show the greatest die wear, but then that assumes the die is equally hard across the face - which isn't a given.
  12. Weak patches can be due to various things. Wear is the most obvious, but also blocked dies or soft strikes. If it is an area of lower relief, then it is usually something filling the die. It may be metal dust or could also be grease. Unused dies are stored in grease to prevent rusting, and sometimes this is not fully removed prior to use. Because the grease will not compress under pressure, the flan is not struck up at this point.
  13. My initial reaction looking at the lot details was 'why is the estimate so high?' £80 high estimate still leaves £50 for a proof 3d after slabbing costs - which is silly. I'd love to get even half of that.
  14. Rob

    TOY COINS

    I doubt they would use a genuine name because it might confer 'official' status in the eyes of the public, consequently raising hackles at the mint/BoE leading to them having to publicly disown them as per Moore's Models
  15. Rob

    Ebay's Worst Offerings

    Not necessarily a worst offering, just mis-described by NGC and the vendor has followed suit. https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/126326106682?itmmeta=01HPP1PAKM29E6B28M1EVHGG5E&hash=item1d699f6a3a:g:NV4AAOSw2tZlxS33&itmprp=enc%3AAQAIAAAAsLKd0l82XvnuaGrzJO%2FHcJBV3x52qzjv7EFUyGtuDfrY3BiF%2BgCLs%2F0oAPx%2Fn0SCC3RYgwRYFrRUDPMG%2FjfGZzu2ShMHdF58OPVYNlD%2BPndD4YGTqM7lC1YVglfmlKPDqzbdsYoAG6L1bd3CV68Ofczf280EJOyzDBDpNBXB5YeOESC2tfazyh2oR4M4VNnnR8bnBs8D5P1Ga873l60L2fb0i9cBE9XtVSCS1gVpihmJ|tkp%3ABk9SR_6p2cG1Yw I have messaged him might be worth others doing so too. Makes the blurb with the listing pretty redundant. I wonder what the real numbers are? Bet there are errors both ways with a few mules thrown in to cover bases. Full sharp UNC details and fully Satiny Lustrous. Very scarce "Beaded Border" variety and of the only 26 known by the major grading services only 1 graded higher!!!
  16. Rob

    Error Code?

    Whatever, I wasn't really interested.
  17. Rob

    1551 MM Y silver coins

    I think it could have been even later than Jan/Feb. Lingford lists 9 obverse dies for 1551 of which only obv. Z was tun and the other 8 were Yorke's. Furthermore, obv.Z was only known paired with Lingford reverses 12 & 13. One/Two dies would be a small number for 2-3 month's worth of coining, as given they didn't start until October 1551, it leaves less than 6 months for the 9 obverse dies in total. Speculatively, I assume that reverses 1-11 (mm.y) were the initial Yorke dies identified by Lingford when he did his study, and that 16, 17, 19 & 20 came as a result of later discoveries. Similarly, 14 & 15 were immediately identified for post 1551 coins, with rev. 18 (mm.Tun) again being a later find. That's 15 y reverse dies for 1551 compared to 2 tuns. If the evidence could be found, I wouldn't be surprised to learn that Throckmorton didn't start work until March. Lockdales 75 lot 290 was an obverse G paired with what appears to be an unrecorded die (it's a bit worn to be certain), so that would mean a 16th reverse - which pretty much backs up the rule of thumb that you had twice the number of reverse dies as obverses. 60% of all 1551 crowns use obv. A which presumably was a result of the urgency to get the fine coins into circulation asap.
  18. Rob

    1551 MM Y silver coins

    The wiki page on Sir John Yorke might hint at why the mark changed from y to tun. 'In 1552 York was pardoned 'for all treasons and offences concerning making and issuing of the king's money', on the condition that he settle his mint accounts for over £9500 'due to the king'. So presumably 1551 was not such a good time for Yorke. Any such impropriety would surely result in loss of privileges, such as making the coinage.
  19. Rob

    1551 MM Y silver coins

    The jury is out. It's possible that Southwark didn't fully close. Stewartby only covered the period up to the end of the base coinage, and so the July closure might refer only to the cessation of striking debased coins. I say this because Edward's Chronicle on the 24th September 1551 says amongst other things, 'Also that York's mint and Throckmorton's mint in the Tower, should go and work the fine standard'. To me that implies that Southwark was still considered operational - at least by Edward, but doesn't eliminate the possibility that Yorke moved across the river and set up shop alongside Throckmorton or in Tower mint 2, which we know existed from the debased coins. Given y coins are only for 1551 and subsequently superseded by Tun at the end of the year, it may be that Throckmorton was initially indisposed and Yorke operated at the Tower before Throckmorton took over, but the wording in the Chronicle suggests to me that both mints could have been involved. C can be eliminated because the dies for the fine were new. A y/Tun mule would more likely place things at the Tower, but I'm not aware of anything for any denomination. Further edited to say that stocks of fine silver were more likely to have been held at the Tower.
  20. Rob

    Error Code?

    The font and layout is almost like it used to be when computers used DOS - say the early noughties, before windows appeared.
  21. If Peck knew that Bressett had written about it and reiterated this in a letter dated 1966, it only leaves 2 options. Either it is included in the 1966-7 edition of Bressett, or whenever the next edition was published depending on whether he knew before the 5th edition went to print. I'm assuming the advice was by letter or telephone given the letter is dated 1966. There is a fifth edition listed on ebay. https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/325963803688?hash=item4be4f4ec28:g:3XsAAOSwelpgwTTb&amdata=enc%3AAQAIAAAA4CXC1kcT8Pgn1wofpXIBaezimKqcb6r7OGnowqU63xVmOPug4KwnR%2BB2ThsmfVuWW4c%2B%2FUKYvKV9MgUg8LLPt4su2pT8a7u%2Fvtj9FOHdW%2FkrbQNiZyTnz7Z15qR95dLHdyWtYkHlIipAtdgOmvmEG%2BOHQoyr1opQUqeT01UpEauZPvPTfETWUus5OK7oluY3Kbu2W4XFEdFGuigXLF%2BkS4AYhK7HGwVhoYnqWLM0oKKjPL8bHUf5Jo3iPmYMgJk4EUFSGzQ7uJtv1vftp68aRv2wLuMwm1%2FBOmqjLjbzNj6d|tkp%3ABFBMsobV-aFj
  22. Different dies surely, the N is further away from the cross end on yours
  23. Bresset doesn't list it in the 1965 (4th ed.) book, so I suspect the following year is your best bet, unless conveyed verbally/letter.
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