1949threepence

Thanks. Obviously a fall from £6k to £3k is going to bring a great many more coins into the CGT bracket

Judging by some recent prices, I don't think so. The amount a 1922 192A went for at the recent Baldwins Auction is indicative of that. Moreover, considering the number of youngsters in various facebook coin groups, I don't think we need to worry about loss of interest. They've not got much to spend, but the enthusiasm is definitely there.

Oh, what's changed then? Hadn't it used to be about £6k allowed per individual coin sold, before CGT kicked in?

I note that the psychologically important 40 degrees barrier (exactly 104 F in old money) has now been breached at both Heathrow and at Coningsby in Lincolnshire. Last night it didn't fall below 25.9 (78.6 F) at at least one location. So both maximum and minimum UK temperature records broken. As Summer daytime maximums are typically attained at around 4pm, there is still room for maybe a 41 somewhere. Everybody coping OK I hope. I mean, sure, it is hot, but given the hype bordering on hysteria, actually not as bad as feared. I've been using a hot water bottle stored in the freezer for a few hours, and resting my wrists on them. A doctor on GB News yesterday, suggested this was a good idea as it cools the circulating blood, and indeed it has been quite effective. I do appreciate many people will become ill, and maybe some die. But surely that's the same with any heatwave. A prolonged heatwave over several weeks, even if not quite as hot as today, would probably be more damaging than the short very intense one we've got now.

OK, so using the T scale, let's remind ourselves of the definitions for T8 and T9:- T8 - Motor cars hurled great distances. Wooden frames houses and their contants dispersed over long distances; stone or brick houses irreperably damaged; steel framed buildings buckled. T9 - Many steel framed buildings badly damaged; locomotives or trains hurled some distances. Complete de-barking of any standing tree trunks. I'm fascinated to know when we had such a powerful tornado in the UK - so do you have a date and location? I can then check it out with the meteorological conditions. I've spent many years studying weather and weather history in this country and have never seen factual and verifiable reports of such powerful tornados. I don't accept that the tornado which occurred in Portsmouth in December 1810 was anything like as powerful as touted by some, as a) there is very little information about it, and b) definitions are different these days to what they would have been then.

We'd have a climate not dissimilar to Quebec in Winter - link

Yep, cut off the gulf stream and we will immediately become dominated by a European or Scandinavian anticyclone in Winter, and Winters such as 1947 or 1963, will rapidly become the norm. Probably worse. Western Europe already colder than us in Winter, will become even colder. Given how quickly the European continent cools down in Autumn, it's likely we would see a rapid temperature plunge from about mid November onwards.

We should really be grateful at present that currently, our Summer weather resembles an old school wet, cool and unsettled British Summer. There is an extreme heatwave over Southern Europe with temperatures above 40 degrees. Not pleasant. On 6th July, the town of Adrar, Algeria recorded a minimum overnight temperature of 39.6 °C. The highest minimum temperature ever recorded in African climatic history. That's incredible. We're not out of the woods yet. The very hottest (peak of the heat) of our hot spells tend to occur late July/early August. Hopefully we will avoid those extremes. Of course, being a relatively small island surrounded by sea helps. For the same reason, many Portuguese travel to Madeira for respite from the heat - of course it's hot there as well, but not nearly as hot as the mainlad, despite being further South, as it is a very small island surrounded by sea, with the concomitant cooling effect. High lying suburban estates also help. link

But of course ours are much weaker than theirs. Some barely register at all. I doubt if we've ever had an F3 - probably F2 maximum. Possibly the strongest tornado to ever hit the UK, was the one which started in Buckinghamshire and travelled about 60 miles to somewhere in Cambridgeshire, on 21st May 1950. That caused a lot of damage with uprooted trees, sheds and greenhouses ruined, and cars overturned. Luckily it was a Sunday morning and there was nobody about when some scaffolding collapsed into the street. You were just unlucky to cop for a shower at that specific time..

Fantastically well researched Ian. Much appreciated. My specimen has the start of a die flaw between the V and I of VICTORIA, but no extension beyond that.

You might get away with it depending on the time of your session. I think there will be some rain in your part of the world early on, but will clear by late morning (11ish). Probably much heavier over the Bristol Channel in South Wales. Thunder unlikely as this is just ordinary, common or garden, frontal rain.

Thanks Ian. Got it from Cambridgeshire Coins, who often tend to be careless and have let some high value coins go for peanuts - not checked.

I think my 1859 small date is (by pure default) one of the taller 9 with oval loop. When purchased, it wasn't even touted as a small date, just date only. I haven't got close up photographic equipment (must get), but here is the best I could do with an ordinary pic. Not sure it will be good enough to discern the difference.

Thanks. Yes it's odd isn't it. Superior photography (such as the photos Noonan's provide) can be a real selling point and attract buyers. You'd think an organisation with Baldwin's experience would pay more attention to this. The pic I've done is pretty much how the coin looks in hand. For example the colour is identical.

Ultimately a damp squib !!! Such is the problem in forecasting thunderstorms.

Finally managed to get a decent grade 1856 OT. Obviously not the absolute apex, but orders of magnitude better than the one I've got. I'd say toned EF/NEF. No issues. This is lot 401 from the recent Baldwin's auction. Was chased all the way for it as well. Baldwins refer to "intermittent lustre", but I can't see any lustre at all.

Indeed so - and it will get more uncomfortable before temperatures start to fall back to nearer normal on Sunday. The humidity which precedes big storms, some find unbearable. Over much of England it won't get below 18 degrees tonight. In the big cities it's unlikely to get below 19 to 20 degrees - London possibly 21 degrees. Not a record, but still very "phew what a scorcher!"

A very interesting situation is developing - one which I thought I would type a few words of advance notification on. Currently very warm and increasingly humid air is coming up from the South. In such a situation, one would in any case expect heat thunderstorms to develop in the normal course of events - which they will, especially later today over France. What marks the current situation out as noteworthy and to be watched, are two things, a) the upper air is unusually cold, which will enable prodigious and extremely powerful thunderstorms to form, and secondly a trough of low pressure is approaching from the West. This will enhance any thundery activity as it passes. What may happen is that the trough or front, is held up by friction at the surface, and becomes slow moving. This will intensify the thundery activity still further, and prolong it. However, the nature of thunderstorms is one of great unpredictability in extent, severity and positioning. So what I've said above is a potentiality, not a certainty. Just be aware that if you do get a storm, it could be unusually severe. As ever, no idea at this stage whether lightning will be predominantly intercloud (sheet), or cloud to Earth (forked), or a mixture. This will vary from storm cell to storm cell.

There are so many weird, unanswered inconsistencies regarding that case.

I wonder what happened to the Skripals? Never hear a word about them now. Presumably got new identities.

GB News have got a petition to save cash if anybody's interested in signing it. https://www.gbnews.com/cash

Don't you mean fork handles?

I always hold some cash as the gardener and other tradesmen much prefer it.

Had to laugh yesterday afternoon. A local coffee shop which I sometimes frequent to have a cappucino, became card only recently, but yesterday when I went in, the machine had gone wrong and wasn't operating. So they were forced to accept cash (fortunately had a spare tenner), and give IOU notes to the customers in place of change. It was either that or an empty shop.

Prigozhin, apparently, is holed up in a windowless hotel in Belarus. Not a joke.