Fubar

I bought mine here; http://www.joanallen.co.uk/ A recommendation from me isn't worth anything Amazing how many variations on the same theme there are. The introduction of a metal into a tuned inductive circuit. All dependent on the quality and wetness of the soil.

Unfortunately a scanner doesn't do justice to the appalling state of my 1971 set and today is not the sort of day for natural light photography. The 1970 set is almost perfect with a minimum of toning round the edges of the half penny and a little on the date of the penny. The 1971 set looks to be improperly sealed at the top. There's what looks like white mould on the black insert and around the bottom edge of the 50p. The 2p is well on it's way and has staining as well as toning. The 1p and half p are turning black. It's a good job they only have sentimental value. My 1953 set in it's utilitarian sealed celluloid plastic, being matt, just looks a bit dull with no toning whatsoever.

One of the reasons for this hacking may be an email harvesting operation. Is anyone else suddenly getting more than the usual crop of dubious emails?

A trick of the eye. I have the same problem if your seeing the date etc., as impressed rather than raised. I have to stare at it for a while and force myself to see it properly. Something to do either with dominant eye or astigmatism. Can never remember which.

Sorry, couldn't resist.

Hmmmmm! Hate to be pedantic but boughs grow on trees. The pointy bit on a ship is called the bow. Or stem if you want to get technical. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bow_(ship) Cheers Kris (the Ancient Mariner)

Strange how both those pennies have the same marks and dings. Just different lighting. A stock photo or purposefully misleading? I'm just a novice so I don't know what goes on.

Not so. Silver coins were produced in great numbers from around 1942 onwards, and survive in huge numbers in high grade (partly due to hoarding when silver was replaced bu CuNi). It seems whatever else they economised over, currency was deemed essential to the war effort. That little group isn't worth much to coin collectors, but it migiht mean a great deal to any surviving relatives of the crash, and it is a historic and poignant story in its own right. That would explain why I have a full uncirculated set of two shilling pieces from that time. I was surprised to learn that coinage was a priority. I always think provenance is very important. The history of an object is sometimes as important as the object itself. Coins are difficult in this area because most of them have no provenance or, as has been mentioned elsewhere, the records have been discarded. As far as I know there are no surviving relatives of the crew member I think the coins belonged to so they will stay with me as a reminder of why I am allowed the freedoms I enjoy in today's world.

Absolutely fascinating story, Kris. Thank you very much indeed for that. Considering that all those coins will have effectively been frozen as far as wear is concerned, since 9 April 1945, there is an amazing amount of wear on the 1922, and especially the 1920 sixpences, after just 23 and 25 years respectively. Same as between now and 1985 for us today. I've noticed people on this forum say what a dearth of pre 1930 circulating silver there was back in the 1960's. The condition of those two,in the mid 40's, explains why. The wear is unusual but I suppose that in wartime they couldn't afford to use too many resources producing new coinage. I remember very worn coins being around when I was young but now I find that any coins of the era I come across are relatively unworn. Survival of the better grades I suppose. I'm a sucker for this sort of thing. I have another small plastic bag that contains buttons, keys and coins that came from a small box in an auction general sale boxed lot. I like to think they all tell a story. Especially involving the RN, India, Ceylon, South Africa and Europe. I get them out every so often and try to imagine what brought them all together.

Very poignant Kris. I'm guessing the coins were the contents of all the crews pockets, rather than just one individual ? It's funny how it's the everyday objects that lend scale to an incident like this - highlights the fact that they were just normal blokes in abnormal times. All the coins were found in a small area whereas things like crew watches, bits of flying gear, etc., were quite widely scattered so they were assumed to belong to one crew member. That might give you an idea of the nature of the crash. The pilot was 22 years old and one of three Australians onboard. He had already completed one tour of ops and was on his second. He's buried in Harrogate with the navigator and another is buried in Scotland because he was recently married there. It is assumed they had successfully completed their bombing sortie over Hamburg and there was no emergency declared. It was exactly one month before the war in Europe ended. Normally the coins stay in storage because handling them too much starts me off on another search for answers.

These are the coins. They were only washed. The first halfcrown has a ding, the first 1944 two shillings is almost uncirculated with lustre, the second one has a chunk out of the rim, the sixpences are as would be expected except for the 1944 which is badly bent, the 3d is corroded, the 1940 penny is bent, the 1942 halfpenny is badly bent, two of the 1944 halfpennies appear to have been burnt or in accid and the last one is about perfect except for a dirty edge. Close ups of selected ones I can do if anyone wants them. Cheers Kris

Having stalled trying to pull up she ploughed through the woods to the side of the farmhouse. The two objects in the field to the left are engines. The largest item in the middle is part of the fuselage. She belonged to a Royal Australian Air Force squadron. The RAF recovered most of the wreck and the bodies at the time. The story is still developing. I've recently made contact with the nephew of the mid upper gunner who died in the crash.

One tail fin in the duck pond at the farm where she crashed. The initial impact with the trees is in the background. It was a very foggy night and the pilot was given permission to land. Then they tried to divert him to Carnaby but it was too late.

This was the aircraft. The picture was taken when she had completed 91 ops. The crew pictured are not the ones who died in the crash. I've met some of the ones in the picture although now most of them have completed their last tour of operations.

Interesting, but tragic story. Can you post some scans or are they all in grotty "as dug" condition? Indeed. How did they come into your possession, Fubar, if you don't mind saying ? I was a civilian instructor with the local Air Training Corps and we got involved in a bit of aviation archaeology. We applied and received permission to dig a local crash from the Ministry of Defence and the landowner. When we'd finished the bits were donated to the Yorkshire Air Museum and then back to me. Long and complicated story. I'll try and scan some of them. It was surprising how well preserved some where after 35 years in the ground. Also how bent some where. I have a picture of the crash somewhere that'll give you an idea of the damage.

I think that could fairly easily be explained away by saying some jewellers apprentice was practising a new machine or something ? There are some standard engineering shop tools that allow you to do this sort of thing. I did it as part of an apprentice piece many moons ago.

I have what might be considered a pocketful of loose change from 1945. Recovered from the site of a local bomber crash (Handley Page Halifax)that happened in April 1945. It consists of - 2 x Halfcrowns - 1922 1 x Florin - 1922, 1 x Florin - 1923, 1 x Florin - 1930, 2 x Two Shillings - 1944 1 x Shilling with a young Victoria's head - date unreadable (almost smooth) 1 x Sixpence - 1920, 1 x Sixpence - 1922, 1 x Sixpence - 1929, 1 x Sixpence - 1944 1 x Brass Threepence - 1943 1 x Penny - 1918, 1 x Penny - 1930, 1 x Penny - 1938, 1 x Penny - 1940 1 x Halfpenny - 1905, 1 x Halfpenny - 1942, 3 x Halfpenny - 1944 I seem to remember having similair collections in my pockets although 15 years after this crash I was only getting paid ten bob for a full Saturday morning delivering grocery orders. So 18/9½d was quite a lot of money (about 18 pints of bitter). Aircrew were not supposed to carry cash on ops so finding it was a bit of a surprise. All 7 crew died in the crash.

If I understand it right your going forward all the time. I moderated on a very busy site (40k members with 1.5k per day regular) and I had to check almost everything. I found the best way was to use the back button or the back arrow at top left. That way you go back to the page you saw first and can read the next one with new posts. When you've read them all in a particular forum use the back button to get back to where you started on the home page and move to the next forum with new unread posts. Works for me but diff'rent folks, diff'rent strokes.

Not too sure if this is an example of a fake or a genuine coin. Mexican 8 Reale silver coin of 1819. It's had a hard life and probably has no value. My question is, is it a fake or is this the way they were made? The "silver" skin is not very thick and the inner disk appears to be copper. Definitely not magnetic. Taking the words cupro-nickel to the extreme.

I use Corel's Photopaint but that's getting a bit long in the tooth. The main one I use is ACDSee Photomanager. The attached is the full size scan of the coin I started asking about with the complicated background removed (the plainer the better) and compressed by 50%. Done very quickly and with a minimum of experimenting. Cheers Kris

How on earth do you keep a picture that large below 150k? If I save a JPEG that size in Photoshop it comes out 200k MINIMUM, and usually more. When saving as a jpg most programs give you the option of adding some compression (most of them automatically compress by 10% unless you tell them not to). Not too sure about Photoshop 'cos I don't use it normally. A compression to 70% doesn't lose detail that will be missed on a computer screen. Cheers Kris

Thanks for the definitive description, Clive. Regards Kris

Thanks for that, azda. The edge is the big difference. Mine is very ill-defined. I doubt if I shall be looking for another one. This one just appeared in a box of mixed coins at a general household auction sale. I might keep it as an interesting object. Regards Kris

Thanks, Chris. I would have had no idea but I do now. Henry VII half groat. Cheers Kris

Thanks for that RLC35. It weighs around 25 grams on our postal scale. Looks old enough to have been around for quite a while. Doesn't seem much point in today's market when they're only worth about a hundred bucks. Probably more point when they were in circulation. A curiosity. I might keep it. Thanks again. Kris