Paddy

It depresses me that the plural of forum is now accepted as "forums" instead of "fora". Even spell check highlights the second, not the first.

They are off again - more coloured dinosaur 50p coins from the Royal Mint: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-dorset-56182579

Is the alignment right? It should be medal alignment, not coin alignment. There have been some very good forgeries of the 1818 and the only thing they got wrong was the alignment.

Had a look - that's a pretty long stretch to make that look like anything at all! What is he smoking?

I had not noticed that before, but just checked and you are correct. I checked the specification of the pound on the Royal Mint website: https://www.royalmint.com/discover/uk-coins/coin-design-and-specifications/one-pound-coin/ The centre is Nickel plated brass alloy. Pure Nickel is magnetic, so I guess this is what is being attracted to the magnets. Copper-Nickel alloys are not magnetic.

I am sure between us we could send them pics of some really notable coins? I thought maybe my Gothic Crown, or one of my early Saxon pennies?

I would think it is more likely that the batch of coins was in a hopper and the hypo solution was tipped in to achieve the toning. Then, as well as the issue of some coins being tightly packed together, and so getting uniface treatment, there is the issue of the hypo becoming used up as it reacts with the coins, resulting in different levels of toning through the batch. It is possible that all coins went through the process, some ending up heavily toned, some partial and some not at all. It may also be that the experts in the past had access to Royal Mint records saying all were toned and were repeating that information, regardless of the evidence of different levels of toning apparent in circulation.

I picked up a small group of hammered coins at a recent auction - partly as stock, partly to give me some new coins to work on. These 3 are halfpennies, and I think I have them identified, but please let me know if I am right. First I believe is Richard II S1700, London:

Thanks again @Rob - very much appreciated.

Here are the 4 pennies. Two I have made good progress with, two I find very difficult to be sure of. First I believe is Henry V, S1785, York:

That is brilliant - Thanks @Rob

That would be possible and I tried to find a match in any of the subsequent Henrys, but got nowhere.

... and finally this one I believe is Henry III, Nichole on Lund, S1356C:

... third I presume is another Edward I, Canterbury, and I think Class 9 or 10, but not sure which:

... Second I presume is Edward I, London, but I am struggling to decide which class:

... third I believe is Henry VIII S2334, London:

... Second I believe is Richard II S1699, London:

Are they for serving my guilt out to others or helping myself to a bit more?

With DNW I would be confident that the starting bid would be the lowest that meets the reserve, allowing for auctioneers discretion if applicable. (I assume the answer above allows for 10% discretion on a £500 reserve.) I would expect the same from most other reputable auction houses, whether coin specialists or not. With LCA I have no such confidence.

As ever because the £320 was a shill bid, so the coin never left her filthy mits at all. You would think she had got the message by now.

I don't think it can be a Freeman 1* - the eye is definitely a Freeman 1 style (Gouby C). The only debate is whether it is Gouby C or C1. Using @secret santa site, the slightly broader rim and the linear line ending short on the left is why I think it is C1, not C. But I will bow to greater knowledge - any other input?

As everyone knows, not my speciality, but using Secret Santa's website I think it has to be Gouby C1? Beaded border, eye face vertical, thicker border and linear circle at the left ends by second tooth, not fourth.

Nantwich auction on Easylive. Not a regular coin specialist and new to Easylive, so untested. I bid on a number of items but only won two - neither in the pre-decimal interest area.

Yes - I was watching that one as well. I decided I didn't need it quite that much at £75 + commission + postage.

If you are on Windows and it is only for a few bits you can use the inbuilt Windows snip/screen saver. Hold down the "Windows" key and shift S - you can then draw a box round the bit you want. When you release the mouse button the image is saved to the clipboard and you can save from there as jpg. If you need whole documents converting, I found this: https://pdf2jpg.net/ - not used it myself before, so maybe try with something small and unimportant first.