Paddy

My old housemaster, Father Andrew Alexander again! I wish I had got to know him better.

Interestingly in the detailed description he does highlight that the apparently valuable coin is a restrike. Covers himself when the disappointed buyer realises his mistake!

Worth reporting to trading standards?

Or the Ouzo...

The US constitution actually has a clause barring anyone from standing for election as President if they are insane. You have to be mad to want to be President!

My ship is abundant eels aericumbens?

Is the 1987 Jamaica proof set of any interest to anyone? Spotted at auction - PM if you need a link to it.

Nothing like as scarce as a £500 price ticket would suggest! A quick search on Ebay's completed listings finds two of similar period sold for £50 and £60. EG: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Rare-James-VI-quarter-thistle-merk-Scottish-hammered-Coin-1601-/353341519725?hash=item5244cbb76d%3Ag%3AJTkAAOSw-6xfQUWF&nma=true&si=sdsWcVmnWAUu62OHx12jAVvAjjE%3D&orig_cvip=true&nordt=true&rt=nc&_trksid=p2047675.l2557 and while the condition of yours may be slightly better, not enough for a 10x increase. - in my view.

When I was very young a neighbour boy, a year or two older than me, used to tease me with this one: How much wood could a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood? I couldn't get it right then, but it seems easy now.

I posted that last night and only when reading back this morning realised that I had got it wrong! Should be: "The sixth sick sheikh's sixth sheep's sick." Much more difficult!

That one at least you have chance of getting right (or if not have a good laugh). The one I could never get right was: "The sixth sick sheikh's sixth son's sick."

I think I would have chosen a different Ebay userid than "fakingit-fun"!

Not really my area, but I think they are different coins. There is a small scratch between the ribbons on the Heritage coin, that is not on yours. Also a black dot between the E and G of REG - which they could have removed if they cleaned it, and does not appear on yours.

My granny was a lousy cook. (A great engineer - could make almost anything in wood or steel, but dreadful with a frying pan!) If we ever complained about her latest efforts she would always say: "Eat it up - what doesn't fatten will help to fill up!" The result, I suspect, of bringing up a young family on rationing during the war. I still dread omelettes as she cremated so many of them.

Great idea for a thread! I am sure I can think of lots given time, but a couple I recall straight away: She was a devout catholic but as teenagers, when we were on our way out to a party, she would always say: "Be good - but if you can't be good, be careful!" .. and her wise words on road safety: "He was right, dead right, as he went along, but just as dead as if he were wrong!"

"Mentioned" is the same as "tagged" in this context. The system could not recognise you simply by name - the tag highlights the userid and so can trigger the message.

Probably something in your settings for the site - you can elect which actions trigger an email notification and which don't. If you click on the down arrow beside your name in the top right of the screen, and then select "Account Settings" from the drop down. The page you get to has "Notification settings" as a link on the right side beneath the advert box. Click on that and you should see your current options. I suspect you have "Do not send me notifications" set at the moment. Further down you can also select which actions trigger a notification in the website and which an email to your registered account.

The drugs don't work by the Verve....

Ah, you are running into the limitations of a generic coin book - they don't have the space to cover all the finer details of varieties. The E and the S on shillings are indeed for England and Scotland. For the George VI ones, the England lion faces left, whereas the Scottish one is facing forward. (I remember which by thinking of the Glasgow handshake... 🙂 ). For QE2 the English has 3 lions, the Scottish one lion. (England football logo should do that.) For the enormous number of varieties of Pennies, you are best to use this site, maintained by a member here: https://headsntails14.wordpress.com/ For halfpennies, your best bet is this one, maintained by the same member: https://halfpennyvarieties.wordpress.com/home/ There are numerous books that go into all the detail - I leave others to advise on those.

Agreed - and a consistent temperature is important (within reason). Attics are generally a very bad place to store coins as the temperature varies wildly over the year, often freezing in the winter and 30c + in the summer. (Hotter than outside because of the roofs exposure to direct sun.) Attics are generally not good for storing anything of value. Wood dries out and splits, oil paintings crack, silver tarnishes and clothes get mildew.

I have tried it occasionally, but can't say the results have ever been rewarding. Silver dip will get rid of the marks, but also all the lustre, leaving the coin flat and lifeless. Using a cotton bud dipped in silver dip or Ammonia or lemon juice allows a more selective cleaning of just the spots, but getting to a result that doesn't still look blotchy takes a lot of effort and is rarely successful. I have not tried the aluminium foil and bicarb of soda technique on a modern coin - maybe someone else has? If you have examples that are not too scarce or valuable, experiment and let us know your results. After all, the coin will still be worth its melt value, and that is all most buyers would give you anyway for the common coins.

Probably as a he "cancelled all bids" before ending the item. Maybe the earlier cancellation of the high bid was after the bidder requested a cancellation after realising it was a dud, and that triggered (eventually) his ending of the item.

After my eventual success with the threehalfpence, it has been suggested I list the few threepence dates I still need. Any readable condition considered as long as the price is commensurate with the condition! 1853, 1852, 1849, 1848, 1847, 1842, 1839 I am ashamed to admit I have all but given up searching on Ebay - either no hits at all or ridiculously high prices for the condition, or mis-identified groats. (The 1839 at auction on Ebay at the moment I am already watching.)

Thanks for that. This was from early in my collecting days, just wishful thinking and has reduced the gaps by one for the last few years. Now I will have to take it out and probably scrap it - one more I need. I can't say I go looking very hard for the missing Victorian 3Ds - it goes against the grain for me to spend many hundreds of pounds on a tiny piece of silver only a few numbers different from other 3Ds of the same period. I would rather spend the money on a Saxon penny from a reign I don't currently have.

Ah, I have managed to get back to my photos and now know why I didn't really want to share this one! Even "fair" is a gross over-grading, and the identification as an 1846 is close to guess work! Here we go anyway - don't laugh!