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alfnail

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  1. A Scottish couple took in an 18-year-old girl as a lodger. On her first night she asked if she could have a bath, but the woman of the house told her they didn't have a bath, although she could use a tin bath in front of the fire. "Monday is the best night, because that’s when my husband goes out to darts," she said. The girl agreed to have a bath the following Monday. After her husband had gone to the pub for his darts match, the woman filled the tin bath and watched the girl get undressed………and was very surprised to see that the lass didn't have any pubic hair. Later that evening, she mentioned this to her husband when he got back home. He didn't believe his wife, so she said:- "Next Monday, when you go to darts, leave a little early and wait in the back garden. I'll leave a gap in the curtains so you can see for yourself." The following Monday, while the girl was again undressing, the wife asked "Do you shave?" "No," replied the girl. "I've just never grown any hair down there. Do you have hair?" "Oh, yes," said the woman, and she pulled up her nightdress and showed the girl that she was generously endowed in the hair department.....very generously indeed!! The girl finished her bath and went to bed. Later that night, when her husband came in, the wife asked him, "Did you see it?" "Yes," he said, "but why the hell did you have to show her yours." "Whyever are you worried about that?" she said. "You've seen it often enough before." "I know," he said, "but the darts team hasn't!"
  2. Nice finds Pete, not easy ones. As you say, the extra (half) dot after FID does indeed seem to be a repaired colon i.e. was once a purposeful upper dot in the colon. One of these was sold by London Coins in June 2016, and their accompanying text said:- “1855 Ornamental Trident, with a small raised dot between the colon dots after FID giving the impression of a 3-dot colon” Personally, I do not think they should have used the words “giving the impression”. This is unlike the 1859 penny, which I believe I have seen sold as ‘having an extra colon dot after DEF’, when I am sure it is just a spurious roundish mark…….a bit like the 1855 dot on forehead. I attach close up pictures for reference. Sadly the ‘More Pennies’ thread seems to have far less activity since Mike Hopkins (1949threepence) is no longer adding his posts. I wonder if anyone knows why he dropped off the radar last September, after being such a useful and regular contributor.
  3. alfnail

    Ebay's Worst Offerings

    Here is a date close up on a genuine coin, which shows spacing compared to the above coin. There are a few different date styles on 1849 pennies but, to my knowledge, all of them have a numeral 9 with a different font to that seen on the fakes. The top loop on the genuine coins are always more oval (elongated) shaped, whereas the fakes are circular. This is probably the easiest way to spot the fake. Also, on genuine coins I believe that the 1 is always over an underneath 1 (to a greater or lesser extent, as more than one die like that), and sometimes the 4 is over an underneath 4. The 4 itself is also different (but not so easy to spot) in that genuine coins still have a small part remaining of the tail pointing upwards. The attached picture demonstrates some of these features
  4. I picked up this 1870 penny recently and, checking Michael Gouby’s book, I thought it was the missing date width Ad. On page 54 he references an Ac and an Ad, but not an Ad. Michael confirmed yesterday saying:- “I left the Ad reference free as I always considered that a 12 to 12.5 teeth gap would eventually be found….” and “I will keep your images for future reference……” I guess this coin might appear in future revised pages Apart from 1889’s I have not tried to collect all the different date widths, so I will be selling this coin at some point!
  5. alfnail

    Ebay's Worst Offerings

    Buyers are clearly not recognising them Richard, I reckon this guy has made about £2000 in the last month, loads of co(I)ns. All of the crap he splurts out in some of his descriptions really 'take the biscuit'..... "private collection" etc....... unbelievable!!! 😱
  6. .......and of course there are a number of possible different '9' fonts to add into the equation:-
  7. I agree it's not a bad shout Richard (and Jerry). Below are the 1858/7 variations in my own collection, so there are lots of opportunities for protrusions all over the place if some of those dies are then struck with a 9 as well.
  8. I agree Richard. The 1858/6 has the smaller numeral 5 font, but all other 1858 overdates have the 5 font which you reference as 'classic' in your first picture above. The only other years which also use that 'classic 5' font are 1856 (some PT's), 1857, 1858 and 1859. It is difficult to see, therefore, how an 1854/3 (which does of course exist), can then become an 1858/4/3, when none of the 4 different 5 fonts used in 1853 are this 'classic 5' style.
  9. Yes, this was something I mentioned a couple of years back on 'more pennies'. I'm not at all confident about it being a '4' though, and still regard some of the overdates on these 1858 pennies as a bit of a mystery, especially the one that is found paired with the large rose reverse...........that can also be seen on the following link:- 1858/3 Penny - Page 3 - British Coin Related Discussions & Enquiries - British Coin Forum - Predecimal.com
  10. .....and there is also this diagonal line, highlighted red
  11. Gary has now written to me and advised that the top image is 8th edition in 1975, and bottom image is 9th edition in 1982. Bressett had 1858/6 as 'Rare' in 1975; I'm thinking that its first appearance must have been before that, in 5th to 7th editions. Thanks to Gary for the additional information, also interesting to see some of the $ movements in those seven years e.g. the 1860/59
  12. Presumably Bressett Richard (as $ are used), but did Gary say which editions? I see the pages have different information, so must be two different ones.
  13. Indeed Peckris, although I think I probably won't lose any money when I sell the coin, fingers crossed. Then I would have a free letter, which is the bit I wanted anyway. Thanks for looking at the 4th edition Rob, just need to find someone with 5th edition or later!
  14. I bought an 1858/6 during the week, mainly because of the accompanying note written by Charles Wilson Peck, which I found quite interesting. Members will know that the 1858/6 was neither recorded by Bramah (1929), or Peck (1964). It is a reasonably difficult coin to find, particularly in a better grade, but I have always found it rather surprising that neither of these authors recorded this variety. I do not regard it as very rare, and it is also a fairly obvious type once you see one ‘in the hand’. Anyway, the letter from Peck (which I bought with the coin) was as attached, with my own yellow highlighting now added. You will note that the letter is dated Nov’66, which is just over a year before Peck passed away, in April 1968. Fortunately, I was also able to contact the seller of the coin, through ebay, and he replied as follows:- “the coin had been in my possession since I bought it in 1966. It wasn’t listed as an overstrike but I noticed it and had it confirmed by Peck who was the leading authority of English copper at the time." I think this letter is a nice bit of history, and it also contains a couple of interesting comments, for example Peck’s thoughts on minor date widths. I found it particularly interesting that he mentioned someone called Bressett, a name which I had not come across before. I now see that the American author, Kenneth Bressett wrote several editions of a book called ‘A Guide to English Coins’, starting in the early 1960’s (Peck was aware of the contents of the first edition). This made me wonder if I could find the edition in which he may have first recorded the 1858/6. If anyone reading this has a later edition then perhaps you wouldn’t mind looking to see if the 1858/6 penny has been noted. P.S. £10 in 1966 is now worth £230!
  15. A recent find, now on Richard's site as the 8th known example. As I already have a better example I will be selling this piece; if any member is interested please PM me with a sensible offer. It is a little better than Example 7 (which was also my coin), and definitely better than Example 5, both of which were sold for £160.
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