ozjohn

Hi Blakeyboy, I cannot remember if I said this before. With the remaining seeds boil a jug of hot water and pour on the seeds and let soak over night. Then plant as normal. If you need some more I can harvest form this year's growth when they are ripe.. At present I am trying to pollinate a vanilla orchid I have. It grows like mad and producing a lot of flowers but pollinating it is a skill I have yet to learn. Regards, Ozjohn

Hi Blakeyboy, Did you receive the second envolope containg some dwarf poinciana seeds? Good to hear the poinciana seeds are going well. Ozjohn.

Messy perhaps but the carpet of spent blue flowers are a sight to behold.

Poinciana tree, delonix regia from Madagascar and even more spectacular than the jacaranda. It thrives in Queensland but not in Sydney as it is tropical in its requirements. I have seen them flowering in Egypt and often you can see them in the background in the TV series Death in Paradise. These trees flower in December.

Yes a spectacular tree native to Brazil widely planted around the world. I've seen them growing in LA and Spain as well. Grafton, NSW holds a Jacaranda Festival every year in November I'm sure they are grown in South Africa.

Photo of a Jacaranda tree taken a week or so ago at Laidley Qld. Jacarandas flower in Oct/November and mark the start of the exam period at High Schools and Universities.

Received the 1920 halfcrown graded by PCGS as AU detail cleaned. On examination there is no obvious sign of cleaning and in hand has reasonable luster. IMO the coin seems trouble free.

I agree flatbed scanners tend to make the high points appear to be flatter than they are also the lustre of the coin is not captured. Having said that I find it very hard to get a good image with a camera and as a result mostly use a scanner. Any insights on taking a good coin pictures would be appreciated. I've tried natural lighting and LEDs but the results are variable. I think getting the lighting right is critical for good coin photography.

Just to return to the subject of this post I checked the specs. of post 1860 pennies https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Penny_(British_pre-decimal_coin) According to wikipedia the alloy used for post 1860 pennies was Cu, Sn & Zn in varying quantities but with 95 to 97% Cu. Therefore the content of other metals in pennies was very small making the price of scrap Cu as good guide as to the melt value of pennies.

Bronze contains about 10% tin a much more expensive metal than Copper. About three times I think.

A palm my wife photographed in Brisbane's Mt. Coot-Tha botanic gardens growing in one of the beds. Many palms have dangerous thorns but this one is something else. It's a Salacca palm from Indonesia that bares an edible fruit. Can't say I would be too keen to pick it.

A very good site for silver hallmarks . https://www.925-1000.com/british_marks.html Highly recommended. Site includes date letters for all UK assay offices, maker's marks and world silver marks.

One pound or two Australian dollars.

British coins were used exclusively in Australia until 1910 if you ignore proclamation coins in the early days of colonization. They continued to circulate along with Australian silver coins until the 1930s with the 50% silver being redeemed by the B of E at twice face value. The Australian pound was basically the pound sterling until 1932 when Australia devalued and I think to 15/- sterling. Also in 1932 both Australia and the UK abandoned the gold standard which led to the end of the minting of sovereigns by the Australian mints. The UK's last circulating sovereigns were minted in 1925 after a lapse during WW1. The early Sydney mint sovereigns were Australian coins but I think they were forced to comply with the imperial designs by the B of E.

I was looking at the price of sovereigns on a bullion seller's site and noticed they attracted 10% GST and it gave the reason for this. Sovereigns are not pure gold and are not legal tender. The legal tender reason seemed strange to me as sovereigns were minted in Australia until 1932 and as far as I know have never been demonitized. These sovereigns as well as ones minted in the UK, South Africa, Canada and India would have circulated togeather as they would else where as Australian minted sovereigns were not exclusively minted for use here .As it happens pure gold does not attract GST in Australia and maybe the real reason but if sovereigns are still legal tender it seems strange that they attract GST.