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Lest we forget 2025's Fiverr job, [my post edited for lawsuit-proofing]

"Leader" is a relative term in that farrago of Freudian mind residuals that is the far right:

We mustn't fixate on that now - look, a timely new death threat! Almost looks like something he could have purchased on Fiverrr. He did one thing especially well: Location, Location, Location (Folkestone ... you know?).

A rare and historically important silver dirham struck during the reign of al-Walid I (705–715 AD), one of the most influential rulers of the Umayyad Caliphate. This coin is dated AH 93 (711–712 AD) and was minted at Surraq, a lesser-known but significant mint associated with early Islamic administrative and economic activity. https://coinsnantiques.com/collection/umayyad-al-walid-i-ar-dirham-surraq-mint-ah-93/

Best way is to avoid ebay. Don't feed the beast, as they aren't open minded. By their own admission they don't have enough experts to remove claimed fakes, so have to rely on alternative opinions. Given Barton's metal is a gold leaf bound to a copper substrate, it is virtually impossible to get sufficient metal flow of the gold when cutting the blank from the sheet to completely cover the copper edge as seen above on my halfcrown. The smaller the denomination, the easier it will become due to thickness, but punching equipment isn't renowned for producing perfect blanks, and not required, given the coin with be struck with a collar to stop the metal flowing sideways. It isn't impossible to get some gold on the edge, but perfectly covered? Not in my opinion, though others may choose to differ.

Yes, most certainly a worn die. And a truly shocking price which would be way too high even for a good strike UNC example. Here's a much better example at a reasonable price: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/157378763239?var=0&mkevt=1&mkcid=1&mkrid=710-53481-19255-0&campid=5338946167&toolid=20006&loc=&customid=4581527531114051_710033490_o.9beeaa501cf11ef92efac014f4958c05&msclkid=9beeaa501cf11ef92efac014f4958c05

Nor can you get a satisfactory explanation for his leader's £5m bung!

Some years ago the music industry changed over to digital, and invented this thing called a 'compact disc'. The CD partly shown in the picture is clearly of a small male choir singing a single note...

Looks to me like someone standing to the left of the window holding a panama hat beside their bum. Jerry

I am naturally very sceptical of reported supernatural experiences. The crescent in the side of the picture could be a stray light beam, a common anomaly, particularly when using a telephoto lens. The singing voices could be a breeze striking a resonant note in the upper reaches of the tower. I was not there, so I cannot confirm one way or another. However, I appreciate that for some the presence of supernatural forces is important to their way of viewing life, and if such experiences help them make sense of this crazy world, then good for them!

I've been looking for a MS 1916 for a while as an upgrade to my AU58, the bottom coin. Finally I see one on Ebay Top coin. When I looked carefully at the coin I was truly unimpressed. Although the coin looks to be mint state from the patina but the strike quality lets it down badly. The reverse is similar. Like they say judge the coin not the attributed grade.

For as long as I have been on this planet and certainly in the past 5 and a half decades, Glastonbury has had more than its fair share of weirdos. From the nobility to the peasantry, it has somehow found itself bound into an annual religious schedule. Just the latest incarnation of the out of mind experience seemingly required by a group of questionable sanity. I blame the son of the then Marquis of Bath for being an integral part of the ensuing chaos, with his wifelets and copious quantities of dope. Those attracted to Stonehenge invariably made their way down to Worthy Farm for the music a couple days after the summer solstice. I could never understand why many didn't wear shoes, given the levels of dogs**t on the pavements in those days. And passing through prime agricultural land, the chance of being hit by a flying cowpat was high. Moving to the current day, you may have dodged a bullet, as it would have been quite possible for Trump to make an appearance too, given his position as President, God, and a total belief in all things narcissistic. I heard he had gained copyright over the word Trump. The strange sounds you could hear was probably his personal choir of disciples, perfecting their flatulence for his appearance as God at this year's non-festival.

I could also add, I momentarily heard a small male choir singing a single note, two or three times within the space of about 1-2 minutes, whilst in that tower. I thought it was about 10 male voices but then l checked and 3 monks were hung drawn and quartered there. Maybe it was 3 voices singing in unison? I swear it happened just like that.

I bet it only cost £800-£2,000. Cheap lens indeed! Congrats on the pic btw.

Sadly you cannot get "rabies" out of "Jenrick"

So l visited Glastonbury Tor with a camera and a half decent zoom lens. Sure enough someone had stuffed a football into one of the windows of St Michael's Tower (the tower at the top of the tor), and the tower was descrated with graffiti, just a load of names, some within love hearts. I can't think of a better way to jinx onesself. That said, l'm not into mystic Christianity and all the New Age meditation and occidental dharmic practises l saw going on there. There was also a woman with a pale hat, probably white or very light yellow. Ok the point is, I later checked my pics and saw something odd. Seemingly sat on one of the stone benches within the tower was an object, it sort of looks shaded in the original pic, indicating it's dead and subject to light cast on it from all around (the tower is open top, roofless, but the skylight doesn't infiltrate very far down into the tower). However, it's rather bright compared to the surrounds. I'm 50:50 on it being .... incandescent? It definitely wasn't the previously seen football, that was there even as l left (l took some parting shots). It wasn't the woman's hat. Any opinions on what it was? I have processed the image to intensify the colours and there appear to be faint blue veins running through it in one of my processed edits. The sepia edit is to show how bright it is compared to the surrounding countryside basking under open skies on the hottest June day recorded. The lady in front of the sphere was either reading the memorial inscription within the tower, or she was doing some New Age prayer (as l had witnessed her doing on a few occasions).

The best way to confirm is to test with an XRF machine. They offer this service on eBay

I just tried Google's image search for the first time, and here are the results: "This is a medieval "Bull and Horseman" type silver Jital coin, likely from the Kabul Shahi or Saffarid dynasties dating between 850-1000 AD. The coin features a recumbent zebu bull on one side and a horseman holding a lance on the other. These coins were commonly used in regions corresponding to modern-day Afghanistan, Pakistan, and northern India." ... and some of the visual matches:

Wrong thread!

They got the word from [possibly indentured] Hindu sailors. Unsure what it means. It's also a city in Azerbaijan. /end derail

@Paddy I'm not really an expert hence l don't post on this forum much at all. However, l get the feeling there's opportunity for fakers because of the indefinite pause before anyone can say it's unrelated to anything historical. There would be an indefinite pause while people look it up and try to find a match, because the Celts seem to have been making crude copies of Greek coins, especially crude in north west Europe and Britain. The front facea seem to have been known for often meaningless patterns (c.f. intricate designs on modern currency to hamper forgery). So, there's a lot of ambiguity for a faker to draw on. Then the indefinite pause before they get called out for faking it.

ah yes, you are correct, I put this down to the warm weather and lack of sleep 1641-3 Triangle circled. the condition is also to be my fault, it was mixed in with loads other coins for ages and just ended up being roughly handed......ooops 😕

Hi there Paddy! Seems to be a Celtic silver quarter stater, unsure which country. Western Europe though, possibly British, Gallic, Belgian etc. Apparently the patterns on the other side have been critiqued as being meaningless but conserved with slight variations, re: a find in Canterbury https://www.britnumsoc.org/publications/Digital BNJ/pdfs/1955_BNJ_28_32.pdf You can see from this article that there is indeed a bloke wih a fedora as central motif, possibly a horned head dress in reality. I thought it looked ancient near east but the design of the horse is very Celtic / Etruscan. The horned head dress, chariot with chariot wheel, and spear are a recurrent deity motif. I'm no expert.

Possibly eastern European or a little further east. It should be straightforward though with the rider's hat, which is probably the best indicator of the area being distinctive in style. Say Persia or Turkey. Sorry, it's too hot and can't be ar**d at the moment, but guarantee someone will be into hat detail, given it must be a nerdy topic.

Amongst the copper and bronze I am sorting through, as mentioned in another thread, is this one little silver piece. Any thoughts? About 15mm diameter at the longest, 1.5mm thick and weighs 3.1g.