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OK, own up. Which kind soul anonymously posted me an aquatics 50p? Thank you, whoever you are.

Germany, Austria and Italy are stood together in the middle of the pub, when Serbia bumps into Austria, and spills Austria’s pint. Austria demands Serbia buy it a complete new suit, because there are splashes on its trouser leg. Germany expresses its support for Austria’s point of view. Britain recommends that everyone calm down a bit. Serbia points out that it can’t afford a whole suit, but offers to pay for cleaning Austria’s trousers. Russia and Serbia look at Austria. Austria asks Serbia who it’s looking at. Russia suggests that Austria should leave its little brother alone. Austria inquires as to whose army will assist Russia in compelling it to do so. Germany appeals to Britain that France has been looking at it, and that this is sufficiently out of order that Britain should not intervene. Britain replies that France can look at who it wants to, that Britain is looking at Germany too, and what is Germany going to do about it? Germany tells Russia to stop looking at Austria, or Germany will render Russia incapable of such action. Britain and France ask Germany whether it’s looking at Belgium. Turkey and Germany go off into a corner and whisper. When they come back, Turkey makes a show of not looking at anyone. Germany rolls up its sleeves, looks at France, and punches Belgium. France and Britain punch Germany. Austria punches Russia. Germany punches Britain and France with one hand and Russia with the other. Russia throws a punch at Germany, but misses and nearly falls over. Japan calls over from the other side of the room that it’s on Britain’s side, but stays there. Italy surprises everyone by punching Austria. Australia punches Turkey, and gets punched back. There are no hard feelings, because Britain made Australia do it. France gets thrown through a plate glass window, but gets back up and carries on fighting. Russia gets thrown through another one, gets knocked out, suffers brain damage, and wakes up with a complete personality change. Italy throws a punch at Austria and misses, but Austria falls over anyway. Italy raises both fists in the air and runs round the room chanting. America waits till Germany is about to fall over from sustained punching from Britain and France, then walks over and smashes it with a barstool, then pretends it won the fight all by itself. By now all the chairs are broken, and the big mirror over the bar is shattered. Britain, France and America agree that Germany threw the first punch, so the whole thing is Germany’s fault . While Germany is still unconscious, they go through its pockets, steal its wallet, and buy drinks for all their friends. And when Germany wakes up, it goes out to its car, gets the gun out of the glovebox and heads back inside...

The 1897 is beautiful! I'd ask for dibs on the next sale but fear it might break me for a couple of months!

Gas mark 2 or 148 C.

I'm assuming he means Fahrenheit - not many British ovens will do 300c without burning the house down!

Surely Centigrade is only for US coins?

... and for the unitiated, "Rang" is Peter's word for worthless or ugly coins. Translation service free of charge.

Take your time kieran.....The people posting the pictures know what to buy and would not like you to just start buying Rang

Well I never even knew about these obverse varieties. I've just checked my 1953 Unc and it's an Obverse 1, so I suspect it was originally from the sets.

I bought the One Centum to tick that denomination box. It was conveniently not in copper, as I already have a 2 Cents in this metal, ex Hopetoun House Collection and a super coin. 'scuse the hair on the scanner

It cost me so little that I am using it as practice - trying a range of chemicals in increasing strength to see what happens. If I succeed in stripping it to bare metal I will then experiment with re-toning. If it looks any good at the end, I will post a picture - if not you wont hear from me again on the subject.

As far as I'm aware, all of the fakes have the same breaks in the circle above the P and E of PENSE.

As for the verdigris, I would personally bin it given the number of scratches from previous attempts to remove the mess and upgrade to one that's only a midge's off unc from yours truly