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See my post above... Actually the letters are put on first, but it's the same outcome! Upside down letters are not of any consequence at all - they really are 50:50 chance which way they come out of the hopper!

My first experience of computers was on the Durham University Mainframe in the late 70s. The machine was actually in Newcastle, which added to the slow response. It was water cooled, so occasionally we got the message: "Sorry, the computer is down. The plumber has been called." . They had just moved from tape readers to card readers programming in Fortran IV as previously discussed. In my third year I was allowed to use one of the new "Green screen" consoles - there was a waiting list and sometimes it was the middle of the night before I got on. Nothing much has changed - there was an entirely word based adventure game on there - a bit akin to dungeons and dragons - and that soon occupied too much of my time! About then the first PCs arrived - a Commodore PET with a whole 1k memory, programmed in Basic and with a cassette tape to store your efforts on. All the professors were very snooty about it and insisted it would never catch on. I was as pleased as punch when I created a worm chasing its tail game - you can still find them on older mobile phones. Ahhhh! Nostalgia ain't what it used to be...

He obviously doesn't know what would constitute a coin error and was hoping you would tell him. Upside down edge letters is the norm and can be found on 50% of the coins, missing beads and illegible writing are due to poor minting. A young Kitchener without his mustache would be very much worth finding! 😄

Did you say Chicago Peck? Here you go, Buddy Guy and Friends.....

That was a very pleasant listen @Madness - sort of 'folky prog'. (Or proggy folk? )

Everything and anything good. I do have a few blind spots: opera is one, mainly due to opera singers being trained to wobble their voices a semitone either side of the note they're striving for; not so keen on raw Mississippi Delta blues (though I do like the electric Chicago blues invented by BB King); punk has always left me a bit inclined to run in the opposite direction; and I do think modern rock music - Coldplay and their ilk - doesn't have an awful lot to offer anymore. Apart from that, anything goes!

The source of my avatar

Yes indeed - most of the reign of GEorge III (until 1797 and 1816) had seen a crisis in the money supply. The last proper silver issue (excluding very limited Northumberland shillings) was 1758, and coppers after 1754 only struck between 1770 and 1775, supplemented by a huge and varied production of trade tokens. The variation in size and weight of regnal copper coins from 1797 to 1807 (they had to have their intrinsic value of metal) shows how the price of copper was fluctuating, and I'm sure that applied to silver too (see the early 19th C official tokens). It was only the abandonment of the need for coins to have their intrinsic metal value - i.e. "a token coinage" - that allowed the much needed Great Recoinage of 1816 to proceed, and it's telling that the size and weight of gold and silver coins thereafter was a constant from 1816 to 1971.

Those two songs were brought to us by courtesy of Black-and-White-Heads-in-a-Jar Inc. Re. eclectic taste, there is beauty to be found in many places. I'm not a cow to munch a single patch of nettles when there are countless acres of beautiful grass to be grazed county-wide. What are your musical tastes @Peckris @Peckris 2 and @Peckris 3.1415927 ?

The British Numismatic Journal would be your place to start. A few years ago, someone here put a link up to their entire online resource / archive including index ("of sorts") - hopefully someone will remember and point you to the right place.

You have very eclectic taste @Madness - love those first two.

My favourite scene from Fawlty Towers which cracks me up every time I see it:- "Don't mention the war"

Most modern coin cabinet are directly or indirectly an evolution or inspired from those marketed by Spinks in from the late 19th century. The wooden door beading and wood across the front of the trays did not originate from Swann but cabinets made popular when Spink was selling them. Other dealers such as Lincoln also sells these cabinets and they were all most likely made by the same company. This is a Nichols cabinet made for the British Museum with a Spink cabinet style locks which differ from the RM cabinet

A couple of things strike me, the most significant being the strip of wood across the front of the trays, similar to Swann. Also Nichols tend towards piano type hinges these days. But of course they could be manufacturing to a specific design. And Taikonaut may be referring to something else. Jerry

Although of course, it won't be Peter Nichols himself, as he's retired, at least from cabinet making. His business was taken over and is now run by a Nottinghamshire family. They do, however, look very much like the typical Nichols cabinet. I do, meanwhile, like the look of the cabinets made by Rob Davis who himself, is a coin collector.

I would like to volunteer for the post of "suitable heir" please.

You're Prince Philip?

Someone probably said that during every period of coinage....