Chris Perkins

I rest my case! Cows are comical, people can't stop themselves making cow jokes, and it's so easy and yet so effective. No wonder certain religions have sacred cows.

You can't see the cow? It's a big cow nose, as it almost sniffed the camera. The black area in the upper left is the black nose and there's an ear with a small tag in it, on the udder side

I've changed my avatar because I quite like comical looking cows. In fact, I've liked comical looking cows as long as I can remember, but it only just occured to me that a comical cow would look pretty good as an avatar. The cow in the picture is '929' from near the Strangford loch, Co. Down NI. I was staying once in a farmhouse behind his field and I took my camera to search for comical cows. Out of the entire herd in the field, 929 was the only cow to show me any interest, in fact the others all backed away when I went anywhere near them. So as a change from Dee Snider, you'll now have to get used to me as a friendly cow instead. (929 was of course, the number on the plastic tag attaced to her ear)

I've merged these subject, now I think they're not the same coin in question?

You should have seen this place when he'd finished! He'd added the same message to the ends of about 10 different topics and I had to ban his IP address and email him a 'bollocking'! I asked him about some coins, and he never got back to me either.

Thanks. (I bought my Spink 2002 in the Belfast Branch while on business in NI late 2001)

Not really, probably a random thing, simply depending on what bar got blocked first.

ooops. Whoever wrote that error laden book should be, erm, regretful that there was no time to have it properly proof read!

No it doesn't mean that more than one die was used, the one with the proper A's may have been blocked over time. But they would also need to use more than one die to strike millions of coins. I must admit that I generally ignore the un barred A's. I got excited first, like you, but when you've seen so many of them (and many have tiny traces of the bar too) you realise that they are probably equally common.

And don't forget that the obverse copper Victorian farthing dies were the same as used for the sovereigns. By the time they were considered not good enough for sov use and given to 'the farthing dept' the A's were probably aready blocked!

Hello, welcome. I've been to NI many times in the past, lovely place, shame about the soldiers! And we're about the same age too! Lets get this straight, you're Neill with 2 n's, and that means male? (just to just the alternative spelling!)

I've moved this to a new area, as it had nothing to do with the original topic: i have found a coin and would like any advice on it,george 111 ,date 1813 and on one side it has the isle of mann tirple legs,dark in colour not cleaned(and wont be cleaned)the pic of george faces to the right,please if you cant help me can you point me in the right direction daveyboyroy@hotmail.com

I gave up using troy or any othe kind of ounces a while ago. Now I'm in Germany g and kg are just so much simpler.

Good stuff. I heard from someone that bought a copy, saw the phone number and called me wanting a copy of the banknote book. So that's a confirmed 2 sold in WHS Branches! I expect there have been more across the country.

Kuhli, Yes I got the message and have not forgotten to look out, but I'm afraid one hasn't come my way. When in the UK next month I'll ask a friend of mine who may have one.

Yes, there should be at least 1 in every WH Smith branch, I've had a few reports of the book being seen in various branches. Hopefully they are selling too.

This chap is a former Queens assay master, and Royal Mint employee, he's your man. Please tell him I sent you: http://www.coinauthentication.co.uk/index.html Remember though that British errors really don't usually sell for all that much. The other month I ebayed an aluminium 1976 1p and it went for £20 - £30 if memory serves!

Yes, I got that info too. Good idea putting something in the Forum, I didn't think of that!

If it was a mint error there should be a raised rim around the edge of the blank side, as the blanks were most probably prepared like that before striking. I'd say that it had been machined and then the evidence of it being machined had been worn away. Impossible to say for sure, you'll need to post a picture.

I suspect that you probably have a thing or 2 to learn about proper grading Mitch. I'd be surprised if you end up with a high grade Half Crown for £1.80. Have you seen my lists?

Another Northerner! Me, JMD and HPJ are the only regular Southerners here! Welcome Alex, please do contact me if you need any help.

I think that'll take a while yet. I don't make nearly as much money as I should!

Ah that was you was it! Funds received by the way. I should post them today.

According to a website I read, a consistant rank of 30,000 (on Amazon US) would suggest sales of 1-2 books per day, so probably Amazon UK use the same system. For a few hours it was once at less than 6,000! 1-2 per day would certainly be backed up by the number of books I sell to the people that supply Amazon.

According to the Amazon Rankings, "Collectors' Coin Great Britain 2005" is the 2nd most popular British coin price guide, out of: Spink, Coins of England The Coin Yearbook Collect British Coins (Stanley Gibbons) Collectors' Coins Great Britain 2005 The ranking of CCGB2005 has consistantly been around 30,000 for a couple of weeks, while Spink has been around 15,000. So, I'm pleased about that as you can imagine. Thanks most sincerely to everyone involved, it's a great start so far.