Chris Perkins

I think mixing religion with anything other than religion is old fashioned, completely un-needed and irrelevant. The children do not get a choice in what religion they are, they get sent to the appropriate school by their parents and then have whatever religion ingrained into them for live. I had an ex, and her mum brought all her children up to be vegitarian from birth. It's exactly the same as that, the children want to please their parents and it got ingrained into them to be a vegitarian without any real choice in the matter. I disagreed wholeheartedly with that and I see religious schools as no different. School should be a completly neutral environment where kids can grow into whatever direction they choose. The whole idea of religious schools is just a political ploy to get more votes from the Muslim/Sikhs and other newer minority religions in the UK. (but the same applies to the established Christian/Catholic schools....Ban the lot of them!)

What riveting stuff about the recent history of bus fares in the Sheffield area! I can feel a new book on the horizon, 'Bus fares and their History', by Sylvester. (Sorry mate, but that was the most trainspotting paragraph on this whole forum!)

It's all very well, of course it's down to yourself mainly, and the teachers and school infrastructure just play a part in helping you out. There are of course many children that from the word go seem quite bad at everything and destined for some form of manual labour, or worse still, a life of crime! A few of my mates went down the wrong path and ended up that way. One of them's an alchoholic now, another is in prison and another is dead. I no longer associate myself with the two alive ones! I went to a comp, as I've mentioned before, and I mucked around like a bastard. In some lessons I was very rebelious, others not so. Although I couldn't have been that bad, I was in the top groups for science, maths, english and french. I was awful at doing course work, never handed it in within a reasonable time, and what I did hand in was just rushed and awful. I have always been good at taking written tests, and it was mainly my aptitude for written tests that got me into college. I know I could have done much much better....But I had lots of fun, and if I ever want more bits of paper there's always OU, so it's not so bad! Even if like me, you're not particularly academic, I believe if you've got the balls and the right attitude then you will do alright no matter how many exams you've passed and regardless of your level of education.

I'm sure there must be loads of there, I know that some of my customers are pretty young, and some of them are parents buying for their kids. I suppose they just haven't discovered this forum yet, or are not the kind of people that participate....Perhaps they are all watching us!

A written test is not always a good method of measuring who is intelligent and who isn't. You cannot say that all people that pass the 11+ are more intelligent than all the people that didn't. In my view the test simply tells which children are the most academic, and those children have the option of going to grammar school. Not to say that most children don't get a perfectly good education, full of all the right opportunities in a comprehensive education.

Yes, that's perfectly normal, and the coins value will depend entirely on its condition.

I can see from those pictures that the coins are all well circulated (with the exception of perhaps the Edward VII coins, which could be better). You'll probably find they are worth bullion value only, and I'd be happy to pay the current gold value for them (and your postage) and more if the Edward coins are in collectable condition. That will work out at least £26.50 per half sovereign and £53.00 per full sovereign. I was of course unable to tell which they were, because I couldn't tell the sizes. Are those all halfs? I see from the domain name of the picture host that you are possibly in Belgium? I'm in Germany, so a Euro transfer of funds is no problem. Email me if you like, we can work it out. cp@predecimal.com

I certainly will be upset if you don't buy from me! You spend all day using my bandwidth, it's the least you could do! 1) The 1853 has no lustre, I would have mentioned. It is a beauty, no doubt the lustre faded just before it came into my possesion! 2) The NEF 1912 has no lustre either, but you can't really go wrong for £6.00 3) The 1906 GEF retains exactly as much hair detail as you would expect from a GEF! There is lots of lustre on the obv, all be it a bit streaky, and as the description says, the rev has just a minute trace of lustre. 4) Yes, I'm preparing a newsletter at the moment. I know there are some more Victorian copper pennies, VF or less, none EF or above I don't think. I do have a very nice darkened UNC 1944 Penny. 5) Of course they don't, or I would have said! The 1895 Farthing certainly is very prooflike, but it's probably a very early striking with new dies. It couldn't be proved either way, but it's certainly special. Spend £50+ with me Jmd and I'll knock off 10%.....Or throw in the 1906 for free!

Yes that matters quite a bit because Half Sovereigns are smaller and thinner and contain half as much gold. It's easy to tell the difference, Full Sovereigns are about 22mm in diameter, half sovereigns are about 19mm. And you'll have to register to be able to post pictures, or email them to me.

That what I said when she emailed me!

If I really wanted to, and perhaps put them on ebay at bargain prices.

Because anyone buying them will have to bear in mind that even when selling individual coins, it will take a while to get the initial investment back. They are like a long term investment, and only if you have the means to sell them individually at a respectable rate. I don't think that a 'discovery' of 99 BU (if they are all BU) farthings will affect the prices much of 1886 BU farthings, considering it isn't a rare year. I'll certainly be keeping an eye on them. It's a lot of cash, but I'm younger than other coin dealers so hopefully I'll have time to get it back!

Yeah, more common, but I did get a William III Crown from someone the other day.

Jon, How big is it in terms of mm? It probably will have a value, anything from £25 upwards if it's a Crown. You can email me a picture if you have one: cp@predecimal.com. Thanks,

I think the bullion value is around £55 each, unless gold has gone mad since I last looked. Whatever pictures you turn up with Blabla, please email them to me: cp@predecimal.com Thanks,

Yeah, they look very interesting, even if they sold slowly they could certainly be worth having. You keep your eyes peeled on ebay HPJ, I don't have time to look for potential bargains much.

Yes, we did. Thanks for the correction Kuhli, it'll be correct in the next version.

Frankly Sara, You'll probably be wasting your time if you take them to someone, because in 99% of cases, with coins like that, they will be next to worthless. Give them to a young relative, along with a copy of Collectors Coins 2005 when it comes out in September, that'll contain all the useful info needed. Where did you say you were?

If you are really serious about your pennies, then yes I would say you could certainly use one of these. You can get them from the Author himself: http://www.michaelcoins.co.uk/ I was talking to him about offering them on Predecimal.com, but feel they are just too specialised (and the prices are out of date) so to sell one or two a year wouldn't be worth it.

Sara, They won't be worth much, unless they are very high grade. Good condish just isn't enough I'm afraid....Usually. Where are you, perhaps we can go out for a drink, you can even bring your coins

This Gouby book, like custard says is very thorough on Bronze pennies. I have noticed the odd mistake, and have thought a few times 'Hmmm, that could have been explained easier', and it does miss the odd thing out (1940 double exergue penny for example) but it does have some wonderful pictures it it for identification, and it's super for bun pennies. Overall a wonderful book, but expensive for such a highly specialised book though.... £25

Yes, i do not see what Europe has to do with the good old British Empire...to me Britain is not, and will never be a part of Europe. What planet are you from Jmd??? There is no British Empire any more, despite us being an Island, we are part of the continent of Europe, and to not trade with Europe would be about the most stupid thing we could do economically. The UK is the only sizable island in Europe and of course that makes us a little 'special' but we are in Europe, and we need to be. I won't address some of the other bollocks previously stated, I just can't be bothered to type an arguement!

Ok: The 4 1913 Penny varieties (numbers are Freeman numbers): 174 = Colon between GRA and BRITT points between teeth. 'P' of PENNY points to a tooth. 175 = Colon between GRA and BRITT points between teeth. 'P' of PENNY points between teeth. 176 = Colon between GRA and BRITT points at a tooth. 'P' of PENNY points at a tooth too. 177 = Colon between GRA and BRITT points at a tooth. 'P' of PENNY points between teeth.

Yes, there are 'Peck' numbers, but I will be using Freeman numbers because for Bronze coinage it is more up to date than Peck, and is used as the Bronze bible by people like Custard1966. Trust you to ask about the 1913 varieties! There just wasn't enough room on the page, and I though that because the values were the same it was beyond the scope of the book. Edit: OK I've improved the 1913 Penny explanation....Look out for the next update and tell me what you think.

Yes, there wasn't enough room for 2 columns, and too much for 1! You like that little joke did you, I thought it was rather clever too! I'll get those seen to, thanks. The early GV pennies are all Freeman numbers, I just forgot to change the heading to read FMAN. I'll sort it now.