Chris Perkins

At first, when it was just me and the odd passing tumbleweed I was greatful for any visitors, so I didn't like to hinder them posting in anyway, hence making it completely open to veiw and post in. Now it's much bigger I was thinking about enforcing registration, what do you lot think? There are many other benefits for members, including personal messaging to other forum users, the abilty to change your avatar, title, signature and other settings, also the way in which you see the forum can be customised to a degree, and your messages get counted.

Ken, I'm sure Master Jmd wasn't referring to race in anyway, I think he just meant the kids that are little terrors, and perhaps 'scoundrals' would have been a better choice of words instead of implying what he did! Jmd, BEHAVE YOURSELF.

Very true, I'm sure that process has it's roots somewhere in a past society where it was truly believed that the baby would be saved if it was baptised into the faith. Nowadays it just means that the baby grows up knowing that it was the subject of a ritual, and perhaps in many cases that child will grow up, not scared but perhaps confused in the least about acting against that religion and the possible consequences. When I think back about my primary school, it shocks me to remember how we had to sing songs praising the lord and his creations etc. I remember a definate 'believe in god, or you may go to hell' vibe going around the school. I'm sure this was started by playground gossip and not the teachers, but it really shows how confused kids can be, and how they can be so easily influenced at the age. When I used to work in schools in IT, I remember I was at a primary school in Kent hanging out with some of the teachers, as was often the case. The bell went and one of the teachers exclaimed 'Right, well I have to go and talk about god for 20mins (she was taking the assembly) and I don't even believe in one!'. I remember thinking....Who on earth exactly tells normal little primary schools that they have to tell bible stories in assembly if the teachers don't even want to do it? There must be money involved somewhere, even if it is just to put up a moral front to encourage more parents to send their children there. Schools should be completely neutral, but the kids should of course get the opportunity to learn about all the major world religions because they represent interesting cultural differences if nothing else. We learn't about those at secondary school, with the wars and death that they caused omited of course! People of all colours and races, from all backgrounds should live peacefully together everywhere, without the division of religion and outdated traditions. Religion should be welcomed on an idividual level, but religious institutions like Churches and Mosques etc should all be watched over (little pun there) and they should all have to follow the same rules concerning enforcement of religion on people too young to know better etc etc.

No, I'll keep it here - It'll make you look stupid

Some very good points raised by Oli and Custard, at last an area we all seem to agree on! I too think that people should be judged on their own morals etc, and that if you are at one with yourself you are at one with the world. I beleive that Religion/gods etc are not needed for 'spiritual' (if one can call it that) wellbeing and do not come into the equasion. I do believe that there was a Jesus though, but I doubt he wanted any of this in his name. I hope Reverend Plant doesn't find his way in here!

You obviously haven't actually read anything on my website apart from the forum Oli! http://www.predecimal.com/euroarticle.htm

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.