Chris Perkins

Thank-you Clive and to your Egyptian gentleman.

He didn't give a postal address, just a Hotmail email address.

Thank-you The London Coin Company.

Arabic, because I think I know what the English is (and can type it)

Excellent, thanks Clive. And also Scott re the date typo. Could your Egyptian friend write out what is actually written on the coin? He'll get a credit in the book. In fact, he could even check the whole thing if he has time (for suitable recompense)! Somehow 'Kingdom' looks very different on the coin. I know they are usually very stylised.

Obv. What mainly concerns me is the 'Faisal' bit - it looks so much longer on the script than on the coin and I just wondered if that's just an abbreviated script that says the same, or if spells Faisal differently or whatever.

Rev.

Ok, here's the text. Images of obv and rev to follow.

I'm putting together a re-print of Richard Plant's 'Arabic Coins and How to Read them' and need to put a coin on the cover and also to transcribe the Arabic on it. Can anyone here confirm what I have already gleaned from websites/google translate etc?

These days communication and the selling/buying works a lot quicker doesn't it, and therefore people get in a tizzy. Things were slower in the 60s when coin collecting took off (people old enough to have been there may be able to verify), but it was the same principle, e.g. I think 1950 and 1951 pennies were comparatively more expensive back then than they are now. Some would say they are as a result of the 60s still too expensive! And I suppose in the last days of the old money there were a lot of potential 'rarities' over the past 100+ years and people knew that when the decimals came in there would be no opportunity to check for the slightly scarcer coins, so everyone kept them which probably made them harder to find. As a result of that there are still tons of low grade 1912/18/19 H/KN pennies and they're probably more plentiful that the non H/KN, simply because everyone kept them and the rest got melted! I'm always surprised by the volume of pre 1947 silver coins that come out of the woodwork too, often untouched in sheds/attics for 40+ years until the person that originally put them to one side dies and the heirs discover them when clearing out. I think 90% of all the stuff I get offered (the low grade toot) was originally accumulated in the 60s. I've even heard on more than one occasion first hand, that bank managers were advising customers to keep sealed bags of 1967 pennies!

My Rotographic predecessor even had 'Check Your Change' in petrol stations, it was that popular! 1.75 million copies sold, or something along those lines. He was non-stop printing (on his own printing gear) thousands per day.

And it's the only thing you've ever picked up, Sid.

These are the British stamps Dave. All unused with original gum (with the exception of the 3 Victorian Penny-Reds). Most are 1960s and there are a few 1930s-50s. 61 Stamps in total 20 Euros inc postage.

What's the date? Pictures?

Shameless plug. If anyone is into 20th century UK and US Amusement tokens, I've got a lot of 85 on ebay. There are a few unusual ones among them: http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=271454941127

Yes, that's the one. Think you'll have to email/pm me your address as I can't find it.

Thank you Dave.

Done. They're yours Dave. None of them are special, but 238 all different has to be worth having. Have you got my details to make an überweisung? In Euros 24.00 plus 2 for postage. Does he want British stamps too do you think? I've also got about 60 unused predecimal British. GVI onwards, but the vast majority 1960s. And I've got about 13 Soviet 1970s first day letters, each with a single themed stamp and a special postmark. Hmmmm, 1970s DDR too, an album full of those, mostly 1970s and unused.

I personally can't stand stamps, but have ended up with these over the years. Many of them are unused with original gum on the back. Some are nicely franked with visible dates and some are fairly old (early 20th century). All are German and all are pre the 1948 Federal Republic. There are lots of WWII era and also some German occupied zones stamps. Oh, and the hyper inflation Thousands and Millions of Marks stamps. They were on ebay but failed to even get an opening bid! http://www.ebay.de/itm/201052519900?ssPageName=STRK:MEUNSOLD:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1560.l2649 £20 plus postage and they can be yours.

No, it's clearly up there in the OMN!

Yes, but as far as I know they have all turned out to be forgeries in the end.

There's not enough junk around for the boot sales. It's all on eBay.

Whoever you are, I think you just made the 100,000th post, so as a treat, pick £10 worth of things on predecimal.com and I'll send them to you post free!

To tell the difference, from memory nickel is sort of wishy-washy magnetic I think. Steel on the other hand really sticks to a magnet and takes a bit more persuasion to remove.

I like that and the fact that it pre-dates the copper plated steel coins. It's what's known as an off-metal strike, i.e. the wrong metal for the coin it should be. Whether an error, or someone trying something out at the mint, or passing the time, we'll never know for sure. I suppose the most likely explanation is that is was some kind of experiment relating to the forthcoming copper plated steel coins, assuming they already had that idea floating around in 1990 (the historical copper price info for 1990 to 1992 may help answer that). It's great that you've clearly kept it from new and it is therefore still in very good condition. There isn't a massive following for off-metal decimals but It's certainly worth a few pounds due to the condition I'd say. I'd be pleased to buy it.