Chris Perkins

Yes, I thought you'd appreciate it, who knows it could launch you into a job as numismatic journalist or author in the future. I will of course be checking everything thoroughly like an editor, but I think it may be too much for me to do it all myself, so it certainly looks like it may be an annual thing at the moment. We'll have to see how it goes.

Thing is chaps, when you've got 100 coins to scan/photograph and you know you'll only get a fiver each for most of them, it can be a drag to scan them all, and it can be tempting to just scan the more expensive ones! It's pretty labour intensive, so I can understand where Colin is coming from. And he probably has enough established customers that trust his grading enough to by the un illustrated coins, so probably doesn't especially need to make images of them.

Thankyou, Seems I've got most of the fathings, halfpennies and pennies taken care of at least!

Well nice of you all to offer to help so far, when I take over from RJ Marles I will certainly need your help! Although he will also be willing to help out I'm sure. But don't forget 1821 - date probably won't be done for a year of so. The most likely update to come next will be 1760 - 1820 (The George III book) and even that will be at least 2 months away. I have to take delivery of the master documents which by the sounds of it are in some kind of old DOS format. I have to convert them to a windows format, and scan lots of pictures too, because the pictures are currently actual greyscale photographs and get added to the text before printing! I should hopefully finish the website (at least a basic version) today, and I'll upload it later.

Thankyou for your support, both of you. To answer your Question Oli, on a good year 20,000 of the books are sold. Perhaps it averages 13,000 or something of the main title (I think it's more than the Coin yearbook!) I'm not sure about the others, I would imagine they are fractions of that. My own sales show that I could sell 350-400 CCGB2004's on predecimal.com in 1 year (using my 7 mth figures). In a year I should personally sell 150-200 Collectors Irish and Collectors Banknotes and perhaps close to 150 Collectors Roman. So using my results as an average, the other books should come to a good few 1000 altogther anually. Other places to monitor prices would include any website that offer coins for sale. I suppose the asking price is all very well, but really we are concerned with the actual selling prices. Perhaps we could ask for the record of sales from Colin Cooke, myself of course, and any other online dealers. As well as subscribing to lists etc (at my expense, I'm not expecting you to shell out).

You heard it here first! You lot are the first to know, so keep this under your hats for the time being. The news that I was just itching to tell you will indeed involve you all (if you want to play a part) and I hope you share in the excitement I feel about this project. In a nut shell, I will soon own Rotographic publishing, the publisher of Collectors Coins GB 2004 and most of the other books I offer on the website. Any of you that already have any of these books will know that they are basically sound books, if a little out of date in some respects and slightly lacking on the actual printed quality. The current owners are 78 and 61 years old, and they feel it's about time someone younger took the reigns and left them in peace! The best part is that the books are already sold in large numbers, and have plenty of scope for improvement. Another bonus is that I will be having them printed here in East Germany to cut costs and sending them to the UK suppliers myself, which among others include WHSmith and Waterstone. I have to arrange a few things financially, and my first job after that (in fact I've started it already) will be to create a swanky rotographic website (rotographic.co.uk). Your first job will be to give me feedback on that website! (rotographic.co.uk is currently setup to point at predecimal.com) The next Collectors Coins Great Britain book (2005) is due to be worked on soon, for its September/October initial print run, and I would like to get the next major issue under my belt before I make any major changes to the content/layout etc of the most important title. So, the 2005 edition will be written by R J Marles like usual and then edited by me, before it is printed here in Germany. What I would like you people to do is help me with the research for the coin prices in the not too distant future. I would really like to, as one of the first priorities, update the Collectors George III coins, which hasn't been worked on since 1998. I'm afraid I cannot offer you hard cash or anything like that (believe me, it's expensive enough already!), but anyone agreeing to help out with the research into a particular coin type or date range will of course get mentioned as a researcher in the book, and will receive free copies of all 5 of the publications that I will be taking control of. This is a wonderful business opportunity for me, and I really think there is potential for a steady increase in the sales of these titles, especially if the quality and consistancy can be improved. Please do tell me what you think.

That's what the profile thing is for, when you click on the users name. If you used a smaller font in your signature, you could write a whole essay!

Oli, Yes, we do tend to deviate, but I think that's just the way things go. I too have noticed irrelevant messages and have in fact deleted the odd brain dead comment. I'm all up for saving server space, so feel free to point out anything irrelevant to me Constable Oli. Perhaps over email.

I have one in my wallet at this very minute and at least one other at home. Shall I put your name on one? What's all this coin re-ownership going on in MY forum!!!????

Well, I changed the hosting arrangement and at the same time wanted to give it a revamp (mainly to make it more difficult to get a free valuation, because they were such a drain on resources). It's been down a couple of weeks, and it's so nice to have peace and quiet on that side of things! I expect I'll put it up again soon, but I don't think I have the time to provide a free service anymore.

That's a tricky one to spot sometimes, and you probably need bigger pictures to be clear. The ornate trident has like an extra bit under the horizonal part between the prongs.

Steady on William! Harsh words there, but thanks for the defence. In your eyes I can do no wrong....Hmmm, if only you had more money to spend with me! (Joke)

No camera yet! The seller lacks communication skills and wouldn't take a bank transfer as payment. He has now confirmed receipt of the cheque, so I hope he gets it sent out quickly. (In answer to your note Mint Mark)

Get a sense of humour and notice the smiley faces Ms Bray! Forgive me for coming over a little ratty, it can sometimes be tiresome when some slightly rude people (although, not yourself included) demand to know about their coins all day, every day. I may have been mistaken and automatically put you in the catagory too. Best wishes to you and the baby.

(as a side note Penny Master, the large Lighthouse trays on my website are identical to Lindner, stack with Lindner and cost less: http://www.predecimal.com/collectors/shop/...largertrays.htm )

That looks like a German made jeton type piece, what do you think Edward/Kuhli? The picture is small, but even to an untrained English eye, it really doesn't look real.

Well that's more than catalogue, but I don't think unfair by any means, and your may be a long time looking for a better one.

It's American William, go back to sleep

Ah yes, so you do. Silly me, for some reason I thought I just sold you the GIII.

All the 1953 varieties (and many others) are listed in the Collectors Coins GB 2004! Oh what a wonderful book that is.

That's awful. Isn't it the ultimate in ignornace when someone is genuinely too ignorant to realise they are complety ignorant!!!

Master JMD, I think Edward is talking about highly specialised information, of the kind that simply doesn't exist on the internet. I also know that Edward is quite capable of using a search engine and finding pictures of coins. Despite Edward's new appearance in the forum, I know for a fact that he has been involved with coins of one form or another for quite a while and already has a high level of knowledge on the subject. We appeciate your enthusiasm (as ever) but please don't overly try to be an authority on everything, it really doesn't read well.

Do you know that officially the French Euro is made up of 100 Centimes? I think most people probably call them cents, but France officially still has centimes.

10 Rappen isn't it, they have 100 Rappen is a Swiss Franc. The lady is 'Helvetica', just like Britannia, Hibernia, Germania, Caledonia etc. Switzerland is like a little Island in a sea of Euro nations.

And now the bandwidth will really start to go down the pan!