Chris Perkins

RHD transit would be fairly worthless in Germany. I had a RHD LDV in Germany once, and RHD vans in general are dangerous on sweeping curve junctions, where you want to turn right. It's impossible to see if anything is coming on the road you intend to turn on to as from your seated right position, looking towards the traffic all you see is the inside of the side of the van! London Taxi all the way and they are almost van-like inside. Unfortunately it's now impossible to get the FX4 (Austin shape) fresh out of service as all of them are now over 15 years old. My mate in Deptford at Ascott Cab Co. will no doubt find something suitably cheap for me. http://www.ascottcab.com/

It's just a an idea I had. I shall be in London in a couple of weeks and intend to collect a London taxi again to drive back to Germany and sell here. If I could fit a British bike in the back (or anything not that widely available in Germany), then I could take that over and sell on too. I suppose I should get hold of some measurements. No one's ever tried it then? I've also got 2x Triumph (saloon car) seats to squeeze in.

Would a normal sized motorbike fit into the back of a London taxi (LTI TX1) if one removed the front wheel and some other bits? Whaddaya reckon?

A throng? That's even worse on the old head-cinema that a thong!

That was bloody years ago with the Igor the Igel (German for Hedgehog)! I had forgotten all about it.

From 1928 they had different designs which were struck sharper and generally look a lot better, despite usually being pretty worn. Often GVI coins (1937 - 1951) are near EF, but never quite good enough to be better than bullion as they are really only collected seriously when in perfect condition. Then EII 60s coins are often near to UNC but don't contain silver and are really only collected in BU. Anyway, I won't keep jumping it here and getting on your nerves. Discuss your coins as much as you like with the members and once you know where you are and if you want me to make an offer on them, just email or send a PM through here.

Oh yes! Error on the date range, or it's a Jersey coin.

As there are some doubles, it's more accurate if you tell me how many of each denomination there is (pre 1920 and 1920 to 46) so that I can be sure I'm counting correctly, rather than guessing 1 per year, or 2 per year in the case of Eng and Sco shillings. The 60s coins are usually pretty good because they saw very limited use before decimals came along and were they hoarded in huge numbers. As a result, all are common even in perfect condition.... especially 1967! There are a few dates that may be worth looking at in more detail. e.g. the 1952 sixpence and 1951 penny, 1930 florin, 1925 halfcrown as those are more likely to be slightly collectable if they are just over average in terms of condition.

Those shillings in the Whitman folder all look like normal used ones to me. The best thing to do is to tell me the numbers of each silver denomination that is pre 1920 and the same for 1920 - 1946 and I'll work you out an offer based on the silver value. The Whitman folders were produced in the 60s, so that's further evidence that the coins were accumulated in the 60s, by which time 99.999%+ of the pre 1960s coins were too worn to be classed as collectable. I always advise people to simply send a few sample images of the fews coins in the best condition. If the best are in normal used condition, they it's easy to work out a value. Ripping off is not something that is practiced on predecimal.com! (by me or any of the other members)

I can just see 'bullion' grade pre 1947 (and pre 1920) and a nice enough 1965 shilling, but I have hundreds of those already so wouldn't really want to pay much more than face value. From experience it looks to me like a very average selection that would have been taken from change in the 60s (not the 40s, or that 40s coin wouldn't look like it had seen 20 years of use), and I would be very surprised if the value doesn't rest entirely on the silver content of the pre 1947 silver coins. I buy an awful lot of pre 47 silver. Try me!

I prefer my coke through a straw, cup-fulls at a time.

The BNTA have told PCGS about it (who I'm sure made a genuine mistake) and have probably reported the would-be seller to the police. I hit the reply-all button and suggested to all the BNTA members that we should really be complaining to the RM for making such articles of dubious repute in the very first place. I really want to be proud of the Royal Mint once again, is that too much to ask?

There were no banknotes bank then, so obviously they were made to snort coke!

In Germany (and I suspect Poland too) visa acceptance is very rare! They have EC (Electronic Cash) debit cards which are accepted in most places. I really don't mind helping if goomolique is unable to. Poland is a big place.

I still get the odd person in GB that sends me a batch of pre 47 silver and then insists on a cheque as payment, stating that he/she would rather not give out their bank details. In Germany it is utterly normal and people haven't seen cheques for 20+ years. Although I am a big fan of cheques. Perhaps I can also help somehow, being in Germany. I can move money from my Natwest account to my German Targobank account within seconds and from the German account there are no (or very low) fees to send to Poland, or any other EU land as far as I know.

If they were rolled up new (for whatever reason) surely they'd be in pukka condition?

The thickness is probably the same to the naked eye, but certainly the weight and feel would be quite different.

Yes, he was a proper politician that transcended party politics and was very likeable. People of all political persuasions respected him, and rightly so.

Now that's a bit of a coincidence isn't it. I'd much rather have a gold plated mule though. That would really be something. I've said this before somewhere, but I don't know which is the worst scenario: A) The RM are about the sloppiest mint in the world and are careless enough to get die pairs mixed on far too many occasions. Or B )To generate interest for their desperate plethora of new coin products, they throw in the odd mule for good measure. And what about the legality of mules? Coins are approved obviously, before being created and struck. If they are wrong, then surely they are not legal tender unless something is amended in law that describes the error and renders them legal tender? Actually, who knows about law? Who wants to make it their task to look into the Coinage Act and find out exactly what is required to make a coin legal tender. In early January of this year the RM stated that coins £5 and down were legal tender. At some point in mid January they changed it to include their new £20 coin, but there was still no mention of the £50, £10, £1000 and £100 coins, which all exist. Surely it's really not as easy as the RM stating that something is legal tender and that suddenly makes it legal tender? I want to separate the real coins from the medallions.

It was 'sold' for £790 this time round, but in a flash is now re-listed as apparently the winner had no money. Odd. I've never actually had that problem as a seller, but it does seem to be very widespread that people with no money will keep bidding on things. I don't like the pics either, and if this was the only one available in the world, I still wouldn't go anywhere near it.

Yes, I tried that too just now. I expect they've pulled them as they were reported? Unless they are fake slabs, which is also not unheard of. The BNTA email suggests that they are genuine PCGS that were incorrectly labelled.

The London Coin Company are actually one of the better coin sellers with the word 'London' in their title. They had nothing to do with this scam, they were simply referenced in the email as they happened to be offering a real gold one. Peter - thanks. Hedgehog gate?

I sometimes have a bone to pick with slabbing, as do many true collectors and dealers that prefer to trust their own grading/attribution ability more than that of others. No need to dwell on that. But what I have detested for years and even more so now since the RM have started trying to cash in on it too, is gold plating! The gold plating of silver proof coins in order to fool the public into thinking that it makes them special in some way, so that they can then charge twice as much. It's utterly deplorable and I refuse to give gold plated proofs the time of day in "Collectors' Coins: Decimal Issues of the UK" and any future publications. Combine sloppy TPG (or possibly slab forgery, I haven't checked) and you end up with this: Gold plated proofs slabbed as gold proofs by PCGS. This email did the rounds on Tuesday. I got it, as did some other BNTA members (with stupid 20mb of unsolicited attachments). Michael Williams he calls himself. I berated him for sending 20mb of attachments and told him I wanted nothing to do with it (somehow it didn't seem right and there was a distinct smell of rat in the air). Richard Anderson of Weighton Coin Wonders identified them as the plated proofs and informed the BNTA. This is the full email (I've attached a single image at the end): I HAVE (3) 2012 DIAMOND JUBILEE GOLD PROOF FIVE POUND COINS FOR SALE . THEY ARE NOT A SET , THEY ARE INDIVIDUAL COINS.I HAVE ATTACHED SOME PHOTOS OF EACH INDIVIDUAL COIN FOR YOU AND OF THE 3 COINS TOGETHER . (MORE PHOTO'S AVAILABLE IF NEEDED) IN 2012 TO COMMEMORATE THE QUEENS DIAMOND JUBILEE THE ROYAL MINT STRUCK A VERY LIMITED ISSUE SOLID 22 CARAT GOLD PROOF £5 FIVE POUND CROWN COIN.THE REVERSE DESIGN DEPICTS AN EARLY PORTRAIT OF QUEEN ELIZABETH II WITH FOLIAGE WHICH IS A SPECIFIC REFERENCE TO QUEEN VICTORIA THE ONLY OTHER MONARCH TO ACHIEVE HER DIAMOND JUBILEE.THE OBVERSE DESIGN DEPICTS QUEEN ELIZABETH II IN THE PRESENT WEARING GARTER ROBES.BOTH THE REVERSE AND OBVERSE DESIGNS HAVE BEEN DESIGNED BY IAN RANK BROADLEY FRBS.THESE LEGAL TENDER COINS HAVE BEEN STRUCK TO PROOF QUALITY USING SPECIALLY PREPARED DIES AND HIGHLY POLISHED BLANKS. EACH OF THE 3 COINS HAVE BEEN INDIVIDUALLY SLABBED AND GRADED BY THE WORLD FAMOUS COIN GRADING COMPANY PCGS AND ARE HIGHLY SORT AFTER BY COIN COLLECTORS AROUND THE WORLD . THEY ARE GUARANTEED AUTHENTIC AND GRADED PR69DCAM ,THEN SLABBED WITHIN A TAMPER PROOF CASE BY PCGS .THERE IS ONLY 6 COINS OF THIS TYPE IN THE WORLD THAT HAVE BEEN GRADED PR69DCAM BY PCGS WITH NO HIGHER GRADES AVAILABLE . THE LONDON COIN COMPANY HAS 1 OF THESES COINS FOR SALE FOR AROUND £2600 (including P+P) SPECIFICATION OF EACH INDIVIDUAL COIN YEAR OF ISSUE 2012DENOMINATION £5WEIGHT 39.94 gramsDIAMETER 38.61 mmMETAL GOLDCARAT SOLID 22 CARAT GOLDFINISH PROOFISSUE LIMITS 3,850PCGS COIN# 651395PCGS CERTIFICATE NO' # COIN 1 - 17235831 COIN 2 - 17235832 COIN 3 - 17235833 GRADED PCGS PR69DCAMHOLDER TYPE STANDARD TAMPER PROOFPCGS POPULATION 6

Thanks for the email. I think it all depends on the screen size and specs of the device being used to view it. I have a feeling Amazon may have reduced the image quality to reduce file size. The ebooks work fine and are useable on phones, but due to their nature they are better viewed on devices with larger screens.

Ok. It should be a lot more than 21! That's like an 8bit Sinclair Spectrum.