Chris Perkins

It was on an Assured Shorthold Tenancy Agreement, originally for 12 months, then another 12 months (to Sep 2011) and since then it hasn't been renewed as it's a such a bloody pain getting them to sign anything, unless I actually go there and hold the papers and a pen in front of them, and i've got better things to do. Last time they claimed they had returned the docs back twice but nothing ever came. So technically there is no valid contract. Where do I stand? Does that make them sort of legal squatters? I don't suppose they kept copies of the tenancy agreements and he always pays cash into my bank account (which is odd these days) so they probably have no evidence that they were authorised to live there. They get benefits, but stopped them coming directly to me after one payment, prefering to pay the cash in at the bank down the road. This has worked off and on for 2.5 years, but please don't think it was plain sailing! At no stage during the 2.5 years have I been able to rely on the money going in at the agreed time to cover the mortgage. He pays in dribs and drabs, sometimes nothing for months despite many reminders. Anyway, I'll hopefully hear from the PC's that carried out the search tomorrow. I suspect they have weekends off. I've just remembered actually that the loft had a padlock on it because it contains some of my stuff (nothing valuable) in storage that was too bulky to take to Germany and has been up there for years. I wonder if the police went through that as well!

My friend has been to the house, there was no signs of life and none of the cars were outside that are known to belong to Mr Green or Ms Brown. The upper pain in the front door has been replaced with a secure board, the door is dented and the lock is removed, but it doesn't open so must be secured from the inside. The back door looks normal, so do the windows. I'm pleased the house is secure at least. I suppose if Mr Green didn't happen to have a back door key with him whilst out and about on the 17th when the Police visited, then he's locked out. I wonder if it's something domestic, but I have no idea why he should say his life would be at risk (unless it's at risk from a father or brother of someone he has in some way inconvenienced)! He's simply not communicating, but I haven't tried further today. I'll send him an ultimatum text and also try email. I'm not over in GB myself for about 3 weeks. The rent for April was technically due at the end of March, but he's hardly in arrears and hasn't been so bad lately, despite loads of unreliability in the past. I found him and Ms Brown privately and they've been there since Sep 2009, so it's a good 2.5 years worth of rent paid to date. I dislike agencies as they (last time I looked/used them) charge a months rent per tenant change (which is usually fairly frequently) and the % each month, and in the event of a problem you still have to stick to the procedure, and I'd rather deal with such issues personally too. The only benefit they offer is that they vet the potential tenants. The 2.5 years paid to date must mean that my own vetting based on instinct couldn't have been far out. I must say that Mr Green did oringally re-decorate and do quite a few odd jobs with materials that he paid for himself, although somehow the work hasn't stood up to the test of time very well. I always found him a good bloke really. His communication has always been pretty awful and he seems very good at losing my numbers (and post actually) and making me chase up the rent because he tends to stick his head in the sand rather than face up to things like a real man. This time though, it's really not good enough. I need to know what's going on. Actually, I've just remembered a girl I know is an estate agent who specialises in rentals in the same area as my house. I'm going to get onto her tomorrow! (steady).

Hmmm, where do I start. This post is by way of a general moan really, but perhaps certain forum members may have advice on the matter. My dad got a bill for me today at his London address that I use for UK correspondance. A bill for £202 odd from a company called Rapid Secure working under instruction of Kent Constabulary. It seems that on the 17th April the company secured my house in Kent which is rented to a Mr Green (which may or may not be his real name). This was the first I'd heard of it! I called the company and then the police and it seems that the police had to force entry to search the house under a Section 18 (which seems to mean that they were looking for evidence or dodgy stuff in relation to a crime for which someone living at the house had been arrested). Due to the data protection act I had to email them to find out this information, even though I pointed out that an email is just as annoymous as a voice on a telephone. I tried to call tenant Mr Green and there was no answer. I sent him a text asking if everything was alright and mentioning the £202 odd bill. He replied quite quickly and said that the police had broken the front door down, boarded it up and told him not to go back there 'for threat to his life' (not sure what that's supposed to mean). He says he's not been there for weeks and that he now can't get to his belongings and that he'd lost my contact details due to this, although clearly he's got his phone. I tried to call to find out more, but generally no one answers, except for once an hour or so ago when a female voice answered that sounded like a very sleepy Ms Brown (which may or may not be his girlfriend's name). I asked if Mr Green was there, she mumbled 'he's on the ....' and then it went quiet. I asked 'is that you Ms Brown?'. But it was quiet and then went dead. I called back right away and it rang for some time before going dead again. Something is clearly awry. I'm waiting to hear from the 2 Constables that carried out the Section 18 on 17th April and in the mean time I've sent a friend to the house (he lives a good 45 mins away but is the closest person I know) to have a look. I imagine this is a good reason to kick out tenants? He owes this months rent and surely must also be liable for the securing of the property and a new door? As a landlord, what rights/chances do I have of taking his belongings as payment? Obviously that would need to go to court I suspect. Sounds like a lot of hassle, whatever has gone on here.

Surely Amy Winehouse must have already been on a 50 pence? If not a UK issue, then certainly one of those wonderful themed Isle of Man coins!

Back to George III counterfeits.... I've got about 80 of them! Comprising over 30 halfpennies plus the usual washed silver and even a handsome Irish 6 Shilling. I keep meaning to sort them out and publish pictures etc.

Pre 92 coppers are of course 95% copper, much higher than the 75% in cu-ni. It actually hangs often on the value if the nickel content. When I sold some cu-ni for half value value (from a very good scrap metal man in Germany) the price of nickel was very high. A couple of months later it was much lower and the price of cu-ni (that he pays) was lower than half face value. Whether the actual metal value of cu-ni has ever been face value or above I'm not sure, but it would certainly take a large increase in both copper and nickel for the man on the street to be able to get more than face value for cu-ni coins.

It's not. Last time I scrapped a load of cu-ni I got about half face value (half crowns and sixpences, which are very hard to get face value for nowadays).

No one is respected for selling shit.... but some people ARE respected for making lots of money out of selling lots of it!

The 'E' indicates the coin (Queen Anne silver) was made at the Edinburgh mint. The so called semee of hearts concerns the German arms of the King. Some have tiny hearts in the background, others don't. And the Elephant and Castle is also a mint mark.

All we can do it hope that people stumble upon this forum before they spend money on Royal Mint novelty/tourist products!

Anyone want my trusty Krause world coin price guide for £10? It covers 1900 to about 2005. The 2006 edition, massive and incredibly useful if you, like me, end up with the odd foreign coin. It's heavy, postage is £14.00.

It's disgraceful that the Royal Mint peddle such utter crap and use the same language and sales tactics as the other well known peddlers of the same coin crap. The Royal Mint represents the country and it's making a bloody fool of itself. I think the RM should be banned from commercial ventures like this (i.e. involving older re-packaged coins) because it's very mis-leading that an official govt and Royally backed institution should be allowed to sell over priced toot to its trusting public. The new issues are bad enough. Just because they are who they are, people fall for it and coin dealers like me have to pick up the pieces when the owners want to sell them in a few years! It's deception on an official scale (and the coin in the image is also clearly a lot better than 'very fine') and something needs to be setup to inform the public.

BNTA members are not allowed to knowingly sell fake coins (apart from those described as such, contemporary forgeries and such like) and I certainly don't know any members that would. If a good forgery did get through - and it would in most cases have to be very good indeed - then I'm sure you'd have no trouble getting your money back, even months later (or however long it takes the buyer to verify authenticity beyond any doubt, which certainly shouldn't be years).

Grüss aus Sachsen. I've got all those somewhere, if I dig around a bit! Is this book a commercial venture, in German or English? Got a publisher?

When these things turn up they are more often from the 60s that any other period. I reckon some of the mint workers got bored and played about a bit, especially in the late 60s when they realised they were off to a Welsh field.

What would the spam bot do with it? Clearly a ludicarious concept. I've deleted a few, now down to 976. I bet I could delete a couple of hundred if I could be bothered. That way it would never get to 1000.

I think most of the members are spammers that never actually got around to spamming, or have spam in their signatures that I haven't spotted and zapped yet. Most days there are 1-3 new members and probably about 10% are actually real people that take part. And yes, as Rob says, around 30-50 are here regularly. Way back in 2003 (nearly 10 years, good grief) I was of course the founder and only member. I was talking to myself for ages until Sylvester and Emperor Oli came along to keep me company. Sylvester is still around (he was 19/20 at the time), Emp Oli was about 15/16 in 2003. No doubt both are married (not to eachother I suspect) with kids by now. I'm sure I saw Geoff The other day. MasterJMD was very active pretty early on, but I seem to remember him being as pale and British as you and I, Peck! There was a young William and a young Jon.... HalfpennyJon, or something like that. I ended up buying back some of the coins I'd sold him, so I imagine he's out of coins for the moment. Oh and the 82 online at once is complete fiction! That was a particularly heavy spam-day before the membership restrictions were so tough. I should imagine the online at once record is probably about 10! But 82 does look better and I can't find where to reset it...honest.

Is it our friend with the shop in West London? I got a full set of them from him in order to do pictures for Check Your Change, before the error was known about.

That includes my one? I wonder if it were on the news or had anything near the exposure that the dateless 20p had, if another few hundred would turn up overnight (most of which would probably be people nicking photos or selling the normal one with misleading wording).

Anyone see the Dutch diplomat/politician Tiny Kox on the news recently? I thought it was an error, but he's a real man!

Technically the head gets worn first but the date is (annoyingly) the first thing to wear away completely.

I know it's ghastly, but you could have this one for £20: http://www.predecimal.com/florin-1905-goodvg-reduced-p-9197.html

Oh, it was something to do with her female house mate and I asked if she may be a lesbian and never heard from her again. I was just making conversation, it wouldn't have bothered me. Nice pussy by the way.

We did have a promiment female member here years ago, but I scared her away! These days I understand there is another regular female member, so in an effort to not scare her away, I wondered if she may like this. It's an engraved love token with the name MARY SHARROCK and date 1788. What is perhaps a little unusual is that it is engraved on a Parys mines (Anglessey Druid) penny, assumed to be of the same vintage. £10 plus postage.

It can of course be described as an Arabic '1' because it looks like that, but to me, that's not really what it is at all. It should be described as having an odd date with what appears to be altered 1 and 4 digits. Or words to that effect. Nothing more. The '4' is shifted in such a similar way that it's uncanny, even if it is 'messier' than the '1'. Is that an Arabic 4 over a Latin 4? No. The reason it isn't is because Latin and Arabic 4's have never played a part on British Coinage. Such varieties are not documented. Latin and Arabic 1's are known to exist and are well documented on certain coins, so based on that knowledge, that must mean it involves an Arabic 1 and it can't just be an alteration!? I just don't buy it. Get it re-slabbed and perhaps it'll become a non-serif '4' over a serif '4' next time round.