Chris Perkins

Best to just not let them in. From a Russian server (or Chinese, Korean and certain other Eastern lands) the chances are they just want to spam. If anyone really wants to join and gets blocked for some reason, they will find me.

There probably is some kind of mathematic formula which may fairly accurately allow you to increase the values for each coin type in each grade. And, also something similar for the inbetween grades. If there is, I'm not clever enough to have worked it out yet, so I do the values manually based on printed sales lists etc. For inbetween grades you just have to be instinctive and put the value in the middle somewhere, judging on eye appeal and how far away it is from the next full grade etc.

Are you really. Scottish Money is a Russia fan and we have a Russian member too but he hasn't posted for a while. I think all those registration attempts were hackers/bots. The system is more secure now and I don't have to intervene so much.

Getting into complicated lingual issues now! Surely in most parts of rural England in the 13th century the proles spoke some kind of early English dialect which probably still had a lot of Saxon/German influence but was basically different enough from German to be called English? Of course in Scotland, Wales and Cornwall that probably wouldn't have been the case. They had their very own Celtic/Pict/Gaelic tongues. And in Wales, just about still do. French and Latin were certainly the languages used by the Church and by the upper classes but as far as I know some form of English certainly existed back then and probably had done since the Anglo-Saxon period. I like to tell everyone here (without sounding too Right-Wing!) that I am the only true Anglo-Saxon because I'm English and live in Saxony, a Saxon-Anglo-Saxon if you like. I even know some Saxon words that not even Herr Stechlin would understand!

I meant a tenner for your South African 'Iron Cross'! If they're all boring average 20th century halfpennies then you can keep them.

Probably not as I don't think they are real silver. Could be wrong. Obviously if it contains some silver it'll be worth a little more than the brass one.

That's exactly how the Germans speak!! All round the wrong way and as if what they say hasn't changed in format much since the 1500s! Apart from those people that annoyingly drop in English words wherever they can to sound cool, which to me as an Englander sounds bloody stupid because they don't even pronounce them properly and if you're going to steal words you could at least do it properly. For example, you may hear on the German equivalent of Neighbours, one of the youngsters when pondering over his friends love for a distant cousin, that he doesn't yet know is actually his half sister, say: 'Nein Tim (the young people mostly have English names that were popular in GB up to about 1983) das ist ein no go'. Isn't that right my German friend? Ich weiss beschied.

It looks like it's been made by someone from a South African coin. With any writing smoothed off. It also looks very German in shape, I don't know the significance of that. I'm quite keen on ZAR things and have some Boer war related items and a document signed by president Kruger. One of my customers is also a great great grand nephew of the president of the Orange Free State! I'll give you a tenner for it (to keep).

Exactly right! Well probably better as 'I wish you well from the Ore Mountains'. The Ore Mountains is where I live and it was the largest known deposit of silver in the world until the Spanish found some in South America.

Yes, it could hopefully be one of those books that every collector of British coins (mainly later milled of course) will want to have as a comparison and big help for novices.

Yes it will be a hardback (about same size as Spink). I haven't created the part on rotographic.com about this book. I've actually only sent out about 10 flyers with orders so far, as they're new. Another little something to do in-between putting together CCGB2009! The exact publication date isn't really know because I want to get it checked by regular dealers and the BNTA first in order to reach some kind of accurate concensus. It's on Amazon with a pub date in February, but I can put that back if I need to, it depends how many people check it and how they take etc. Also, special care needs to be taken to make sure that the images come out ok, because with bad images it'll be a bad book! The author is actually the forum member Red Riley and he's worked very hard. I'll no doubt mention it on the forum from time to time and make an announcement when it's done and deliverable.

I know, but don't forget that regardless how good or bad the product is, someone (or more than someone) probably spent a long time creating it, and usually these things are not that expensive from the creators.

Please don't give anyone reg keys, it's not a good idea to promote software piracy in my forum!

Certainly looks like a French jeton. There's no need to post it in multiple places, they'll get seen.

That's right, the plastic set didn't include the crown. The cased proof set did. I've also got a cased 1953 non proof set. I don't think it's official either but it includes the 1953 penny and that was only issued in the plastic sets.

The coins are not really Specimens (i.e. suggestive of trial coins or some sort of special strikings). Those maroon QEII sets are made up by third parties, privately (at the time). The cases are not official Royal Mint and the coins are confusingly simply 'specimens' of the coins in circulation. They simply use the word 'specimen' on the case as a posh word for 'example', or 'sample'. There was no official 1960 set and the official 1953 sets were either cased proofs or 9 uncirculated coins in a plastic wallet.

Privately produced coronation medals of Edward VIII like that brass one are pretty common I'm afraid!

Sort of acquired most of them, from other dealers or as parts of purchased collections.

I have a circa 200 BC Ptolomy (can't remember which) copper coin. The Ptolomaic dynasty were the Kings of Egypt back then. I also have a Celtic British coin from the Durotriges tribe, circa 50 BC. And of course lots of Roman from about 70 AD to 400 AD.

Tree and Arabic....Lebanon springs to mind, but you should post a picture (or google search for Lebanon coin and you may find a picture identical to what you have). Generally coins shouldn't be cleaned. They are best in the original state with the original tone. Ancient coins often need cleaning, but 1928 is hardly ancient where coins are concerned (for people it is, eh Geordie ). If the coins are actually dirty (as opposed to toned naturally) then you could use a soft tooth brush and soap and water. Dry thoroughly. They should be stored in at least an album which doesn't contain PVC or plastic softeners. Or you could use individual envelopes. Most products from reputable coin accessory companies are ok. Have a look at the main website www.predecimal.com I sell lots of accessories. And books too, including a price guide (Collectors' Coins GB), which it sounds like you will need.

Oh not that bloody German again If you have spare coins that are saleable, even just for a few quid, please do send them down to me in Sachsen and I'll make an offer based on how I price them.

As far as I was aware (and this is kind of an educated guess too based on seeing differences in numerals) a master die is created, usually as a positive larger version to be replicated as actual-size smaller versions. Surely, as the only thing that changes each year (usually) is the date, it would be a clever idea to have some kind of master without a date so that each year a date can be added manually at some stage? For dates with high mintages, the dies are not strong enough to strike all the coins so new ones have to be created.....from the master with date added manually I would assume, hence the differences in date numerals! Only where other differences occur would that indicate entirely new or re-touched dies. My understanding is that the over-dates and over-letters are either results of the mint being too lazy and creating a die for the new date over the numerals of an existing underused die or are the result of someone 'bodging-up' an existing die which has developed a problem area (usually letters rather than date). I'm sure there are practises that the Victorian die-sinkers and coin makers never recorded and will never precisely be known by modern-variety-people! Ich wunsch dir alles gute aus dem Erzgebirge!

I think that's probably a real one that looks slightly convex on the head side and cleaned too.

I think that lots of variety people don't really include date variations as varieties, because they were often re-punched into different dies and with the highest mintage (although I expect most were dated 1853 as that's the most common date) it's to be expected that a number of dies were used. If the only differences are the date numerals then that's probably why no-one has gone into much detail with them.

A Fagthing Matron!! Followed by 'Ooo err' Frankie Howerd noises.... Slight bag marks on the head!!! Was it stored in a chainmail bag, thrown from hot air balloon and then run over by a steam-roller? Why don't the ebayers come to predecimal.com, if I had that coin I'd consider it rude asking any more than £1 for it.