Chris Perkins

The first commercial purchaser of ESH said this: Hello, Chris - First, may I congratulate you and thank you for compiling a very useful book, particularly for people like myself who don't live in England and are relative novices in this field as well. After a quick read through, I believe that I will find it more useful than any other single reference on this subject I have. That made me feel good. Can't wait to get it into print.

Is that you with your sovereign collection?

I don't know if Canada has a gold source, but I'm sure SA, P and S used their own gold.

There isn't actually an index. It basically does it all (as far as I can see) in the style of the sample, from 959 - 1663. I suppose I could make an index though, that's a good idea.

Right, "England's Striking History" is basically done, apart from the cover design for the printed version. So, without delay, what I'm going to do is offer it as an e-Book on ebay/rotographic.com etc in order to get some money towards the printing costs. The 9mb eBook is here: http://www.rotographic.com/ebooks/ESH.exe From the link above all you'll see is a sample 18 pages with a buy now link in the top right (it's £4.50 via paypal). Now, it's been proofread, but I think there are still little errors in it, so if you buy it and spot 10 errors that I didn't previously know about, I'll refund you fully!

Russ did them the last few years for Spink. The ghostly figure on the medal book is teenage uncle Billy a few months before he met his fate on HMS Hood. It was my idea to have him on the front, but not full on in your face (the book is afterall about medals, not my family history!). The medals at the top are those that he was posthumously awarded. (for those of you that didn't know, the author of the book is my dad) And as for the other new edition on Roman Base metal coins, the photography is by me! The mosaic that makes up the background was from a ruined Roman villa I visited in Wilts (after a little digital repair). On the back is a picture of a statue of Vespasianus that I took at the Roman baths in Bath. The colour purple is also deliberate too, due to the Emperors being 'in the purple'. I put a lot of thought into the whole books you know!

They should be, it's Russ Whittle, the same chap that does the Spink covers. It was them that put me on to him. I still like the branding of the covers with the orange/blue bit at the bottom, and the CCGB book will probably stay tht way. The rest will get new covers as they are renewed.

Someone was doing it before me, since the 60's. I took over in 2004.

When I set up the Rotographic website, I wanted the .com name as well as the .co.uk. The .com was owned by a Frenchman at the time that didn't respond to any form of contact. I kept an eye on it and 2 years later it ends up being owned by a Russian who bought it at an expired domain name auction. He wanted to talk business and I negotiated the trasfer from him. So now, finally I have rotographic.com and this will now be the main name used with the .co.uk pointing at the exact same space. http://www.rotographic.com I've also got some new sample ebooks prepared that are freely distributable and contain the first 10 - 13 pages of each of the current 5 books: http://www.rotographic.com/purchasedownloads.htm

I've got a completely blank 50p, it just a 7 sided blank with a raised rim and absolutely nothing on it. Looks like it was missed at the mint.

I recently bought some non lace up shoes! I wasn't sure in the shop, but they just seems so simple to take on and put on

I use Deutsche Post (DHL) for insured parcels (up to EUR500) and coin packages (up to EUR2,285). I use UPS for books and urgent parcels. Neither of those will let you send coins insured outside of the EU, so that's when the Royal Mail in England comes in handy.

Same from me. (there's a pic of the Wirral medal in the topic)

I've had the same problem from the UK before and now from Germany. Most courier companies don't cover 'coins' as they are considered as valuables, and some countries have strange policies that don't allow insured packages from certain countries. For example, from Germany I can't send coins insured to the USA, so what I do is send them insured to my dad in England who then sends them insured to the USA! For some reason items sent insured from the UK are valid (up to GBP500 I think). I've tried UPS too and when you tell them they are 'coins' they don't cover them to anywhere. What I've also done in the past in blatantly lied and described the package as containing 'antiquities'. The logic behind that is that if they get lost, they'll never know it was coins, but you do have to be careful and accept a bit of a risk. Within Europe is also fine for me via DHL (Deutsche Post) as coins are covered, even to Russia and Italy, which can be like sending coins into a black hole! From Austria, if the rules are the same as from Germany, then I doubt there is a way of sending things properly insured to places outside the EU, because it seems the post offices simply aren't that chummy with the non EU lands. You need to find a trustworthy person in a country within the UK that is able to insure things to non EU places. (from England I can even send things insured to Kazakhstan!)

I did the radio programme once with my hair down in a Led Zep T shirt, but that was about as radical as it got. I wore a suit on a couple of occassions too. However the mood takes me really. I usually find that making any kind of effort is far too much of an effort for day to day things. That pic was also about 5 years ago and I think I've got a lot more boring since then, i've even started making a noise as I lower myself into a sofa. You know the kind, like a sort of sigh/grunt. I'll have to be careful or I'll start acting older than Sylvester!

It matched my black nail varnish.

Never really a goth actually, I'm too peaceful. I think I must have some hippie in me somewhere. And not a ginger either, it's really not red is it! And, it seems to have naturally darkened over the years.

I've added a picture of me with some bird (her name was Charlotte I think). I'm the one in the black lipstick. This was taken at Gabi's 21 Birthday, must have been about 2001, in Shortlands near Bromley. Gabriella was a work friend and the do was at her house. What a great night that was, I crashed on Kelly Wallace's sofa in her nearby house afterwards, and in the morning I walked to Rob's place because that's where I'd left my car (I just remembered that detail). I'm still in touch with Rob actually. Those were the days, how I miss civilised society.

Watch you don't shrivel up Geordie!

That's what it's all about ladies and gentlemen...Knowing what your customers want before they even know it themselves

I got this in Chemnitz yesterday. It's Oli's mate Wilhelm II of Wuertemberg, this time, without his lady wife. This is a 1914F choice UNC 3 Mark with wonderful prooflike fields, especially on the obv. In the 2006 Battenburg book it lists as EUR100.00 in UNC and EUR35.00 in EF. There are a few dirty marks and the edge from the reverse has some small knocks. Yours for £25.00 Oli, which is about the current EF value.

Here's a picture of it Geoff.

That's what Westminster Collection are all about, in my opinion. Hyping up anything the can lay their hands on in enough quantity and selling it to the unexpecting for too much money.

Possible isn't it. No a lot of Roman finds come out of the earth in Celtic Wales so I hear.

Well, I'm pleased you ask! I finished adding all the high quality images right up to Charles II, and have sent the full PDF to the proof-reader. I enjoyed reading it as I was going along very much. I am tring to get a picture of the Moneyer Dave Greenhalgh in medieval gear striking a coin for the front cover, but I think I might actually have to visit him and take a picture myself! Once the cover and proof read are done it'll be ready to print so it should certainly be ready within a few months.