blakeyboy

There was a hut on New Road in Kidderminster, blue door, with a car numberplate on it- 'TOC H'. I never saw the door open. it was there up till the 80s. It helped 1st world War veterans, as far as I remember. Maybe their lamps were famously dim.... My grandmother always opened the kitchen door in thundery weather, explaining that 'When the lightning comes down the chimney, it then has somewhere to go"

The three most aposite words in what Jerry said are " perfectly smooth point"... I suppose you are almost then grinding it off rather than scraping - a bit like a pestle and mortar. Only problem is in the corners. Another problem, which is where a chisel tip of the right profile comes in, is not digging into holes in the surface where the corrosion has eaten in - never looks good.

My system works. Really well. You do need patience and skill. Anyone going near a copper surface with a steel tool is asking for trouble. NEVER EVER do it. To shift a clag, or deposit, you choose a tool softer than the coin surface. That's why soft brass works on bronze. But for hard copper, use softened copper.

How odd, Jerry- I've always had excellent results, unless of course you have that 'Hereford Clag' - a particularly evil hard accretion that exists in your part of the world, and I've just got soft southern stuff. Wormelow tump is a pile of the stuff left over from the Bronze Age..... I did notice a change when I left Worcestershire years ago- I put it down to the M1 being nearby....:)

Hmmm...copper not bronze.....hmmm...even more with copper, avoid a steel tool at all costs! Let's assume the striking process work hardened the copper, and let's assume this coin has never been heated, sooo....if you make a copper pick from a piece of electrical solid core wire, 1 to 1.5mm say, file the tip as a tiny chisel, the anneal by heating the tip till it's really hot and quenching in water. Your tool should now be softer than the coin surface, and you can slowly chip the verdigris away. If you have some wire that is in very fine strands, this will make a very good soft wire brush to tidy up the surface if you anneal it too. To do this, you will need to strip the insulation back an inch, heat very very quickly on a flame, plunge into cold water, then slide a tube over the strands to control how long you want the 'brush' to be. This works. The olive oil will help a lot- it will soften the verdigris if the coin is allowed to soak overnight, and any lubtication will make the scraping even kinder.

Ok- two penny questions 29 years apart: 1 . I've noticed that my best 1904 penny had the 4 over a tooth. is this something to get exited about? I notice that London coins don't seem to reflect the rarity of the variant ... 2. I know that Michael G documents the 1875 obverse dot by the 'I' of VICTORIA, and postulates about a speck of something migrating from obverse to reverse dies, which I don't understand because it's a dot not a a ding but anyhow he mentions the large date only. i've just noticed the two obverse dot types I have both have the small date as the obverse....is this unusual? It takes a strange Christmas day to notice such things.....!

Oh I'm seething now...ah well can't watch everything....:) Nice one Jerry! I'm raising a glass of Ujliesa Squinzano Rocca del Mori to you as I write this. (A present) First Xmas at home for 26 years.....

another one I missed: anyone here smiling??? https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/1863-One-Penny-Coin-Queen-Victoria-Great-Britain-in-Extra-Fine-XF-Condition/274615232659?hash=item3ff057e893:g:5AcAAOSw6rZf2ROD

Only 370 days till Christmas!!!!

If you thought Tier 4 is bad, Tier 5, which comes into force on Tuesday, will have anyone over the age of 50 spending Christmas with my Mother-in-law. I knew it would end in Tiers. I can only apologise. It's been a difficult week. Wot with me back and the weather and that and now the Covid Crap I'm past caring. Nothing down here. No really. Why are you still looking? Ooh Matron!

Funny how pocket sample survey results, from the time, match the 'feel' for rarity that developed from a child much more than mintage figures seem to do now.....

Peggy Lee "Fever" Dusty Springfield "I just don't know what to do with myself" Chuck Berry "No particular place to go" and who could forget the Knack's "My Corona"........ ...and so it begins........:)

How do I give ten likes?

just had to be....!

Took my boat to its MOT today and it just sailed through.....

Put us out of our misery!!!

Yes- quite interesting...I have an 1880 with '0' in the usual place, but with the top of this high '0' still visible. but not that high '8'.......

Too late I'm afraid, Terry- been selling mine since Monday!

Agreed, Peck. Earlier in the year I went though by 1957 calm sea 1/2ds and put some on Fleabay with the different 7's, and no interest whatsoever! I remember, as a child, a Mars Bar going from 2d to 3d, thus acquiring the extra dimension of depth......:)

Surely the fact that he is selling a coin that he does not possess enough rope? You can then ignore all the photo mix-ups, or is he genuinely a confused idiot, and is unknowingly using the picture of a coin that Richard has in his possession to sell another? Is he reading all this?

Yup, a polite query about all such fraudulent listings illicit such a tone in the reply, usually worse. They've hatched a little scheme, think themselves very clever, and when their bluff is called, the ego is sorely bruised and they react.....

I couldn't afford to spend any more on it....things are tight! When it arrives I'll have a good look at the ding and see if it's a '3'........oh hang on.......damn.......

Remind me- who is the US idiot who heat treats all coins so they have a 'rainbow'?? They sell loads to idiots!

£78