blakeyboy

Well, it was that rare and cheap I felt like having an experiment- it couldn't get much worse!! First thing- heated on a steel plate till 200˚C plus, when the carbonate changes to dark oxide, which is mechanically softer. When it's up to that temperature and the colour changes, the coin is dropped into cold water. The thermal contraction shock makes the black layer fall off. Soft copper tools are then used which won't touch the bronze underneath at all. I have copper brushes made from fine multistrand electrical cable, and stubborn spots can be flicked off with a tiny copper chisel made from a piece of copper wire with the end sharpened to the right state. If needed, contrast of the high spots on a flat looking specimen can be achieved by keeping the coin in your pocket for a bit! And voila!! I know it's all bit past what people like to have happen to any coin, but it was a satisfying experiment- if it was the only F164A I had, it would be in the collection filling an expensive gap......:)

What I meant to say was that these high thumbnails appeared at the same time the zoom box went odd...

This is what was under the crud- still a horror... That auction is odd- I've told the guy that he's already sold it but he isn't listening....

I've just tried this, and that's what I get too. Safari and Firefox both. Have you also noticed on these, and some other items where the thumbnails haven't been raised up, that the 'zoom' box is all wrong? It doesn't actually go down to the bottom, even though the zoomed image is fine... It's like Ebay is slowly adding this feature, for some crazy reason, or they actually have a problem- it's only on some auctions on a particular page....

are there Chinese fakes of these?

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/500-Kew-Gardens-Collectors-Commemoratives-for-xbargains4youx/153331883865?hash=item23b34adf59:g:p-UAAOSwUu5cM0E- This is ridiculous. Are these 'coin' pretending to be current legal UK tender? What if I made some....what would happen to me? Oh and some £2 coins while we're at it...? Yes, I'd be locked up. Do the 'Government' ( I use the term very loosely) do anything about these fakes? No. Why?....... So......what if one were to make a pile of say, Chinese 'silver' Pandas. Not illegal, surely? Then spread them round the markets, destroy faith in those coins as 'investments', and see what the Chinese say, and probably witness our side kow tow and do the Chinese Government's bidding and arrest me.

I've just looked at the Ebay list- hilarious. This bubble must burst horribly soon, and when it does there will be blood on the streets. Well, metaphoric blood anyway. Or something. The Chinese fakers must be falling about laughing. We need someone to stand up and speak out against this greedy nonsense. If only Boris Johnson were alive.

Does Harcourt Fenton Mudd work at the Mint now?

Thank you for that- you've explained a lot. Here's one I've just seen from Clickbait City Coins: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/1908-Indian-Head-Cent-Penny-XF-AU-Details-Full-LIBERTY-2-5-3-Diamonds/352619462479?hash=item5219c1ff4f:g:XHMAAOSwGtRXxRBG

Here we go again- amongst a hundred similar: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/1000-WHEAT-PENNIES-OLD-COIN-LOT-SEALED-BANK-BAG-LINCOLN-CENTS-1909-1958PDS-5/153418394120?hash=item23b872ea08:g:GQEAAOSw3Sla1it1 Now given that his neg feedback clearly shows what's going on, my question is this: Are U.S. penny collectors more gullible than U.K. ones, or are U.S. sellers more blatantly dishonest than U.K. ones? I haven't looked at all the postings this week like this, so they are 'unsearched', ....maybe there's a gem or two out there that will make you rich? See what I did there?

Was the seller hedging his bets?

Damn- missed that one- too early in the morning!!!!

I really don't get this crap. Sometimes I can see the demeaning small short-term profit as the hordes panic when the issue runs out. Long term? No. As soon as stuff is flogged as 'limited edition' ( only 46 million), a 'future investment' ( you only lose a quarter of what an item bought from TKMax loses in value in the same period) and it's all 'Nice 'n' shiny', I run a mile, while a pile of idiots with a mental age of 15 and no life experience runs the other way. I should put wire mesh in front of my TV just in case that pompous knobhead from the 'London Mint Office' comes on again.... None of this is coin 'collecting' !!!!! It's 'accumulating'. It's also, at times, preying on the gullible... At today's birthrate, there's one born every 1.8 seconds. My collection of old audio gear went up in value by more than I earned, last year. I bought none of it, over the last 40 years, at the going rate either. OR, I could have spent the equivalent time and money buying a new VHS recorder from Currys each week and stashing it away as an 'investment'........

Or hope not to bump into.....

In my younger Rock n Roll days, I was the Queen Mother's hip replacement......

Where the Hell (!) did you get my sister's photograph???

This did happen in just one town- Kidderminster. I was 'helping' to run the school Tuck Shop, but of course was just there to go through all the change... The first turning up was a surprise, but over the months it was just bizarre. There was still a lot of silver in the change- I remember a 1912 shilling turning up, but it was the condition that was amazing- sometimes almost BU- blazing lustre, with all the other kids not seeming to notice...really odd.

Sadly, no- I'm sure I had lost it- and it had vanished on the Viz site, but that above is a scan of my copy that had the advert in it. I remember when my late father got to the 'Tick box to pay an extra £10' bit we all thought he was going to have a seizure.....!

And your point is....?

Tick here to pay an extra £10......

Pardon the language, but this Viz advert sums it all up.

I've just remembered something- in the early '70s, in the Midlands, I suddenly found that there were a lot of florins in EF+ turning up in change, all strangely dated 1941 to 1946. I mean a surprising amount- I had no money then, but still managed to grab probably 50+ over a couple of years. I never worked out exactly why- just one person having a clearcut by dumping their odd collection? Why such good condition, when the list value even then was way above face, even without the silver content? Does this ring any bells?

I got off the Copenhagen to Malmö train this summer and there were 'border police' on the platform, but they were definitely not interested in me- they were just looking for arms and drugs, like other European border police do. I had a non-binding amendment on a train to Paris once....