oldcopper

Interesting article, it basically says that black children react worse to a disciplinary environment than white children, there are more infractions and they have higher levels of delinquency. They're not "deliberately" undereducated, they're breaking the rules more often and getting suspended more often. In theory a strong disciplinary environment should be in their favour, creating a more robust structure often missing at home. Tony Blair and Diane Abbot blamed gang culture as disadvantaging young blacks. Of course one of the main problems is fatherless families, the young black boy, like all boys, needs some strong fatherly influence and it's not there in 70% of black homes. As a consequence it's more likely they'll join gangs with all the problems that brings. I think the article describes the symptoms more than a cause; there's a similar racial disparity in London in crime and prison populations, and we have different education environments. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crime_in_London https://news.sky.com/story/black-murder-victims-and-suspects-london-v-uk-11443656 Sky news say the murder rate outside London reflects the national demographics. Well, no it doesn't, it's nearly 5 times higher for blacks than whites (13/3 vs 81/86). Actually the point of my earlier comment were that the US police were not to blame for any general discrimination.

No, the police are getting stitched up completely. And we're getting totally misled by a crafty little trick in the statistics. Leaving aside the murder, which is statistically irrelevant (and it's the rarer white on black type), the bigger picture offered by black lives matter and accepted uncritically by the media and everyone else presumably hinges at least partly on the following statistics that I see quite often: Unarmed shootings, armed shootings and deaths in custody are all about 2:1 white to black. OK, factor in the demographic that the black population is one sixth of the size of the white population, and this changes it to about 3:1 black to white over-representation. These figures are what all the media are quoting. Fine, what's the problem with that you say? Well, they're missing out the other factor completely, which is the relative proportions of criminals in each demographic. This makes all the difference but how do we arrive at this figure? Just check the US prison population percentages. These are the figures from 2013, I don't expect they've changed significantly since: Black 37% White 32% (The remainder are Hispanics and others). Call them equal for simplicity. And of course these percentages will reflect the active criminal percentages as well. So what does this tell us, considering the demographic proportion is 1:6? Either up to 5 out of 6 blacks are getting framed for crimes they didn't commit, even after going through due process with a court, a jury etc. Or else the percentage of black criminals in the black community is six times that of the comparative white percentage. This disparity thus completely cancels out the demographic effect, as there are six times more black criminals per million blacks, say, than white criminals per million whites. So police interactions in all these scenarios, as they are mainly with criminals (such as someone fleeing from the police without stopping when warned, storming of a suspect's house maybe involving similar-race associates), are directed at a criminal population consisting of 50% white and 50% black. So looking at these shooting or death in custody figures again, and as the police are dealing with an equal number of black and white criminals, one would expect the ratios to be 1:1 black : white. But they're not, they're actually all about 2 to 1 against whites, so in fact the police are twice as likely to shoot an armed or unarmed white criminal or let him die in custody than a black criminal. No-one is pointing out this simple fact, which I find deeply disturbing, this is truly Orwellian manipulation of thought that is being hammered into us, and we're supposed to live in a free and open society. And all this dishonesty to placate BLM, who have not got our best interests at heart, to put it mildly.

I'm guessing there probably aren't that many phone lines, maybe in the region of 1 or 2, so for any popular coin, you might not have much of a chance of making a reservation. Besides' if the person on the telephone is bidding for someone else a lot or two before they won't have time to phone you before your coin comes up. Hopefully these are the worst case scenarios, I've never phone bid personally, so good luck!

heard one on Better Call Saul the other day: What have sperm and a lawyer got in common? One in three million has a chance of becoming a human being.

Yes, that's right, people who disagree with Trump lose their freedom. I can't personally think of an example of that. Anyway, are you saying he should have called in the National Guard to stop this rampage? - if so I'd agree with you on that one.

Well, I hope it wasn't made for collectors! I can't do photos unfortunately but I bought both this and a Wm and Mary Tin halfpenny fake off ebay in 2007 for £40, which considering they had been sold for £140 hammer along with a poor genuine Wm and Mary tin 1/2 at Gregory II (Baldwins Auction 47; lot 353, Sept 2006), was a good bargain I thought, as these were the two interesting pieces. It is photographed in the Baldwins catalogue though, if you've got access to that. The Wm and Mary fake, also from false dies, is a much better effort, though still crude - the reverse only of this is shown. It's the only JII tin fake I've ever come across and very crude. The plug has been inserted after striking as can be seen from the large amount of solder around it. You can see one reversed N in the photograph of "NIA". I would think it's contemporary, considering its crudeness and thinness (no edge reading), and it had been in Baldwins basement for probably many decades. The Wm and Mary had an old ticket with it saying "from false dies".

I've got a James II tin farthing forgery - so amateurish that that N's are back to front ie the die sinker forgot that the lettering reverses on the actual coin.

I wonder how far away the noise could be heard when Steve suggested putting his surname first...…..

If that's the case the word that comes to mind is bargepole.

Was he married before? - he's no spring chicken.

B of St J were too coy to show it's real size in the catalogue. So I hope the buyer didn't get a shock when they found out it wasn't florin sized!

The N/Z went for £1400 hammer (>£1800 all in). The recent Bamford/Spink one made £1200, so maybe that was a better deal. Hard to tell, as I didn't see the DNW one in the flesh.

My pleasure - it's a very good example of that variety, as I'm sure you spotted. The bright 1861 F33 was originally mine as well, but went in via a dealer. One seller got a good price for that N/Z - nearly £2K all in. Still, a nice coin.

I'm not a fan of commission bidding, as it's funny how many times I used to get the coin at my maximum (I'm not naming any specific auction house of course, let's just say one of the worst offenders must have thought I was a gullible pommy).

Spink had a name for this in their Insider mag the other day - the attitude of: blow this - I'm going to treat myself! I can understand that.

Yes, it was a joke. Weak I know! Perhaps I should have said, as there might be an ebay seller out there getting out the domestos as we speak......

Yes, I hope vendors are taking reasonable precautions before sending coins out, like giving them a quick spray with bleach.

The Ingrams may have many nice coins but to describe the following 1806 gilt penny as "AFDC, die flaw Obv sl marks" £275, is incredible. And that's putting it politely. I think this coin was sold by Spink for not much in the early 2000's as "with a severe gouge and associated scratching" or words to that effect. Which it obviously has. The bottom line is not reassuring words (which may be wonderfully written but cost nothing) but a good recommendation from established or experienced collectors for instance on this forum. Can any experienced forum person give such a recommendation?

In terms of £/surface area, this must be the most expensive milled British non-gold coin.

You should have said! - I've just put one into DNW - it's ex-Spink auction Sept 2016 and is a nice looking coin, though it has two scratches on the Queen's neck. I don't know whether it's got the divot or not, don't know whether it's observable on the photo. https://www.spink.com/lot/16006002396 Edit - I can't see it on the photo.

Flattened in some sort of mechanical press maybe? Spink sold an ex-Peck GII old-head "penny" once, ie a halfpenny which they said had been squeezed in a press. I couldn't see any distortion of the design in the photo. The seller gives no weight for the coin - conveniently missing from the description. If it was on a very heavy flan, now that would be more interesting.

Yes, that's the one. Sorry I've been off the computer until now.

Good one on the F76, grab these best known examples of rarities if money allows, otherwise you may regret it ever after. I still occasionally rue the day my computer cocked up as I was about to bid for I think the finest F7 with virtually full orange glow (not streaky as often seen) at the Spink Dec 2015 sale. At the time I thought I'd never see another one like that and of course I haven't since. It went for £1100 hammer which was written up in Coin News as a high price, but I think it was a snip for whoever got it.

They're finally going now - nearly an hour down "due to streaming problems". I notice the 1847 penny of Hyram's lots went somewhat above estimate. Well I never.....