oldcopper

Congratulations! Textbook stuff. Let's run through it. "Deniers" - great start. Shoehorned that into the first sentence ie anyone who looks at something from a different angle to you or has a different opinion is a "denier". Then the made-up (as usual) amazement that people are pointing out..., well what are they pointing out? You ignore the elephant in the room and despite looking very closely I can't see the word China anywhere in your post. But where's "Daily Mail" - you used it last time but missed a trick here. That killer riposte is taking a break I see. I tell you what amazes me - that anyone in their right mind can assert that the intermittent renewable energy sources of wind and solar (not nuclear, but that's going nowhere fast at present) can in any way be a substitute for fossil fuels. You can't run any industry, especially heavy industry, on an intermittent energy source, much of society's needs will depend on a high carbon-footprint manufacture and installation technology which supplies low and fickle electricity, and these solar panels and wind turbines will last 15-20 years then be chucked away. Fridges, ovens, building heating - all required reliable energy. And you won't be able to drive anywhere if last night wasn't windy enough. Or is every household going to have a massive toxic Chinese-produced battery the size of a chest of drawers to give stability of energy supply? Eco-friendly or what! But don't worry, massive improvements in renewables technology will come along and save us just in the nick of time - we just have to take your word for that, but even your illusory massive improvements won't change the whole flawed concept of renewables I'm afraid. Nuclear excepted again, yet 30 years of non-investment into nuclear has buried that one for the foreseeable future. But here comes Bill Gates, nuclear plant manufacturer par excellence......he's got an idea you say? "I'd rather be proved wrong on climate" - no you wouldn't and you're quite prepared to sacrifice our economy and standard of living in a pointless gesture to give you the satisfaction that "at least we tried". so hang the consequences, so long as your media and government primed conscience is satisfied. That's the important thing of course. If any of the politicans or XR idiots actually really believed in the link between CO2 and global warming, wouldn't they be banging down China and India's doors to express their terror at what the world's major polluters were ramping up. That they couldn't care less says it all.

Sorry, "very little way", not "very little was". Another worry is that high oil and gas prices might actually mean higher CO2 production, not lower, as poorer countries switch to cheaper coal, a less efficient and more polluting energy source that emits far more CO2 for the heat it produces.

"Never was a truer word spoken"!!? If so there must be a pattern that indicates this is not a freak event. Have our previous Summers been getting this hotter and drier? Is there a long-term gradient/trend which has not been matched before? And was 1976 a freak event? - yes it was, but if that happened today the end of the world would be nigh! You can see the desperation in Peckris in trying to ascribe everything to climate change. It's like a religious cult. If the next few summers are as hot and dry, or hotter and dryer that would indicate a pattern, but it may just be a cyclic weather phenomeon anyway. It might, just might be down to man-made CO2 emissions, but we have very little was of confirming that. But a pattern will have to happen before anyone can pronounce on this. Secondly, p*ssing in the wind is the correct analogy. China is increasing its coal use by 300 million tons this year to just over 3 billion tons. In 2021 India consumed over a billion tons of coal, the USA 0.5 billion. Our coal use last year was 8.6 million tons by way of comparison. Work out the percentage that is of the others!

it's all based on computer modelling, none of which has been even remotely right in the past. The arctic isn't ice-free yet despite all the forecasts from "climate experts" and polar bear populations are doing well, despite the forecasts again, the Maldives hasn't sunk yet........ It's like Neil Ferguson from Imperial College (donation at least £150 million courtesy of the B&M Gates Foundation). Nobody could be more wrong more often, yet he's still in a job, wheeled on by the awestruck BBC now and again. Yet the computer code he undertook his Covid modelling on was found to be old and deeply flawed. But he did get the sack temporarily, because he went to see his girlfriend during lockdown. Just like the government, all these experts are quite happy to break their own rules, because they know the real risk ie they aren't in their mid eighties and/or suffering from serious co-morbidities....

I notice that some of their estimates are remarkably low.

It's all up in the air and c ompletely non-transparent. Say your maximum bid is £800 for a £5-600 estimate. If you get it for £600 you might think they're being honest and you've done well. However, in an open auction you might have got it for £400. Who's to say anyone bid £400 - £550? So who flippin' knows. The fact they're carrying on this blind bidding is a bit worrying as well - it obviously suits them. A lot of the Noble Numismatics copper went for way below estimate, but I don't think LC would allow that to happen. They'll pump it up to at least low estimate if the sole bid maximum is above that.

It's OK, we'll just have to rely on the honesty of the auctioneers! Which is a completely unknown factor behind closed doors. They will have completely free rein to do as they like. So not all bids will win at their maximum of course, that's too obvious, but who's to know how honest their final price is?

I thought the ending was complete rubbish, considering we'd been teased for all those episodes about him escaping. It was just nonsense and none of the built-up expectation they'd stoked up over all those episodes was resolved. Sorry, my one and only comment on the Prisoner!

Oh just shaddapayour face!

Yes they were - both the 1825/6 and the 1853 copper proof 1d to 1/4d's were all seemingly struck with full lustre, a few remain with pretty good lustre as above. Many have toned beautifully, as copper proofs can do. However, the only really full lustre copper proofs extant are from Soho. The James Watt collection (Morton and Eden 2002) had some incredible1806 copper proofs and 1805 Irish copper proofs, definitely a class above the Royal Mint ones. Brilliant fiery mirrored orange red. A set of the 1806 copper penny to farthing (along with the sets of the gilt and bronzed analogues) reappeared on the market a few years ago.

Hey, don't rub it in!

Yes, couldn't resist showing it! - bought Stacks Bowers 2013 for ~£1800. Bought it with the following 1841 colon: https://www.noonans.co.uk/auctions/archive/lot-archive/results/272162/ That only cost about £200, but I sold it to a dealer friend for not much more than that - I had a better example already (the LCA 2009 Roland Harris one) and bought it as it was cheap. He stuck it into DNW and got £850 hammer for it! Both these coins came from the "Demarete" collection, According to Stacks Bowers he bought much of his stuff in London from the mid-50's onwards. Coincidentally Peck's P.1480 was sold in SNC mid-60's and described as having a mark on the face, which this one does as well. So I wonder if both this coin and the stunner 1853 were both ex-Peck, as in the same SNC list was Peck's 1853 copper proof penny (FDC as all his coins were graded in SNC - "all coins FDC unless stated otherwise"). The photo of the proof in Stacks Bower's archive is the same sort of appearance as the Verene specimen, which just shows how flattering the PCGS photography is!

i like this one! The 65RB - takes some time to load the full image. https://www.pcgs.com/valueview/victoria-1838-1901/1853-1d-s-3948-rb/3946?sn=202429&h=pop

I think there are mitigating factors re the copper and bronzed proofs. This is a facet of buying from Noble, for example their silver always photographs well and shows colour, lovely blueishness in many of them,, gold is gold of course, one assumes good brilliance in proofs and the colour is normally not too variable. But the copper photography is in my view understated. Not the definition of course - that's top rate, but the general appearance. As it's Australia, no-one (except Australian buyers near to Sydney) will likely see them in the flesh and thus have anything more to go on than a single photograph taken in incidental light, so the only way to ascertain any colourful toning or brilliance is through the auctioneer's description which will always be subjective to an extent. So are you going to end up with a matt brown dull bronzed proof or a colourful or brilliant example? It's a bit of a lottery unless you know the coin from a previous sale. Interesting how the two coppers to most buck the trend were both copper proof farthings, 1826 and 1853 (erroneously labelled as W.W raised), $1900 and $2600.

I expect those are "educated guesses" - take the proof set issue (known) then add on whatever you think for the individual issues. Unless the Royal Mint has any specific total production records, which I doubt, that's all it will be.

Thanks - very interesting!

I'd love to know why all these temperature readings are taken at busy airports - large amount of hot tarmac, plenty of jet streams providing localised warming. It's almost like they want to get as high a temperature reading as possible. Heathrow and Gatwick (Charlwood). Coningsby is an active RAF base as well. The cynic might wonder if they were deliberately wanting to record as high a temperature as possible. I was reading that higher altitude temperature measuring stations have been closed over the last few decades and most if not all the readings are now obtained in the vicinity of busy airports. If so, there may be a good reason, but I wonder what it is. Any ideas?

Wrong scene!

Thinking about it, two scenarios occur to me; either the copper proofs were made before the bronzed proofs and this die polish line only appeared then, or the toning has hidden the hairline from view.

Strange it's not apparent on the copper proof. Worth further research as they say. My currency has the noticeable fake ribbons as you mention, probably more evident than yours.

Bingo, you can just see it on my specimen's photo from the LCA Roland Harris auction:

Definitely on my currency and the BM's bronzed proof. And also on the bronzed proof sold by Colin Cooke several years ago. I would have thought that as the colon variety is always presumed to be a mono-die variety (after striking the proofs), it should be on all. It may be that yours are later strikings or more worn. It is a very thin hairline.

Yes, nice coins from the proof die - there is a straight hairline from B's arm/trident join to the end of her further away knee on both proof and currency.

Not really relevant. The twin pillars that are going to do in our economy, and are already doing so, are Net Zero and the massive government borrowing/money printing due to lockdowns and furlough, which is devaluing our currency, and inflation was already on a steep upward trajectory before the Ukraine war. Both of the above I'm sure you were and are fully in favour of, and how are our fellow European economies doing - booming? The powerhouse of Europe, Germany in an energy crisis of its own "green" making and about to tip into recession, according to economists.

The Baldwins large-rose example coming up next week, cleaned but eye-catching in the photo, is at £1200 when I looked yesterday.