Rob

I presume they went straight to Gary. No idea if anyone is continuing the project. He died too soon. Always good for a chat.

Sort of related. I was chatting one night with GC and he mentioned that he got a lot of 1960 crowns from the bank when they were issued as part of the money drawn out for wage packets for the company workers. His father was not amused and instructed him to pay them out asap, and don't do it again. So I suppose they might have circulated anecdotally, but never widely adopted.

South Manchester Numismatic Soc. - as per the title. It was good. Kevin is on the committee that assesses designs and puts forward designs to the King for approval as well as being curator of the Mint Museum. His interests are a bit different to those of his predecessor, Graham Dyer, who was a complete master of the RM milled earlier issues when it came to overall knowledge. I'm not sure he has been replaced with an equal in this respect. If you were thinking of attending, then presumably you would have to be local. Why not join us. New members are always welcome, as it is like pulling hens teeth persuading people to meet face to face and discuss topics rather than on social media. There is a good broad knowledge base at the club, but that not withstanding, it is impossible to achieve and maintain critical mass to allow for presentations every meeting. We had an EGM three months ago where we decided to reduce the number of meetings to one a month due to the difficulty in getting enough speakers to fill the schedule, whereas we currently meet twice a month when there is more daylight. Most members are older, and some not in the best of health. We lost one 6 weeks ago, unfortunately.

Short notice and apologies for this, but just to let people know that Kevin Clancy from the Royal Mint will be giving a talk on 'Art and Design in Coinage' to the society this evening in the upstairs function room at the Nursery Inn, 258 Green Ln, Stockport SK4 2NA starting at 8pm prompt (ask at the bar). If anybody is in the area and wants to attend, please feel free to come along and introduce yourself. You don't have to be a member to attend, though obviously could consider this for the future. As guest speakers do this of their own volition, it is important that talks are supported. Excellent beers available (Hydes)

Parallel straight raised lines are indicative of die polishing. Single non-linear lines are more likely to be cracks in the die surface as it starts to break up.

The second I in BRITANNIAR vertical centre line is pointing to a gap between two teeth rather than at a tooth. Suggest you buy a copy of Davies where all will be explained, plus all the other pointings for all denominations of silver (including Cu-Ni) from 1816 to 1980.

You can add religion to that in many cases

Yes and no. Whilst the world has generally come to accept that imperialism is a bad thing, when the war of ideologies is between fighting for the right to make your own decisions free of 3rd party political interference on one side and a mindset that hates anything not like you or subservient to you, and is intent on your destruction, then I know which side I'm on. People of all countries should have the right to elect a government that reflects their desires, but when that decision is manipulated by outside forces to get the outcome they want, a line has to be drawn. Citizens of the US for example might now be waking up to this point and reflecting. Democracy is a very fragile thing.

Thanks Stuart. It wasn't difficult. We would have taken someone in, government help or not, just as we would have done had the Chinese forced out a lot of people from Hong Kong with nowhere to go. All that's required is a moral compass opposed to dictatorships and repression and a willingness to put your money where your mouth is. Any country such as Russia or China who naturally migrate towards the genocide of cultural and ethnic diverse groups have to be opposed as a matter of principle if you value life. Ukraine are doing the heavy lifting on behalf of Europe willingly because they know Russia and have no desire to revisit the past. Now it's time to properly reciprocate and give them the support they need.

And back to the original topic. Today marks the 3rd anniversary of Svitlana landing at Manchester after fleeing Kherson. Time has passed very quickly and I will say it's been a pleasure, with not a single argument arising from her staying with us. Good mannered, clean, we all muck in and I don't think it could have gone better. A few things have happened which were unwelcome, such as her father dying last year, but was unable to get back for the funeral. And this year her mother has finally had enough of the drones and bombing of her village (Bilozirka) not too far from Kherson and gone to live with Svitlana's sister. 3 years on and nothing has changed. The Russians are still lobbing 3 or 4 dozen shells a day into Kherson and drone dropping on anything that moves. They don't want peace. It's Russia. Please Europe, wake up now that Trump has shown his true colours and support Ukraine to the necessary level. We can afford it and Ukraine would make a more reliable friend than the US in the current political climate. Ignoring Trump would not have much of a cost, given his lack of support for the cause, and we can all hope that once he has gone, some sanity will return to US politics, with support for democratic policies and countries. As an astute businessman, he should be embracing Ukraine's offer to purchase a couple of Patriot systems, but his loyalty to Putin and all he stands for has scuppered that one.

Alan's son Lief has a large part to play these days. Maybe that's the reason. Still, not had a problem with them though. I bought a token in the last sale which had a spot of verdigris, so he offered me a better one instead at the same price. Very happy.

I think the only definitely attributable coins to Edward V are the angels. TWW made a good case for this.

To demonstrate my earlier statement, here is a Charles I type 4 crown with mm. R in brackets over P in brackets. Stress marks everywhere, but a rare mark, so forgiven to some extent. All (R) crowns are over (P) - see Coopers BNJ article.

Anyway, that's a shilling. What about the halfcrown? You tend to see them more on larger flans, which is probably a reflection of the greater difficulty in getting the correct and even temperature conditions across a large flan than a small one

Probably insufficiently annealed. Stress cracks happen quite often and I tend to ignore them if not too obtrusive, or the coin is rare enough to override them.