Rob

It was a coin, but now is a piece of art. Someone has removed the reverse and engraved the design seen. It started out in life as either a penny, halfpenny or farthing. Approx. diameters would be 30, 25 or 20mm respectively

Coin News. £1 each, 12 for £10. Probably find some more when sorted. Coin News list May 2016.docx

If we go it will be the price paid for trying to fudge the issue. The aspiration towards 'ever closer union' has a practical end point - full union. But given the EU is now 60 years old and nobody has dared to suggest full political union which is a pre-requisite for the Euro project to succeed, it ain't gonna happen. It's the train that politicians want to travel on because of the money it dispenses to them and their pet projects, but never want it to arrive. Should the unthinkable happen and full union occur, they would have to sacrifice their power and freebies arising from national government obsolescence. The EU is essentially unreformable, pandering as it does to the egos of the political classes. What is required is a trading block, with national sovereignty returned. If you consider the Greek situation, they are under the control of the EU commission and the IMF, with no way to trade out of their problems due to a reduced asset base. That could happen here too given the only pots left to tax are pensions and property. Ultimately, if you don't allow freedom to trade and make balance of payments a priority, every pound spent by the government taken from savings is money that can't be used to earn money, so it really does matter whether we buy goods from abroad, or source them internally. Nobody is suggesting it would be an easy next few years, but the EU has already decided to go down a course of doing nothing. Of course every country cannot run a surplus, but the current EU structure magnifies both problems and success. That is why German goods sell abroad so well, the Euro's value being pegged back by the weaker countries. But the converse is also true, with the Euro being too strong for the weak countries to trade their way out. Every country in Europe has one hand tied behind its back. It is also incumbent on people from this country to support their national businesses wherever possible. Cross-border trade has to occur because nobody is self-sufficient in everything. National governments can't veto imports from within the EU, but nobody can tell national citizens that they have to buy foreign goods. It's a choice that we could all make for the better given we are only going to pay people to sit on their backsides if they aren't working. Think about it.

http://www.royalmintmuseum.org.uk/about-us/contact-us/index.html

This is quite reasonable by eBay standards http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Rare-One-Pound-Coin-1-Capital-Cities-Shield-Floral-2010-2016-Uncirculated-/380918524013?var=&hash=item58b083686d:m:mM0yL206L6ndJzwOAI3tn6w £5 including postage is only going to leave the seller with somewhere short of half that after costs for paypal, ebay, 2nd signed for large letter, jiffy bag etc, so I think you'll struggle to find cheaper.

Coin Monthlies have gone. Thanks Matt. Coins and Medals are still available. Also available, Coin Yearbooks for 1969-1976, useful for historical pricing data. All in good condition, £2 each. I also have an unwieldy quantity of Coin News from the 1990s onwards, some complete years, some duplicated. I'll sort a list out in due course, in the interim please let me know if you need any specifics.

Ok, I'll send you details.

F&F? I know what F'ing & B'ing is. Have to use the wife's account unless you can do a transfer to the bank from a UK bank account.

Remarkably only £20.

Updated list of Coin Monthlies £1 each, 5 for £4 or £50 the lot (104 issues). £10 postage (for the lot). Coins & Medals £1 each, 5 for £4 or £10 the lot (13 issues). £3 postage. Coin Monthly May 2016.docx

Not to mention 'edge knocks' below the title, and 'no edge knocks' in the description. I agree with Peter.

That's useful. Thanks.

Golden rule is 'If in doubt, leave it out'. That applies to all walks of life, coin purchases included.

Grade is an opinion, attribution is not, or at least shouldn't be. You can argue the case if the grade is wildly out, but half a grade either way, not a chance.

Most of the time they do. Saleroom notices are usually no more than a handful on a total of a thousand or more lots. Given the extensive use of copy and paste, it's surprising there aren't more mistakes made.

Umm. That should be you're, not your. Spirit of Peck here..........

Why? You're human, they're human. Nobody has a monopoly on getting it right, nor on getting it wrong. That's why you have saleroom notices.

P995. Just have to keep your eyes open. They do come up occasionally, but will cost because they are popular.

Correct. The raised dots are only found with 11 leaves and not very common. You'll struggle to find a mint state one. The coin posted was Adams 36.

First coin, P1132 with 10 leaves points down; second coin, P1133A with 11 leaves points out. P1133 also has 11 leaves and points out, the difference being incuse dots on the rock for the 1132 & 33, while 1133A has raised dots on the rock behind the shield.

Tie ribbon

Wonderful, thank you. It was obviously not gold - too light, and the guy who picked them up in China 25 years ago threw them in with the rest of the things I bought off him. I suspect he would have remembered if he had paid gold prices.

No chance.

You don't have to spend huge amounts on them. You can pick one up for a few hundred pounds. Silver, aluminium and gold obviously cost more, so here you are starting around the 2K mark in mint state. Anyway, how can anyone not like one of these? http:// The early and late strikings are usually determined as a result of die rust spots being on some things and not others, even though struck from the same dies.

A coin struck by W J Taylor using dies acquired at the sale of the Soho Mint inventory in 1848 which he subsequently used struck in the period 1862 - 1885, frequently muling to produce previously unknown combinations. For many years these were pooh-poohed, but in the last 40 years have become accepted and now sell for sums approaching those realised for true Soho products. Some coins such as the nude Britannias only exist because of his activities, the die being acquired in the unhardened state in 1848. This term is used to differentiate the coins from those struck at Soho, which are themselves divided into early and late. The former being contemporary with the date on the coin, the latter struck at Soho using the same dies but at a later date.