Rob

Elizabeth Pirie did a lot of work on these and suggested a chronology using die links, but any interpretation is open to amendment based on subsequent evidence or alternative views. I think it more a case of best fit, with the moneyers associated with the higher silver content coins coming at the beginning of the sequence and then take it from there. I know I have found a couple of pairs not listed in her book which made me question the chronological assignment, but generally speaking, most of what is written holds true. I can recommend her 1996 book published by Galata as it covers over 2000 die pairs. There is also another covering the coins in Newcastle published in 1982. The 1996 book costs £80 from Galata, so not prohibitively expensive. The inner circle is found on both early and later coins, but Wulfred as a moneyer is skewed towards the later period.

Assuming it refers to THE and not a Brian Dawson, then it should be relatively recent. Bear in mind Brian came from Bolton, so a home town interest.

Your taps must be made of pretty hard metal!

Apparently a grade of Poor-1 is sought after, as a two kills the novelty value. However, in this instance I suspect it might be body-bagged and given a details grade for graffiti - this having more relief than the remaining original detail whilst at the same time highlighting the only attractive design feature.

Get her enthused about pennies. Mine likes Saxon pennies - which is a bonus, extending to Brownie points when it is particularly aesthetically pleasing. Things of a more numismatic interest often result in a furrowed brow.

Hope springs eternal

My car radio doesn't have long wave & Medium only goes down to 530ish. Best not talk about tellies. I was going to throw ours out on the grounds that Pink Floyd's '13 channels of shit on the TV to choose from' accurately described the situation, but was overruled by the wife. Don't have Sky.

no picture

This shilling was sealed in the bottom of a Georgian drinking vessel until 10 years ago. No sign of toning here after 250+ years. The same would apply to anything sealed in anaerobic conditions such as hoard coins or any other metal detector find.

With 7 jewels on the crown, apostrophe stops and 6 harp strings, I'm going to stick my neck out and say Richmond 1g. P204 with mm double rose on the obverse only

I don't think we can say anything about W3 halfpenny dates (or legends) that could be considered abnormal given the variety of fonts and character sizes used. Look at the size of the 0 used on some 1701s, or the Roman vs Italic 1s. It isn't limited to farthing and halfpenny size characters either, because there is a 1699 (Nicholson 120) with a ludicrously large inverted V for A. If anything is abnormal, it is a coin without inconsistencies.

I think you might be right. I went for 8 based on no visible top to the 6 and its position relative to the exergue line, but having spent half an hour looking, the limited number of 1698s I can find all have a smaller top loop to the 8 than seen on the 9 and it is quite a thin line when compared to the 6/9 loop. Given the limited striking period in 1698, the low output and by extension the limited number of dies employed, it would therefore seem more likely to be 1696.

The introduction of 20 over cricket has completely messed up a lot of players' ability to discipline themselves to the 5 day game. Admittedly England's first innings was crap on steroids, but when you see a seasoned professional batsman standing virtually still, yet waving his bat almost to a wide position in order to touch the ball, then you know their mind is set is 20 over cricket - i.e. get at least a single off every ball because every dot ball is a waste, we only have 20 overs per innings and a full 10 wickets to lose - should get there with a wicket or two remaining. I suspect the differences between the 5 day match versus the limited over run chase is probably affecting all batsmen because the bowlers have essentially the same task whatever the length of the game. Smith and Labuschagne aside, the Aussie batting has hardly excelled itself.

I left Wakefield just after they were 9 down and needing a miracle. Commentary was on digital Sports Extra, so didn't know what was going on whilst driving home as the car has a steam powered radio. Got back home and they needed 9 to win. Wow. I don't care what they do now as long as it involves some major surgery to the top order. Bowling isn't a problem. Batting is a disgrace if you ignore this one-off innings.

Never seen one, but the temptation for someone to make both double obverse and reverse is quite high. A practically unlimited supply of raw material at essentially zero cost to experiment with can only provide an added incentive given the prices seen for the Satin and signed versions of the normal coin.

1698

Nothing obvious.

Thanks Jerry, Mike & Chris. I can see that it is a completely different beast to a forum, but based on what I see, I have to be somewhat cynical about the level of control a person has over their membership. If I search RP Coins and Facebook, I get a link to my own account despite never having had an account, so this must have been made by Facebook and without login details have no control over it, but presumably you can all join my group if you so desire. I also get referrals from Facebook, as my website tells me that people viewed an average of 7.2 pages and stayed for less than a minute using this route. So much for being in control. Still, each to their own I guess. Better let the conversation revert to the original topic.

Your name is 1949 threepence - should be 1949 penny. Everything is not as it seems. My point about joining groups is that if you don't know anyone outside of social media, you are unlikely to be invited into a social circle randomly unless already acquainted. I'm not sure I or anyone else would want to accept a Facebook invitation to join given their ulterior motives. Because Facebook blocks those who aren't allowed access, this has to be the biggest hurdle to getting new faces. At least on this forum you can post as a guest in some areas, and register as a member without being automatically blocked from communicating. Although social media is unquestionbly more popular than a forum, I still fail to see how it can provide the ease of access of the latter.

I always assumed that it was so for historical reasons, i.e. the first was a low grade coin which provided a benchmark price for 'finest known/highest graded', but following subsequent submissions, it dawned on the slabbing community there was more than one example out there, and they really weren't so rare after all! As the whole question of slabbing is an attempt to commoditise coins, or provide a recommended retail price such that they can be bought unseen, the lower graded but higher priced items are waiting for the market to catch up because repricing is rarely downwards and if done would p' off those who buy as an investment leaving the TPGs open to litigation.

Problem sorted

Is this really so surprising? Your somewhat diversionary handle replied to terrysoldpennies in the previous post for the simple reason that you are both into pennies. Surely this forum is society and its habits on a local scale? People who collect coins will migrate to a collective centre just as any other interest group would do. Certain geographical areas become known for their ethnic mix because they are full of people who are culturally similar. The Eisteddfod is mainly frequented by Welsh people. So when you have to 'friend' (I think the phrase is?) someone to join a Facebook group, it is not surprising they have the same interests as you because that is how you became acquainted in the first place and why they were allowed to join the group. I know this is a chicken and egg situation, but like-minded people will always find their own. The real problem is finding people who are not part of a social group and integrating them, and we all know that many collectors are fairly reclusive.

With the detail being incuse on both dies, any impression from clashing will be raised on the die. This will result in depressed detail on a coin. These new areas of detail will also suffer from wear and you can have clashing on more than one occasion, so it is difficult to say exactly where in the life of the die something has occurred.

Clashed dies. The lines are from the drapery between the shield and right knee. The drapery towards the back of Britannia can be seen between the ties and the back of the neck. These marks are seen frequently and is due to the dies coming together when there is no blank between them. The harder of the two dies will make an impression on the softer one and so depending on which is harder can be seen on both obverses and reverses. The London Coins reverse also shows a faint sign of die clash emanating from the knee, being the section of bust from the chin up to the lips,plus there is more die clash behind Britannia. There is a bit of exergue between the bust and V plus a bit of shield between the ties and terminal D.

Thanks Pete