argentumandcoins

You can pretty much boil it down to the fact that all wars are started because man is by his nature a destructive, violent, beast.

If Di Matteo has any sense, he'll get out of Chelsea whilst still on a high. After all after that performance, the team isn't likely to do better next season, and the expectation will be that they should do so. Then there's the fact that football management is probably the most poisonous in the UK, with the Chelsea job up there as possibly the most toxic. Add these together and, if it was me, I'd be off to another management job in the premier league, hopefully to win something and then move again, and so on. If he stays, then I don't see him there very long, despite this last season. Good points, though now that Abramovich has got what he most wanted all along, perhaps he will be less trigger happy? (And maybe the Pope will become a Protestant ). But Di Matteo is welcome to take over at Liverpool on a temporary trial basis - maybe he'll win the league for us! With the current squad at Liverpool the only man that could win you the title was nailed to a cross nearly 2000 years ago

Maybe you should PM Arry Redbonce and ask him

Ah, that's more my thing. Since I barely have enough money for coins let alone classic cars (Dinky or otherwise) I collect rubbish ephemera and oddities. Bottle caps (of bottles I have emptied myself usually!), fossils, beach pebbles, shells, bits of bone, religious medallions and talismans, four leaved clover and stuff people have thrown away or that catch my eye and imagination. Sometimes I make them into .. assembages. Other times, they just sit in a box. That's my man! Are you sure you're not living in a caravan too? Looks a tad hippy to me! Looks more like the all seeing eye of the funny handshake crew to me.

I don't know whether it's my imagination or not, but to me, stylus on vinyl sounds better than a CD, or downloaded track played through a PC. Deeper richer & more lifelike tones My collection pieces other than coins, are decorative plates. They're plastered on every wall all over the house. It's only a small house, so I'm running out of room. Not your imagination - I have a subscription to MOJO and each month their featured interview asks "L.P., CD, or MP3?" - nine times out of ten the answer is LP. The most hated format is CD by a nose. The vinyl must be played through valves rather than hissing transistors. Obsessive!! As a child of the 60s, when hissing transistors became all the rage, I can assure you that vinyl still spanks its rivals I'm with you here regarding records. I built up a collection of about 200 vinyl LPs, eventually found that the stereo I had was on it's last legs and bought a new system. Didn't bother with a record deck and so I'm left with a pile of LPs. All in pretty good nick as I wasn't careless with them when they were bought and I'm amazed at the going prices for some of them. For example I have some early stones stuff, like 'Between the Buttons' and 'Aftermath' and these can go for around the £60 each mark. Ditto The Beatles and some of the other early rock material like the Who. There's a vinyl record specialist shop next to where my other half works part time, and they have some really interesting old and new material, and they have a phenomenal knowldge base. As for other other interests, I have a Volvo P1800, but that's just a labour of love, not part of a collection. My other main interest is a Yamaha Motif XS synthsiser, which I have learned to use and have produced several songs on. Eventually, I want to get enough material together to produce a full blown album - top of the charts here I come. My stuff is my own style and as a result, and in keeping with my personal vintage, I call it the 'mature retro' genre! There's something about modern styles, using an older person's themes and Stratocasters that works for me. I have My Generation, the original Brunswick release, which was a chart album. I was utterly gobsmacked to see that the latest Record Collector price for it (in mint) is £400 !! Religion is the cancer in society, continuing to foster warfare and a host of other ills under a feeble veneer of legitimacy. When will we all wake up to reality? Most of us have which is why we tend to be tolerant and indifferent to religion on the whole. The big problem with all religions is they will never acknowledge that another one has a good idea. Everything is black and white, for us or against us. It is the root cause of immigrant minorities failing to integrate and often the fundamental reason behind racial tension. Although not the full story, when a religion forbids you to inter-marry without the outsider adopting the other's religion, you have just ensured another generation of resentment by outsiders and another course of brickwork added to the wall. There are people who bridge the divide, but they tend to be in the minority and are frequently helped by a degree of affluence. Well, quite. Except for Quakers. Oh, and Buddhists. And Menonites, the Ba'hai, Sikhs, many branches of Hinduism, Taoism, Unitarians, Jains, Sufis, ... um, shall I go on? Theology is an area best left to Theologians. I was going to study Horology but found I did not have the time for it.

Lockdales is okay for me I am fairly disorganised myself (office like a bombsite) so the random placing doesn't stress me out.

Idiots, they are drawn to me like a moth to a candle. "how rare is my undated twenty pence worth? I just paid £45 for it on ebay" etc etc

Unless, of course, you are an English teacher.

Interesting that their letter to you states "breakdown of machinery" while the actual Report states "fully occupied with gold and silver [issues]". I wonder where the modern Mint gets its information about "breakdown" from? I'd hazard a guess from the 1875 report. The text says that the 1876 coins were contracted out because the equipment was fully occupied striking silver and gold. The number of presses at the Tower mint would have to be investigated, but is likely to have been a minimum of half a dozen, so if a couple of them were unavailable, then sub-contracting the copper would be the logical option security-wise. Also, the Heaton mint was regularly striking coins on the same size blanks, so familiarity with the product wasn't an issue. There were a lot of halfcrowns and shillings coming off the press in 1874 onwards. How long this upsurge in demand lasted I don't know because I don't have the records, but thinking about it, the equipment probably broke down due to the excesses of the previous two years because there was no time for maintenance and a lot of coins produced. That makes logical sense. I wonder where the 1875 100 tons comes from - the penny is rare so must we assume it is mostly made up from halfpennies and farthings? I know Heaton's farthing issue for 1875 was pretty sizeable Either that, or given that mintage records, for what they are worth, show 752,640 pennies being produced dated 1875 by Heaton, and 11,074,560 produced by Heaton in 1876, can we logically conclude that the contract started towards the end of 1875, continued into the new year, and the date of those coins produced after 1st January, was changed to 1876 ? 11 million was a high mintage for Victorian buns, and we know that for pennies at least, these are not from 1875. Heaton halfpennies and Farthings also indicate a high mintage from Heaton. The halfpennies showing a similar, though narrower ratio between 1875 and 1876, whereas the Farthings show the greater production from 1875. The mintage figures don't actually tell you how many were dated 1875 or 1876 or 1874 for that matter (if they were struck in 75), they are merely an output for the year. It would be entirely possible that a very high proportion of the 1875 coins were actually dated 1874 hence the scarcity of the 75H.

Thanks for the information Mike.

Steve if I had that sort of spare cash lying around I would probably spend £42k on wine, women and gambling, then just waste the £500 that was left over

Why Gary? Are you looking for a free holiday? :D

The big problem is that you would have to invest massively to make it worthwhile and that is a huge gamble. It is down about £130/ounce since it's December high of £1100. A £5k investment would therefore net approx £500 IF it hit the heights of late 2011. If it falls away you have maybe just blown £500. My own personal advice would be to take your £5k and try to buy a decent quality 5 Guinea if you want some gold. At least you would have something nice to admire and to a certain degree you would be protected against gambling on the futures market. As always, "your money, your call"

Very, in high grade, along with the 05 Halfcrown which is also faked in abundance. Whats more worrying is that John mentioned that the shilling was in someones collection for 10 years and he thought for all those 10 years it was genuine. We all assumed the Chinese has been at this for 4 or 5 years, but who knows where this one has come from. Did the seller tell you John? He couldn't recall due to the length of time he had held it.

What? I thought that was massive! I've only just realised it's being hung from the gallows! Female engraver then! If this sells for £300 I swear I will dig out my old engraver! Buy it for £109, wait a month (probably shipping time etc) and try to sell it on the same site for £300? If anybody pays it it's them as should be strung up by the nads!

Alan, you're right, I'm wrong. Laurie Bamford and Michael Gouby were/are wrong as well. The 1876 was struck at London and this is obviously the best example extant. Sorry for wasting your time. Daz if you want to sell it I'll put it through an auction with a £20-£30k estimate for you.

All men were created equal, it's just that some are more equal than others.

Peter if you want them I will gladly send you all I have at absolutely no charge (yes, I know I can spend the 2p and 1p). Who said I was a heartless git? Oh, yes, it was my ex (well all of them actually)

I can make out the entire right hand upright of the H, and the top half of the left. (I zoomed my screen.) Likewise. I zoomed in on the iMac and can see this fairly clearly. I guess the people who can't see it don't have Macs I can see it without anything. A definite area of discolouration underneath the date between the 7 and the 6. Tell tale mark of a rubbed away H daz if the coin is real get it xrayed it won't cost a lot, all they do on this site is take the piss.if you won't you can contact me it's alan - plantdav@gmail.com Alan, Who exactly is taking the Piss? I now make my living selling coins and working as an independant consultant for auction houses. I don't handle 200-300 coins a year, I average that number in a day. The coin has clearly been altered and then made to look distressed, that is obvious from the vertical smear mark showing down Britannias arm. If you want proof it is an attempt to decieve send it to me and I will pay the £50 submission cost to Robert Matthews to have him write a full report on why it is an altered coin. Sorry if you feel slighted in any way, that was not my intent. John.

I didn't think there was VAT payable on collectables, please tell me this is just Germany we're talking about? The buyer does not pay the VAT Stuart. UK dealers all work on the VAT global accounting and Margin Schemes. It means we cannot charge VAT to the customer or we end up paying the full rate on every penny we take in rather than on the profits we make. That's assuming that your dealer is VAT registered of course. No, I meant as a seller. In 1996 I had a little wobble with the tax man, and have played him at his own game ever since! If I as much sell a lightbulb to a neighbour, I factor in the wear on my shoes walking to his house, how much space it took up in my own home, to the toilet roll I wrapped it up in to delivery it safely to his door...profit .75p, expenses .76p! I am below the VAT threshold, but this doesn't always mean you're not affected by it. I had a scare for a moment, thinking there was a 7% figure I'd overlooked, that customs would come knocking for one day! Hopefully I'm right in thinking this is not applicable to me, as I've never used an accountant, not ever, but probably should one day if I wish to remain an ageing stress-free hippy! If you look at the HMRC website VAT is due if you earn over the threshold (Either £75k or £72k, I forget what the threshold is). After that you should be registered for VAT and pay at 20% on everything you take. Antique/stamp/coin dealers etc can opt to use a different scheme or 2 different schemes concurrently. It's a pain in the posterior keeping on top of it but it saves any grief at a later date. The new selling rules are going to hit anybody that buys to sell or is a regular seller. I only skim read the HMRC blurb on it because it does not apply to me as I am already registered with them. The way I understand it is that people like Declan will be liable for 20% at the base rate on anything they earn over the personal allowance.

I didn't think there was VAT payable on collectables, please tell me this is just Germany we're talking about? The buyer does not pay the VAT Stuart. UK dealers all work on the VAT global accounting and Margin Schemes. It means we cannot charge VAT to the customer or we end up paying the full rate on every penny we take in rather than on the profits we make. That's assuming that your dealer is VAT registered of course.

Declan with your lass been from Aspatria I would have thought that you would know full well "COUGH NOWT" What they can't prove they can't charge you with! Now you'll have to go on the run in your bus!

I can make out the entire right hand upright of the H, and the top half of the left. (I zoomed my screen.) Likewise. I zoomed in on the iMac and can see this fairly clearly. I looked at this photo with photo zoom pro,could see no H,any chance of a better photo please Daz. A handy pointer that the coin has been altered is the fact that it has been artificially "dirtied" for want of a better word. Some people like to clean coins, nobody likes to make them look worse than they are unless they are trying to disguise something. I guess in the end you'll see what you want to see though.

Polished to buggery and a private listing (AND WE ALL KNOW HOW THEY GET SHILLED UPON) to boot! Maximus Scrotumus Cranius will undoubtedly outbid I LIKUS THE SHINUS in the final seconds.

Even the sharpest get stung there occasionally. The most successful strikes on e bay fall into two camps, in my experience:- a) Nice coins with a high initial bid price, which nevertheless is still nowhere near their true value. Would be bidders are strangely put off by the high start price, and often by-pass it completely, leaving someone else to make the only punt at the original price, thus bagging a real bargain. b ) Really high end coins which would be better off in a proper auction. They will sell, for sure, but usually end up at between 55% to 75% of what they could potentially realise elsewhere. It's a real mistake for high quality expensive coins to be put on e bay. Gambling strikes which may or may not pay off, are on those with poor photography, where the coin cannot properly be seen. This often puts buyers off, leaving the speculator room for a potential killing, or to get their fingers burned. There has been (and will probably continue to be) another more sinister ebay tactic; the seller of the major/undiscovered rarity, thta is actually a forgery. 2 examples leap to mind; the 1860 unrecorded die pairing penny about 3 years ago and the "plain edge proof" 1819 Crown that is now on offer at a major auction house with the tag that the edge has been deliberately smoothed. The first coin was an excellent effort and I think I pushed it to about £1500 (I am sure there will be another member or two on here who also had a stab at it). I cannot comment on the second as I did not see it sold on ebay. This type of scam is very worrying, particularly when the forger is very skilled. Another area of selling is the "unable to price it" item. I sell lots of things on there that seem to fetch incredible prices (mainly exonumia) and foreign coins where I need access to a worldwide customer base which you just don't get with your website (or seem not to get). For all the pitfalls of ebay the plain truth is that I need it to survive (where else do you get rid of 1971 first decimal sets?) Just as a matter of interest, John, how did that emerge as being a forgery ? Also, was it tooled, or an out and out fake ? I don't know how it was found out initially but Michael Gouby records it on page 100 of the Speciallist edition. He sounds like he has handled it himself and goes on to say that it went to the RM who concurred that the 0 had been altered from a 1.