1949threepence

Not to mention "absolutely" (guilty of that myself on occasions).

Another irritation (to me anyway), is why so many people are starting sentences with the word "so".

It did, but as Pete said, it does appear to get worse over the following few years. Good point about the vastly increased mintages.

It's become so trite now that it's used on notifications that aren't even vaguely amusing.

...... and "stakeholder" has replaced "interested party"....

Definitely a con artist. Look at the way those two separate ditties were written. That's obviously a literate individual trying to feign illiteracy, so as to appear like the innocent simpleton, who just accidentally stumbled across this unexpected stash.

It's a beautiful, crisp strike, Paddy, with only the merest hint of ghosting to the reverse. Slight wear to the highest points reduces the obverse to EF, but a superb specimen, nonetheless.

You say that and yet the example I posted above has good hair detail and no evidence of ghosting. The obvious question is, therefore, why did ghosting suddenly start, when, ostensibly, the same build of dies were being used? The poor hair detail I can understand, but that too seems to go hand in hand with ghosting. It's difficult to know why the recessed ear experiment was stopped. We'll never know now, but maybe it had something to do with the war.

Yep, they're almost certainly fingerprints. Completely unacceptable. You'd think they'd be using gloves to insert the coins into place. Difficult to comprehend they could be that careless. With the average person, it's understandable, as they wouldn't necessarily be expected to know. But a member of staff working in the Mint should be fully acquainted with all the ins and outs of how to handle coins. It seems that standards are slipping. As I said in the Royal Mint experience thread, the £2 coin I had struck for me on a visit by a friend, has much of the lettering almost completely unreadable because the dies being used are so worn. Not sure how that is allowed to happen. It's not as if the same dies are used for mass production. Essentially just a few each day and certainly in no way comparable to currency strike production figures.

My only thought at the moment, is just where the hell do we go from here?

Yep, they must think people are stupid. Which in many cases is, of course, true.

Commonsense isn't done these days, unfortunately. Moreover, as Peck said above, so many relatively simple things are couched in obscure language.

Not knowingly, but looking at the control panel, there are numerous different colour shades which can be used on the pic once taken. Also just tried pointing my camera again, and the shading seems to alter automatically with the tilt. Will have to pay careful attention to that problem.

Hmm, and yet Bob, it gives all the impression of a worn out die.

Reminds me of when I was about 13 or so, and my Mum, Dad, sister and I went to Bournemouth on holiday. Whilst there, I bought a novelty ash tray in the shape of a skull for My Grandfather (called Fred) who was a heavy smoker. On the ashtray was written, "Poor old Fred, smoked in bed". Being a stupid immature little brat, I thought it would be a great idea to give it to him for his birthday. I was soon dissuaded from carrying through the initiative, and had it on my bedside table instead. I think they call it gallows humour.

Brilliant. Talking of squirrels, I wish I'd had my phone handy a couple of months ago when a squirrel dropped into my garden and the cat went after it - hadn't a prayer as squirrels are ultra fast. But the way she ran round trying to catch the darting squirrel, and then partially up a tree before giving up looking crestfallen, was comic.

I thought about it for a few minutes then dismissed the idea. As you say the coin is UNC, almost BU, but the strike is appallingly bad.

Is that the one DNW had for bid a few days ago, Terry?

Indeed, the wartime years and just after, Pete. Yes, I had noticed that those years are especially difficult.

I wouldn't normally include a common or garden penny acquisition from George V, but am doing so on this occasion to exemplify a point. Now I've started to collect this series, a few things have quickly become very apparent to me. Whilst it is relatively easy to obtain high grade examples, the trick is to get high grade examples that are good strikes, with as much hair detail as possible, issue free and if at all possible, without ghosting being obvious, especially on pre 1926 examples. It's worth watchiing and waiting for these better examples to come up. Not going to be possible in every case, but I think this 1912 captures most of those qualities, although still a little thin on Britannia's chest, which is another common weak point. Incidentally, the obverse colour is close to actuality. Not sure why the reverse looks different in the pic. (There are many high grade specimens with full lustre, but the strikes are really poor, and the King often appears to have a bald head.)

Very much so, and I would refer to my post of 21.9.18 which reflects exactly that point.

I thought that. They seem slightly conservative with their grading.

I was watching that "Hidden History of Britain", which was about facial reconstructions of WW1 soldiers whose faces were contorted and shot away out of recognition by enemy fire. The type of bullets used had a neat round precise point of entry, but the exit point was a much bigger, mashed up mess. They experimented on dead pigs using the same arms and ammunition, and the results were obvious in that respect.

Funnily enough I just had a quick look on LCA before I read your above post, Pete - found this about that same coin:- 01/06/2014 Auction 145 English Coins Lot 1966 Penny 1915 Freeman 179 dies 2+B but with recessed ear. This occurring on 1915 and 1916 Pennies with the 1915 being by far the rarer of the two dates. UNC, the obverse with practically full lustre, the reverse with some toning More coins like this £160

Thanks Pete. Much appreciated. I did attempt some research, but could find nothing.