1949threepence

They've changed it. Beyonce was there but has now disappeared.... the utterly delectable Snooki is there now. For a chunky girl, she's really got a hell of a lot of sex appeal.

totty? Scuse me, be back in a bit ... Oh VERY nice Mind you, I suspect Ena Sharples would look sexy compared to that "oil painting" Michael Darke (quite put me off my cuppa). Yeah, he certainly hasn't looked after his teeth, has he. I'm assuming the top totty was the gorgeous Beyonce....

It appears that Michael Darke and Keith Lewis have fallen out over how their six figure split of profits from a Iron age coin horde find, declared treasure trove shouls be split between them. Apparently Mr Darke made the initial discovery, and invited Mr Lewis along the following weekend, presumably to help him uncover more. At that point the main horde was uncovered with both in attendance, but Mr Darke is adamant that the bulk of the 50% share should go to him (the other 50% went to the landowner) link here Personally, I'd split the money equally between them. Michael asked for Keith's advice and assistance, and even though he found the first few coins, there's no certainty he would have discovered the rest if Keith had not been in attendance. Michael could have returned alone, and may not have found the rest of the horde. Moreover, with the two of them there, it's impossible to fairly allocate any varying proportion. So 50- 50 seems the most reasonable approach. Such a shame that this sort of thng invariably leads to bitter feuds. Thoughts ?

Not sure about the "GRA", but the missing "I" does look like an error. Haven't heard of any others, but it may be worth looking.

From Wikipedia Isle of Man During World War I the British government interned male citizens of the Central Powers, principally Germany, Austria-Hungary and Ottoman Turkey.[83] They were held mainly in internment camps at Knockaloe, close to Peel, and a smaller one near Douglas. During World War II, about 8,000 people were interned in Britain, many being held in the same camps at Knockaloe and Douglas on the Isle of Man. The internees included enemy aliens from the Axis Powers, principally Germany and Italy.[84] Initially, refugees who had fled from Germany were also included, as were suspected British Nazi sympathisers such as British Union of Fascists leader Oswald Mosley. The British government rounded up 74,000 German, Austrian and Italian aliens. Within 6 months the 112 alien tribunals had individually summoned and examined 64,000 aliens, and the vast majority were released, having been found to be "friendly aliens" (mostly Jews); examples include Hermann Bondi and Thomas Gold and later members of the Amadeus Quartet. British nationals were detained under Defence Regulation 18B. Eventually only 2,000 of the remainder were interned. Initially they were shipped overseas, but that was halted when a German U boat sank the SS Arandora Star in July 1940 with the loss of 800 internees, though this was not the first loss that had occurred. The last internees were released late in 1945, though many were released in 1942. In Britain, internees were housed in camps and prisons. Some camps had tents rather than buildings with internees sleeping directly on the ground. Men and women were separated and most contact with the outside world was denied. A number of prominent Britons including writer H. G. Wells campaigned against the internment of refugees. See also: Defence Regulation 18B The government couldn't afford to take the slightest chance in view of what this country was up against at the time. We were fighting alone until 1941 when both the Soviet Union and then USA joined the war. However convincing they were, "Friendly aliens" could have been spies or enemy saboteurs. They had to be sure before releasing them.

More likely I'd be totally ignored, Peck ~ or an acknowledging grunt at best lol (not that I'm at home anymore) If it was that healthy looking slim postwoman with the blonde hair, that would be a very acceptable option !!! Sadly it's that chubby bald bloke who sometimes "borrows" a few of the coins you get in the post. A bit disappointing, Sion, but par for the course !!!

More likely I'd be totally ignored, Peck ~ or an acknowledging grunt at best lol (not that I'm at home anymore) If it was that healthy looking slim postwoman with the blonde hair, that would be a very acceptable option !!!

Make that 1) Decent photos of both sides of the coin with zoom facility 2) Always have the option of delivery available when Mrs davidrj is out shopping David Indeed ~ I would never entertain a coin where only one side is shown, Almost incredibly, it's often the obverse !!!

Many POWs had a desire to get out of their prison camp, so any legal currency would be retained for use on an escape. Having tokens circulating in the camp meant they had a currency which was useless outside. Yes, of course. That makes very obvious sense.

Much closer to real life. I reckon that to really determine the causes for these things one of us should do a bit of revision on the mint and it's history. Where would you start, Sion ? I'd lay odds that if the information could be unearthed, someone would have done it already ~ as with so many Royal Mint mysteries. Well as I am from a family of historians I'd collect sources from previous mint workers (hard bit is tracking them down and then you can just chat over the phone, depends if you get an old grump or not) Lots of information is not on the internet yet for things like mint details but I'm sure if one emailed the Mint enough about it's history eventually they'd help you out - after all that is their job. You could also buy a few books on the mint and see if you can pick up any names from there, or any information. Looking at existing information is always the first step. I'll certainly admit that having a chat with a Royal Mint archivist, could be potentially very rewarding. Maybe one of us could approach them on behalf of the forum ? Then go armed with a collection of highly relevant questions.

Krause World Coins list the penny at $6 in F, $15 in VF, $35 in EF and $80 in UNC if they are genuine Not my area of expertise, but they are quite scarce, just 20,000 minted The 1/2d and the 6d are even rarer apparently, just 2,000 and 2,500 minted respectively Yours look to be at least EF grade, but a note of caution they could be modern copies, do you have any provenance? Hope this helps David Hi what does provenance mean? I live in the Isle of Man, they were my dads. The Photos dont display the true colour, i took them in bad lighting, they are alot darker than shown. Thanks for your reply. It means some sort of verifiable certification which proves that the coins (or whatever object, as the term is often applied to antiques), are the genuine article from the period to which they are attributed.

Thanks for the link, that was very helpful. It was, and thanks for showing us your pics, sweetcheeks. I wasn't aware such coins existed. Wonder why they didn't just use normal coinage in the camps.

Much closer to real life. I reckon that to really determine the causes for these things one of us should do a bit of revision on the mint and it's history. Where would you start, Sion ? I'd lay odds that if the information could be unearthed, someone would have done it already ~ as with so many Royal Mint mysteries.

OK, thanks gents. I suppose the drilled holes were for stringing a load together and wearing as a necklace for safe keeping.......well it's as good as any other theory

The main things would be 1) Decent photos with zoom facility 2) Always have the option of special next day deivery available.

Much closer to real life.

John He is on loan on a pay for play basis....guess what he is injured. He actually scored when he had a broken leg before we popped him up to you for £6m. It was that Robson chap who also collared Titus. Those two only fired on 3 cylinders...shame really. Christ is he sill alive? Not Christ, but Kieron Dyer lol Was it him who had the standup fist fight with the Barton character when they both played (supposedly) for the same team? It wasn't so much a stand up fist fight, as a direct attck on his teammate Ousmane Dabo at Man City. It was basically GBH by any other name. Barton is a very aggressive character who has been involved in violence towards others on many occasions. Not a pleasant individual IMO. Joey Barton I think you will find he has matured somewhat over the last 2 years. The sending off in the Arsenal game when he was grabbed by the scruff of the neck by Diaby being a good example. 2 years ago Diaby would have got snotted, this time Barton just shrugged it off. He doesn't drink anymore either, which obviously negates the thug in him on nights out. It took him a while but I think he has finally grown up and joined the human race. One of very few individuals who has had the guts to take a look at himself, decide he didn't like what he saw and make some life changing decisions. Must have taken an extreme effort of will power on his part. Nonetheless, I imagine there are many who will still feel quite apprehensive in their dealings with him, wondering if he will suddenly snap again, if they say the wrong thing

Why have so many coins from around that era, got bloody holes drilled through them ? There must be a reason Not only that, why are there so many with initials & such like stamped on them ?

To his credit, he does make most of the article sound like a very plausible theory, until you read his last sentence or two, about the Royal Mint possibly experimenting to see what they might be dealing with in the next date. Then you realise it's actually complete tosh. Yes, the design of the open 3 is unusual, but then differently designed three's had been tried before (compare 1863 with 1873/83/93, for example). Moreover, it doesn't actually fit the "2" very well. I think Alexander got carried away by his own hype on that occasion. Interesting read, nonetheless.

John He is on loan on a pay for play basis....guess what he is injured. He actually scored when he had a broken leg before we popped him up to you for £6m. It was that Robson chap who also collared Titus. Those two only fired on 3 cylinders...shame really. Christ is he sill alive? Not Christ, but Kieron Dyer lol Was it him who had the standup fist fight with the Barton character when they both played (supposedly) for the same team? It wasn't so much a stand up fist fight, as a direct attck on his teammate Ousmane Dabo at Man City. It was basically GBH by any other name. Barton is a very aggressive character who has been involved in violence towards others on many occasions. Not a pleasant individual IMO. Joey Barton

....and very obviously so. A poor job.....

Declan, I'm very flattered by the discussions about my two books and you all comparing them in the same space as Freeman and Davies!! My personal view is that any newcomer or general date collector would be well advised to go for Davies and/or Freeman as they cover a wider field than mine. For anybody particularly interested in varieties and the 20th C specifically then clearly my books would be very helpful. I wrote them primarily because I was confused about all the different identifiers that seemed to be used in different sources, so I brought them all together in one place, as well as establishing some new ones. However, the aim was always to cover 20th C as this was where all my confusion came in. When it comes to 19th C the impression I get is that the identifiers are mostly singletons for a particular date/denomination e.g. the RRITANNIA sixpence of 1878 and these are quite well defined in the standard works. Also, of course Michael Gouby has covered the penny series pretty comprehensively in his book. However, I have toyed with the idea of 'doing' the earlier centuries. I'm just not sure that I have the patience to do it all over again, as well as tracking down all the types - there's a hell of a lot of them!! Then there's listing and photographing all the differences, not just the well known one and I find it a daunting prospect - god knows how Peck kept going!!! This was quite a task for the 20thC but at least the supply of coins was no problem. When it comes to the earlier ones, the number of specimens to either purchase or ask owners to allow me to photograph could become prohibitive. Several possibilities have occurred to me as options, but I haven't done anything with either of them. I have toyed with idea of a short book on Victorian die numbers and also with a book to cover overdates for all denominations of milled coinage, with photos of all the types. Again the problem is gaining access to the various specimens as I really can't afford to buy them all. I did consider and then discount a third book in my series to cover gold varieties of the 20th C. Two or three reasons. Firstly there aren't that many different types, so the book would be rather thin. Secondly, not many people collect gold anyway. Thirdly, I doubt that even fewer people collect varieties of gold. Having said this, I was staggered to find that there are three or four types of 1937 Gold £5 piece - I would like to own one of them, but I doubt if many people would collect each of the varieties. Finally, I did wonder about doing something on all the material not covered in my two books, particulartly looking at die cracks, and other faults, mainly for the bronze series. Any thoughts from the forum on what might be worthwhile? One thought in particular, Dave ~ the prospect of a book on Victorian die numbers and overdates. Such a tome would, I am sure, prove very popular within the UK numismatic community. Some background on why overdates were done, and how the dies concerned were altered, etc, would be extremely interesting. Die numbers are an entire sphere in themselves, and definitely form subsets of collections, or even collections in their own right. I've even thought about zeroing in on a given year of the 1870's and trying to collect all the available die numbers in the shillings issued in that year. If I've thought that, I guarantee other collectors have had similar thoughts. That would certainly be my choice ~ very worthwhile, but perhaps not quite as daunting a prospect as listing, cataloguiing and photographing every single variation of UK coinage in the 19th century.

That's exactly what I thought, Declan. It's not a fully like for like comparison.

I've always thought that one of the fun things about collecting was shifting through loads of junk to find a bargain coin that satisfyingly fills a gap LOL Glad you've got the time to waste! When you've got an auction house to haul up yet ANOTHER accumulation in a cardboard box, bags full of worthless low denomination crap, you never want to see another believe me But think how you'd feel if just one of those cardboard boxes full of crap had an EF 1926ME, say. Or an EF 1869/1875H/1863 with die number, and somebody else got them because you couldn't be bothered with just that one box too many !!!

Welcome, Uncle Phil, good to see you. Some excellent advice above, but I would say that a great place to start in order to complete a quality collection quickly, is with the 12 sided brass threepenny bit. Four rare dates (1946, 1949, 1950 & 1951), and straddles two monarchs from 1937 to 1967, 30 coins (Yes I know that run of years adds up to 31, but no threepences were minted in 1947). That would really get you into the hobby at no massive expense, from which point you could begin to specialise in a high quality run. Good luck