1949threepence

Wow, yes that sounds truly heroic - and should definitely be an award. On the subject of "actions", I heard an interesting interview with an Arab commentator about the whole "release of the Lockerbie bomber" thing. It seems that governments, diplomats, secret service, etc (but not us, the common or garden mugs) know certain data. To summarise : 1. The USA shot down an Iranian passenger jet in 1988. 2. As a "tit for tat", terrorists sponsored by Iran blew up a plane over Lockerbie. 3. Libya knew about, and sponsored, the Lockerbie atrocity, but it wasn't a Libyan who did it. 4. Libya in the 1990s sought rehabilitation with the West, for economic reasons. 5. As part of a deal, Britain and the US demanded Libyan accountability for Lockerbie. 6. Libya handed over two suspects, though everyone involved knew these were not the guilty parties. 7. There was a trial and one of the men was found guilty. We know the rest. It all puts the hysteria and muck-raking of the last few weeks into a different perspective, doesn't it? There's a lot going on behind our backs, Peckris. I suspect that the release of Al Megrahi, for example, has much to do with lucrative trade deals involving Libyan oil. In his case it doesn't really matter, as he is close to death anyway. So I'm not sure what all the furore is about, especially as he's probably not a guilty party at all. He was just a fall guy. The true culprits are almost certainly Iranian.

The NHS is undoubtedly a huge national asset and does extremely well under great daily pressure. That said, they are beset with all manner of time/money wasting problems, not to mention ridiculous targets and political correctness, which is irritating for all concerned. Personally, I have free membership of BUPA through my job. But by great good fortune, I've never had to use it, or the NHS, save for trivial complaints. My Father, however, had triple by pass surgery last year, at the age of 65 ~ all free, and it's given him a new lease of life in terms of increased energy. I think that a mixture of public (NHS) and private is the best way forward. The USA would do well to emulate our NHS with something similar, free at the point of delivery. Let's just hope they pay their nurses better than we pay ours

The jet stream has been further South for the last three Summers, including this one. Hence the increased rainfall. I don't know about the weather events of several centuries ago, but I do know that this country has always been liable to flooding, given the right conditions. Many houses were built on flood plains during the relatively dry 70's, 80's and 90's. Their owners got a shock in recent years. It is also bad news to live near a river. The West country is especially prone to serious flooding. The cause of the floods at Boscastle in August 2004, closely mirrored those at Lynmouth in August 1952, when many lost their lives.

Paying right away for stuff then their taking two weeks to ship when I paid via payPoo immediately. Poorly wrapped items, no communication etc. Poor, surly or non existent comms, really gets up my nose. I rarely return to the same e bayer again ~ it would have to be an exceptional item for me to do so. "Paypoo"

Thanks for the vote of confidence guys. I'm going to have to be prepared to give up some heavy cash if I am serious about getting it, as the price is already £155 with over 4 days to go. Not sure what it will end up at, but it will be a lot

Thanks Mat ~ yes, it's the first thing I thought of when I read Historic Coinage's reply. I like the idea of picking the items up personally from the sorting office. At least that way there shouldn't be any problems (he said, somewhat optimistically, but with slight reservations) Declan, I knew I'd seen your name somewhere as soon as I saw it I've had stuff off you in the past, and was always impressed by your courtesy, attention to detail, very pleasant feedback and the sprig of lavender with the coin. Good to see you here

I have had more problems with sellers in the USA than anyone overseas. In fact I have had no problems with overseas sellers. I buy mostly from Ukraine or Russia now, usually not coins though - usually music, art etc. My more interesting purchases have been from countries like Indonesia, Hong Kong, China etc, but everything arrived just fine and I was a pleased camper with the goods and shipping. I do buy banknotes from a seller in Thailand about 3-4 times a year, he prices stuff fairly and ships securely and I have gotten very nice stuff otherwise difficult to find. That's interesting. I don't buy from overseas, not necessarily because I don't trust the seller, but because of possible difficulties and complications with the post. What particular problems have you had with USA sellers ?

Just very occasionally you encounter a bad 'un on e bay. It doesn't happen often, fortunately. But it is one of the reasons I pay by credit card through e bay, rather than debit. Doing that, at least you won't have parted with any money at the time you raise the dispute. I also never buy off anyone with less than 99.5% positive rep, nor anyone based overseas. Colin, may we ask you to name and shame the seller, so that we can avoid him in future ?

£62.85 for a year. If you want your PO Box mail delivered to your home address it costs £62.90 bringing the total to only £125.75. See here: http://www.royalmail.com/portal/rm/jump2?c...ediaId=52100710 OK, thanks for that, HC

Just as a matter of interest, Mat, do you know how much a PO Box costs ?

Yep, I'd say Sally was worthy of a VC for such heroic and courageous actions, above and beyond the call of duty. Well done her !!!

Indeed. Nearly all coins come in small PVC packs, often stapled shut. I suppose they are just about OK for transporting and therefore short periods, but I don't like them at all. I did receive a coin recently which was inserted between two glued pieces of cardboard, with a coin sized hole in the centre of the two, so you could see obverse and reverse from either side. Keeping the coin in place were two pieces of a sort of gauzy linen stretched tight across the holes, with the coin lying loosely inside. Not sure what the substance was, but it seemed to be inert, as far as I could tell.

I'm not sure Mike, as I'm not an expert on notes. But for referece I did once have a Lowther £20 note, with the serial Number (I think HA85), but the numbers following were all sevens 777777. Spent it as I was short of dosh, but now wish I'd kept it. Was virtually new as well.

Quite recently a fake 1905 shilling was well documented on here, and now another quite high grade '05 is up for sale on e bay. It can be seen here I'd like to make a bid for it, but do any of you folks think it might be a fake ? I can't see any obvious problems with it, but I might be missing something. As the date is notorious for fakes, I'd strongly welcome your opinion.

I think you can safely assume it is a tooled fake. Although the description as a "1930's penny", as opposed to a "1933 penny", is probably accurate.

Interesting what people focus on. The difference between the "R"s is absolutely minuscule, negligible. Yet right there, in those photos, is what seems to me to be the major difference : the "D"s. On Obv 1 the D is huge, with a large inner space, and tightly close to the rim. On Obv 2, the D is squatter, much smaller inside, and much further away from the rim. This seems so obvious to me, it leaps from the page. The so-called "R lower than the baseline" effect is entirely down to the position of the adjacent D. The words "wood", "tree", and "see" come to mind ... (My remarks are directed at the person who made those descriptions 1949 - not at you!) Hmmm, you're right about the "D", Peck. In terms of distance from the rim, the same could be said for letters "W" & "V", as well.

Whilst researching Edward VII shillings in readiness for me attempting to complete my 1902 to 36 collection with the rarest and most expensive of the set, I came across these variants listed by Gouby. The 1904 type 2a is from an original finding by Dave Webb of "onewebby" the e bay coin vendor. He is right except that in the period from 1907 to 1910, the R's (as far as I can tell), mostly revert to the straight shortened version seen in the 1903 variant, listed as type 2a, not as per obverse 2. Apologies if this has already been noted elsewhere. link here

Yes, any obvious residual easy to remove dirt, I'd do with a damp cloth with no soap, and then dry with an anti static cloth. I should have mentioned that as technically it is cleaning, but to be fair, that's not what I class as true "cleaning", as it doesn't involve any radical measures.

I haven't heard about it, but it sounds very interesting. You'd have to be quick off the mark to pick up any of the really good stuff, though.

On the subject of 1970's proof sets, Gouby notes the following with regard to toning:- I've noticed this on my 1970 set ~ penny and halfpenny.

Online coins is back 'Online' John Thanks John

This is the reply I received from Royal Mail today:- Well at least they acknowledge a problem

Yes, indeed. If you discount all the reports other than the numbered #102 etc (otherwise it gets confusing!), it's plain to see that the 1970 sets were produced from 1971/2 through to 1976, the 1971 sets from 1973 to 1976, and the 1972-1976 series from 1975/6. That's pretty conclusive I think? It does show that if the 1970 sets were issued for sale as soon as the minting began, they could have been available from (maybe) 1971 but more likely 1972 given the pressure on in 1971. What did surprise me was the number of 1970 sets minted. Getting on for 5 million. More than I thought.

Some really useful information there, AardHawk

Not sure about the answer to that but FWIW, I do recall going on a visit to the Royal Mint around 1981/2 (when such tours were still fairly commonplace as I understand it) and I remember seeing large hoppers full of old coins which were just sitting there presumably awaiting meltdown. Perhaps one of these "found" its way into the presses to start a new life as a decimal coin...?? Just my 2 penny-worth (over-struck on an old ship halfpenny of course!!) That does sort of explain how it might have happened. A similar thought went through my head when I first read it, but I dismissed the idea as I thought that all the available old currency would have been melted down several years before.