1949threepence

Brilliant, Richard !!! ETA: I won't be muzzled on this topic.

Not watching it? Barking mad, surely I love Crufts, it's the dog's bollocks. Mind, given the noise some of the dogs make, I only need a sub woofer loudspeaker to listen. Settle down with a nice cup of tea and a hot dog to watch it. (sorry, sorry)

Thanks Stuart.

Thanks Chris.

It looks like we will be initiating a process whereby UK households can volunteer to take in Ukrainian refugees for a minimum period of 6 months, I assume free of charge - you pay for them. It'll be interesting to see how many actually do volunteer. I won't be as I don't have the room, and to be totally honest, I wouldn't want my personal space and privacy compromised in any case. Not to mention energy prices going through the roof. Will anyone on here be doing so? The problem we've got here in the UK, is one of space and available accommodation. Where precisely do they go? There are about 20 people (already here), chasing every private rental, given that many landlords have sold up due to increasing bureaucracy/selling at the top of the market. That highlights the issue. Plus many hotels are already fully occupied with Afghan refugees and economic migrants who've sailed from Northern France. Obviously, the vast majority of Ukrainian refugees will stay in countries close to or immediately adjacent to their own, as they will hope to soon return. Plus they probably face less of a language/cultural gap. Rental demand increasing

Talking about 1807 pennies, I've just managed to obtain this 1807 restrike proof, P1354, R98. Plain edge and has the characteristic rust spots heavily concentrated on the King's face and neck. Of course the rust is largely due to the dies being out of use for many years, decades in fact, when Taylor bought them in 1848, possibly by default with some scrap metal, and started producing various "proofs" from legitimate, genuine dies, albeit somewhat aged, from his workshop in Red Lion Street, London. All really interesting stuff.

Not sure - the first I of VICTORIA looks out of alignment.

I'm pleased to see we're giving some sophisticated anti tank and anti aircraft weaponry to the Ukrainians. Not only will it help them, but we will also see how well they perform in battlefield conditions. Numerically the Russians are superior, but man for man, not so much.

Russian rupture by I. Kickabollockov

To put genticin's specimen into context, here is a superb version of an 1826/1 I just managed to obtain from Lee Brownson for £385:-

Just checked my F10, and found that the R of VICTORIA is re-punched the same as Gary's. But the A is perfect. Also, part of the R of BRITT also looks a bit odd.

To be honest, they're slightly too worn for me to hazard a guess on.

Well he's big on poisoning people, so it would certainly be karma if he went the same way. Simples.......

1" of rain is generally considered to be the equivalent of 1 foot of level undrifted snow.

Massive, massive respect for the people of Ukraine and especially Kiev (or should I say Kyiv) who seem to be putting up one hell of a fight against the Russians. They'll probably lose the immediate battle, but no doubt form guerilla groups to harass Russian occupation troops in the weeks and months to come. I'd also bet that this action will attract mercenaries and sympathisers from neighbouring countries, who will join the fight. Not to mention sophisticated weaponry being passed to them. This can't be going down well in Russia itself who no doubt see the Ukrainians as pretty much the same as themselves. Putin seems to have possibly miscalculated, and all the hard words about de-nazification, have removed any face saving way out, short of rapid outright victory. All the crap he comes out with means we might as well completely discount anything he says.

Stuff like the above are merely gimmicks designed to pull in certain mindsets and make a handsome profit doing so. Perfectly legal though, so nothing we can do about it. The points made on the cover are statements of fact.

That's absolutely brilliant. Thanks for the heads up.

Out of interest I also looked at the 5's on the 1865 and 1885 - both much the same as the "sturdy" 5 above, as far as I could tell. The 5 with the main difference was the one on the 1875H, where the down bar looked much straighter, the top bar shorter and with a less pronounced upward curve at the end, and the curved part of the 5 looks fatter.

This is mine, which I bought from Guy Fie, via this forum, for a very reasonable £250 in 2017. Slight fingerprint on the obverse, but apart from that GEF with some residual lustre.

I'd say the F79 is definitely rarer than the R13 ascribed to it. They are very rare in high grade. One of those varieties that's not quite in the extremely rare class, but is definitely scarce enough to be hardly ever seen on e bay. Quietly underrated type.

I was going to post this in e bay's worst offerings, but it got me thinking on a different track, so I'm posting it here for the interest factor. The e bay seller "genticin" is offering an 1826/1 penny in a/UNC but with slight dings and a couple of carbon spots to the reverse, for £900, citing it as "extremely rare, only a few known of", and whilst they are scarce, calling them extremely rare, is somewhat misrepresenting the true situation, as I've already seen several and - so far - ignored them as a collectable option. The link to the coin in question is here As far as I can tell, this seems to be a relatively new variety, not previously listed. I can't even see any reference to them by Michael Gouby, although that's not to say it doesn't exist. I may have looked in the wrong place. Fortunately 1826 is a very common date with a large population to view, so I decided to go through those listed on e bay UK to see which ones were in fact 1826/1, assuming it is a 1 on a botched date repair. I examined a total of 65. By the time I got to 65, they were becoming fewer and further between, amongst the halfpennies, different dates and foreign coins. Of the 65 I examined:- 51 were not over a 1 9 were over a 1 - of these, 6 were no line down saltire, one was thin line down saltire, another, the saltire was too worn to tell, and the remaining example may have been a thick line, or thin line made to look like a thick line due to wear. Not sure. 5 were too worn or such poor photography, it was impossible to say either way, whether they were over a 1. Bottom line, I'm not sure genticin's specimen is worth £900, but he is open to offers.

Very pleased to have now obtained all three reverse types of 1826. Rev A: no central line down saltire, Rev B: thin line down saltire , and Rev C : thick line down saltire.

For relatively low valued items it's worth the calculated risk of no insurance, to avoid the extra charge, VAT and ongoing delay. In my view anyway. Especially as the tracking is so detailed.

I think I may have cracked how to avoid customs duties, at any rate as far as coins from the USA are concerned. I received a coin today, which I bought from e bay on 4th February. When buying the coin, there were two international postage options given - one massively cheaper than the other. Naturally, the more expensive option might seem the obvious solution, especially if it'a a valuable item. But in fact delivery date expectation is the same, and they are both very adequately tracked online, both on the USPS website, and then on the Royal Mail tracking site once it arrives in the UK. The difference between the two types is that the cheaper version just has a label which says "registered post" and zero other details, whereas (from definite memory) the more expensive postage option has a label which gives every detail, including the coin's value. That's the giveaway, and it's very obviously that which customs seize upon to impose a VAT charge, not only making your overall package much more expensive, but also causing additional delay while they faff around with it. With the cheaper postage there is no clue as to what is in the packet - so unless they tear it open on a random check, they aren't going to know. They wouldn't have known in this specific case anyway, as there was no invoice, just the coin. So they would have been clueless about its true worth.

Worth keeping a sharp lookout for, either way.