1949threepence

Thanks Ian. That's very interesting. I must admit I've seen and read those words in Bramah's book many times, without ever thinking too deeply about them. But they make perfect sense in terms of finding unique sets of dies for a given variety. As you suggest, probably only one reverse die for the 26a. Bramah doesn't mention the flaw after the T of GRATIA at page 4 of his book as far as the 1858 no WW pennies are concerned. Only 1859 and the recut 1860/59. But of course it's there on the majority, and definitely on the 26a.

How about Acker Bilk, which my Dad used to say sounded like some particularly unpleasant digestive complaint.

Opinions vary. Like you, I prefer it like this - at least when the sun's out. Living in the South West as you do, you will have been less affected by North Sea cloud, which can persist all day at times in the East and Midlands - no hills whatever to prevent it rolling straight across the Midlands. Was clear today after a cloudy start, though. Went out for a quick spin on the bike earlier, and I must admit, even the the Sun was still up, it did feel decidedly nippy, due to wind chill. Of course on very hot days (and nights), wind chill is a Godsend.

We haven't really had many properly warm days yet (although of course, when we're not plagued by North Sea Cloud), the Sun is very hot. We're on the cold side of a stubborn anticyclone centred to the North West and dragging in air from the North East. Clear nights are going to feel especially nippy at the moment because the humidity is very low

Bisodol is far better.

Also, without wishing to be cheeky, I would be very interested in any count you've done on the 1858 no serif on the first I of BRITANNIAR. Again, it's a coin which doesn't seem to be vanishingly rare, but equally doesn't crop up every 5 minutes. Most seem to be unattributed no ww date only examples. Not too well known maybe. Sorry to be a nuisance Ian

Indeed, the Pokemon story is incredible in terms of an investment opportunity. One of those "right place, right time" and you're in luck, phenomenon. You're spot on with slabbed coins. You can see this clearly illustrated with the 1937 Five pounds to half sovereign proof set. You could get a decent near FDC original set for somewhere around £17k. Split up and slabbed by NGC you're looking at twice that amount for the four. It's ridiculous.

Thanks Ian. You'd have thought there would have been a re-print of Bramah by now. Can't be copyright issues as they expire 70 years after the author's death. As Bramah died in 1942, that date would have been reached in 2012. The originals, being so rare, will always sell at a premium even if there was a re-print.

So about 0.4% of all 1858's you recorded were large rose. I never imagined they were quite that scarce. Indeed, many of us have had it in mind that the small date large rose variety was considerably rarer than the large date, large rose. But from your findings, it's much nearer 50/50. Out of interest do you have figures for the 1854 no colons on reverse variety? As ever thanks for such incredibly useful stats Ian.

J B de Loynes presumably being the VIP in question.

You could well be. Also, there were many asymptomatic cases. Some tested themselves and were positive, but never had any symptoms at all, right the way through until they tested negative. Felt fine. Including some who were never jabbed, or jabbed just once.

I'm wondering if we here in the UK have achieved the much vaunted "herd immunity" with regard to covid. I'm not hearing of any cases recently. Those that have occurred in the last year or so, say at work, were so mild to the individuals concerned, that they were able to work from home (if equipment installed) and they just tested themselves every day to see if they were negative. Now a recent HR missive says staff who have tested positive for covid can come into the office if they don't feel ill, and stay away from other vulnerable staff (not sure that's an entirely logical position, but still). The local rag still gives figures for new cases over the previous week, and there were just 9 this week - out of a population approaching 130k. Even the arcturus (sp) variant which the media made the alarmist most of a couple or so months back, has failed to make any impact at all. So yes, I'm tempted to say that's where we are - herd immunity status.

Called Doubles in Chelmsford. This would have been late 80's (1987 - 89). Never played it at senior school. Would have done, but nobody seemed interested, so it never happened. I'd bet every local area had their own accepted different names.

In terms of the extant known population I would say my 1863 die No 3 under date penny is the rarest.

I do now Ian, yes Incidentally, one slight error I made above regarding the F67. A superb specimen sold at the Copthorne collection May 2016, which post dates my purchase. But generally, the evidence seems to indicate that the already very scarce supply has dried up still further in recent years. I suspect quite a few must be in private collections (such as mine in all fairness), and staying there.

Also, I was looking at 1874 sales from LCA over the years, earler, and the evidence shows that single UNC examples of F67, F68 and F78 sold in 2009, and a further instance for F67 in 2006. For F67, F68, F77 and F78, of the 18 sold since 2003, 12 of them were from 2011 or before. There was no example of an F77 above VF in ANY, the last VF example being September 2010.

Or anywhere else for that matter. I've not seen another quality F67 since that one above in 2015.

GEF 1874 F67. Another example of a very difficult to obtain variety, which, at R12, shouldn't be too onerous to locate, but is, in fact, very difficult in higher grade. I actually won this at the Spink Auction of 22nd September 2015 (lot 565), but don't think I've shown it before. The dark patch on Britannia's legs is curious as it hardly shows at all in hand, but the photo brings it out. Incidentally, with regard to the 1874 varieties, I still believe that with the obvious exceptions of F69 & F76, the F77 & F78 still remain the most difficult to obtain in high grade, as evidenced by their extreme scarcity of appearance over the years.

At junior school we used to play using the drain covers in the playground and at the back of the school. They had a partially smooth top and then two circles one inside the other. Can't remember the exact rules we played to now, but it involved getting to the inner circle in as few moves as possible. We called bigger marbles (or "marleys") "doubles" and very big marbles "trebles". If anyone wanted to play using the multicoloured marbles, a value was agreed and assigned before the game. Sometimes we would play two against two (as teams).

It's absurd to expect anybody to do that without a monetary remuneration for services rendered. It's not as if they couldn't have afforded it.

I literally thought exactly the same thing, Ian. Maybe we should offer our skills. Could take it in turns

I know that identification of the 4/3 can be a bit tricky, especially for the novice - and is certainly difficult for the naked eye, even with the sharpest eyesight - but for an experienced company like Noonans, specialising in English coins, that mistake is inexplicable. Also, they seem to slightly resent mistakes being pointed out to them.

Although I reckon the NGC example above is a genuine 4/3. If you blow the pic up, you can see the usual details. The one offered by Noonans is taking the proverbial.

Well done. Are the tray recesses the right size for your purposes? Also, out of interest, is it a Peter Nichols original? - there should be a label on the back. If it's got Peter Nichols, Cabinet Maker, 3 Norman Road, St Leonards, then you'll know it's an original made by Peter himself, during or before 2010, before he retired.