1949threepence

Other survivors will be a few very specialist niche shops, and also shops which have acquired a very strong local reputation. For example a butchers round here called Frank Parker. His meat is of the highest quality, all sourced locally and he has also branched off into really nice sausages, bacon and pork pies. In this "vegan" age, not everybody's cup of tea, but he is very popular locally and always has customers in his shop. I believe he also owns the premises, which helps.

Interestingly, in this town, the Saturday Market still thrives. The market traders do an enormous amount of selling. But the shops, as in the type of stores mentioned by Sword, not so.

It's the rise of internet shopping. I too feel for all those retail staff made redundant. But you can understand the mindset of customers - after all, why go to the inconvenience of shopping in town, when you can order exactly what you want in a few clicks, without having to leave your warm and cosy house? Soon the only things left in town and City Centres will be bars, cafes, estate agents, supermarkets (people will always shop direct for fresh food), stores for big ticket items like furniture/white goods/new kitchens/bathrooms/cars etc. Most retailers will reach a point where they will no longer break even, given diminishing footfall and sky high accommodation rental. Quite what will happen to all that building space I don't know. Still, it's an ill wind that blows nobody any good, so maybe they can become a haven for the homeless. Bed for the night and a hot meal, maybe.

Looking forward to that Ian.

Nice one. Well done. Was that today? Have to say sound is far more useful than pictures. We don't need to see the auctioneer, but we do need to hear him speak. Ideally, it's good to have both, but sound is of way more benefit when bidding.

Thanks Ian. Yes they are sharp. Nobody seems to miss a trick these days. Did you get the 1847?

No worries - stick at it and you will be an expert. Just takes a bit of time, patience and study.

Because if you look at it Ian, the rim is unusually thick, which appears to be a hallmark of specimen/proof coins. Additionally, the detail is very sharp. They are the only characteristics which distinguish my F74 (bought as such with provenance) from a F73. I'm not saying I'm definitely correct. It might just be an ordinary F73, but it's general demeanour is suggestive of a specimen - in my opinion.

That's because it's no ordinary 1865 penny, but what's called a "pattern penny". Meaning the Queen's head is coroneted. The vast majority of Victoria pennies do not show the Queen with a crown on her head. So this one is special and extremely rare. What makes it even more unusual is that it was never actually intended for circulation, but obviously was circulated for maybe 80 odd years before someone noticed and saved it.

No, that one had escaped my attention, Terry. As for a perfect one........probably not, but you just never know.

Did you win it Terry? I spotted that F38 several weeks ago as well. Also what might possibly be a F74 specimen in the top left hand corner of the group.

Pleased to say I won lots 188 and 192 - the F25 in EF and the 1863 die No 3 under date.

What a surprise. Who got the magnificent F76? - went for £6k.

Now getting an on screen message "we will re-commence at 11am".

Just gone again......

Really not good. Live feed constantly being interrupted.

Thanks Pete. It's here It's the type of photo that isn't easy to download and upload unless you can cope with a small image, so I've linked directly to the post. Obviously you then click on the image to enlarge it.

Probably. Ingram and Ingram definitely. The booklet mentions the LT, H's, KN's & the ME. Undoubtedly they got hoarded.

Ah that one. I must admit I've never looked at it before. Yes that is a very nice specimen and now takes first place of the ones I've seen. ETA: the obverse side anyway.

That's a 164, Jon. We'd just changed the narrative slightly to the 164A.

I didn't think you were on facebook

By a country mile the best I've seen. None of the known others better than (at best) NVF, and most sub fine.

It's useful for the interest groups, for local (otherwise unpublicised) news, and in finding old friends you've not seen or otherwise heard of for many years. But much of the general day to day interaction is tedious beyond belief, unless you actually want to know the minutiae of other folks's lives, some of whom you barely know.

Unless they were collected (eg: the H's KN's and ME's of this world) absolutely. The vast majority would have been totally unaware, for example, of many varietal types of Edward VII and George V & VI. Hence, as I referenced in an earlier post, why some which are now extremely rare, were never collected pre demonetisation. Some weren't identified until Freeman's time, and the enthusiastic collectors of the mid to late 60's were probably using those small "Check your Change" booklets, which, whilst obviously very useful, did not cover the lesser known varieties. So they nearly all disappeared in the melt and probably many more in the subsequent unofficial melts which still go on to this day. Having now got nearly a full complement of Coin Monthly's from November 1966 to February 1971, it's also noteworthy that there is absolutely no mention whatsoever, in the sales ads, of many of the 20th century Freeman types we now know so well. A 1913 penny, for instance, was a 1913 penny. No more than that.

A related question, and may I say, a very interesting one. The "UNC" percentage seems to vary considerably from coin type to coin type, and although there is obviously some absolute relation to overall rarity, there are some definite real terms differences, which can be difficult to explain. For example, off the top of my head, amongst the rarest coins there are some, such as the F14 penny, the F8 and F9 mule (all 1860), and the 1862 F38 mule, which seem to have more than you would expect as UNC examples. There are others. Whereas such pennies as the 1864 (plain and crosslet), and the F98 1879 narrow date, which are not that desperately rare in lower grades, are extremely difficult to locate in top grade. The F90 1877 narrow date penny, which is roughly on a rarity par with the F8 & F38 mules, has nothing above fine among its ranks. Obviously I'm talking exclusively pennies here, as it's my specialism, but the same principles must apply across the board. In some cases I think there are more UNC specimens available because they were collected by default shortly after mintage, as part of a date run (the collector having no idea of the coin's significance at that time). In other cases, it's very difficult to know the precise reasons for either a surplus or deficit of UNC examples. I imagine we never will and are left to speculate.