1949threepence

Point is, even if a further extension to 31.1.20 is agreed, this situation can't go on indefinitely. The EU won't budge on the backstop unless we can come up with some technological way of obviating the need for it. Parliament won't approve the current deal, so we're done. The only way out is a general election - which is absolutely unavoidable now - in which a conservative government is returned with a meaningful majority and/or a 2nd referendum.

Boris will have asked him to anyway. Further rumours are that Viktor Orban of Hungary might join him.

Near fine for me too, although LCA described it as VG (very good). A definition of VG is given in many of the old Coin Monthly mags as:- "The main features of the design are still distinguishable, with the date and legend readable. Mainly rare and valuable coins are collected in this condition when no finer coins are available". In The Standard guide to Grading British Coins, by Derek Allen (2009), "Very Good" is described as traditional US. Its UK equivalent is "Almost Fine", so we're on the mark with near fine, I reckon.

Cost it !

Bernie, if you look on Richard's rarest pennies site for the F8, not all of them have the die crack, although the majority do, with one indecipherable. As far as the R & E of REG, the majority seem to have the tail of the R level with the base of the E - or am I missing something? ETA: By the way, I should add that the London Coins picture of mine, which is the last one in Richard's F8 collection, is completely the wrong colour. The colour shown above is the correct one (to the naked eye), not the biscuit colour they've somehow managed to get in their photo.

The Freeman 8 mule I won at the LCA arrived today. Very pleased. OK, nowhere near the best available, but problem free and another really rare coin that doesn't come up for sale very often.

The way things are going, that eventuality is looking far more probable than not. He is totally boxed in on all sides, and short of some unexpected miracle I see no escape for him.

Boris Johnson.................words are failing me.

Brilliant. Thanks a lot Jon.

Windows 7 on my PC Jon, Android 8 on my tablet and phone. This is a screenshot of the message I get on all 3 - how are you overriding?

Anybody else having an issue accessing LCA's website? I'm getting a message saying "your connection is not private", which I cannot override. Tried 3 separate devices with 3 different wi fi sources. All the same.

Good point - I've heard the Five Live on the hour jingle which is much as you describe. Although to be really trendy they've recently dropped "on tablet" in favour of "on smartspeaker". Yes, you can listen to it on all of them, but personally I find a get a better reception on medium wave for 5 live and long wave for Radio 4.

Never heard that before, but indeed, how true. Provided nobody else gets hurt in the process, once it's done it's done, life moves rapidly on and memories are short.

So would I, but that price is a different league.

Phwoar - what a collection. Some really nice stuff in there. Wonder how much the Edward VIII penny will ultimately fetch?

I agree they're far from ideal, but if they've got something I want then I'll run with it and hope for the best.

No, I bid £1700 in the hopes that would top any other bid. I kind of knew nobody would go that high. Realistically, I think its level is about £1200 hammer. So that seems a fair price to pay (plus juice). They don't crop up very often, and I missed out once before. Also, the F8 is slightly scarcer than the F9. Hence that one went for less. I know what you mean though, Jon. I once did bid for one at LCA that oddly went for the exact amount I bid for it.

Well it's not standard practice on the other auctions I've listened to online - the DNW ones for example, where it is abundantly clear what's going on. The auctioneer reads out the bids as they come in, and whether in the room, from the phone or over the internet bid. As soon as a few seconds, he'll say "last chance, fair warning", then bring the hammer down with "sold" and saying briefly where it's gone. You aren't left in any doubt. Same with Spink. If no bid he starts at the lower reserve estimate or even below that if still no bid. Says something like "shall we start at?" or words to that effect. Or if there is a bid, maybe, "I've got an internet bid of £700". I really must attend one of these auctions in person at some point.

Very pleased to say my e mail bid was sufficient to secure Lot No 1969, the Freeman 8 mule.

Don't know what the respective obverses are like, but for me this one has the much sharper strike of the two.

Blake, a veritable tsunami of puns there, leaving me high and dry in my attempts to find more. A real watershed moment in punnery.

Wave after wave of them.

Indeed so. The worst one seems to be the 1897 tide mark. On many of those pennies, you can barely make out the tide at all, let alone whether it's high or low.

About the time I realised that the coin was accompanied by a Michael Freeman letter, I e mailed DNW to see if they could supply me a copy. Then when you posted the above, POete, I thought maybe they wouldn't respond, having already sent out a copy to you. But, surprisingly, they now have. They "redacted" the header and signature, thus removing the sensitive detail you refer to above. But here is the rest of the reply - all technical - which expands on what you said above:- Second bit will have to go in a succeeding post, as there isn't enough room for the two