Peckris

I see Pete Townshend playing guitar on one side, and Mr Blobby on the other.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/RARE-GEORGE-V-1926ME-MILLED-MODIFIED-COPPER-EFFIGY-PENNY-COIN-023385/350499696909?_trkparms=aid%3D999002%26algo%3DURGENT.LUI%26ao%3D1%26asc%3D20140502134130%26meid%3D0610f73ced624fd0b9444ddeceaa8a12%26pid%3D100043%26rk%3D1%26rkt%3D1%26so%3Dlastwatched%26sd%3D362161625621&_trksid=p5713.c100043.m2062 Jeez, £175??? It's exactly the same grade (NF) as the one I was given in change on the school bus in 1968.

I tend to go AT LEAST 5 years between Spinks - an annual Kindle edition of CCGB is good enough for me as I'm not interesting in hammered; ancients don't change prices very often; decent early milled is out of my budget mostly.

Amazing to think that was only done in order to get a good photo of the coin for records.

The telltale on these particular forgeries (Northumberland shillings fall into the same category, and other 'infamous' coins too) is that they have been expertly minted from a die created from an genuine original. They fool experts but put two of them side by side and the truth becomes clear - you see, every single facet of the original has been reproduced which means not only the main elements of the design, but scratches and flaws too. These are like fingerprints - they identify an individual coin from its peers and if there's suddenly several examples all identical, you can guarantee that someone has been up to no good.

Will do. Thanks.

Are football programmes valuable? I have a few of my grandad's - the oldest date back to WW2 and mention things like 'Forces personnel free admission', and what to do if the air raid siren goes. Trouble is, they're mostly Brentford so deeply unfashionable.

No die crack - that would result in a raised line or flaw, not corrosion or decay in the coin surface.

You can't see a preview as this particular forum host doesn't have a "full editor" type of software where such options are available.

I can do all that and more on a Mac, but cannot see a way to do it on iPad.

It's very frustrating. I downloaded an image (Google) on iPad, then used the free Resize app to reduce it to 800x800. However, when I try to upload it (on iPad) I get the message that I'm only allowed to upload 500kb - but I can't see how big the file is!! Only that it's 800x800. I do hope you find a solution to this. I'm disabled too, but I use a Mac for most activities, and don't have any problems uploading to this site.

Indeed. We all no doubt remember the time honoured BUGem, which is clearly short for "Bugger 'em".

It's not proof, but if you look at the enlargements, the edges to those dents are much sharper than the rest of the coins, which are quite worn. If done at the Mint, the edges would have worn the same amount.

Ian, thanks for that - an educational if somewhat technical read! The one problem is that the article says that firestain is random, i.e. not only on which (coins) it might appear, but also whereabouts. However, the pattern of 'brown/pink' you see on that halfcrown above, is absolutely typical; in other words if it is seen, it's pretty much always in the same places - the edges of the shield and the parts of the garter where most wear takes place. Similarly, it's usually the same points on the obverse, i.e. the highest parts of the portrait, spreading as it wears more. It's almost as if the copper lies deeper, and is gradually uncovered by wear. But I'm no scientist.

Ok, fair enough. But the issue with - e.g. - 1925 halfcrowns is that the pinky-brown patches appear only on fairly well-worn examples, never on BU examples. Here are two from the Bay (the higher grade halfcrown has a problem with 'green' - a common problem! - but not with brown, unlike the more worn one):

Quite possibly my favourite song of theirs. A mellow song from the late..

Yes, I wrote that article, and had read about the coating of pure silver - but if this was achieved by 'pickling' in acid I'm quite happy to accept that. The brown patches seen so often on silver coins of the mid-20s would almost certainly be due to copper 'leaching' to the surface when it wore.

That's a case. My own set is in a red cardboard box. It is like modern proof sets which come in a choice of packaging at different prices. Here is a picture of one from the internet:

It's possible the original owner left a large gap at the top to hold packs of silica gel?

Yes, if two genuine bidders try the same tactic, there's little you can do. Luckily in my case, a little digging showed there was hanky panky afoot, and the seller and I managed to sort it out between us.

Maybe not, but defaced coins DO exist, and I've never heard of a prosecution in modern times for doing so. Those are very common coins by the way, so no real damage done from our point of view.

Hah! I watched a computer with lots of enhanced features for several days, and was there poised over the keyboard. With little action at 10 minutes to go, I bid £10 over the current top bid, and was 'highest bidder' with about a minute to go. It then went over £400, so I waited for 7 seconds to go, then put in a 'stupid bid' of £701. I won the auction ... at £701. I looked closer and there were two bids after mine - one for £599, then a split second later at £699. I viewed the bidding history and saw that the underbidder had withdrawn their successful bid 16 times out of 18 auctions over the previous 30 days. I contacted the seller, querying the auction and got a reply next day saying he knew nothing about the underbidder and agreed that the winning bid was 'on the high side'. I looked again at the bidding history and saw that the underbidder was 'no longer registered with eBay'. Luckily the seller was honest (100%), and we agreed a BIN price at £10 more than the previous kosher bid. He reckoned that retailers sometimes went onto eBay and forced up auction prices (withdrawing if they won) to raise the market prices of what they had in stock in their shops, e.g. secondhand computers.

Every Picture Tells A Story

Mick - my favourite version of Promised Land is by The Band on Moondog Matinée. How sad is that? To step up several notches in class, this is one of my favourite tracks of the 90s:

I used to love that until they hijacked it for live football on telly.