Peckris

A varied selection there Mick! Now I know where The Pioneers pinched the riff for Long Shot Kick De Bucket from... Anyway, back to relative normality for me

8 and a half million attended the South Bank exhibition alone; then add in several million more at events held around the UK, and you have a huge potential market for the crown as a keepsake. Also consider it was the first non-gold coin to feature the popular Pistrucci 'George & the Dragon' design for 50 years, and I wouldn't be at all surprised if the number sold at Festival events far exceeded the number applied for by post from the RM.

Considering the huge numbers attending the Festival of Britain compared with the coin collector base of the time*, wouldn't that be more likely the other way around? *(nearly 2m 1951 Crowns compared with 20,000 proof sets struck)

Please sign that you are 18 or over...

Some later settlements - e.g. at Wroxeter - were based on Roman towns. Others, like Carlisle, maintained a continuous occupation until the Norse raids. It is more true though to say that Roman stone was pilfered for all kinds of uses, especially up at Hadrians Wall which was several times taller than the present paltry remains. However, the resettlement of Roman towns (for example Chester, Colchester, Bath, Exeter, York, Cirencester) tended to be a later trend by which time their Roman artefacts were either buried, ruined, pilfered, or what have you. The Saxons did not use Roman money, in fact their use of any money was limited, until later kingdoms when the Saxon kings issued sceats (silver pennies) with a combination of their own image on one side for propaganda purposes, and Christian symbolism on the reverse, usually a cross. The Saxon and Roman cultures had very little in common, and Roman artefacts tended to be viewed with suspicion for a long time. The closest they came to Rome was the monastic system, and later on, visits to Charlemagne and various Popes, but that wasn't for a few hundred years after the Romans left Britain.

Ah, you were referring to the box colour for the entire set? Ok, but AFAIK, the individual boxed crowns only come in green or burgundy. If you've got a picture of a blue one, I'd be more than happy to see it.

Not strictly speaking a song as such, but definitely one of my favourite clips!

Which they did, long before 1918/19 if you read the introduction to Michael Freeman's 'bible'. Officially they supplied the Mint with blanks from 1912, but given the reddish colour of their blanks, it's not too far-fetched to think they also supplied some between 1908-1910.

Good song, not quite so sure about the performance? Get rid of the echo and go for the full Mark E Smith treatment!

I've seen regular 1951 crowns exactly like the VIP Proof in the picture above.

(I just posted this, but it has gone - where?) Anyway, a song from a friend of mine:

Hidden talents there Dave - I've never written a song in my life, so nothing but admiration here. Be interesting to hear them professionally produced and sung?

Windsor Coins? I bought several coins from John Dunkerton (equally neat labels) but am not sure if Dennis is his son or his father. Looking at the price of that 1904 penny, that would be post-1970s and therefore presumably the son. (I met both again at the Midland Fair, late 90s)

What I can see there Christie, amounts to silver value only. Be aware that pre-1947 is 50% silver, whereas pre-1920 it's full sterling silver. Get what you can for them, from anyone who buys coins like that for their silver content.

Sure, why not?

Listen, you wouldn't believe how long it took me to "get" UT + subjunctive - get out of here with your gerunds!

Fully struck up examples of coins normally found weakly struck always carry a premium. For example the 1895 YH farthing, and 1918/1919H pennies. That sixpence looks better than normal for that date and as Nick says, might fetch significantly more than estimate.

It's said that radiates were very similar to the antoninianus, but had "little or no silver".

I thought it might be a nice idea for us to have somewhere where we can display our impeccable musical tastes (or otherwise!)... YouTube has just about everything under the sun. It can be a topic to return once in a while if - (never! ) - we become slightly overloaded by the question of whether the downstroke of the second P is 'very slightly' or merely 'slightly' to the left of a tooth. What we choose need have nothing whatever to do with coins, so do excuse my first choice.

Not flippant when you look into the history behind the differences - for example, the Mint had enormous problems with the early bronze coinage, which is why there are so many varieties for the first few years. Many of these varieties are 'significant', in that different designs can be seen (lighthouse, leaves in wreath, signature present somewhere or other or absent, beads vs teeth, die letters below lighthouse, position of bust, lettering, shield, etc) - some are very common, others very rare, added to which there are common obverses and reverses which are rare in particular combinations. One thing which varies a great deal is the position and angle of the final punched digit in the date. These correspond to different individual dies being used, there being no other difference to note. They of course might be of interest to a (very small) number of collectors, and those same collectors might equally wish to pursue a collection of different die numbers used on silver coins, and good luck to them - as has been said, it takes all sorts... However, the small collector base for these means that although certain dies may be rare, you'd have to search out an interested collector to get any premium over the listed price for - e.g. - a common variety of 1861 penny. Where it becomes more interesting (i.e. a greater number of potential collectors) is where you get a deliberate design difference in the spacing of date numerals, as can be seen between 1875 and 1879. A few varieties are rare, and though some collectors wouldn't be interested in the slightest, there are enough others to raise the premium on a particular variety by quite a large amount. HTH

I don't know - I could certainly use 2000 Guineas

a) because conjecture is fun and c) who wants to wait 6 months for the Mint to be bothered to reply (that's even if they did, and assuming they know the answer)?

Perhaps maroon were the ones sold at the Festival, while the green were the ones you ordered from the Mint? Just a thought.

They're not, not really. They're the scarcest of the Ed VII sixpences but they're not hard to come by compared to halfcrowns. The 1905 gains a small premium by a reputational 'drip down' effect of that date. In average condition they're not even scarce. Sometimes you have to factor in things that aren't directly connected to a particular issue, such as 1905 for silver.