Peckris

The difficulty comes because there are at least three types. The original 6 (or 7!) were produced to go under foundation stones which Geo V was laying in 1933. At least one of those was robbed out later, and one other sold by the church owners who didn't want to run the risk. Then there is the 'Lavrillier' pattern, where the portrait has been completely refashioned, and Britannia comes with a much wider rim and longer teeth (not Britannia herself you understand ). There are at least four of these, and they are the ones that come up for sale most often - Colin Cooke sold one a few years back, and it's still on his website. Finally there is a uniface strike of the Lavrillier pattern (obverse only), which has also been sold. The biggest unknown is the whereabouts of all the original 6 or 7, though most are actually accounted for.

Yes - it's a very nice example of that particular halfcrown. It will set you back a fair few hundred £ though...

A picture would be good. Letters on the collar are often weakly struck - the "PEMEMBER" is not a misstruck R but simply a weak R with its down stroke not clear. I suspect your F FTH is the same - a weak I that doesn't show clear or even at all. But as I say - pictures are best.

Many businesses (including my employers) have stuck with the tried and tested XP. Our computer at work has a Win7 sticker but that was removed and XP loaded ( ) 8 really seems to have been designed for mobile device use. Unfortunately that doesn't fit what most businesses use. I think Microsoft need to decide whether they can afford to run a business and a mobile package, whether 8 needs tweaking so it will work better on conventional keyboard/ desk based setups, or whether one OS will have to go ... Microsoft obviously decided they could do better than Apple (not for the first time). They simply ignored the fact that there is a good reason why Apple have two distinct OS's - one for mobile devices and one for desktops and laptops.

There aren't any real 'key pieces' from 1960 - but the polished die 1960 crown is nice enough, and cupro-nickel of 1960 itself isn't too easy to get in proper UNC (one rule you can say for the 1960s: coins pretty much all get easier and cheaper the further you get from 1960 - that's because literally millions were kept aside, mint sealed bags, filched from banks and post offices, from change, you name it. Don't buy gold unless you enjoy buying at the top of the market - 1960s pieces are BV anyway.) Good luck!

Is that a Digital PDP-11? (DEC). That looks like the usual config, CPU/ 2 Drives/9 track tape. That was a popular unit early on. It looks like you are ready for any contingency with the full set of replacement cards on top of the Tape Drive! Ha, Ha! See my reply just above yours - there's been some Photoshop jiggery pokery going on I can assure you there's been no Photoshop jiggery-pokery going on at all. It took an awful lot of looking after - PC1-2.jpg A Digico M28 with 3 Pertec 23Mb hard drives, a Pertec tape deck and around a couple of Meg of RAM. OK if you want to do some accounts, word processing or play DND. Ok, I believe you! But I NEVER saw a domestic unit like that - it looks like a computer you'd find in the IT department of some small to medium company of the early 80s. My inevitable follow-up question would be, why didn't you get the Apple II, which was pre-Mac (presumably the era we're talking about), but was the leading home computer of its day or, if we're past 1981, why not an IBM PC or even a clone? Or a DEC? That unit you have there is totally OTT for home computing.

I'd just like to object to the phrase that I "couldn't be ar*ed" to collect hammered - I just don't like them! Well, apart from late finework/Liz I milled, and drawing the line at medieval (i.e. post-Saxon).

Edit: Link. MM=Maklouf?

I was going to say 5, but now you mention it, it could be a 3 too.

Is that a Digital PDP-11? (DEC). That looks like the usual config, CPU/ 2 Drives/9 track tape. That was a popular unit early on. It looks like you are ready for any contingency with the full set of replacement cards on top of the Tape Drive! Ha, Ha! See my reply just above yours - there's been some Photoshop jiggery pokery going on

Haha - nicely Photoshopped. Just a pity you forgot about the reflection in the mirror

Cool. Nice spot.

Then I'll have to give up. It's bedtime. I'll see the answer tomorrow.

Well there only appears to be one N in BRITANNIA (all barred A's by the way), but that's because the coin is so worn between 11 and 12 o'clock that if there was an N it could have worn right away.

I think his girlfriend wasn't referring to coins...

A noble ambition - but where do you draw the line? Ok, you've always had a 1922/27 which is mega rare, but what others do you aim to get? Obviously 1933 is the commonest one that's out of reach (well, compared to 1920 type 2, 1926ME reverse 1927, 1922ME, 1952, 1953 type 1, and 1954!!), but there must be very rare issues you don't know if you will ever see or afford?

Oh yes of course it is. That would make it 1699 or 1700 'no stops on obverse'.

Ouch!!!!!!!

Me too!

Yeah - I bought a BU 1924 from Colin Cooke in the 90s, but it had even lighter hair detail than normal. I queried his selling price (£33!) and was told they were shooting up in price and very hard to get in that grade. I decided to keep it.. V glad I did

Oh yes - I just remembered the make of my first PC : it was a "Beltron". Yeah, you never heard of it either

I remember a Project Manager stopping me on the stairs in the late 80s and proudly announcing that after an upgrade each employee now had a workspace/storage area of 2 GIGABYTES! I looked at him blankly. What's a gigabyte?

It's what the good old 3d was made of. I thought that was brass? They were called 'brass threepences'!

Yes, what Declan says re. the 1925s. As for the other points: 1921 is quite a scarce date (comparatively) but you wouldn't think so from the mintage figures. It's my bet that some of that figure includes halfcrowns minted in 1921 with a date of 1920. It is not likely that the RM held much of a stock of pre-1920 coins - the big era of inflation was WW1 when you see a massive increase in the mintage of silver : from an average of 3 million a year 1911-13, to an average of 24 million a year 1914-18. That reduces to 10 mill for 1919 so you could see that demand was falling and the RM was already planning ahead for the silver reduction. The large mintages for 1920-23 simply reflect the withdrawal of .925 silver coins which needed to be replaced; there wasn't a huge demand for new issues. This can be seen from the big reduction in mintage 1924-26 when that job was done. Actually, the Mint only had a limited success in withdrawing .925 silver coins - the public, knowing that silver coins were being debased, hung on to their solid silver coins in quite large quantities. Which is why you see so much silver dated 1914-1919 around now, in an average of GVF condition.