davidrj

Skillful addition of the H under the date though!

From memory this is what they looked like in circulation (1960s) copper always ends up showing through the silver in worn billon coins. Henry VIII's debased coinage gave him the nickname "Old Coppernose" David

my scanner head pushes the light out behind it, so if the coin is orientated in the direction of the scan, the image of the coin will appear to have been illuminated from 12 o'clock

background colour definitely affects scan quality, the inside of my scanner lid is white, scanning toned copper/bronze results in very dark low contrast images - the scanner averages the dark coin/light backgound. Much better results if i put a dark blue behind the coin. For bronze with lustre, i use a yellowish brown background. Also important to crop the actual scan window as close as possible (in the preview mode) , to eliminate as much background as possible before the final scan worth experimenting, but always scan at a high res, you can always reduce the picture size later

ditto, recommend AVG

Not a great monarchist, but I'm coming round to the view that a hereditry lottery is a good a way as anyof picking a titular Head of State. definitely wouldn't want a Predident Thatcher or a President Blair. The Irish probably have it about right Still hope those celebrating today have a good time and don't get too cold and wet Is this what they mean when they sing "Long to rain over us"? David

Have a look at Michael Gouby's site , he has pictures and descriptions of some of the varieties, His book is excellent but only covers Victorian pennies, for the rest you need a copy of Freeman Beware though, this could get expensive if you get hooked! David

You could try post a picture here they've helped me with a couple of problem coins

Not got a clue! Could be from a group fighting for independence from Britain as the Imperial power, is that a word to the right of the flag? The only similar flag I can think of is from the Basque Region of Spain - ? an ETA medal or a Spanish Civil War token David

Plants! Gardening in Summer (hopefully) Coins when weather is against going outside

BRITT OMN was only ever used on UK coinage, not Imperial, also colonies normally used a crowned effigy of George V I think obverse is from a (1928-36) penny

A definite faint H in my opinion, but not faked more likely a filled die ( which is both Bamford and Gouby's view of the 1876 no H) Not sure whether there's artificial toning, just looks like muck to me, a soak on acetone on even a gentle wash in warm soapy water would improve what looks to be nice coin

My two low grade examples don't show it either

The Eddy pennies are all very difficult to find with good obverse details

The trouble with any printed album, is the large number of dies let alone varieties for the penny series, what would go in and what would you leave out. It's a series I know I will never complete even in low grade. I think Dansco produce blank pages in various sizes, never used them though, and I've no idea whether they are a safe method for long term storage. I use coin trays, but as you say i can only see one side

Never considered these to be coins, more a statement of wealth or the equivalent of bullion in a bank vault I'd go for Swedish plate money David

All we need now is the number of angels that can dance on the head of a pin!

Trouble is, at least 50% of the male population think they could do a better job as manager. So unless he wins every match from now on he will inevitably receive scorn and derision

Be a sad end to the copper & bronze series, but inevitable in my view - Finland has already ditched 1 & 2 euro cents and the Canadians are scrapping the 1c The US cent must be one of the lowest value coins still in circulation, any lower that folk know of? David

You can't agree with him! That's tantamount to blaming me for single handedly pushing up the prices of all bronze pennies. Oops sorry! Got to blame someone though, and my cat swears it isn't his fault

Agree it's getting harder and harder to upgrade bronze on my limited budget, main reason I've diversified into finding higher grade foreign "pennies"

Clever advertising by the makers of Pears Soap! There was a law prohibiting the defacing the monarch’s portrait, so the use of British coins for advertising was not permissible. The company president ordered about a quarter million bronze coins from France, which are approximately the same size as the British penny and were generally accepted in circulation. These pieces circulated widely for a few years before the Parliament decided that they were unlawful and ordered them confiscated and destroyed. I have a few, but a high grade example is on my wants list David

5 sols, but only exchangeable for assignats (practically worthless notes) Wiki entry:- Les Frères Monneron was built up in England by Matthew Boulton, thanks to the steam engine of James Watt, producing 2 and 5 sols coins in great quantities in the Soho factory in Birmingham from the end of 1791. Watt's steam engine.necessity money eased the coinage shortage then current in France and their technical and aesthetic quality was much superiour to mediocre base metal issues produced by official sources. In March 1792, the Monnerons went bankrupt and Pierre fled. His brother Augustin took over the business, but a law of 3 May 1792 forbade the production of money by private concerns. In September a decree forbade the commercialisation of confidence-coins. These necessity coins were in circulation until the end of 1793. These pieces of

Another from France But this one is a nice chunk of copper from Matthew Boulton at the Soho mint Moneron de 5 sols 1792 Not uncommon, but nice to find one with some original lustre and very few knocks thought it worth the €40 I paid for it David

The only penny sized coins in brass I can think of are:- N.Vietnam 2 dong 1946 (v. crude and minted in Hanoi) S.African 1cent 1961-1964 (probably inted in Pretoria) Kenyan 10 cents 1966-1991 (?Royal Mint) Latter could possibly be the culprit david