Emperor Oli

I wouldn't pay £3 for those. The gold one is brass, and is a gaming token.

I think I wrote something for the maundy bit but it got buried under stacks of work.

We still use paper and pencil, with a mark going through either a [P] for present or an [A] for absent. If a pupil is late, both [P] and [A] are struck through.

A Q&A in the Daily Mail today: Question: We used to have slang words for all our predecimal currency. Are there any for the money we still use today? Answer: Though the slang names for predecimal currency such as the bob, tanner, Tilbury and Oxford are evocative of a bygone era, many slang terms are applied to today’s currency. Loose change in general is known as shrapnel, pence becomes pee and small coinage is known as coppers; 20p pieces are called edge pences and 50p pieces are called spanners (hence the joke: Why does a 50p piece have flat sides? So you can use a spanner to get ‘em out of an Aberdonian’s hand). The pound coin is known as a quid, which may come from quid pro quo, an equivalent amount for something, or could come from the Gaelic-speaking Irishmen in the British Army who would refer to “my money†as mo chuid – chuid being an omnibus Gaelic word for “thingâ€, “pieceâ€, “possessionâ€, “collectionâ€, “money†(as in this case) – or even “a bout of sexual intercourseâ€. A pound coin can also be known as a Huckleberry Hound (pound), squid nicker (or an Alan Whicker) or a Maggie (after Margaret Thatcher, who introduced the coin) because “it’s brassy, two-faced and thinks it’s a sovereignâ€. Slang terms for larger amounts of money abound. Examples include monkey (£500), nifty (£50), a bullseye (£50), a pony (£25), deep sea diver (a fiver), Ayrton Senna (tenner), a mother hen (£10), Pavarotti (£10), McGiver (fiver). -Olivia Pemberton, Aberdeen

I do, but if I didn't, I'd find a way. Anyhow, I've looked and I don't think non-US peeps can bid.

I'm shocked and saddened by this. I've sent him quite a few emails over the past year or two and he has always in a friendly manner. Does anyone know how it happened, or how old he was? Both a great enthusiast and dealer has been lost.

Holy Moley now I'm in love! I&L Goldberg AND it's proof! A steal!

You've made up my mind for me. Non!

This has been on my watchlist for a while. I'm sure it's a strong EF, but was wondering about the odd toning on it. This only seems to affect the obverse; indeed, the reverse has quite nice, even toning. It was relisted about a week ago after it didn't sell, for the same starting price. I may bid on it depending on your judgements...I just wonder if the toning is suspect or just weird. Could it be the product of some ill-fated cleaning attempt? I don't know whether I see hairlines in the reverse fields.

Twice the distance from the middle?

I think I posted The Political Compass a while ago.

Most of my family lived through the Thatcher years and don't think they were bad. I agree with Peter's point; everyone seems to have a go at her. This will probably stimulate a flurry of negative points but I couldn't care less because from what I have researched myself, most of her policies were, in my eyes, fair and rational (apart from the abolition of apprenticeships). But, I digress.

BBC Election site. You can enter your postcode to find your consituency, and loads of other information. It gives a brief synopsis of the constituency's political past and lists the candidates in contention. Interestingly, you can find the margin by which the winning party won in 2001. Eg. Ribble Valley

Would have been so much better with punctuation.

Just out of interest, what constituency do you all live in, and which party is it held by? I live in the Ribble Valley, a strong Conservative seat. It's the fourth-strongest in the country apparently.

I know a Steve Hartly. So there you go.

Conservatives.

I had quite a lot of fun one afternoon experimenting with coins and fire/ovens. I had some quarters left over from a holiday so I messed about by putting them in flames and burning the copper off, and getting lovely green flames in the process. I also tried (and failed) to AT some in the oven using allsorts of household chemicals, to no avail.

Same here, at 2221 it still won't open. The server seems to be riddled with problems lately.

My granddad said the other day my political persuasion was somewhere "right of Genghis Khan"; I've mellowed recently Like Chris, I have doubts whether he joined by his own accord. Children had to be part of the Hitler Youth or the League of German Maidens (for girls, evidently), basically so the Nazis could control them for longer and keep them away from their parents who may have been anti-Nazi. Sylvester makes an interesting statement - "the last Pope". I was really hoping for a more liberal Pope; a Pope who would sanction contraception to fight STDs; a Pope who would encourage the ordination of women priests; a Pope who would maybe lax their views on abortion. But, we're stuck with another JPII who, in my opinion, was a waste of space.

I don't think he'll be with us long, he's 78. Kind of an interim Pope I think.

I don't think he did. His last work was Unterwegs zu Jesus Christus back in 2003. Do you have a source? I could be wrong.

Ugh another hard liner.

Big of a bugger when new evidence comes to light later suggesting they were not all they were cracked up to be. A good number of Popes have been totally unsuitable for the job (one even prayed to the devil if i remember rightly) In my opinion, the sainthood system was cheapened by JPII giving them out like boiled sweets. Edit: Century FM just said white smoke had been seen from the chimney, but the bell hadn't tolled. I can't find any agencies to verify this. On the subject of names, I found this site.

I imagine the "Blessed [name here]" Popes are on their way to sainthood - perhaps beatified? I think they'll be the ones before full-blown canonisation. However, the trouble between beatification and canonisation is verifying a miracle has been carried out by the person in question. This is probably the reason for so many "Blesseds" on the list.