DaveG38

Back in the day, when I worked customer service for the Post Office, I was asked to organise a Meter Check Printer on a customer's line. As I recall, this was in connection with the theft of 50 tons of newsprint! My mind boggles as to how many trucks it took to nick that load and store it. And what for? It's not like you can flog it at a boot fair!

Certainly, this purports to be one of the Lavrillier coins. What I don't get is why anybody would try and 'sell' this coin on ebay, even at the price of £86k. Given that ebay now withholds payments until the transaction is complete, they are not going to release this amount to the seller, just like that. Once it becomes clear that this is a con, it will be cancelled and the seller has failed. All I can think is that the seller, with an amazing feedback of 3, has no idea that they don't get their money immediately.

If in any doubt, avoid! It's not like these are particularly rare.

Thanks to Paddy for the information about this lot. Sadly, I won't be bidding because, unfortunately, this auctioneer does not have an in-house packing/postage service, which means any wins would be at the mercy of an external packer, and in my experience they charge at a rate that would make any wins way overpriced. Just be careful everybody.

I'm afraid that I didn't spot it. I picked up the attribution from a shilling collector on Facebook. I managed to win one 'want,' and then noticed that the 1671 plumes shilling wasn't bid on, so I snaffled it just in time. Later on, I found a couple of other varieties of Victorian shillings were not bid on, so I got those for well under the expected price. All round, I'm pretty pleased.

Not lot 13 then, which I am told had unattributed transposed shields?

Talking about LCA, is anybody on here waiting rather long for their purchases from the last auction to arrive? Usually they turn up within a day or so of payment. This time it is over a week, and no signs yet.

Am I the only one who doesn't 'get' AI? I have a book on the subject, and although it is interesting, it struck me that all AI appears to do, is analyse data etc. and act on it, faster than man can. The book talks about finding patterns in data that we might not spot, and thus unexpected solutions to problems, but again it strikes me this is a matter of speed, rather than 'intelligence.' Given enough people and time it seems to me that anything AI can do we too could, albeit much slower. For me, this doesn't make AI intelligent, just fast. The other aspect I don't understand is the issue of AI 'learning' based on 'reading' existing documentation, so that it can absorb huge amounts of information and can use this in any tasks it is undertaking. How does it sort the wheat from the chaff? How does it work out how the rantings of Donald Trump compare to the utterings of any other US president, or how it can differentiate the absolute rubbish put out by some people online, compared to those who actually have a sensible argument? In short, how does it sort the truth from the lies? Plus, of course, how does it learn morality, when in literature there are fine lines which are often blurred. In short, how can we ensure that AI doesn't decide that the problems of the world are caused by man, and decides to do away with us? After all, this would likely solve the problem of climate change, which it will have learned is a major issue at the moment!!

The mind is willing, but the wallet isn't!!

My wife is a very distant relative of Alice Nutter's, one of the witches. When we were last in Pendle, some 20 years ago, we visited the churchyard where one of the Nutters is buried, and at this point, a large black cat appeared on the grave. Whoooooo!! Given this coincidence, I've been a bit wary of my wife ever since, just in case. You never know what she can do. If only she could magic up a 1726 half crown for me.

It strikes me that the difference between some of these e.g. 29.24 and 29.25 is just the end result of the limit of tolerances in the strking process. 0.01 of a mm is scarcely visible it seems to me.

I can recall seeing a 1954 penny on a stall in the indoor market at Barnstaple, some 10-15 years ago. Not sure if this was Paddy, but the stall was on the left immediately inside the main access door.

Sometimes I wonder if I took my degree in Chemistry. Hypo is Sodium Thiosulphate, not Hypochlorite. Duuhhh!!

MT = Mint Toned, usually with Sodium Hypochlorite..

My dad was a postie back then, and often worked on Christmas Day, usually up to midday. He and my mum were grateful for the overtime and exceptional payments, but for me it meant I had to wait to open my presents.😟

Used to, in the 1950s.

Just to whet your appetite, I have found that he was buried on 15 March 1832 at Rodborough near Stroud, so died not long before. Got several images of data concerning him. In one case, though, there is only a transcript, not an original document. Will have a bit more investigative fun in the morning. I'll forward data/docs as a PM to avoid cluttering this thread up with stuff.

I'll see what I can find, but will be tomorrow now, whilst my other half is watching the footie!

I do have some access, but my family is/was all UK Based, so I had no use for records from overseas. If you want to PM me, I'll see what I can find.

Even more simply, given that the opening post refers to an auction 'the previous Thursday', which auction house was operating on 23rd Nov?

I think we have the basis for a BNJ article developing on this subject.

Clearly, the A is for the original die sinker Algernon, but he died, so Archibald took over. He thought he was better and didn't fancy his work being associated with that scoundrel Algernon, so he put the die letter to the other side of the lighthouse. Then along came Augustine who put his A anywhere he felt like, and didn't care what size it was. Sounds logical to me. Simples!!

Whilst we are on 1964 sixpences, have you found the two varieties of the more common obverse 3 type? One has a thick rim, whilst the other has a thinner one.

I first started looking for one, around 1998, 5 years after I rekindled my interest in coins. I finally got one in 2021 , together with the other varieties of Eliz II sixpences, in an auction. Cost, allowing for rarity and pro-rata with other coins was around £20, including commission and postage. Some years ago, on here there was a collector named Gary (D?), who only collected 20thC and who sold his collection in one go, rather than split it. I don't know who bought it, and what happened to it, but the set of 6d's I bought seemed to correlate very well with those from his collection, so maybe I got the benefit of the eventual split up? Anyway, I'm afraid that I don't have a spare, and if my experience is anything to go by, it will take quite a time to find one. They don't turn up with dealers nor ebayers, probably because they are a bit obscure, and so it isn't easy to find one in the usual way. For the rarer 1964 variety, I found that grubbing through boot fair pots was the answer, so maybe this would work for the 1965 one. Best of luck.

Ah, sorry, I didn't see the title of the thread.