Paddy

You got my one from earlier in this thread?

I assume this one of mine is wavy 2 then?

Can I have some of whatever he is smoking?

I actually quite like that one - not as a coin but as an ornament. However at around 5 times bullion I will not be buying.

Ah - I can see the answer to that one, but I will let others have a ponder rather than posting the solution straight away!

Ditto.

I was using the word "realistic" in relation to our expectation that the rest of the world should adopt democracy as the optimum. I was in Hong Kong in the 1980s when democracy was being pushed by the then British rule. The reaction of the local populace was interesting - the bulk of the local Chinese could not grasp the concept and were fearful of expressing any political opinion. I suspect it is now part of their evolutionary DNA after thousands of years during which expressing any dissent from the ruling Emperor was a short cut to execution. Yes, some of the more intelligent and Westernised took to the idea enthusiastically, but it is that minority that are now suffering the wrath of the dictatorship. For most of the West, democracy in one form or another is now ingrained, and unlikely to be replaced. It does not always produce the best results for society as we tend to oscillate from one extreme to another. For some reason the middle ground seems elusive - parties that claim to represent it never do well.

It seems some countries are predisposed to choose to be run by dictators/emperors. Both Russia and China have spent most of their history this way, and despite brief forays into democracy in the 20th century, have now reverted to form. Maybe it is us in the West, with our fixation on democracy, who are being unrealistic in our expectations?

OK - I surrender - I have ordered one now too. I wonder if Wayne is on commission? If not, why not!

There was another good one before Ebay cottoned on and deleted his id: whale_oil_beef_hooked

In the early days of Ebay I spotted a seller with a number of badly identified coins, which puzzled me. Then I saw his ID - norfolk_n_idea!

I was encountering a similar problem yesterday, but I think it was because the internet was particularly busy and I had some update already downloading. Maybe, if the bandwidth is not available the software ignores the request until things improve?

For reference, the tip posted before was the use of "Ctrl Z" to back track on any mistake you make within Windows. So, for example, if you have inadvertently deleted a block of text, or moved a folder in your email somewhere you can't find it, if you hit Ctrl Z it will backtrack your last action, miraculously amending your mistake. Repeated hits of Ctrl Z will keep backtracking as far as the last Save in that application. (Either a deliberate save or one caused by closing the app.) So if you suddenly realise you have made a mistake, don't panic and close the app - use Ctrl Z to recover!

A little while ago I posted a tip in response to another thread, which proved very useful to some people here and turned out to be something many were not aware of. It occurred to me that there are other useful tips that can make life easier for coin collectors on here, so I thought I would start a thread. Here is one that is very useful in dealing with photographs, whether your own or ones found doing research on other sites: At any point you can create a screen shot of a portion of the screen (as opposed to the whole screen) by pressing the Windows button (the one with squashed window shape usually between "Alt" and "FN" on the bottom row of the keyboard) along with Shift and S. The screen will dull and you can then draw out a rectangle covering whatever are of the screen you want. As soon as you release the mouse button, it copies a screen shot of the area to your clipboard, ready for pasting wherever you want. If you want to get this screenshot into a .jpg for further use, you can paste it into any picture handling app, or as a second tip into a Word document. If you then "Save As" the Word document as a webpage (.htm, .html) it creates a folder with any images in the document as .jpgs - from where you can copy or edit them wherever you like. Or, if you have Notifications on, you will see a message pop up in the bottom right of your screen. If you click on this it will open the image in the Microsoft picture editor and you can save it from there. (Default is to save as .png, which is larger and not generally what is used on the web, but you can save as .jpg instead.) I hope that is useful. Also works as a way of dealing with uncropped pictures on your own machine.

100% fake and not even a good one.

There are people here who know a lot more about pennies than me, but as an amateur I can see immediately that this is wrong. The hair is too coarse, the features on the bust are crudely executed - I describe it as "cartoon-like". The toning is unnatural and clearly modern and artificial. That is before you get into the actual errors - the shield should be more convex and the line spacing looks wrong. The date numerals look too large and possibly the wrong font - but there are so many errors that the overall effect is dreadful.

Senility and fawning flunkies will do that - just look at our current batch of dictators - Trump, Putin, Kim, whatever the Chinese guy is called....

Yes, definitely an Indian Temple token for the Hindu religion. If you know anyone that reads Hindi they should be able to translate the writing for you. You can find many examples to compare with here: http://indiannumismatics.com/products.php?id=152

Important Government Notice: When using old brassieres to make your own face masks, it is vital that you use only the left hand cup. Otherwise you will look a right tit!

I can't claim any expertise here, and I had never looked that closely at mine, but it does have a plain edge with incised writing, as shown. The only other comment is that yours seems to had a thicker, and possibly irregular rim? Whether that is part of the same mint blunder or poor fakery, I don't know.

I have heard them mention "Saleroom" on Bargain Hunt several times, so I assume this is Saleroom.com. The choice is up to the auctioneer, so I imagine some also use Easylive. I know a lot of auctions now have both going independently, with room bidding, phone bids and commission bids it gets quite complicated for the auctioneer!

Interesting subject and one I know nothing about. A few pictures of some of them would help the ignorant (like me) to know what to look out for. (I would not be competing and would be happy to offer any I found here for you enthusiasts!)

To clarify further, and slightly bad news I fear. There are 3 auction types on Easylive: 1. "Live" Auctions - here you can get live audio and sometimes video of the auction in progress, bids are immediate and truly "live" as if you were in the room. 2. "Timed" Auctions - this is a bit more like Ebay. Bids are accepted in advance and the system processes these and bids on your behalf. The lots end at fixed intervals from the auction start time onward. No audio or video. 3. "Catalogue" Auctions. Here the bids are passed to the auctioneer to use on the day. Quoting from the Easylive website: "This auction will not be broadcast live. You'll still be able to leave absentee bids that will be sent through to the auctioneer to use on the day of the sale." Surprise surprise, LCA has gone for the latter, so it sounds like they will have a list of maximum bids in front of them, with the potential for misuse still there. I will no longer be bidding.

I have not bid at LCA for several years. The way that lots always seem to go at a maximum bid has put me off - I feel I am being taken for a mug. I may bid through Easylive as at least that way the auctioneer has no knowledge of the limit of my bids until executed live in the auction.