Red Riley

Like the ME obverse, it's another one of those that with a little bit of experience you can recognise in an instant. There are obviously pointers but the whole thing just looks so different.

So what's half of death?

Goes with marrying people so closely related it's tantamount to incest. Oh damn, I've gone off subject again.

Typical Daily Telegraph article of the 'things are never as good as they used to be' ilk. I would however tend to agree about the quality of design, but why he picks the humdrum 1902-27 halfcrown is beyond me. And as for retaining the old l.s.d. system? Do me a favour.

Er... hold on a second.

Hi Dave, Sorry I've been on holiday so missed this one. I don't expect to attend Coinex as the expenses look to outweigh the potential return but at most coin fairs, cash is king and many collectors/dealers seem to wander around with wads of the stuff. A compromise, which I for one would accept is to pay a cash deposit of say, £50 in cash and the balance by cheque, the coin to be forwarded once the cheque has cleared. You won't get to take the coin home with you, but you will get it after a couple of weeks, so all you really require is patience. Few, if any of the smaller dealers take credit cards. Oh, and as a post script, with over 30 years as a commuter, I never had any hassle either on streets or trains.

Might I suggest this: http://www.diy.com/diy/jsp/bq/nav.jsp?action=detail&fh_secondid=11247835&fh_view_size=10&fh_location=%2f%2fcatalog01%2fen_GB%2fcategories%3c%7b9372015%7d%2fcategories%3c%7b9372043%7d%2fcategories%3c%7b9372176%7d%2fcategories%3c%7b9392052%7d&fh_eds=%c3%9f&isSearch=false

No, you've lost me.

As part of a bulk lot, I have acquired a number of Royal Mint 1970s to 2000s crowns, some of them Isle of Man. My first thought was to put them on e-bay but a cursory glance seems to indicate that nothing is moving even at face value. The British stuff is easy as I assume I can take it to the bank, but what do I do about the Isle of Man rubbish? The lot also included no less than 16 Guernsey 1966 ten shilling pieces. Any ideas?

OK, I'll go first with a classic bit of fence sitting of the 'I would need to see it in the hand' variety. What is the obverse like?

I think you will have to treat the spots of verdigris rather than the entire coin. A little while go I posted this; OK, here's my way of treating a toned copper coin coin with a verdigris hole appearing; 1) Carefully scour the hole with a needle to remove as much verdigris as possible; 2) Carefully wash coin; 3) Soak end of cocktail stick in ammonia for 15-20 mins; 4) Very carefully knock off all drips from cocktail stick; 5) Even more carefully insert stick into hole and twist around. What you are trying to avoid here is getting any ammonia on the undamaged surface of the coin; 6) Make up a paste of sulphur and vaseline. You only need a tiny quantity; 7) Take another needle and put a tiny amount of the paste in the hole; 8) Leave for a while. The longer it is left, the darker the area treated with the paste will become, so it is possible to some degree match with the colour of the coin; 9) Wash coin again; 10) Bob's your uncle, Fanny's your aunt! Obviously you will not need to tone the coins, so miss out 6) to 8). As regards silver, I soaked a 50% silver 6d in amonia to remove the green spots and the result was very successful, just small spots of grey where the verdigris had been. As ever, given in good faith and no responsibility accepted!

How much ? Picked mine up for less than £15 on one of my raids on the unsuspecting booksellers of the South East.... The ones I saw were £40 and £95 Vols. 1 and 2 respectively.

Take your hand of your hip when you say that Colin xxx or should we call you sweetcheeks I wondered who the tranny was at the last Warwick & Warwick.

Thanks everyone. That has at least staved off the immediate requirement giving me a little breathing space to track down more books on the subject. I used Coincraft 1997 and Spink's; the photographs in the former just look like round(ish) blobs and the latter just doesn't go into sufficient detail. More expense...

Thanks Rob. I have now tracked down both volumes of North, but they ain't cheap! Still, guess I only have to get them once.

The 1868. Lovely coin in the hand.

You won't see them all, because I've got one of them!

Unfortunately I don't have a proof double florin and these two Standing Britannia florins are as close as I can get. I always have problems with size on this site so hope they turn out okay. The edges on the proof florin are rather more squared up and generally more substantial than those on the circulation coin. Later proofs offer little more than a highly polished surface and can actually have quite rough edges.

How would a Greek bankruptcy affect them, being next door neighbours etc, etc ? Did you really call that nasty man an arsewipe ? They probably have very little exposure to Greece as i) they aren't in the EC, and ii) they hate each others guts. How Turkish banks get round the Islamic ban on charging interest, I don't know, perhaps they just call it something else. And, yes he did.

Here's the second;

I have just spent the last hour poring over various books trying to identify these two Mediaeval pennies and have emerged none the wiser and in a very bad temper. I would be extremely grateful if someone would just have a quick look at them and tell me into which of the thousands of varieties these (rather worn) pennies fall. I know the answer is probably to consult North but I haven't got a copy and have never seen one for sale. Please help me! Here's the first;

I think you're right 400. A sovereign would be a good investment, but that's all it would be. A couple of months ago I was asked to put together a starter collection for each of a lady's four grandchildren with complete free reign as to what I supplied. I went for a varied selection of lower grade, more interesting coins going back to the early Victorian period which would, I hoped, capture a kid's imagination but at the same time be robust enough to be fairly roughly played with. The lady seemed very satisfied (she even gave me a tip!) but of course I am never going to know how the grandchildren reacted to the coins.

Just let it fall from a few mm. onto a wooden table, it won't come to any harm.

Without going into the legend/mintmark on which I'm hardly an expert, I would agree - the planchet is just too round and the design/legend too even. I would strongly suspect it of being a modern replica in pewter. Sorry if that's bad news.

Also, a feature of many examples of reverse G is that the date can be very weakly struck.