secret santa

Lukasz certainly has got green fingers when it comes to finding rarities.

I think that, apart from DNW or Baldwins, the quality of their photography is their own worst enemy. I wouldn't buy based on the pictures from Spink or LCA.

Back in 1987 I asked in my local Barclays bank whether they had any mint sealed bags of the new smaller 50p and they let me have one - I still have it although that year saw one of the biggest numbers struck. Probably worth no more than face value.

I agree. Actually, are there any known instances of a mass melting with no surviving specimens (obviously difficult to prove) ?

Parcelforce phone number is 0344 800 4466 in case you need it.

If it comes by USPS, remember my experience. I rang Parcel Force yesterday and actually spoke to a human who said "you should have had 2 letters from us". Well, I didn't and they didn't even apologise. Simply confirmed that it had been returned to the US. Customer Service ? - it's gone the way of the Dodo.

OK, here's another theory. The metal for the creation of a working die has to be annealed, i.e. heated up to soften it to allow the punch to create the incuse image before plunging it into water to harden it. Is it possible that the would-be die might not soften uniformly upon heating and when the punch slams down into the softened metal, the highest points of the punch (which create the lowest part of the die which will in turn create the highest point of the struck coin) comes up against harder (i.e. less soft) metal and does not create as sharper a mould as it should ?

Surely it must be caused by something a bit more robust than grease ? The power with which a die strikes a blank would drive grease out of its way ?

Is a picture of the whole reverse available Terry ?

Umm. I'm not sure I'd include that one on the basis of that photograph.

I can't make up my mind whether the pennies with missing waves are truly rare and merit an entry on my Rare Penny site. Example occur for 1934, 1937, 1966 and 1967 (these are the dates that I know about) and I have pictures of fewer than 5 for each date. Although I don't regard them as a truly recordable man-made "variety", they are genuinely collectable and appear to be scarce. At first I created a web page for each year but now I have summarised them on a single page, although I am continuing to update the individual year pages and they can be reinstated at any time if collectors show the interest. I'd be grateful to know of any other years which exhibit this feature.

Just emailed it to you.

No thanks, just the close-up of the date, which I've downloaded now.

Mike, I can email you a scan.

Cliff, I've started to build a page of copper penny date styles - can I use your picture please ?

I wish I'd known that before. I've just entered the tracking no. into Parcelforce and there was a complete history. Apparently they issued customs charges in September (which I never received) and eventually sent it back to the US because the customs fees weren't paid. What a cock-up !

No, I sold it for what I paid for it. I'm not in coin collecting to make money.

On a slightly different note, but still worth noting in the current climate, is that I bought a golf club from the USA a couple of months ago. The USPS tracking data shows it to be delivered to a "facility" in the UK on 5th October. However, it's not possible to contact USPS to find out more details and so this is another non-delivered item. These are (relatively) dangerous times to be mailing items.

No, I sensibly insured it for the price I sold it - ~£2350

Special Delivery is what I used when the Royal Mail lost my rare 1862/1 penny recently (see thread on that subject) - I did at least get refunded.

The A of BRITANNIAR for those of you that are interested.

From the Daily Mail this week: I saw on display in a Pet Shop an animal described as an "Amsterdam cat" so I went in and asked "how Dutch is that moggy in the window ?"

Have you been charged 20% or the correct 5% ?

Great find - always nice to find a second example of a rarity to prove that it was a genuine strike and not a man-made variety. I'll add this to my website.

I've always felt that this must be the case given the way that different nations/races get affected. There must be a reason why some apparently "healthy" people under 50 in this country were so badly affected.