secret santa

Ok guys, calm down, maybe I'm out of touch on this one. I'll have to put my 2 spares on Ebay - they're only GF but cost £25 and £17 15 years ago.

I think you're over-estimating the value. I paid £170 for my Aunc specimen (in 2004) but I wouldn't want to pay more than £250 for it now. But I guess it's all down to what someone will pay, as ever.

That's naughty - name that duplicitous dealer Matt !

Did anyone see Fake Britain on BBC1 this week ? They featured the latest fake bimetallic £2 coins that are so good that they pass all the validation checks in slot machines etc. Very interesting.

That's a REAL bargain Matt !

Now that IS a nice coin Jerry - best by far that I've seen on an F72. Could you mail me pics please. Richard

Looks like a nice example of BP1860V, obverse G+reverse d with re-entered closer colon dots after F:D: as Jerry says. This variety has a very narrow border with the teeth virtually on the edge of the coin in places. See my varieties website below for more details on this variety.

Note how bottom of waves merge with the single exergue but are clear of the double exergue

No - the wife wouldn't tolerate a display of mummified beans around the house ! Regarding the number of entrants, because our local show awards the National Vegetable Society Medal annually to the best runner beans (every show can nominate which category it awards the medal to, but only ONE category per year), the runner beans are hotly contested. I would love to say there were several thousand entries but only approximately a dozen

Thanks for the recipe - I'll get the little lady onto that, although the winning beans will be stuffed and mounted.

A set of 9 similar - I've been picking likely candidates over the last week and keeping them in the fridge until yesterday morning when I picked my final 9 from about 40 (!) and then wrapped them carefully in damp tea towels and bound them to wooden stakes to straighten and flatten them (a trick I learnt from the aged experts at my allotment). I also entered a bean for the longest but was outdone by a centimetre or two (story of my life).

You may all be mildly interested to hear that my Runner Beans took first prize today in our local Flower & Produce Show.

Actually yes, there are 5 whiskers on his right side but 6 on his left ! Offers over £1000 please.

Got my first Peter Rabbit today so they're out and about.

I've never seen a copy of "The Victorian Bronze Penny" - is it very different from the "Bronze Coinage of Great Britain" ?

Not as clear as Gouby's example and I don't think I'd be convinced if I saw it for sale as such. But there must be some others out there somewhere !!

I see the 1933 penny went for over £149K at Heritage yesterday !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Ooops, some of the searches don't work.

It's back up now

Jerry, is your coin one of the examples on my website ? If not, could I have photos please ? Richard

Does anyone know what these "carbon spots" are actually made of ? Is it truly carbon and if so, how does it occur ?

Interesting that my own specimen has been struck at a slightly different state of die fill.

CGS appear to have (generally) graded consistently and to a well documented standard in the past so I don't see why people should want to spend more money getting their coins regraded. A coin previously graded by CGS has a mark of authenticity that would still stand for me as a collector. The real problem seems to be the inability to verify that grading without charge in future or to view their library of graded coins. I guess the "Hall of Fame" feature will also bite the dust. I'm certainly glad that I never got any coins graded by them in the past but I don't think that anyone who did should feel that they have wasted their money.

I've been sat at my PC all day upgrading from 8.1 to 10 and it's finally finished after about 5 hours ! If anyone has got some important tips on using W10, please let me know. I'm sure I'll be finding all sorts of problems in the coming days.

Nice one Terry - it's good to have someone who keeps finding these new variants for us to go searching for.