ozjohn

Brought a cople of bottles of Spitfire Ale at our local bottle shop and noticed they have reduced the alcohol down to 4.5% from about 5%. I noticed on my last trip to the UK that this had already been done to the on tap beer. After all the hype about the Battle of Britain associated with this beer it seems that the Germans have won. They must be laughing! Where is the CAMRA? or have they descended into politically correct toothless tigers?

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Victoria-1-2-Crown-1884/333443059800?hash=item4da2c15058:g:i3YAAOSwfV9d-o-1 This one doesn't seem right to me. Could be a contemporary forgery What does everyone else think?

Should read NGC MS 60. I looked at the coin on the NGC site which did not seem to add anything useful as the photos were too small. It has to be said both CGS and PCGS's photo documentation is far superior to NGC's

Depends upon if you adopt a top down or bottom up approach. To quote NGC MS. Weak or average strike with no trace of wear. Numerous abrasion, hairlines and/or large marks. IMO this coin fails on the wear criteria. In general not many UNC coins achieve a greater than MS 64 grading with most lower. IMO the inconsistency in grading applies to all TPGs.

Sorry "waring" typo should be wearing.

It may be worth looking at the NGC site which has a video which takes you thru their grading process. Assuming they follow their process mistakes in grading should not happen. The coin is independently graded by at least 2 professional graders . The wellbeing of encapsulated coins has also been an issue on these forums. I pointed out at the time that coins were handled by the graders without any protection and also noticed on looking at their video the person encapsulating the coins was not waring gloves either although I did not see the operator touching the coins as they had already been mounted. However I would not be surprised if the coins were mounted in their formers by unprotected hands given NGS's earlier practice. As for difficulty in photographing encapsulated coins I agree but IMO the NGC product seems to have a more transparent holder than PGCS and should be easierto photograph. Of course this may be due to the white background of the NGC holder.

I couldn't agree more. Here's my one that I obtained from Colin Cooke. It was graded at EF but I think it's a tad better and I paid GBP 425 which I think was a fair price. Perhaps I should have it TPG ed.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/1908-Great-Britain-1-2-Crown-NGC-MS-63/312893723770?hash=item48d9eb547a:g:IZYAAOSwZQ9d-C7W Not sure this offering makes the grade of MS 63. As I have said before the strength of TPGing should be accuracy and consistency which they fail to achieve sometimes

Sorry a typo. Should be with not Wilh. 1949threepence. You are right about a London elite but as for labor winning with a different leader ? No way the people wanted the result of the 2016 referendum implemented. That's all

Don't mess with the wilh of the people. The people have spoken, get used to it. Weekend Australian.

In the late 1920s and early 1930s with the world still in the grip of the great depression. 5 shillings was a considerable sum of which most people at the time would have found difficult to find from their weekly budget assuming they had work which many people did not making it even more unlikely they would buy these coins.

Poincianas are tricky things to grow. My advice is to keep them dry in the winter., You could also try soaking the seed in hot water for 24 hours prior to sowing as this aids germination. They also like plenty of sun. I can send you some seeds if it is legal to import this material as they are everywhere on the ground around here. I don't think it will grow to the same size in the UK. However it would make a very nice pot plant. When I was in the UK some time ago I visited the Horniman Museum at Forest Hill where they were selling Poinciana seed pods at GBP 1.00 each I am not sure they Were aware what they were selling

Christmas in Queensland. delonix regia in bloom otherwise known as Poinciana which is a native of Madagascar .

Just a quick look on ebay.co for 1902 UNC half crowns shows a price of GBP 200 + - with GBP 200 fo the rest of the coins GBP 400 fot the lot does not seem unreasonable. Retail coin dealer's prices are usually higher than those realized at auction.

Note they are all encapsulated and graded. I checked with the Value of British coins site which gave a price of close to GBP 400.. If you can assemble these coins with similar grades for sale at that price I look forward to seeing your listing.

https://www.colonialcollectables.com/halfcrowns/6772-edward-silver-coins-1902.html A set of high grade 1902 Edward coins for sale at a what I think is a reasonable price which maybe of interest to a new collector starting an Edward VII collection.. I have no financial or other interest in Colonial Collectables but being a NZ operation they may not known in the UK.

hot oferts ?

http://www.londoncoins.co.uk/?page=Pastresults&auc=157&searchlot=2670&searchtype=2 A London coins offering of a 3B reverse 1921 halfcrown with a photo of my own example.. I'm not going to count the denticles, but on my coin however examination of the second 1of the date in the coin below the reveals a curl on the tail of the 1 rather than a straighter 1 which is the case with the London Coins example

Sign of the times?

The same thought occurred to me when I recently saw a similar sales pitch for a halfcrown. No doubt the same seller

Thanks everyone for the info on my pennies.

A higher resolution scan of the reverse.

A higher resolution scan which may help. Just looking at the scan it looks like the king's mo is fully struck.

Thanks for the interest and comments. It's obvious there are a lot of enthusiastic penny collectors out there. I'll try to provide a higher resolution scan of the 1913 obverse within the 500k file size limit

My 1913 and 1915 pennies. Not sure what type as I do not collect down to that level. However the 1913 is a better strike than the 1915.