More Pennies

[1949threepence]

1 hour ago, blakeyboy said:

Me, the day before the 2017 total eclipse, waiting for service at the gas station in Gonad, Idaho.

Did you get a clear sky on the day of the eclipse? (which was 21st August 2017, in case anyone was wondering). What did you think of it?

I was in Falmouth for the 11th August 1999 eclipse. It was unfortunately cloudy as it often is in that part of the country. But even cloudy it was still a magnificent  spectacle. 

  

[blakeyboy]

It's actually called Atomic City, but when you go there, 'Gonad' seems better.

[blakeyboy]

16 hours ago, 1949threepence said:

Did you get a clear sky on the day of the eclipse? (which was 21st August 2017, in case anyone was wondering). What did you think of it?

I was in Falmouth for the 11th August 1999 eclipse. It was unfortunately cloudy as it often is in that part of the country. But even cloudy it was still a magnificent  spectacle. 

  

Yes..clear as clear.  Amazing......!

On the way up the interstate from Vegas we stopped to fill up, and I got talking to a Japanese tourist who'd come over for the eclipse.

He asked me whether I was worried about the crowds. I said no, since we were going to be in a field in the middle of nowhere,

and he replied " No...not crowds - crowds!!!  Crowds across the sun.."

Honest.     I genuinely misunderstood....

 

I was at Munich Observatory for the 1999 one, and I took a small medium wave radio with me, and the night before I tuned it

to a music station a long way away.  I switched it on before the eclipse, and it was just producing quiet static,

but when we got totality, the music blasted out!!  

A nice little experiment that the  science-minded Germans around me liked.

[1949threepence]

54 minutes ago, blakeyboy said:

Yes..clear as clear.  Amazing......!

On the way up the interstate from Vegas we stopped to fill up, and I got talking to a Japanese tourist who'd come over for the eclipse.

He asked me whether I was worried about the crowds. I said no, since we were going to be in a field in the middle of nowhere,

and he replied " No...not crowds - crowds!!!  Crowds across the sun.."

Honest.     I genuinely misunderstood....

 

I was at Munich Observatory for the 1999 one, and I took a small medium wave radio with me, and the night before I tuned it

to a music station a long way away.  I switched it on before the eclipse, and it was just producing quiet static,

but when we got totality, the music blasted out!!  

A nice little experiment that the  science-minded Germans around me liked.

Fantastic - really interesting account.

The next decent one in the UK is 12th August 2026, with something like 95% of totality, at not long after 7pm. Similar to how the August 1999 and March 2015 eclipses appeared for most places. 

Of course the next total solar eclipse here, isn't until 2090, so it might be worth being in Iceland for the August 2026 one. 

[alfnail]

Mike, I wasn't far away from you back on 11th August 1999. I was at the castle on the head at St. Mawes. It was a beautiful clear day on 10th August so a pity it clouded over on the 11th, but it was nevertheless quite an experience.....especially listening to the birds rushing back up the estuary to roost in the middle of the day!

As far as 12th August 2026 is concerned, if you are not shooting grouse, then I would suggest Palma Majorca (or nearby) may be a better option than Iceland. It will be a total eclipse, albeit not for very long, and you can have a G&T whilst watching early evening before dinner......very civilised.

The 2nd August 2027 (my wedding anniversary) could be even better in Southern Spain. Easy flights to Malaga and I reckon there's no better place to be than the Parador at Ronda, brilliant place with excellent views...……. not on the central eclipse line but still just over a minute of totality.

 

[terrysoldpennies]

Did any of you manage to see the Transit of Venus across the Sun on the 8th June 04 . I was on Holiday at the time in Derbyshire and I was lucky enough to get a very short gap in the clouds .  I managed to take this picture through the glass of my welding helmet  .

[1949threepence]

1 hour ago, alfnail said:

Mike, I wasn't far away from you back on 11th August 1999. I was at the castle on the head at St. Mawes. It was a beautiful clear day on 10th August so a pity it clouded over on the 11th, but it was nevertheless quite an experience.....especially listening to the birds rushing back up the estuary to roost in the middle of the day!

As far as 12th August 2026 is concerned, if you are not shooting grouse, then I would suggest Palma Majorca (or nearby) may be a better option than Iceland. It will be a total eclipse, albeit not for very long, and you can have a G&T whilst watching early evening before dinner......very civilised.

The 2nd August 2027 (my wedding anniversary) could be even better in Southern Spain. Easy flights to Malaga and I reckon there's no better place to be than the Parador at Ronda, brilliant place with excellent views...……. not on the central eclipse line but still just over a minute of totality.

 

and the drop in temperature was quite palpable, Ian.

Great idea for a wedding anniversary present on 2nd August 2027.

Edited March 26, 2020 by 1949threepence

[blakeyboy]

2 hours ago, terrysoldpennies said:

Did any of you manage to see the Transit of Venus across the Sun on the 8th June 04 . I was on Holiday at the time in Derbyshire and I was lucky enough to get a very short gap in the clouds .  I managed to take this picture through the glass of my welding helmet  .

I was in the OU Astronomy club for some years, and photographed both the Transits of Venus and Mercury.

Photos somewhere.  Digital hunt in progress.

We did the limb timings that confirm that Einstein was cleverer than us, apparently.

 

[terrysoldpennies]

Its quite something to have seen . The next transit of Venus will be in  2117  at 170 years old I think ill miss that one.

[Rob]

We were lucky in 1999 as we were in Germany and saw it from a point about 30 miles or a bit more west of Munich. Quite fortuitous as it was cloudy all morning, then it cleared up half an hour before totality. After the eclipse and within 10 minutes of getting back to Ammersee, it p'd it down for a couple of hours. Apparently, this was the clearest sky for viewing all the way across Europe until Romania. Quite chuffed as it had been a must do appointment in the diary for the previous 30 years.

[blakeyboy]

Yes- in Munich it was overcast, then a big hole of blue sky opened up ten minutes to go.

Did you see how bright Venus was??? It was amazing- so much so it makes me want to search for it in daylight....

 

[alfnail]

I was reminded earlier this week by a member of the forum of an exercise I did some years ago regarding the 1797 George III currency penny.

I thought I would add some of those findings to the forum as some other members may also find of interest.

Over the years I amassed quite a number of pieces so that I may check the variations in the ship design on the reverse.

On Page 306 of Peck, with reference to the reverse paired with the 10 leaf obverse he says:-

“Ship with 6 incuse gunports, and an ensign at the stern, but there are numerous variations in the design of the ship, the arrangement of the rigging, and the rendering of the sea. The waves are usually not crested with foam”.

Then on Page 307, reference the reverse paired with the 11 leaf obverse he says

…….“the varieties of the ship are less numerous”

Once I owned a digital microscope I was able to examine these variations in more detail, and take pictures of the ship and waves on each of my pieces to the same scale. As a result I was able to log 40 different varieties of ship design on 1797 pennies which have the 10 leaf obverse, and a further 7 different ships on the 11 leaf obverse variety. No doubt there are a few additional ship designs which I did not have in my collection. 

My findings definitely seem to confirm what Peck documented, and I thought it may be of interest to some if I showed some of the more obvious differences in these ship and wave designs.

I have scaled these pictures down to meet the 500Kb limit on forum postings, but if anyone wants full size then please PM me.

I guess the die makers had some fun with this!

Edited April 1, 2020 by alfnail

[alfnail]

and 4 more pictures:-

 

[Paddy]

That is great observation! I wonder if @secret santa would consider expanding his section on George III pennies to include these for posterity?

 

[Sleepy]

Think mine's a "ship sinking on a choppy sea"!

[Rob]

Given the number of ships noted and the ability to count the number of dies used per ship type, it should be possible to work out a fairly close estimate of the number of dies employed in total and the number of coins made per die pair. At one ounce of copper per penny, that's 35840 penny equivalents per ton of copper and a shedload of dies. Let's test the dedication of some of you penny collectors to destruction.

 

[blakeyboy]

6 hours ago, Sleepy said:

Think mine's a "ship sinking on a choppy sea"!

None of them look seaworthy.....!

[secret santa]

8 hours ago, Paddy said:

That is great observation! I wonder if @secret santa would consider expanding his section on George III pennies to include these for posterity?

I'll probably have the time now they've closed my golf course.

[blakeyboy]

On 3/26/2020 at 7:47 PM, terrysoldpennies said:

Did any of you manage to see the Transit of Venus across the Sun on the 8th June 04 . I was on Holiday at the time in Derbyshire and I was lucky enough to get a very short gap in the clouds .  I managed to take this picture through the glass of my welding helmet  .

[blakeyboy]

1 minute ago, blakeyboy said:

[terrysoldpennies]

Just now, blakeyboy said:

Certainly a lot clearer than my picture.   No clouds either .

[blakeyboy]

Meade ETX90 with solar filter, photo par focal, down the eyepiece.

About 3 out of 50 were reasonable!

I took pictures of my feet, the sky, the car park.....

[ozjohn]

1 hour ago, blakeyboy said:

Very nice. I found welding glasses very effective for photographing an eclipse. Perhaps not recommended but effective.

[secret santa]

Now, I may get labelled a killjoy but I'd like to suggest that members try to stick to the subject of the posting category if we want to attract other collectors to this website.

A person viewing Predecimal for the first time and checking out the "More Pennies" section will currently be met with umpteen pictures of the sun and may well write it off as a waste of time. If it weren't for Ian's pictures of the various ship types, there wouldn't be a relevant post on this page.

I'm all for the occasional witticism and the "Things to make us laugh" section has had some wonderful one-liners recently that I've laughed out loud at. 

Feel free to disagree but please do it politely.

[1949threepence]

2 hours ago, secret santa said:

Now, I may get labelled a killjoy but I'd like to suggest that members try to stick to the subject of the posting category if we want to attract other collectors to this website.

A person viewing Predecimal for the first time and checking out the "More Pennies" section will currently be met with umpteen pictures of the sun and may well write it off as a waste of time. If it weren't for Ian's pictures of the various ship types, there wouldn't be a relevant post on this page.

I'm all for the occasional witticism and the "Things to make us laugh" section has had some wonderful one-liners recently that I've laughed out loud at. 

Feel free to disagree but please do it politely.

Victoria's smoking knee has got a lot to answer for....

I agree with you, Richard. It would be good if the posts concerned (including our two) got moved to the pictures thread. There's nothing wrong with any of them, except they're just not in the right place. Maybe one of us could message @TomGoodheart to do this.