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This sign always makes me smile. "Top line - L then I then E then ... is it an N ?"

Some spelling mistakes:

^^^ That will leave everyone snookered for the maximum amount of time. Back on the bird theme - most weekday lunchtimes I walk round a park local to my office. There are a couple of jays in there too, which I enjoy looking out for.

My late father liked jays- and loved pointing out that it's Latin name Garrulus Glandarius rather describes it. ( He also liked the name of the Wren, describing in secretive skulking movements: Troglodytes Troglodytes....) Interestingly, on a bird theme, in 1946 Peter Adolph patented a new table football game. He was not allowed to use the trade name 'Hobby' that he wanted, so he used that bird's Latin Name: Falco Subbuteo.

I'd be happy with any atlantic or pacific rock large enough to support a couple of banana trees and some large grasses while I research Darwins experiments...

If there is any left

If we ever go cashless..... ....don't think it'll make that much difference. People will still collect coins as icons of a bygone age. I hope we don't go completely cashless, although I accept there are those who are strongly pressing for us to go down that road, regardless of other's opinions. It irritates me that so many things are now enforced as cashless. Even the canteen at work has now gone cashless, with payment by contactless or via one of those infernal and vastly overrated "apps". Being able to pay by notes and coins is quite possibly the last bastion of true personal anonymity we have.

I would imagine there are around 100,000 serious collectors of decimal coins , the rest end up in drawers of people who are vaguely interested or might have found a couple of interesting coins in their change. There are more than enough to go round even with a million minted the kew 50p is now I believe highly overhyped , only my opinion though

Speaking as a collector, or NPME (non-profit making entity), I do, wherever possible, try to obtain coins with a provenance. I find it important that a coin that I want to keep has some extrinsic baggage, a life story if you will, and I would pay more for that. I'm sure that we'd all like to own unique coins, well I like to think that, to some extent, a provenance gives you that. For each coin, I like to compile a file of information containing not only the physical specifications and historical details of the piece but also the tickets, auction catalogues, and any information that I can find relating to previous custodians. I do not then have generic examples of such-and-such a coin or medal, but examples with unique alter ego's, thanks to their provenance. A provenance can give an unobtrusive cookie-cutter coin a unique aspect. Of course, there are provenances and there are PROVENANCES and that's another interesting discussion. I suppose you're either into it or you're not, as the actress said to the bishop. Here's a recent example. I'd been looking for a Lilburn acquittal medal for a while and I passed on a better looking (and cheaper) example to select the one below. I chose it above the better grade for its interesting, albeit tenuous, non-numismatic provenance.

Sums things up in my town.......