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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.

Just thought it might be a distraction to share any intriguing news about the Coronavirus from around the world. This article from Bangkok triggered the idea: https://www.bangkokpost.com/world/1891715/shenzhen-bans-eating-of-cats-and-dogs-after-coronavirus Seems the Chinese are finally cracking down on the wild food markets, including cats and dogs. Long overdue!

Well that is good news. Let's hope they extend the ban nationwide. The Chinese are utterly barbaric in their treatment of animals.

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.

To help pass the time, I have begun to create a new website of bronze halfpenny varieties along the lines of my penny varieties site. It is very much work in progress with much to do but if any halfpenny collectors have counted and recorded the border tooth numbers on the various obverses and reverses, I would be grateful if they would supply them to me to avoid me having to count them myself ! The website is www.halfpennyvarieties.wordpress.com Bear in mind that I have no knowledge of halfpennies (although it is beginning to develop) and so there will be numerous errors, I expect.

Your pictures are far more elegant than my words! I couldn't be bothered taking all those photos!

It's much harder to do in your head!

You beat me to listing a similar one! 1. Q moves 2 squares straight down 2. diagonal 4 squares up and right 3. left sideways 4 squares to be above original starting place 4. diagonal 3 squares down and right to finish in the bottom right corner of the 9 - task complete!

The weekend looks like becoming warm and sunny - so at least we can get out into the gardens for something other than gardening. Maybe sit in the Sun for a while.

Very interesting - thanks Mike.

That is brilliant news - thank you for putting in so much effort on these sites, which I believe will be the master reference for the future. As posted a couple of years ago, I do have a collection of halfpennies, including quite a few varieties in the Victorian era. They could do with re-photographing, but let me know if you could use pictures of them as they are.

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

A man walks across the road and gets flattened by a yellow lorry, then a red lorry, then a yellow lorry and then a red lorry. Policeman goes to his home, knocks the door and the man’s wife answers it. The policeman looks at her and says, "Im sorry but there's no easy way to say this"

and 4 more pictures:-

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!

Just back on this point alone, may I suggest you contact Dix Noonan & Webb, after taking a look at the pictures on their website. Their photos are not only superb, but can be enlarged to whatever size suits the viewer, without any loss of clarity. I'm sure your business would increase by many orders of magnitude if you were to follow what they do, as collectors would know exactly what they were attempting to buy. I'd also suggest you take a long hard look at your grading, which is a tad generous, and your pricing structure, which is more than a tad steep for sometimes quite mediocre stock.

My mates been a flasher for over 10 years by trade. He's thought about giving it up recently but has decided to stick it out another year

With this ban on sport, I'm really missing playing in goal for my local football team - it's the only way I can keep a clean sheet at my age......