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Today's update as follows: I spoke to Shirley again who has confirmed that they are looking to wind down in the new year, so if anyone wants to order a cabinet from them, best to let them know asap. HOWEVER, don't order or contact them via their website or email. She said there has been some problems with her emails and therefore will no longer be using the email address as a method of communication. I think there may have been some hacking going on, which would explain my original problem with the weird bank account details on the supposed invoice. The telephone number to contact her on is 0115 922 4149, which is their workshop number. She's not always there, but will call you back when she gets the message.

Freeman, in response to Pies saying only the first on the list could be his coin. Hence the question whether the toning matched.

The great thing about model coins is the complexity of the series , there's always a new variety hidden somewhere that nobody has ever seen before

£3000 worth of eucalyptus would have been cheaper to feed him Halls .

For weeks on end, Australian nursery owner Humphrey Herington has been racking his brain to identify the elusive thief eating his seedlings. At first he thought it was escaped goats. Then perhaps a pesky possum. The last thing he expected was to walk into work one day and find a "cheeky" koala, dazed and too stuffed to move, surrounded by stripped eucalypt plants. "He looked like he was full. He looked very pleased with himself," Mr Herington told the BBC. Staff are now building a koala-proof fence around their seedling tables to thwart the marsupial - dubbed Claude - whose snacking on several thousands plants has cost the nursery A$6,000 (£3,000; $3,800). Ironically, the plants Claude devoured were being grown to boost koala habitats in the region - the species is endangered. The team at Eastern Forest Nursery, near Lismore in northern New South Wales, had first noticed plants were being chewed a few months ago. "There weren't really any signs - there was no tracks or anything - to indicate what it could have been," Mr Herington said. "It was a mystery." They set a possum trap - to no avail - and even examined animal droppings for clues. But the culprit was only caught when they became a little too greedy. "We came out to work one morning and there he was, sitting there on a pole." "And there were lots of plants missing that morning... I guess that day he must have had a really big feed and was too tired to go back to his tree." With Claude unmasked as the leaf thief, Mr Herington gently wrapped him in a towel and moved him to some trees about 300m (984 feet) from the nursery. "But a couple of days later, he came back and continued with his nightly visits," he said. But Mr Herington isn't mad, he's rather amused. Koalas aren't exactly known for their agility or ingenuity. "I just couldn't believe that it was a koala," he said. "I was shocked but I was also... a little bit impressed." Tinged with that though, is concern. "I've been here for 20-odd years and this hasn't really happened before," Mr Herington said. "Is it that there is a shortage of food?" In 2022, koalas were listed as endangered along most of Australia's east coast, after a dramatic decline in numbers. The once-thriving marsupial has been ravaged by land clearing, bushfires, drought, disease and other threats. In 2021 a NSW inquiry found koalas would be extinct there by 2050 unless there was urgent action. There may be as few as 50,000 of the animals left in the wild, some conservation groups say. koala.webp

Well, well, well... This has turned out to be quite a pleasant surprise. After my last post regarding a conversation with Shirley Watts on the 10th August, I decided to take the chance and hand over some money, despite my original misgivings. Shirley actually rang me after sending me an email with details for payment to make sure that I had received it, which I confirmed I had. She gave me all the relevant bank details (IBAN etc) on the invoice which duly checked out, so I thought sod it, and made payment by bank transfer on Friday. Today this lovely little unit arrived on my doorstep. It's really very well made and will sit nicely with the other one I have. I feel kind of bad being so cynical in the first instance, but the African bank account on the original email was clearly dodgy, so she's going to sort out some IT at her end. A good day all round really.

My pleasure. I've also updated some other stuff in the background so if this message gets through, that's also a good sign! I may also completely update the forum software to the newest version. I'm always nervous about that as it tends to change things that make little sense and can negatively affect some users who use a particular feature etc. In some cases it can also introduce new errors, but the last update was 4 years ago so it's probably due one.

Not quite correct. Date spacings vary on both reverses and are not positive identifiers (see screenshot of Richard's site below) and I have actually seen three spacings - narrowish and properly wide as per Richard's pictures and even narrower as per your comparison one! (Your new find is the same as Richard's first pic - narrowish with 0 just to right of bead) The true identifier is the lack of the extra line in the shield for A# (also in Richard's screenshot) as well as the flag pole thing. But yes, yours is indeed a no-knot 1* plus A# - well found! It is known on circulation specimens as well as proofs, but don't yet know how rare it is, but suspect quite rare indeed!

Picked up a nice L' entente cordiale medalette by lauer the other day to replace my manky old holed one . This is a nice example with lustre Still looking for the blackpool tower one though

This was posted on another forum: https://www.coincommunity.com/forum/topic.asp?topic_id=448872