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You probably have seen it. There is more information here: https://ladyjanegreyrevisited.com/2021/05/12/the-paine-miniature-is-it-elizabeth/

Yes, try closing all the pages entirely before trying again. The file limit is a pain in the arse!

The French title would possibly confirm that? Scotland and France had a strong alliance back then.

You can right click the image and select search with Google. Then Google will search for the image on the web and give you the sites.

Great link @Sword. The drawing from the OP appears about half way down and the debate is whether it is Elizabeth I or Mary I. I don't think Mary Queen of Scots is suggested.

The drawing looks more like Mary, Queen of Scots to me.

Freeman 264 Obv2 RevC

Absolutely. _My_ gardening year is over by April/May- I then hand over the reins to my plants and stand well back. October and November are my planning and re-potting months. I re-pot before putting plants away for the winter. One tip I discovered- when re-potting a tall plant with a single stem/trunk, re-pot it off-centre. Then, in a tiny green house, you can turn the pot and it moves the position of the plant to fit in better, or, you can leave the plant where it is, and turn the pot so it's not under your feet! Another trick is you now have a bigger single area of bare compost by the plant's stem, onto which you can stand another plant pot...cram 'em in!! Some plants don't mind going dormant, but some plants from sunny places, like aeoniums and agapanthus don't like a dark winter. Agapanthus flower stems become rare the next year, and aeonium schwarzkopf ( the black form ) goes green!. Aeoniums, also, only grow in the winter, so you don't let them dry out- you know you have it right when they start flowering... Cannas, too, hate being dry for the winter- always keep them slightly moist. Canna 'Shenandoah', the best pink flower you will ever see, likes bright light in storage, and the summer outside, but not too powerful a sun, since it hammers the blooms, BUT of all the cannas, this is the one that needs heat. Lots of it. It's the one canna that's the easiest to lose if it's cold and too wet. If you have room to overwinter plants, and you have a shady garden, but want a tropical show, get a Brazilian Plume Flower. Just hack it back each autumn when you bring it in. The cuttings root really easily, so you will have a good display the next year! The main thing with a lot of plants from hot places, is to check whether, where they are from, like in deserts, there are some frosts, but never when it's wet.......:-) I

While most gardening stops around this time of year there are still plenty other things you can do dividing hostas pruning and pruning roses, etc. The wonderful time comes in the spring really , I got plenty bulbs in for a great new year

Next up is the skinny jacaranda, and Queen Victoria's favourite canna 'Shenandoah'.

an issue often is understanding the cross over between the Sheldon scale and English grading standards. A slabbed VF means by English standards fine to good fine

Hope this isn't too close to the bone...

I think the main benefit is we all have different opinions on grade if you are looking at a picture. Pictures may show faults or problems but may not always capture the strike ,lustre or eye appeal.The independent grade that a slab offers imo gives more confidence for buyers worldwide ,especially why we have covid restrictions on shows ,viewing at auction etc. 12 months ago i started to sell some ( the better ones ) of a slabbed collection and then continued over the next couple of months ,so the coins were sold to numerous buyers.Nearly everyone sold for the CGS value or in some instances quite a lot more and not one was returned.Coins regardless of year and type will all be different ,however ones that are slabbed in a really high grade will sell for a premium ,not just to investors but to people who realise they dont turn up all the time.I think looking and reading the forum we may become blinkered and not like them slabbed or the prices people may ask.The bigger picture is there are people buying them everyday ,although they may not post on here its not because they dont know how to grade themselves or know anything about coins but they want high grade coins independently graded. As an example this 1926 ( i had posted the picture on here before ,so a good example ) was slabbed by NGC ,i broke it out and sent it to CGS ,although i did not tell CGS the grade or that it had been slabbed previously.I was confident after receiving the coin and seeing it in hand that it would achieve a high grade and at the time fitted in the collection i had put away.So the coin was independenly graded by two grading companies and sold straight away. The difference was it was in a slab ,whereas the picture below shows the coin raw. I will let you form your own opinion on grade and what it sold for ,but after selling a lot i do now know that buyers will pay much more for high grade or problem free coins if the slab confirms it ,its just that they dont post on here 🙂

I'm not sure I agree with you about the kids losing interest in history I would say it is in the ascendancy kids have been inspired by programmes like Horrible Histories it's just th interest is different. They have (thankfully) moved away from the tedium of learning long disconnected lists of facts. Instead they enjoy more social history and in many ways have a better understanding of history at the common level than many older people. Hence I think we might have a job on our hands if we approach collecting just as collecting long lists of coins. I think we should begin to write coins into the fabric of this somewhat dumbed down version of history (not my opinion) in that way we can engage them at a level of the people that held the most money and exchanged it... The common npeople..... Instead of being a very snobbish approach we can have a lot of fun being imaginative and creative. One good way is to ask primary school teachers if, when they study a historic period, if they would be interested in you visiting with a load of coins the kids can handle and imagine with. It is our duty as I have said to create the future collectors by stimulating their interest. The curriculum periods are, fire of London, tudors, victorian social history punishment and social injustice, roman Britain, Greeks, aztecs, Egyptians, civil war, African west Africa cultures. Then of course there are the high schools. Think outside the money box and show them the con nections coins can give them.

As we move to a cashless society, there may be an increasing lack of nostalgia for coins and banknotes. So my prediction is for credit and debit cards, let’s face it, most get a hammering and 99% are religiously destroyed when they reach their expiry date. An unused 1966 Barclaycard may be the future holy grail for collectors

I have no illusions about my non-attractability so far as women go, so I have no expectations that anybody of any age would be interested in me. However, as a matter of observation, rather than evolution, it seems to me that there are far too many flabby bodied and slabby faced young women today than there ever were back then. Hence my comment about girls in the 1960s and 70s.

It's awful so many modern counterfeits are flooding from China.

I've never seen a worse graded coin than this (so far) MS62. Dafuk were they drinking at NGC when this was graded?

They are much cheaper direct from China. https://www.aliexpress.com/item/33037661091.html?spm=a2g0o.productlist.0.0.74f4359e6fBpvU&algo_pvid=51167541-c1e6-4da6-95ee-01fb214ad011&algo_exp_id=51167541-c1e6-4da6-95ee-01fb214ad011-47&pdp_ext_f={"sku_id"%3A"67398536291"}&pdp_pi=-1%3B1.18%3B-1%3B-1%40salePrice%3BGBP%3Bsearch-mainSearch Jerry