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Michael Gouby sent me a photo of another 1861 F27 ! I've added it to the rare penny site. They're still out there !!!!

'Meanwhile on planet Russia'

I had a look at Great Collections - I had missed that they are US based, so postage costs are likely to be an issue. Also, they seem to deal only certified and encapsulated stock, which is not my bucket at all! Thanks for the tip though.

Great Collections is reasonable, and they also dispatch packages quickly (usually within 2-3 days), and don't gouge on shipping, compared to the much bigger dealers. 30% is horrible. A freaking third more, and you know they're siphoning off both sides, too.

Many auction houses here attach a buyer's premium AND a premium to the seller (and often listing fees per item).

I assume that as they were planning the Great Recoinage of 1816 they needed to be sure there was no denomination overlap to cause confusion?

A young Scouse woman was so depressed that she decided to throw herself into the Mersey. However, a handsome young man just managed to stop her in the nick of time. "You have so much to live for," said the man. "I'm a sailor and we are off to Australia tomorrow. I can stow you away on my ship. I'll take care of you, bring you food every day and keep you happy." With nothing to lose, and the prospect of going to Australia, the woman accepted. That night the sailor brought her aboard and hid her in a small, but comfortable, compartment in the hold. From then on every night he would bring her three sandwiches, a bottle of red wine and make love to her until dawn. Two weeks later she was discovered by the captain during a routine inspection. "What are you doing here?" asked the captain. "I have an arrangement with one of the sailors," she replied. "He brings me food, and I get a free trip to Australia". "I see," said the captain. Her conscience then got the better of her and she added, "plus, he's screwing me". "He certainly is," replied the captain. "This is the Birkenhead ferry."

As the coins are now safely in the hands of a trusted friend, I will reveal all. Firstly, an amelioration of my previous criticism: the staff at Lawrences are extremely helpful and have resolved the confusions caused by their systems cheerfully and without quibble. So the criticism goes to their admin system - AUCTIONET - and whoever in management decided this was a good approach to customer service, and made this an obligatory default for payment. Specifically: It insists on sending out separate invoices for each lot sold, The process for requesting combined invoices is complex and requires manual intervention by AUCTIONET, not the auction house, The postage costs are set very high, and by default are charged separately for each lot, with minimal discount for combined postage when achieved, The payment process is buggy - it cannot cope with more than payment per session, so you have to log out and back in for each transaction, By default it starts sending out abrupt "storage charge" emails after only 1 week and with no consideration as to the size of the lots. So my advice would be: if you find out your auction house is using AUCTIONET, be prepared for frustration.