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This is what my garden looks like in the cold and damp!! Cycad, Musa, Echium, Canna, Hedychium all wrapped up. Soil heaters in the pots if it gets very cold. I fit a translucent tarp across the veranda, and we get a small room full of plants to play cards in in the winter! Lemon/lime cross full of fruit this year- gonna do some lime pickle....!!

And my 1694 upgrade. Quite chuffed. . Thankfully people focussed on the description which said pitted flan, which is due to it being cast rather than rolled as per spec, but as that accounts for half the halfpennies or more of this period, should not be something to worry about.

Here's one I found last year, GV over B on the obverse. Extremely rare in any grade.

Not particularly flattering, is it? Having said that, my all time low is probably the 2002 Queen Mother £5 portrait. The first time I saw one of those, I had to do a quick check that it was a Royal Mint product and not some private enterprise output. Give Anne her dues. She is probably the hardest working royal of the 4, and I suspect has a greater sense of duty than the others.

I took this pic- got a T adapter so my telescope became my cheap camera's lens. No tracking, quick snap, no stacking software to build up the image. Even though it's not up to the standards you see a lot, I'm chuffed I caught the fact that Jupiter is striped! No moons visible- had to stop it right down...

Here's another relatively recent 1701 find I'm rather pleased with. As for Vs on the obverse, large zero reverse.

oh no it wasn't dont you remember that Dianna coin - i have one here i bought in a bulk lot and it makes me ill looking at it

Or the Queen Mum down at the dogs cheering on hers while necking a bottle of Worthington....

Maybe their should have been a princess Margaret coin should have had a fag in her mouth and be doing a Hilda ogden

I suppose then, that you finally got it in the end.........

I am no longer allowed to "Edit" a post - is this intentional ? Ah, it's hidden behind the 3 dots !!!!

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/406401131122?itmmeta=01KAERC51PCV21AAX0JS88BEF2&hash=item5e9f652272:g:xt8AAeSwfFdpHfm3&itmprp=enc%3AAQAKAAAA4FkggFvd1GGDu0w3yXCmi1cOxyiQubdP6q4BPu%2FxdIXUFNvE9awpV1y%2FtN8jQOjKa6EqNCZRWJO67CdDE38lpIX2PYoe%2FIN2xTD62T0c1biKnXN2BGPDocT6Sqe4hzdEDDO1Cx9ih4MLBEHMXESsCrf4pZDakLlDrHymsvpAIDJ5axfF3QFb0p4hH777kQa%2FiDL%2Fk1kwHmZJknr95kBXJWt%2B9tSzi2fYWleqXNz%2Fd%2FSo1dfWLX3BskJpN2ebLpaw9S4VCQXCGg%2BIyjlBM63Iv7%2BwQESo%2F34yLYokoq6KfxJk|tkp%3ABk9SR5rRsNjTZg An interesting coin, presumably minted whilst Victoria was in rented accommodation trying to hide her facial hair from the nation ?

From the other direction Turmeric, Delonix regia ( from old seeds from John), delicate hibiscus etc. I got fed up with my dark garden so I've done something about it!!

Cheers Stu. Elsewhere, I continue to look forward to your return.... 😉

For the number of different errors in the halfpennies alone, you’d have to conclude that somebody, somewhere, was having a right royal laugh! Some nice grade errors going on there, Mr Roo!

Quite a spectacular overstrike. As Rob says, the GV/B was a discovery piece in the Nicholson collection of 2004 (lot 153), although Nicholson had lost it at the time, and was "still looking for it", so it wasn't for sale!

Yes, not helped by the fact most survive in terrible condition and most were not even properly struck in the first place.

I still think there is only one die for these, as that was the 4th I'm aware of, and they are definitely the same obverses. There are 2 different reverse dies however, which is probably to be expected (see alignment of 17 and final A). My current example is the third coin, which I picked up in DNW 76, lot 287. My first one came from ebay in 2004 and both cost a tenner. Excuse the GV/B 1694 which was added to keep things neat. That was the discovery piece by Colin Cooke in 2004. I have since upgraded that with the superb example in London Coins 168, lot 1407. I saw it, GV/B not mentioned in the description, compared with mine and promptly put a very large 'must buy' label in my shopping list. Those are the only two I have recorded, but there must more out there.

What do you think of the new design of the now available Queen Victoria. I am Not a fan and will pass on it. With a limited mintage of 75 for the £5 gold proof and with a price of £5,395 - it is an easy pass for me.

love anne as a person at least she seems a credit to the family

One of the oldest axioms for life: "Don't eat yellow snow"!

I've just read that there's a Yellow Ice Warning in place for the UK. Sounds revolting.

I have a cheap 10" Dobsonian. And before Copper 123 jumps in yes I do tell that to all the girls at parties!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I've always thrown them in the copper scrap. Demonetized, so legal to weigh in.

Well.............! starting off it amazes me that I have accumulated such a diverse range of coins...... without really trying Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth coin from 1621...who would believed it Silver (.813) oh well its old and hammered so its staying with others ...... 🙄

The only date deemed scarce is 1984 - the last year they made them and mostly issued in sets. Having said that, I don't think there are many people collecting them, so may be difficult finding a buyer even for a 1984. They are still exchangeable at banks and the post office, although they hate them. Even though they weigh precisely half the 1p and so can be counted on the scales, for some reason they insist on counting them by hand!

Poinciania time. Trees just coming into bloom and an eastern water dragon a common harmless lizard in SE Queensland. Grows to about 2 ft in length.

Beautiful

I'm guessing Austria

..and in the top pic you can just make out the yellowing fronds of a very old, very small jacaranda. Like most tropical flowering trees, they should only be grown for their lovely foliage here in the UK- they just will not flower in a pot. In the spring I am going to plant a Caesalpinia Gilliesii and a Citrus Australasica outside, against the shiny fence in the sheltered corner, where I can give them their own little greenhouse for the winter.

It is the same blue, but in an A4 binder. I had one, sold it, bought another, sold it, all to keep deserving cases happy. Having acquired a copy for the third time, it's going to be third time lucky for me for once and I'm hanging on to it. Got to stop feeling sorry for people not having a copy. Sorry!