Chris Perkins

It looks like shilling, I know! But I honestly have no idea who those bidders are. One of the bidders whacked on the £230 on the 29th June (my Birthday, as you all know) and the other has been coming back to it and nudging a few times a day in small increments. Yesterday he stopped around £100. Today he nudged until he finally out bid the £230 just now. Edit: initial bidder bid the £230 on the 30th!

This surprises me. I've got some electrotype/counterfeit coins on ebay at the moment (after giving SEUK first refusal) and my electrotype Scottish 1582 40s in copper has gone a bit high (£235 just now, with about 6 hours to go). I've noted that I've incorrectly called it a 60s, but can't change it! here: http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/271533065323 I know that older electrotypes are collectable and I know what I paid for it about 10 years ago. £235 is more than I thought it would get to! It's not one of you lot bidding to win and neg me for selling a fake coin is it?!

That's a very good idea Peter.

Shall I put "Clive and his Egyptian mate"? I don't know the name of your mate, or I would include it, if he wants me to.

Oh yes, I remember seeing that one at some point. I've never seen the content, but I don't think it includes basic lessons on reading Arabic? Yes, looking at a review it is a: "profusely illustrated general history of Islamic coinage".

The RM seem to use the Pistrucci St George whenever they don't want the hassle of having to pay a living artist for a new design (most of which are nowhere near as good as a Pistrucci). However, I would imagine that the current copyright rule of artist death +70 years means that anyone could potentially use it now. And I think back then the rules were different and it may have been only during the life of the artist (if at all) and Pistrucci having died in 1855, there would probably not have been an issue with its use in 1859. Lovett may well have used his version knowing that Pistrucci had died and his copyright with him.

Ooo, I had some very similar to that offered to me by a friend and hallmarked as 'Fine Silver' in Chinese. They were all fakes! Zinc (which is about the same density as silver) with a thin silver coating. The blackness on them was just applied to make them look old, as it washed off. Another friend of mine (the scrap man) tested them with a very expensive XRF machine. We confirmed it by filing one to reveal the bluey zinc under the silver. My mate who bought them also said they were definitely silver! Get them check with an XRF. The Chinese have been in the fakes game for many years.

Excellent. Bit far North for Romans to be losing things, and that makes it all the more fascinating.

Could that have been bank fees perhaps?

I expect a quite small market, but it is (as far as I can tell) the only book on reading and understanding specifically Arabic coins. It's a book originally published in 1973, then revised in 1980, by Richard Plant and it's been in and out of print a couple of times since then. It was originally also translated into Russian! I want to provide affordable assistance to inquisitive people both now and for future generations, so hope to keep it in print in one shape or another for eternity, even if I won't be able to retire from it! For a few quid it can become part of your field or experience.

I'm too busy collecting pics and (e)valuations for "Collectors' Wives 2014".

I've got a new website, in case anyone didn't see.

This must be a first, surely. An honest ebayer with a thirst for knowledge! Perhaps there is hope. Hello Edward.

What, on the new Scottish currency post 2014 you mean? First things first, I'll get the Irish one in the bag. Currently work is being undertaken on the Greek book, Irish book and Arabic book (which is pretty much finished).

Thanks. And that reminds me, I need to add social media 'like' buttons and such like!

I've just tarted up the Rotographic website. It's now sleeker and has much better cross-browser and smart phone compatibility. Also, it's so much easier and quicker for me to update and the menu structure is simpler to follow (it was getting cramped now that I have 10 books in print and an 11th on the way). I've added the new title: "Collectors' British Military Money 1943-1972" and a new book on Arabic Coins is coming soon. I will continue to play and optimise it further in the next few days. Have a look: http://www.rotographic.com

Oooo, £700 for EUR932 is pretty dire. I find it a bit old fashioned that all German accounts have a monthly fee (unless you're employed and pay in over a certain amount every month) and credit cards also have an annual fee. And there are hefty fees when you use the ATM of another bank within Germany. Free bank accounts are taken for granted in the UK, even if they are, as you say, hard to open if you're a foreign resident.

Also, without being rude. When I get coins like that, they get scrapped for the copper content. For the time involved in listing, photographing, waiting for a sale for 99c etc (assuming they do sell), it's just not worth the effort and certainly not worth the cost posting most of those anywhere. As mentioned above, there are some there that you can sell, but if those images represent the best, then don't waste too much time on the rest. If I were nearer I'd pop round and make 2 piles with you (one for low value but saleable coins and another to take to the scrap man).

I've got a Fairfx debit card that I use to transfer money from my UK bank account and then draw out here in Germany. www.fairfx.com. The exchange rate is good and the fee for drawing money out is only EUR1.50, which is less than direct from Natwest and less than the silly EUR5.00 for drawing money from a German account in Germany but from another bank's ATM! Have you noticed that German bank charges are a bit silly Azda?

In my experience, large quantity nearly always equals low quality (because it indicates an accumulator of coins, rather than a collector). It depends on how dedicated and how serious (and how wealthy) the original collector of them was. They could be utter rubbish or could be middle of the road, i.e mainly nothing special with the odd lower value one among them, usually through coincidence more than anything else. A few sample pics of how they are stored, labelled etc usually indicates the seriousness of the collector/accumulator and allows one to gauge potential. Without at least a few sample pictures (even if the dates aren't clear) I don't think I (or we) can help much.

No. They probably used the same die to strike white metal commemorative medals and yours is what's left of one!

We had a big tom cat (from an old bloke that died and his family in the house next door claimed to not know him!) that suddenly had some kind of wound on his face that smelled rancid and eventually fell off to reveal his teeth and gums! He had bits of ear missing, bit of face missing, was visibly full of lice, didn't look like he'd cleaned himself ever, but he was the friendliest cat. For a while he seemed quite happy with missing face, even though his food would fall back out while he was trying to eat it. I called him the Terminator and most people avoided him. Then we found him curled up in a sleeping position in the shed, dead.

We actually paid for Noodle to have the snip and sometimes someone comes and takes a van full of cats away (apparently to re-house, but who knows). We've paid out well over EUR1000 on other peoples cats to keep them healthy! Noodle died the other week of kidney failure.

We don't have much luck with cats. There's a farm very close and they seem to have more cats that cows. They often end up befriending us and then we 'adopt' them and they live here. Two of them have even had there babies in the garden, but they never seem to live long. We gave 2 babies away and the one we kept (named Roger, after Syd Barrett) died of FIP before he got to 2. The other week his mother (Noodle) died aged about 5. She lived in the house for a few months but was never that healthy. Some end up dead on the road, too. We pay the vet bills to try to keep them going, but they just keep breeding and dying.

Not for the 1689 2/6d. Those are almost as common as Churchill crowns, but certainly better than bullion