Chris Perkins

The next step would be to keep the correct begining and end letters and just fill txe sxxxe wxxh x's! That would be confusing.

I can't afford those great big full colour pages boasting that I must buy £1,000,000 worth of coins this week! I thought about taking the piss and doing a small black and white ad....'I must spend £50 on coins this week' What do you rekon?

I saw Richard Lobel at a coin fair recently, didn't realise he was American. He knows his stuff and he's a good business man. I'm sure collectors buy from him, or he wouldn't be where he is. But surely they must mostly be new collectors, because most of the prices are ridiculous, and the items are not very special. (read: crap) I expect he sells the good stuff off the website and the stuff on the website sells slowly to new collectors.

I got one copy practically for free because of a trade arrangement, I can't sell them 50% cheaper, but I will see what I can do if I can get them. Unfortunately Spink don't make it that easy for me! You have to have a VAT number and all that rubbish, and I don't yet. And when I do, it'll be a German one. Some companies just say 'Yes, have some books, pay for them when you can'....Others want your soul first.

Thanks very much Mark, I'll be a newbie with a proper Camera, so I will refer to your tips when the Camera is delivered! I'm so please I was clever enough to start this forum!

I got my 2003 copy in the main Belfast WHSmith, they had a few. I got the 2004 from a friend in the trade (practically free!). If I offered the 2005 when it's out, how many of you would promise to buy it from me?

They look like proofs....Master JMD, it's difficult to try to explain what a proof looks like, if you've never seen one. You need to buy a couple so that you know. You are also very unlikely to find any proofs among piles of circulated coinage.

You were waiting for that weren't you. I bet you had a little post it not stuck on the side of the monitor that said 'Pull up Master JMD on language because he made a rule against it'! You are, like your Cat name sake..Dissssspspicable, which is great!

I didn't mean to imply that it was just escapism, always. Thoughts of space and the universe are very interesting, and pretty much everyone thinks about that at some point. You cannot say Sylvester, that focusing on the small Earth is escapism from thinking about the big picture. We live on the Earth, and for us in day to day life, it might as well be all that exists.

Well, we seem to waste mor eof our time talking about them, than anything else!

The fact that you have seen 5 in your short life doesn't mean they are all blank. Anyone out there with more 'Cash' knowledge??

The other side is blank? Could it just be very worn? I don't think I've come across a blank one before...Not they I pay them huge attention usually.

Yes it's a Chinese 'Cash' coin, the symbols should tell you the province and the ruler which enables rough dating. I can't make that one out at all. Most of them I find are dated 1790's - early 1900's.

That's Australian, They went Decimal in 1966 as far as I can make out. The 1910 Sixpence is one of 3,046,000 and worth about £3.00 if it was fine. It is sterling silver.

Willaim, That's Austrian, a 20 Heller. Only 1914 is worth over £3.00 in fine condition, and that isn't Fine. Most of them are under £1 Fine.

Young Master JMD doesn't have a Spink.

It's a form of escapism, from all the problems on Earth at the moment.

Yes, I wonder what the aliens collect, or if somehow they have any earth coins in there collections....For that matter, perhaps there are humans with aliens coins in there collections.

I don't know the exact chemical make up, but I am assured they are free of the nasty plastics that damage metals, and are neutral.

And even if we could colonise Mars we'd be detroyed in the 'red giant' phase on Mars too I suspect. Thankyou for your input Dr Spock type mystery guest.

Dear Kelly, Engraved coins from that period are common. They were usually created as tokens of love, little keepsake kinds of things. EW was probably someones sweetheart. They cannot be valued as a coin because they are of course ruined in the eyes of most coin collectors, but they are still collectable, and I'd probably sell it for £5-10 depending how nice it is.

That's true, but I would think that unless you intend to violently shake them frequently, that despite the room, it would be very unlikely that they could move with enough force to damage themselves. Do you want me to send you a 22.5mm capsule (I have some out of a box) and a 25mm 2x2 for experimental purposes?

Far out Chris. I wonder if you'll actually register on this forum in my lifetime! I hope we have a good few hundred years (at least.... probably thousands if we can just behave) before we wipe out the planet. I very much doubt there would not be permanant human colonies on other planets by then.

The H means it was made at the Birmingham Mint of Ralf Heaton, and the KN indicates it was made at the Kings Norton mint. Basically they were not made at the Royal mint like most other coins.

Coins with 'H' or 'KN' are easy, even on worn examples the date has a small 'H' or 'KN' to the upper left. Modified effigy on 1926 is very difficult to spot on worn coins, with the modified effigy the BM initials on the truncation (bottom) of the Kings neck appear just as 'BM' to the right of the truncation. With earlier un modified head pennies the BM appears as 'B.M.' more in the middle of the truncation. 1945 double '9' i've never looked out for, but I would imagine you'd need a good magnifying glass (just like the one I sell!) to spot a double struck '9' which will appear as 2x '9's on close examinination, one on top of the other. 1953 Proofs all look very prooflike, with mirror like fields. They are not that common in circulation.