Chris Perkins

It's a little halfpenny, the decimal type that was stopped in 1984. You're obviously too young to remember them! I was 6 in 1984 and just about remember them. I remember in the road where we used to play, there was one set hard into the road surface. None of us could free it and eventually it was worn flat by the cars.

One of my old books is in the public domain as an ebook: http://www.rotographic.com/britishcoins2005public.pdf The prices are out of date but there are lots of pictures etc.

BU 1983 £1 coin, yes must be worth at least £3 now. Probably more than you'll get for an average Cumberland Jack I'm afraid.

It's the thought that counts isn't it! Our old next-door neighbour Maud (who had long since forgotten how old she was, and no one knew) gave my little sister a 'sovereign' when she was born in 1983. It was of course a shiny new 1983 £1 coin! To Maud it was a sovereign, which is sort of correct in a way.

Yes, UNC means no wear but BU (as introduced by the Royal Mint in the 80s I believe for their UNC year sets) has come to mean no wear and full lustre. A tiny weeny bit of toning could possibly still scrape in as BU if the mint bloom is still there, but a coin with a finger print or any other area where there is no lustre or uneven lustre cannot be BU. There are some coins on that list that are practically completely brown with lustre in the lower parts and they are still described as something involving the term 'BU'. I hate to moan about it but I've had issues in the past with 'Colin Cooke' grading. Don't complain Neil, it's just an opinion and I'll leave the link to your website above!

Yes lustre can be hard to capture, but I noticed a 'BU almost as struck' with a finger print. That can't be right. Nice coins though, as you say.

Really! Oh dear. What they bounce and you get a bouce message? Usually I have to manually inspect my spam emails and am able to release real ones. I'll get the books sent to you.

Nice stuff and excellent price data for me. There are an awful lots of coins there described as 'BU almost full lustre' that I would call UNC because they have toning or marks preventing them from being BU. Does anyone agree that the term BU seems to be used a bit too frequently there?

Thanks, I'll put that right in the next one! Always have the heart to tell me about these things. It may well have been the same coin, I quite often monitor London Coins auction prices.

That looks like a weak GVF too. I'm not sure where the £110 came from, some of the values don't change unless a newer price is noticed (on a sales list, in an auction etc). I have a feeling that the price quoted is pretty new. I'll take your worn one for £12 and sell for £20 if you just want to send it without faffing around.

In CCGB2008 this is the 'L' in Florin points to bead type. Price there is £110 GVF. That one has to be worth £20 surely. I think that's where I'd price it.

It doesn't really matter how it looks in the image, you simply can't trust that an otherwise common proof is the matt version unless the seller is highly expert and offers some kind of guarantee.

No, I don't pick values out of the air. I imagine I somehow didn't notice that one and it's remained like that (and the big difference between it and the EF price) from a previous edition. I'll make sure I make a note to change it and check that more carefully next time.

Doubled letters and die breaks are not usually considered as varieties, merely mishaps as a result of mass production.

You better post some pictures to clarify the date, type and grade! All too often an EF Sovereign can turn out to be a Fair farthing, but I imagine you're better informed than that!

Sounds good Dave. If you do need help publishing (and marketing, which as you say, is the hardest part) then let me know.

Yes, you're right I have stupidly mentioned the value at the time of writing and have not mentioned the weight. I'll do that in the next one.

Who will be publishing it and what's it about? I'l PM you about the numbering!

Aidan Work, I see you just registered and posted a couple of times under the name 'BC Numismatics'. I don't care what you're called, you're a narrow minded rascist extremist bigot and you bring nothing but shame and cringe-worthy embarrassment to me and other members regardless if they happen to be members of the British commonwealth or not. No 2nd chances, you were banned before and you're still not welcome here.

He could have been hung like a donkey for all I know! With all those dastedly spikes and the ability to roll up into a ball it was impossible for even the vet to tell us what he was.

I think that's basically what I was saying! And if Igor was male then perhaps he has small sons and daughters in the garden now, even though they may have already out-lived him.

I don't quite know if he was really recovered, his leg hung around without doing much and he couldn't navigate. I'm not entirely sure if he was fit for the wild. However I think it was morally more correct that he had a friend/partner and that even if only for a short time, he was able to be with his own kin instead of fenced off.

I've been asked by a forum member about how little Igor is getting on, so here's an update: We had him in a pen in the garden with an upturned box and some foliage as shelter (until he was ok to go it alone). We used straw as bedding but changed that after he kept walking in circles and getting it twisted around his legs. In fact one evening he was in a right tangle and had cut off the circulation to one of his legs and it was very swollen. After that the leg never really worked properly again! He was always active at night and always ate all his cat food and cat biscuits, which was encouraging. He still had big problems navigating but was able to move about quite quickly when he wanted to. One evening we went out to feed him and were amazed to see him with his nose poking through the chicken wire, very eager to escape his enclosure. The reason for this sudden lust for freedom scampered under a bush on the 'free' side of the fence! It was another hedgehog (about the same size), but a less tame one. We retreated and the other hedgehog came to the fence again and they rubbed noses some more. We left some food and the free hedgehog scampered off again. This time Igor really really wanted to join his new friend and was hyperactively trying to get under the wire, over the wire, through the wire, anything to limp off into the dusk with his own kind. At one stage he got himself stuck between the wire and a tree which was used as a fence post (having spikes that grow in one direction make it difficult to reverse in tight spaces). So, I got some pliers, cut the wire and let him free. He caught up with his friend under some wood and in torch light we could see them together, sort of sniffing each others arses and walking around in circles together with plenty of mutual nose rubbing. He looked happy, in fact he looked like a she in comparison to the other one who had a much more masculine face. I went back to remove any sharp bits of wire and Igor ventured out from under the planks of wood and allowed me to stroke his/her nose for the last time before returning to his/her cautious friend. We watched them for a little while but then they went further under the wood and we never saw them again.

I've got about 160 fake coins in my collection, ranging from hammered Scottish fakes right through the early milled period, lots of George III and some fake gold/silver Victorian and later (including fakes made of good gold) right up to about half a dozen modern fake £1 coins. And I've got some Irish, Spanish and 1 German 19th century fakes. Have you seen this, I worte this ages ago: http://www.predecimal.com/british_coin_forgeries.php Unfortunately none of them are for sale! I've heard about £2 fakes but never seen one. I've also come across the large 50p types as forgeries but none of the modern smaller ones.

The road sweeper vehicles here are RHD. And of course the roadsweeper vehicles in England are LHD.