Chris Perkins

Watch you don't confuse that for the box labelled 'pants' that actually contains your pants! ;-) Quite often they are not as obvious as that. One coin is often hollowed out and the other reduced in thickness and diameter and glued in the hollowing in the first coin.

No, as with 98% of coins, they are not. Simply little demand for that kind of thing.

Before I got my current camera I was very satisfied with my Nikon Coolpix 990, mainly because of its swivel head ability which meant that I was able to stand it on a tripod and have the lens facing downwards at the coin. Very useful feature. I've upgraded now and my new camera doesn't even do that! Here are details on the Coolpix 990: <a href="http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/specs/Nikon/nikon_cp990.asp" target="_blank">http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/specs/Nikon/nikon_cp990.asp</a> My Nikon Coolpix is now for sale. £45 plus postage (which is £5.50 within Europe, or £9.00 world surface). I have the original box but can't find the manual or software at the moment. Both the manual and software/drivers are available on the Nikon website. In fact, the CD it came with only had drivers on it for Win 98 and 2000 as at the time Windows XP didn't exist. It's easy to set up. The battery compartment lid is broken which means if you're using it with batteries you have to somehow tape it shut to stop the batteries (4x AA) falling out, which is a pain. This is obviously not a problem if you use it on the mains. What you get: - Camera, in good condition, fully functional showing external signs of use. With lens cap. - USB lead to connect to PC - Leather holder with strap (showing signs of use) - Mains power adapter (240v for UK/most of Europe) - A couple of spare memory cards Any takers at £45? If you've been struggling taking good quality coin pics, this could be a cheap solution. It's 3.4mp, but I can certainly vouch for the quality and ease of use. This was a very expensive camera 6 or 7 years ago.

It's not really all that clear is it Joe. The bust of Victoria shows a bit of ear, a bit of crown and not much more. In fact it's very nearly a silouette. On an 'as new' one you can see the folds in the veil and the jewels in the crown and practically the Queen's earwax! That's scrap silver I'm afraid, 20 - 30p. I sell them like that for people to munch on in Christmas puds: http://www.predecimal.com/forsale/christmasthreepences.htm Sorry to be the bearer of bad news again.

Maroccan, not as old as they look as they were made like that until the 19th century I believe.

That's just worth a pound or 2 because it's quite worn.

Very little probably. The age is almost irrelevant for the modern machine struck milled coins, it's always condition that counts and the standards that coins have to meet to be 'collectable' are very very high. Attach pictures again and we'll have a look as soon as scottishmoney has admitted he was wrong all along

It's not evasive!

I'm simply suggesting that it was never made with any evasive intentions. It was made to commemorate something, probably the life of George II, or coronation (I thought I saw a death date on the back though). Had it been pseudo-commemorative, about halfpenny size or more resembling regal coinage and crude in execution, then yes 'evasive'. This is none of those. What do the others think?

3.5cm is far too big to be a halfpenny or a farthing and there were no pennies then so it would have circulated at it's rough copper weight. It's not an evasion piece the quality is too good and now the size data also supports my theory. Evasion pieces are always crude in terms of workmanship. Some aren't bad, but none are as good as this medal would have started life. The value is next to nothing though as it's very worn. Couple of quid to someone that wants it.

I wouldn't have called this an evasion piece, the quality of the workmanship looks like it would have been too high when the medal was struck. I think this was struck as a commemorative medal with no evasive intentions. The fact that it probably got spent as a copper coin shows how desparate people were for change. What's the size in mm if you're still there Jow_Mander?

It's not a penny. It's not even a coin. It's a little medal or medalet with George II on it. It may comemmorate the coronation or something political. From the heavy wear I imagine it probably circulated as a coin, either a farthing of a halfpenny (depending on size) when no one would have been able to read it and just accepted it because the King was on it!

"The Standard Guide to Grading British Coins" from Rotographic should put a stop to all that!

This'll do it: http://www.rotographic.com/britishcoins2005public.pdf

Liberty Street software use my price data in their UK Coinmanage software. You can download a sample of that, perhaps it has a spread sheet, csv or something similar that comes with it.

Steady, you're not much younger than me! Thanks for the comical cow pictures. You simply can't beat comical cows for humourous effect.

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.