Sylvester

And how! Well perhaps he could hedge his bets and be a little more cautiously liberal; Sandy.

Just looked it up, the English pope was Adrian IV, elected in 1154, and he didn't want the job. Knowing how hip and trendy you just know it's going to be Cyril I

I thought of Fred... Might as well go the whole hog and have Sylvester, there's hasn't been one in a long, long time. Sylvester V has a ring to it. Or perhaps Urban IX. There was an English Pope many years ago (i mean many!), i forget what name he chose.

Just wondering what name the new Pope (when he's elected will take). Please no more John's or Innocents... there's been too many as it is! How about a Matthew, a Mark or a Luke? Although Bob would be good... sorry couldn't resist it!

Not half!

Don't confuse the visitors! ...or me

$14 being about £6-£8 give or take on exchange rates.

Yes they're forgeries, well actually they're not but allow me to explain; Guineas were last struck in 1813 before being replaced by the sovereign in 1817. For some reason the Victorians had an obsession with the 'Spade' type guineas (spade because of the shape of the shield, like a pack of cards), thus when it came to having gambling chips they soon put the design to good use and they struck tons and tons of brass imitation guineas (very crude in design, often the wrong size, of dates that were never struck, or dates that are wrong for the design). Which i believe is what you have there, gambling tokens, or imitation curiosities. Kinda like if you go to one of those gift shops in a city such as York, where you can buy replicas of medieval coinage. The Victorians probably sold them in 'memory of the good old days' which is the very inscription that quite a few surviving examples show on their reverse.

Looks like a contemporary forgery to me. Only genuine coins minted in the whiole period 1816-1820 were gold and silver coins. The only base metal used for coins at this time was copper, and the period 1808-1820 was devoid of any copper.

I dunno Olls i can live with coins upto 1919/20, after that well then it goes down hill. I think by rubbish he meant Churchill Crowns and stuff of that quality. I was glad they'd split the 1662-1815 and 1816-1971 stuff off sooner cos that saved wading through alot of rubbish too. Just wish they'd trim off the 18th century stuff too!

Dunno that's the million dollar question, i'll be busy until May with Uni work, not sure what's happening after that.

Everything has ceased at the moment, been too busy with essay, after essay, after essay... All those wishing to go to Uni, don't do history, do media or something! My mate does that and he hardly has anything to do and is only in Uni for two hours per week... amusingly each hour being on different days!

A job.... arrrghhh! Won't be long now... this is my last year.

One year already hey Kuhli? Tell me i've finally spelt your name right after all this time. As for me well I'm just passing through... still technically absent at the present, just catching up on a few things before i go missing again.

More of a legs man myself...

I really ought to revisit the Manchester Museum - it's about 3 minutes walk from where I work. I mean to revisit it actually one day. Some nice hammered gold they had last time.

Best way too... but i can't help feeling that some farthing obverse dies must have been used on farthings from new? I mean generally you are gonna need more farthings. Having said that though gold is softer and the dies could probably strike more sovs...

I generally use non-troy ounces. Never could spell aviour... well yeah. Ordinary ounces to me. Grams can be used also no too fussed. Coins i tend to go with what's in the book, if it's in grams then so be it, when i'm cooking it's lbs and ozs all the way. Prefer ounces generally.

A man dedicated to his farthings!

What's an upside down 'V' JMD? Me thinks either they broke alot of A's or had more V's than they needed. Obviously if there are notches in the unbarred A for the bar then the die has filled.

Just for you members on here, Mark Davidson is part of the CoinCraft writing team who wrote the hammered section of the CoinCraft catalogue. According to that he's well known on the London circuit.

Mark Davidson, i know that name. Doesn't he advertise in Coin News or whatever it's called?

You don't see many Charles II sixpences on ebay and not in VF. When you do they usual sell over book. I go straight to dealers for them.

Nope never use it.

I got quarter of one, but it's a bit substandard. Hammered gold is a weakness of mine.