Rob

I often wonder how many things would have been recorded earlier if Peck and Freeman had extended their published study to include legend varieties. ESC has recorded things like RE.X for REX since the first edition in 1949, so maybe silver collectors were more attuned to looking for legend varieties than copper collectors, though I find this hard to believe. They aren't a separate species.

Yes, but it is obvious to the naked eye, not just under a glass. Either people consciously avoid looking at the VICTORIA part of the legend, or .......... The serifs on the G make it obvously different to the two ends of the C being wider at the end instead of narrower. I don't believe that people are so unobservant. And they weren't all made yesterday.

I am not convinced it willl be any more common than the other one die rarities. It is more obvious to the eye than some of the more esoteric overcuts which have been known for years. Look at other denominations such as the BBBITANNIAR, RRITT varieties for example. People haven't only been looking at pennies in the last couple of years. Someone paying 20K for a marginally narrower 3 in the date is far more questionable in my opinion.

Well, the first one has six consecutively correct words - "polymer note with the serial number" and (the last) two out of six in the following. "AM32 910640. Number 32 represents money". The second one has to be genuine as it's Jesus doing the listing and he's converted a fiver into £75000.

She has a lot to learn. I haven't spoken to the missus in two decades, let alone two days

I said any estimate between 5p and 5 grand was reasonable. At least you have a non-ebay reference point now.

But he is open to sensible offers, so a £1 each on the Saxon copies and a fiver for a fiver would comply.

I would like these, but think the best price should be negotiated by bartering. I will offer one Oxford English dictionary, and a copy of the English language curriculum for pre-school years The fiver bears no resemblance to Jane Austen - neither Her Maj, nor the talking fat dog to her left.

I would go further. Sometimes the 5 is triple cut

No problem. If you want a real challenge, try to find an 1825 with cleanly punched and completely formed characters and the legend in alignment. It's a bit harder than you might imagine.

Reinforced legends seen on dies was a means of extending their life. Rubbish accumulates in the incuse parts leading to partly formed characters. Sometimes these are recut to give clear legend. It is also possible for the initial character to be sunk in the wrong place and a correction made to the position. Whatever the reason, this feature is frequently seen. Examination of the legends on first issue farthings will usually show partly formed letters implying the punches employed were not the best.

In that case, polish away. You aren't destroying a unique piece of history as the supply of these is never going to be an issue. It will however be an irreversable action and once demonetised, worthless as a collectable.

I would go for an example of each denomination, so that would essentially be a long proof set, together with a sovereign and half from each of the overseas mints. I would probably hope to find the 1902 pattern crown and 1908 satin proof penny, but without much conviction of ever getting the latter. The next break point in terms of an expanded list would be a date run of the above types but in current coins only because the long set would be proofs. Maundy would also be required. A low tide penny and halfpenny would be required as a distinct design change, but not the open 3 The third level would be a warts and all collection encompassing all the varieties known to mankind.

For what it's worth, I used to collect shillings and halfpennies including varieties, so basically date runs on steroids. I found after a while that although individually they were high grade (EF or better) and usually appealing to look at, there was a certain monotony in the rows and rows of mint state coins which collectively didn't provide the same satisfaction. This was particularly striking in the bronze as they tend not to tone with much difference in colour, so it was either full lustre or a watered down version. Silver was better due to the greater variation in colours, but at the end of the day the only real difference was a digit or two in the date, so it was this which finally turned me off date runs.

A variety that isn't 'in your face' so to speak, always has an uphill struggle against a generally undesirable attribute (such as application of the brillo pad). To check you have to use a glass, which makes the impairment 20x worse!

They weren't showing as links when I replied, just a couple of strings of random characters. Modern decimals - quite popular at the moment, though condition is important. If common and damaged in any way, spend them. If mint state and preferably in their original packaging then they seem likely to hold hold up well. Some decimals are more valuable than others, though very few are worth more than a tenner and most considerably less. Periodically the Daily Mail whips up public interest in an issue which means people overpay for common items. The pictures are too small to see what condition they are in, so giving a value is not possible.

What?

Thanks chaps. When you say commercial data is backed up a few times, does that apply to private/small business data too? That matters if security and backup are not deemed to be particularly important. Most businesses are small and do not have in house IT departments with significant infrastructure, but the loss of info would arguably have a much greater effect.

Almost certainly not going

Thanks. Number 1 set up a gmail account, but isn't this account type something to do with cloud things where you give the info to a third party and so is inherently insecure being in the public domain? Unfortunately, I would also need more than one account. Business names are relatively easy being as you can't have two identically registered busnesses, but the same can't be said for private individuals. I'm grateful I am not a John Smith. Best I keep plodding on for the immediate future. Business doesn't have a website because marketing and advertising was limited to two days visiting half a dozen people in January 1987. Since then it has been word of mouth. I'm still here, but winding down, so a website is not necessary.

Firstly, it isn't easy nor necessarily desirable to change my email address because I have customers from the last 20 years who know the contact details. Coins aside, I don't have a website for my businesses, so these non coin contacts would probably be lost in any change because of their inability to find me. btyahoo insisted on us changing the passwords a month or so ago on the grounds that their systems had been hacked. It got to the point that you couldn't login until they were changed. Didn't have any problems before that. I can honestly say that if there was an easy method of transferring all the emails to a different place, I would dump BT. I just don't fancy forwarding over 10000 emails. I'll be pushing up the daisies by the time the list is exhausted.

Unfortunately I don't have an email address book. I have lost the contact details previously saved in outlook every time the computer gets upgraded and I can't see a way to safely save them. Anything important I now write down. I am currently trying to rationalise my emails in outlook, but have 10-15000 to sift through. Then I will have to go back to btyahoo and do the same Trying to save the relevant emails in a sensible archive structure is a bugger too. So much easier saving word documents. Hopefully one of the deleted items will solve the problem. Hope springs eternal.

I had AVG on the computer. It has been quite quiet for a few years, but this month I've had a large upturn in the number of emails rejected by others that purport to come from me. This Jenny Downing was the only obvious anomaly as I have never heard of her(?) and I don't use flickr, so thought it might have got through when viewing an image.

A quickie for anyone au fait with btyahoo mail. Been suffering a surfeit of undelivered messages (spam?) emanating from my computer of late, so suspect my computer may have something unpleasant installed. Normally I use outlook and never go into BT, but as the undeliverable messages came from bt postmaster account I assume they are genuine. Having gone into BT, just above the start button, when I am in BT messages page on their site, I see a small icon with Jenny Downing on Flickr which I can't explain. Is she/he/it spying, or the likely source of the spam? I've never seen this before and can't delete with a right click. Help please

Hopefully the 1968 sale and not his father's in 1912? James I sixpences (6), third bust, 1604, 1605 mm. lis; 1605 mm. rose (tooled); 4th bust 1605, 1606 rose; 1606 scallop. All VF. Bought by Spink for £100. Most likely for stock, so a gander through the Circular for June 58 onwards ought to produce dividends. No time at the moment.