Rob

As the topic says. What is it and why does it do it? Is it some sort of spying program or what? I block it and it goes away, but haven't found what doesn't work yet. Ideas anyone. If superfluous, how do I stop it annoying me as it has been doing it for weeks now? i.e. how do I send it into the bin? Ta

It's a big no-no to get mucky fingerprints all over them. I appreciate you may wish to handle things, but you have to decide whether they are to play with or to collect, keeping them in the best possible state of preservation whilst you are the custodian. i.e. you don't want to do something that will damage the coin beyond its condition when acquired. If you just want something to play with, buy cheaper, low-grade pieces. Again, if you want to regularly handle them you could put them into plastic capsules or 2x2 flips. Sorry, don't know what a Schulz album is.

Most patterns (and as far as I'm aware, all the RM pieces) tend to be like proofs, with just the design varying from the norm, so I'm not sure that a non-prooflike version would be struck as a pattern. There are a few patterns I have such as the Taylor 1807 unfinished proof halfpenny where the design is only partly recut including the date 1807/6, or the Eginton 1787 pattern 6d in white metal which are clearly not prooflike. These aside, all the other private patterns are most definitely struck as proofs, as are the RM pieces, including all the decimal patterns from the 1850s. The nickel strikings of the 1923 & 1924 shillings are not prooflike, but here we probably have an experimental striking to test the suitability of nickel as a metal for currency.

You could try disabling the Firefox Silverlight plug-in. Using the icon with three horizontal bars (top right corner) click on "Add-ons" then "Plugins" on the left hand side menu. Scroll down to find Silverlight and change from "Ask to Activate" to "Never Activate". Big plus for this tip. It also has a box which allows pdf files to always activate, which is a much better idea than always being asked if I want to open a pdf. (I invariably do - that is why I have tried to open it in the first place)

How about this for BU http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/1863-penny-BU-/331459258624?pt=UK_Coins_BritishMilled_RL&hash=item4d2c82e900 As in 'Bloody Uncollectable'? No, the field length isn't long enough. He has abbreviated it and left off the ggered - I think.

Correct. My 1731 shilling spent the first 275 years of its life in the bottom of a Georgian glass. Lustre on one side is like the day it was struck.

OK, must have it as the German comedy thread videos work. Just ignore it, I guess. Thanks. One of the kids put 'Ad blocker' on, which is good for adverts apparently, i.e. you don't see them.

No idea if I have flash. how do I tell? I haven't seen anything that doesn't work over and above the usual problems like the internet cutting out for a few minutes every hour or so.

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Not if you want to sell it! I disagree. I listed the thing below on the website, accurately described as dire, and it sold within a couple hours. It wasn't at 99p either.

82, 80 and 75.

Uh, that should be passed, not past. Fined one shilling.

Ok, £2.50 and you have a deal.

Difficult to say what you mean as the image is too grainy.

Excellent news. I will offer you £1.50 for your museum copy. I will even foot the postage so that you aren't out of pocket.

I'll answer seeing as nobody else has said anything. I don't what they are. They are too regular to be flaws at the edge of the groundline, which is obviously a point where stresses would be given the change in relief at this point. There is nothing at the corresponding point of the obverse to suggest a die clash, and they don't show any features that could relate to a previous die being recut. Not a clue, but I suspect not of any great importance.

Type the copied photobucket address into the field that comes up when you click the link icon in the line immediately above this reply box. It is the 9th from the left on my screen.

That's quite an interesting comparison - thanks. Is it possible to do a similar study for those coins submitted by named individuals as opposed to general submissions? I have a gut feeling that they tend to be more lenient with their grades if it is an 'important' collection, so for example, I have a couple of George III pattern halfpennies that were both previously in NGC slabs, one was in a 61 slab and the other a 65, but the 61 (un-named) is markedly better than the 65 (ex-Cheshire). There are other examples. Another useful study would be the consistency of grading for the same coin, if possible. I had an ex 64 coin which I sold to someone on the PCGS forum and it came back 62 the second time round, even though it was from the same service. I know there are a couple instances where the coin has been submitted, cracked out, resubmitted, cracked out, resubmitted etc and the grading has varied by at least two grades. This is actually quite important as we all know the way slabbing afficionados think, particularly those of the registry set mentality. Buy a coin you think is undergraded and resubmit in the hope of it coming back higher. Obviously overgraded coins do not get cracked out and this has led to grade inflation with 65s commonplace today relative to say 10 years or more ago. The Peck 924 in the recent Heritage sale (lot 29616) was in a 65 slab, despite having sat quite happily in a 63 for quite a long time. This of course led to 65 pricing rather than 63 despite not being a patch on the raw P924 sold by CNG a couple of years ago. It is now unlikely to be cracked out unless bought by a person who doesn't like slabbed coins, but can only find this example to buy (and there is only one other possible candidate as far as I am aware). Selective resubmission is an obvious reason for grade creep. I'm not looking to open the perennial can of worms that considers the merits of slabbing or not as this will doubtless be resurrected on a regular basis, but given the number of resubmissions and the fact that these coins are not normally identified in the population reports, it is an important consideration in the data available. I also collected halfpennies for a long time as a denomination and can vouch for the unreliability of populations having personally cracked out a considerable percentage of certain rarer pieces.

And another consideration is that money is not restricted in movement within most world economies. If this country is posing a relatively large risk to an individual's wealth, you can always sell pounds and buy Swiss francs which a lot of people did to the extent that the Swiss currency rose too high too quickly, thus endangering their otherwise sensible and stable economy. Switzerland's borders are also now quite intensely policed to ensure that individuals are not carrying more than 10000 (?) euros out of the EU to hide away. There are usually many reasons why an economy is either inflating or deflating, but those wishing to make a political point tend to oversimplify things and just use the crude average to say the economy is either doing well or in trouble. This isn't helpful.

Gold went up - the traditional safe asset in times of trouble. Other collectables went up. If the money wasn't safe potentially in a bank, then it got re-allocated to diverse assets in order to spread the risk. Money is not in short supply and never really has been, just that it has concentrated in fewer hands. You can have as much or as little of it as you like. Print a load and prices rise to accommodate the extra, withdraw money from circulation and prices will fall, or more likely people will return to bartering the assets they already have. A difficult problem in modern economies is that they are perceived to be buoyant when a lot of people are buying things that they quite patently don't need, and in many instances can't afford. When these buyers stay away, the economy is said to be down in the dumps, but as one who buys things as required assuming I can afford it and is not particularly materialistic, I don't view it as a problem.

Depends on where the inflation lies though. Could be smoke and mirrors. The price of a burger hasn't gone up, if anything it's the opposite. The price of electronic gadgets is constantly reducing even though you are getting more for your money. Thirty years ago, a 286 computer system would cost over £1K. Think what you can get today for £1K. Your phone is more powerful than a 30 year old PC. Adjust for inflation and you really get a lot more for your money. The thing is that there will always be someone ready to undercut another in order to take the business. It's a double edged sword. Too much competition with reduced prices and the wheels come off the bus, leaving you with a couple of major players who had sufficient financial reserves to see them through, plus an awful lot of collateral damage along the way. That isn't good for any economy because in the west, the resulting unemployed are maintained in that position at large and unsustainable expense to the remainder of the workforce. If this was only temporary it would be bearable, but as a permanent fixture it makes the future untenable. There is no exit strategy to this problem from any western politician. So, it all depends on where the inflation is to compensate and more for the many consumer items which are seeing a drop in prices. Witness the huge number of pound shops in this country. They supply items that used to be a couple of pounds to buy. Houses are increasing ever more beyond the reach of many people - boooooooooooo I hear you say. Energy prices until recently were increasing way ahead of inflation - booo. Prices in general increased for anything that was energy intensive such as transport - booo. The exchange rate worked to cause both inflation and deflation depending on which way it was moving. As ever it will be a case of lies, damned lies and statistics. People want things to become more and more affordable, but that's called deflation. People today want instant gratification, so they buy things using finance plans rather than saving up (which is an option in the current benign inflationary environment). That increases GDP but does nothing for their financial security as they are paying more than inflation for the pleasure. We have to be very careful when saying inflation/deflation is dangerous, and as always, a degree of qualification is required.

Not so much that what you own is devalued, rather that the going rate for it should increase in price - only if it doesn't increase has it been devalued. If the physical assets remain constant and the money equating to those assets becomes a bigger number, then it follows that the prices of those items should increase to take account of the additional money in circulation. If the money supply has been expanded and some prices don't increase, then prices of other assets must rise proprtionally more to compensate. Cue an above average increase in the price of 'safe' assets. People involved in areas of the economy which see no upward movement in prices are effectively being devalued. The idea of increasing the money supply to kick-start the economy is a red herring. Even if banks aren't willing to lend to smaller businesses, there are sufficient numbers of individuals with large amounts of capital sitting there doing little and looking for a greater return. Those assets are held by business savvy people who would provide some capital if the idea was a good one. The lack of dynamism in the economies of the world is not due to a shortage of capital, more the reduced returns available due to the internet and global economy. It is very difficult to set up a business providing a premium product generating above average returns because business models can be easily copied, and there is sufficient manufacturing capacity installed for a competitor to rapidly nullify any first mover advantage. The modern world is too efficient to provide the large returns necessary for wholesale private investment, despite interest rates being at or around all time lows. So in answer to the OP, I think that money injected into the economies of Europe is likely to result in an increase in the price of assets that provide diversification, just as it has in the US over the past few years. Coins amongst other things would come into this category.

Probably, but for all the wrong reasons.

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Has it been mounted in a ring or some other holder? The rim looks to be too smooth and even for what I would expect. It may have been turned down to fit. Does the diagonal graining still remain on the edge? Uncirculated is clearly nonsense, with glasses and appropriate educational material badly required by someone. It's somewhere near the gVF mark, with the obverse maybe slightly below that. Scratches(?) on the laurel don't help.