Rob

Which for many I suspect is move on and get a life. The number of people willing to surmount any and all hurdles that eBay introduce must be a fraction of the total number of viewers meaning that the default action is more likely to be not bothering doing the search. The most successful things are the simplest - such as the lottery, where all you have to be able to do is point or grunt and hand over a quid.

I don't think there is one, so if you want to get started, feel free. I don't know what he was making before the Soho Mint shut in the late 1840s, but following the sale in 1848 he moved to Australia where he set up the Kangaroo mint office in the early 50s. This was not a succes and so he returned in about 1860 or so. His work producing restrikes is thought to have started around 1862 and continued for the next 20 years.

Which one of the 3 is in the greatest need of help? Piers Morgan, Simon Cowell or the woman - whoever she is?

And I wasn't fully conversant with Thatcher's yard without good reason.

Nothing wrong with being a Mancunian, after all I've got offspring that were brought up here. It's just that I am about as far removed from one as it's possible to be, despite having lived here for decades.

In the days when many people couldn't read or write, they used to sign themselves with a X and this was witnessed by a literate person.

I see the three judges got their questions wrong on the first video, or was it celebrity signatures?.

Nobody who has met me would ever accuse me of being a Mancunian, surely? If anyone needs an audiologist, please PM me.

Yes. Meaning?

Wow. Your English is so good I would never ever have guessed it isn't your first language. A lot of Europe is like that. Within a few years of my wife coming here, my customers didn't realise she was foreign when she answered the phone. and her grammar is better than the locals'

Something that is currently priced less than book based on the description given? They want to believe. Hey-ho, only just over 2 days before this bloke in red comes here with lots of bargains.

Is that really you saying that Azda..??..lol ! I think there's a certain member of parliament he'd make an exception for I didn't think Alex Salmond was a Westminster MP yet! The MP I'm thinking of would get all his non-existent cronies to ensure any vote went his way Yes, I thought Ed's parliamentary friends were running out rapidly, but the union vote will get him out of jail.

Not so sure about the description 'second only to the 1854'. What about the 1850 in its various forms? I didn't have a problem finding an 1851, but 50 and 54 in that grade were virtually impossible. Maybe a number were kept as souvenirs after the exhibition at the Crystal Palace

Nice. It's good that we all see the faults in our coins, as it allows us to be objective rather than thinking the sun shines out of our collecting ar*es.

Well done, that's better.

There's nothing stopping you buying one. Prices change over the years, which is something we all have to live with. Prior to when I bought mine in the Andrew Wayne sale, the going rate for a nice one was 1500-2K. I ended up paying just over 2100 all in. some thought that was crazy as only a couple years previously you could pick them up for 1500 tops. Nobody is saying it was silly now as it would likely sell for double what I paid, just as hindsight has shown many similar 'excessive' purchases a decade ago to be quite a good deal. This goes for a few other memorable pieces such as the 1966 Foley pattern five pounds. When Mark Rasmussen sold the Barr collection in 2004-6, his was listed at £200. The one in London Coins last sale went for over £4K. I don't think anyone would complain at that more than 20-fold return, but might baulk at paying such an increase without a great deal of thought. That it is a private pattern rather than a Royal Mint one is irrrelevant if thatis what the market wants to pay. Whilst that example may be relatively excessive, most hammered gold has undergone a threefold or so increase in the past 10-15 years, whilst the cheaper end of the market has gone up by a larger percentage for choice pieces, being more generally affordable.

Choice Cromwells are not so easy, whatever the denomination. Given the availability of less than perfect examples, it is a case of supply and demand, which remains unsated. Cromwell is an historically important figure, every crown, halfcrown or shilling collection will have an example, as would a collection with a representative example of each reign or period. It ticks a lot of boxes and adds variety to a collection as it doesn't have a conventional design or legend. In the case of the example in question, it would probably be worth more with the plug carefully removed.

Allegedly bent by the plough. That'll be the Plough's landlord then............

Just means that nothing will change. The entire hoard will be taken by a museum, and collectors won't get a sniff, neither to see nor research - not that the world isn't already awash with Cnut pennies from common mints. More important will be the number of rare mints that are squirrelled away.

Where?

I think it is more likely to be a case of the die being too hard to punch in the new digit. Try hitting a sheet of hardened metal with a chisel and hammer (or an Accrington blue with a lumphammer) and you find that it will bounce off. Until the initial groove is made, the job is a bit hit and miss, excuse the pun. Misalignment is the order of the day. I think the same happens with recut dies if they aren't soft enough. I don't think it would be 1735 which is too distant in the past.

As the reverse dies were current for a few years, it is likely that all serviceable dies were recut with the new date. They used to fill in the old numeral and then recut the new one. Sometimes this is clearly seen as an overdate but at other times not. Overdates are much more common than people realise, it's just that they aren't immediately obvious. If you have a previously used die it will have been hardened for use. To recut the date it is therefore necessary to soften the die before working on it. If the die is too hard it will be difficult to sink the new numeral in the same place every blow. What you will see is a series of glancing blows which result in punch creep for want of a better expression. Using the attached James I halfgroat to demonstrate what I mean, the mark seen is a spur rowel over saltire. The saltire has right angles whereas the spur rowel does not. You can see a series of cuts moving from top left to bottom right. In the hand there are 5 or 6 of these, all slightly offset from the previous one. This was a case of a new die being recut with the new mark. No silver was brought into the mint for coining during the period of the saltire mark because the market price for silver remained above face value based on the weight of the coins, but dies would have been produced in anticipation of work. Rather than throw the die away, it was more cost effective to recut just a small part. Other denominations are also known with an overcut saltire mark.

Infinitely better, I'd say!Not perfect though by a long stretch. These dies tend to appear in a fairly knackered state with either a load of rust spots or die fill. They must have been used to destruction, but at some point were new, so someone should have an example of what they are supposed to look like. It's quite possible that the force used in striking was insufficient to fill the die, as a lot of the halfpennies are very weak on Britannia's head and in the laurel area of G2. I think in this series you will need a full lustre example in hand to determine whether the cause for weakness is strike or a filled die unless the weakness is out of proportion to the rest of the design.

For what it's worth, here's mine. My reverse also shows lack of detail/die fill on Britannia's head, but the rest looks markedly better.