Rob

I'm afraid I have to out myself as an adopted Franken. With the wife coming from Bamberg, and a winzer who drops a van load of wine off as required, it is difficult to find anything better. 100 brewewries within a 20 mile radius or to put it another way - a brewery in every village, sausage on tap, wine on tap etc. Lifef is decidedly pleasant in the backwater of Germany that is Franken. Mine's a triple wurst and a litre of bock.

I understand the Germans do a good line in men in white coats. I'm willing to pay if it isn't covered by the insurance.

Very similar in views. The main difference is that getting British people to pull in one direction is like herding cats.

You got away lightly - I married one. Mind you, from the organisational/household's point of view it was probably a blessing in disguise.

He won the first series of ITV's reality show 'Britain's Got Talent' For some unknown reason, I missed that. Lucky me.

He's obviously got a good voice. Who's Paul Potts, or should that be Pol Pot? Someone taking the **** with their stage name?

Sold

Sorry, forgot about the M53.

Sirloin? Goose? Posh git! I thought you were from Liverpool? True! but it's Crimbo! Nothing's changed Peck. Scousers have always sourced their luxuries in Manchester. Just a quick trip down the East Lancs.

I'm sure there isn't, but the cost of a table where the minimum you would pay is over £200 per day with some double that means you have to sell a significant amount just to break even. That's before you take driving down and parking into consideration which will add another £100 to costs. As the takings tend to be more in London, it's great if you live locally but crap if you don't. Unless you have high value items to sell (which also find a buyer on the day), you are on a hiding to nothing.

Some sort of private medallion. The bust is all wrong for a coin.

Dave Allen is opening a place in St. Neots too, at the Antiques Emporium, 13 Fishers Yard. It will run in parallel with the shop in Biggleswade.

The first is a clipped flan arising from the blank being cut from the sheet too close to the previous one. The second is yes, because a cracked die has a break going into the fabric of the die which gives rise to a raised feature when the coin is struck.

Some of them have gunports going out into the sea in front of the ship, so must be done after the ship was punched in. Also, 1799 proofs have different gunports or ship designs to the currency pieces in most instances, e.g. KH10 - flush deck and 6 relief, KH11 - poop and 5 relief, KH13 - poop and no gunports, KH14 - poop and 6 relief, KH16 to 19 & 25 - raised line, KH20 & 21 - poop and 3 incuse, KH22 & 23 - 3 or 4 relief. Make of it what you will.

I'm not sure about the die id argument. You could say it holds up because there are a number of varieties, but in terms of the numbers produced, the number of discrete varieties is minimal. The ships can only be used as an identifier if there is some sequencing of a feature which doesn't appear to be the case.

Any nice bronze 5 cents in that lot? Nope. Just a 2c.

You need a copy of Peck for Christmas - an invaluable reference. 5 incuse, 6 raised, 9 raised, Plain hull, Raised line on hull cover P1248-52. There is also a 7 raised gunports, not seen by Peck. Nicholson had one, I have one and there will be others. The raised varieties could obviously have been put on the die by the engraver punching a row of holes, but the incuse gunports would have to be raised on the die and must therefore have been on the ship punch. There were many ship punches, with Peck noting at least 50 varieties of ship.

I've got about 240g of Seychelles coinage on the desk in front of me. Plus some Australian, New Zealand, Canada, South Africa, loads of other African countries.

Could be anything, I melted a load.

I have a few kilos of Commonwealth lying around, but it's only low grade stuff up to gVF. There are very few EFs or UNCs

It depends how much you want to spend. If you want high grade material, you will have to use a dealer. There will be someone who specialises in the field, but nobody I can put a name to at the moment. If you just want cheap things, then eBay is probably as good as anywhere else. Go to coin fairs. Wakefield is on the last Sunday of every month except for December, The Midland at the Motor Cylce Museum just off the M42 is the second Sunday of each month. London, I haven't got a clue as I avoid it like the plague. With the vast majority of people collecting English, you will have to do the hard work. With the esoteric nature of foreign material, many things do not sell for a lot, but are difficult to source because dealers are unwilling to carry large quantities of things that are not going to sell

So have I.

Yep. Finished the bottle of Linkwood a few days ago. Better get in some urgent medical supplies before Christmas, otherwise it will have to be Black Bush.

Could be silvered?