Rob

Anything exciting (to me that is!)? Maybe. I bought the E5/2

grade, and by extension the estimates. There were a lot of creased or otherwise impaired pieces, none of which appealed. There is also the usual number of items he puts in the sale which are from a US dealer and so import VAT applies on top of the hammer. Bids are reduced accordingly. I do see a slight softening across the board though. I bought one lot so far.

Be interested to know who the 3 knowledgable experts were, just so I can avoid any of their expertise in the future? If only you could email the buyer, as in the good ole days! They were good days. 8 or 9 years ago I gave a heads up to someone that the Pontefract they were bidding on was plugged based on a misdescribed catalogue entry of a lot that went unsold at 1300 estimate when it would otherwise have made very good money. Very well done, but still plugged. You don't want to be spending upwards of £2K on what was a 3500 coin at the time only to find out that you'd bought a pup. Needless to say, he retracted the bid and the seller claimed ignorance. Yeh, right. Might have believed him if he wasn't in the habit of selling mostly top end coins.

As I mentioned before, I'm pretty certain I stupidly handed back to w&w the original of an E1 groat we frequently see copied...with broken crown?Also, that recent CGS slabbed coin that TG posted up (Christ, can't remember what of, now), can only be a major CGS cock-up, or the original from which the fakes were made? Wonder if they all have a common source? I'm certain they do.

Things do go off topic as has been noticed elsewhere. Nothing to do with coins only had one place to go - the options were rather limited.

I'm still intrigued as to the identity of the original producer of the casts. I have the F3/1 shilling which I bought in Nov. 2004 and I know who has the Newcastle 9b 1d original, which he bought in 2005(?). Anyone know the whereabouts of any other originals and purchase details?

Grilled camel masallah?

I know, but I couldn't think of an appropriately named arabic dish.

Chicken Tikka?

According to my bank manager brother the writing is on the wall for free banking here in the UK. He thinks it will be a thing of the past in 5-10 years. There's nothing wrong with paying for a service, however much it grates that they are also looking after your money. It's much fairer than cross-subsidising which is opaque at best and one must suspect continually open to abuse.

Interesting that he found it in with some clocks.

?

The first has a more deeply engraved neck, the second is shallower. If in doubt, the I of GEORGIVS points to a bead and a space respectively.

How much more evidence is required?

See a doctor - that's abnormal. Better safe than sorry. In Suffolk it is fine. I have big ears & nose and big bertie bollocks.....trouble is my penis is only 10" ....girth. You should be fairly easy to spot at the Midland then. https://www.google.com/search?q=elephant&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ei=yQimU-D8LcKlPfqvgegF&ved=0CAYQ_AUoAQ&biw=1920&bih=942#facrc=_&imgdii=_&imgrc=znIsLlsdbkfWBM%253A%3BPN2R_LizwebVdM%3Bhttp%253A%252F%252Fwww.utahpeoplespost.com%252Fwp-content%252Fuploads%252F2014%252F03%252Felephant-2.jpg%3Bhttp%253A%252F%252Fwww.utahpeoplespost.com%252F2014%252F03%252Felephants-can-determine-human-voice-age-and-sex%252F%3B1800%3B1200

See a doctor - that's abnormal. Better safe than sorry.

And so the topic drifts from football to political football............... Further drifting will likely take us into politics, with the Green Party winning the World Cup.

I think it depends on how well the dipping solution has been washed off and also how well it was dipped. Over-dipped coins stay a lifeless colour, slightly dipped and they tone with a bit of colour in 5 or 6 years.

Hmm. Which ever way you look at it, image/ego is a great destroyer of wealth and marbles. All those must have impracticals don't come cheap, and the less they cover, the more they cost. I prefer a nun's habit. Oops, sorry, that's a burka.

Given they were supposedly the weak team in England's group and yet thrashed Uruguay. Uruguay were supposedly worse than England but still beat them. If Costa Rica put up a good show against Italy, then I can see them beating England too. Group winners? Edited to add: oops - just seen the score. Definitely likely to be group winners now.

I was going to say well done for identifying it, but I think there might be a trace of ONE to help him.

I took a rare foray onto planet football tonight and have to confess I thought the result was a fair outcome. The most striking thing to me was the near complete inability of England to win a one on one situation. Close ball control doesn't seem to figure much in their repertoire as it seemed they came off second best 8 out of 10 times, which isn't good enough at international level. They were too static when passing the ball, giving no options for incisive distribution.

Was that phoning the US or London office?

So what other emails have you received from them. The only ones I ever seem to receive is their wine evenings. I know there wasn't anything in my inbox, spambox, lunchbox etc, nor was there anything in some other people's boxes that you would expect to be sent them. I had quite a long conversation with GC this morning about said topic and he didn't receive email or catalogue either. Maybe even his money isn't sufficient to make it worthwhile for Spink. I think that the coin dept is disorganised in London since they put a stop on dealing, together with so many people moving on. It may be that coins are going to be organised out of the US, though Jon Mann has just joined them, which suggests they haven't given up entirely on coins. I'm still not convinced about this idea of Spink doing private treaty sales only, given the transparency of the internet.

I think the problem here is not so much checking for overseas auctions but rather the quality of Spink's business marketing. Spink have a database of what? Say 20000 collectors given the client numbers used? Obviously some willbe foreign, but a reasonable guess is that 50% are UK based. So if Spink can't be bothered sending out an email notice about a foreign sale of their own targeted at 10000 people, it begs the question as to whether they want those 10000 collectors business. Is this a portent of things to come as we know they are concentrating on private treaty business and dropping the coins/shop side? Is our collective money not good enough? When they don't give notice even to poeple who spend hundreds of thousands a year and who are UK based, then I suspect it is a case of management failure. Whatever, it certainly isn't going to improve the viability of Spink in the UK if they can't be arsed to give you an opportunity to spend money. $21K hammer for the 1882 penny was cheap and I suspect could well have gone higher if people on this side of the pond were aware of the sale. After all, if a slender 3 can make more, then £21K was peanuts. Baldwins, DNW, St. James', Brocks, Lockdales, London Coins, not to mention a whole stack of provincial auctioneers give regular advance email notice. It isn't even a question of no catalogue, which I can see they might not want to send across the pond, but no notice? The wheels have come off the bus methinks.