Rob

I hope people don't pay a silly premium for things like this.

Compared to the number of regular contributors, pennies are disproportionately represented amongst the denomination collectors. That's all. Even I have a few (bronze and copper) pennies. In fact I have examples in all metals. Oops. I lied. Sorry, don't have an example in aluminum.

Ah. You've got the wrong bloke here. I happily drive an asthmatic dog kennel and don't care as long as it does the job it needs to. When it drives from A-B you need a diary. Other cars have been a mini van, Vauxhall Viva estate, Morris Minor, Renault 5 x2, Escort XR3, Sierra diesel, Renault 21, Espace, Zafira, Focus, Fiesta and Seat Ibiza. I will concede that the most expensive on the list (Escpace) was the best car, but that was primarily because you could take all the seats out and fit in an engine hoist, pallet truck, A-Frame, pallets etc. Most importantly there was sufficient space for a load of beer, wine and sausages coming home from the Fatherland. The rest you could take 'em or leave 'em.

Love it Who me officer? No, I don't smoke drugs apart from this joint in my hand and the one I had yesterday and the day before This is a forum, not a social network in the generally accepted sense. The latter are things like facebook, twitter etc where people post inane comments incessantly, frequently displaying the fact they are an extrovert and quite often a t**t to boot. Personally I don't care if someone had a dump at 9am, less still do I want to see it in cinemascope. A forum can rise above that to discuss topics meaningfully, be it about coins or any other topic of interest.

In 1999 perhaps!!! Nowadays, the 'casual' computer user wants somewhere to store and play music, upload pictures from their camera, login to various social networks (which can involve a lot of picture sharing), play (and maybe download) videos on YouTube, play the odd game, perhaps buy and / or rent music and films, listen to live radio or TV online, or catch up on programmes they missed. If they're creative they will also use their computers to make music, edit movies, photographs etc, or write. Jeez Rob, where you bin these last 10 years or so? The same place I was the twenty odd years before - Manchester. Right, lets deal with the list. I don't store music, but do listen to the odd track occasionally on you tube. I upload pictures for the site, though the results are sketchy. Don't do social networks apart from this forum and a couple others. Don't download videos or play games. Don't buy or rent music or films. For the first see above, for the second, films are mostly much the same featuring the same old actors time after time. My kids have watched so many films down the years, I could probably make a collage of the snippets seen in passing and say I've seen the lot. I listen to the radio in the car. Don't listen to TV or radio online and rarely regret missing a TV program. Even if I have missed something it wil be repeated on a choice of channels tomorrow. The surfeit of drivel which passes for programming is on the whole uninspiring. I don't mind the odd documentary, but prefer to get my history lessons from books rather than Hollywood. As I said, it's a tool - not the centre of my universe.

Hmm. I appear to have inadvertently started a major discussion, not that I have the foggiest idea what you are talking about. When you have reached some sort of agreement, a little resume for the rest of us might be useful. For the majority of users it is a simple tool. Most people do not push their system to the limit, so any basic system will do. Most only require the ability to write word documents, do a bit with a spreadsheet and send/receive emails.

A little bit more obviously and cleanly double struck, and it would be like this coin which portrays both Charles'

Then they are suffering from an overdose of egotism. There's nothing wrong with the PC hardware, and even the apple software has bugs looking at the crap that the various ayephones occasionally dispense. Even designer shi*e has a price limit.

Thanks Peck but it all looks a bit too complicated to do by choice. Do any/all of these programs work on a PC or does it need a completely new system? If you can install windows on a mac, does the converse work too for apple programs working on a PC? As the computer is only 3 or 4 years old it seems pointless to throw it out while the hardware works ok. Business accounts use Sage, but that's on a separate computer that never sees the internet and funnily enough never causes any grief. That will see me out.

I'd be tempted to go for obvious design differences rather than worrying about whether there's a little H or KN somewhere to be seen. A bust is a fairly obvious feature that can be easily differentiated from the next without recourse to fine detail, so too is a significantly different legend. Even with the 17th century in EF and the rest in UNC you could easily spend £20-25K+ if you were to do a basic one of each type.

Thankfully, upgrading Windows is not within my capabilities, so no danger of changing that bit. The problem is those who try to force alternative bits on you as extras. I'm pretty certain this happened because AVG said I needed an upgrade. As I use it for the virus check, it was logical to accept any improvements. What was not included was the info it would default to a program you didn't want. That is where they should be clearer.

It isn't a question of whether a lot of people take a similar approach, rather a case of what suits your temperament. Some people have to be completists, others can't live with low grade material, some only want an identifiable example of anything and everything, some operate a strict type example, others just buy a piece because they find it attractive. If you know which category you come into, you are halfway there. A leisurely stroll to a type example of each design in a minimum grade would require doing some spadework to seek out the suitable coins but would provide variety and is far more sensible than trying to do a date run in the same grade. The collection wouldn't happen tomorrow if you are selective about grade, but would provide diversity. Maintaining a balanced collection is a moot point. If a run of high grade coins are lined up, then a dog stands out like a sore thumb. One collector I know takes the view that when you buy, you are purchasing a single coin, not a collection, and arguably you should view every coin as a stand alone entity. After all, if you decided on a run of BU or thereabouts coins, firstly you will struggle with some of the tin issues simply on cost grounds. William III you will struggle on quality grounds. I would bite someone's hand off in good VF or better for these issues, maybe even accept a VF example of some. The sense of purpose as a collector is simple. You are doing it for pleasure. If you don't enjoy it, arguably you shouldn't be doing it.

Ish

The options are many, none of which are exclusively 'right'. I suggest that when you feel overcome by a bout of happiness, you pursue it. Forming an accumulation of high grade pieces could be a lot worse. And you would be in good company in doing so, as there are a few well-heeled collectors who do similar. Copper is not too difficult. Get a handful of Harington, Richmond, Maltravers farthings to cover the pre-milled. Starting with Chas II through to 1970, a copper or bronze 1d, 1/2d, 1/4d or fraction of each type is a collection of around 100 currency coins, even with the tin issues. The latter are the only really expensive ones in high grade, with just about all the others costing a three figure sum at the most. That would be quite respectable as a collection. As with every collection, you could also get carried away and push the boat out on a Cromwell farthing, or some patterns. Then the sky is the limit.

Hooray. It now opens at Google. Many thanks Clive and everyone who helped. One last thing (hopefully). What's wrong with the operating system? This is what came with the computer a few years ago. It is Windows 7 which from comments people have made appears to be the last Microsoft version that worked? Are Vista and Windows 8 the white elephants people claim? Should I be using a different system, because as long as it works I am unwilling to rock the boat?

Now I'm very confused. Using tools and the drop down menu. Downloads I understand as they all go to the downloads file and I can see the individual files. Add-ons. I have no idea. Set up sync. No idea. Web developer. No idea if relevant Page info. Talks about this forum topic page Options. Initially gave me a few choices in this category. System defaults. Always check Firefox is default at startup. A couple scrolling boxes were ticked as was use hardware acceleration where possible. Another was enable Firefox health report - ticked. No telemetry or enable crash report ticked. Configure how Firefox connects to the internet - automatic proxy configuration ticked, whatever that means. Firefox updates. Auto install and use background. Last update 29/3/2014 Certificates showed a few things which didn't mean anything. Now for the fun bit. I closed the certificates box and now I can't find the above list no matter how hard I try. Clicking on General tab in the options now gives me a set home page with the AVG address in the default position. This is clearly the place. Where it has come from - I don't know as before I always saw the list above.

Press the Print Screen/PrtScn button on your keyboard. Open up a program such as Paint, paste and then Save As. This is the best I can do. It wouldn't paste into my Pictures until l had opened up an existing image and overwritten it.

Because I wouldn't know where to start. All of these problems are fine when you understand what you do to rectify them. I don't have a clue when it comes to computers, because the terminology is meaningless. It might as well be in Swahili.

I don't have anything that says it is searching using Mozilla other than in the top line, so none of the symbols seen at the bottom of your page appear. I just have a Google box to type in (once I have changed from AVG to Google). There doesn't appear to be a settings link on the AVG page How do I copy a full screen page? I tried to select all and paste it into a word document, but it only highlighted 4 things at the bottom left, not the AVG logo, search box etc, nor the bars at the top. I also checked for Yahoo things, as it said AVG secure search was provided by Yahoo, but couldn't find anything

I was under the impression you were talking about the search box (delineated in red, below) on your Firefox browser rather than the webpage. This is what I had originally. Now the Firefox bit has been replaced with AVG secure search even though Google is the only option in the top right box. I had a look for anything that was AVG related in the task manager. Processes were avgui.exe. This is presumably the offending item as it is the only one. Three services were present, AVO securities, AVGIDSAgent and AVGWD. Also, I noticed thatr Mozillamaint was stopped - maybe that is important too as it is being over-ridden by AVG?

There doesn't seem to be an option for chosing the home page other than via the control panel which is set to google, but has no effect.

Right, so it's a page not a box? There should be the word Firefox in a gold box at the top left. Click on this, select options and then enter whichever webpage you want your Home Page to be in the box provided. They are all boxes surely?. Just that some occupy the full screen. The word Firefox in a little box at the top left was only there when I didn't have the file/edit/view etc bar present. By ticking the menu bar, this one is permanently in view. That's as was and is now ok.

Done that and it makes no difference The first allows me to add or take away the bars at the top (which seems to be the same as I did last night to actually see them) The second, I have removed all search programs except google, rebooted the system, but it still ends at the AVG page. I also tried to email AVG to ask them how to unbugger a system, but can only get an FAQ page which naturally assumes they are not the problem and that you actually want AVG.

Nice if you are starting with a blank sheet, but I've got thousands of files which I would lose if I bought an apple. Letters, articles, databases, excel files, website, accounts. Redoing all this isn't an option.