argentumandcoins

I think that's very true. Towards the end of 1981 I was working at Philip Morris in Richmond VA. First day in the lab and doing the introductions when one person expalined where to go in the locality. Shopping mall 3 blocks down, Macdonalds or Burger King there for a meal(sic), cinema complex next door, various bars this way and that and then the church is turn right at the lights. When I explained that I didn't use them it was like being the star attraction in a freak show. "Hey, there's this guy here doesn't go to church". "That's weird". It was most bizarre and like you I find the religious norm (in the parts so inclined) quite a turn-off in a place that is otherwise nice to visit - just couldn't live there. It's not all like that though. No, I'm guessing that it is much more a phenomenon in the South and Mid-West. The West Coast is too full of weird cults, and I'm guessing the East Coast plus Seattle (based on my viewing of "Frasier" and "The Killing" LOL) are more immune. Unfortunately Peter, you, I (and I would hazard a guess everybody else on this forum) are the same, but we are the 10% minority in this country. The underclass (pondlife if you will) believe in copious amounts of alcohol, Ciggies, drugs, social handouts, free housing and a lack of soap. They believe that the god of take what you want, when you want was the creator of all things. As for getting on with people, well the only "getting on" they can manage is getting on top of the opposite sex to spawn more of the same. As opposed to the banking class who believe in copious amounts of champagne, cigars, cocaine, state bail-outs, multiple housing, and a lack of ethics. They believe that the god of take what you want, when you want was the creator of all things. Come the revolution, comrades ... If you know any bankers having a party and you can get me an invite, do send it on. If you fancy a night in some shithole in West Cumbria I can certainly pass on a couple of addresses, all you will need is a bottle of white lightening, 40 Lambert and Butler and a hep B jab before you go. I know where I'd rather be.... The trouble with "come the revolution, comrades" is that it will be the same hooded verminous scum that carried out last years looting, robbing and murdering during the "riots" that will be your Revolutionaries, but "one mans terrorist is another mans freedom fighter" Don't forget that the "riots" began with a family justifiably and peacefully confronting the police over the shooting of an unarmed man. Also don't forget that - horrible though some of the things that happened in the riots were - the bankers before 2008 looted every single one of us with impunity, by creating financial "instruments" designed to profit only a few, and built upon foundations as shaky as the mortgages that underwrote those same instruments. For a more detailed insight into exactly what their game was, you should read Sebastian Faulks' "A Week In December". When you add into the equation the misselling of pensions scandal, plus the billions now being paid back as part of the "loan insurance" scandal, It's enough to make anyone a communist. My sympathies are 100% with those who peacefully occupied the Square outside St Paul's for months, in protest. I totally agree Peck, Communism is fantastic, as long as you are a Politburo member of course. I don't think life was a bed of roses for the Russian peasant before or after their Revolution and it certainly got a lot worse under uncle Joe. There is not a single political system on the planet that creates a totally fair and just society, BUT, the UK's system is up there with the best of them "warts and all" Tell that to the disabled person being found "fit for work" and having their benefits stopped, when they are housebound and incontinent, just because of screaming tabloid headlines determining Government policy (oh, and the fact that the disabled are often too ill to stand up for themselves). I shouldn't have to tell it to anybody. The disabled person in the most enlightened and technically advanced country in the world (The States in case you are wondering) gets bugger all health care if they haven't paid their private medical insurance, as for benefits I will leave our US members to share that with us but again I suspect they get Billy goats bedding! We all take far too much for granted in this country, while moaning and whinging about those that have. I sympathise with anybody that loses out due to new legislation (just like my former colleagues are now getting shafted big style by Ms May) but to think we would be better off with any other political system in place is naive in the extreme. Those in power, be it political power or positions of power in commerce, will always fill their own boots whilst taking the soles from the shoes of the lesser people. People are greedy, selfish and jealous in equal measure. They are in those positions for their own personal benefit, not the benefit of the population as a whole.

I think that's very true. Towards the end of 1981 I was working at Philip Morris in Richmond VA. First day in the lab and doing the introductions when one person expalined where to go in the locality. Shopping mall 3 blocks down, Macdonalds or Burger King there for a meal(sic), cinema complex next door, various bars this way and that and then the church is turn right at the lights. When I explained that I didn't use them it was like being the star attraction in a freak show. "Hey, there's this guy here doesn't go to church". "That's weird". It was most bizarre and like you I find the religious norm (in the parts so inclined) quite a turn-off in a place that is otherwise nice to visit - just couldn't live there. It's not all like that though. No, I'm guessing that it is much more a phenomenon in the South and Mid-West. The West Coast is too full of weird cults, and I'm guessing the East Coast plus Seattle (based on my viewing of "Frasier" and "The Killing" LOL) are more immune. Unfortunately Peter, you, I (and I would hazard a guess everybody else on this forum) are the same, but we are the 10% minority in this country. The underclass (pondlife if you will) believe in copious amounts of alcohol, Ciggies, drugs, social handouts, free housing and a lack of soap. They believe that the god of take what you want, when you want was the creator of all things. As for getting on with people, well the only "getting on" they can manage is getting on top of the opposite sex to spawn more of the same. As opposed to the banking class who believe in copious amounts of champagne, cigars, cocaine, state bail-outs, multiple housing, and a lack of ethics. They believe that the god of take what you want, when you want was the creator of all things. Come the revolution, comrades ... If you know any bankers having a party and you can get me an invite, do send it on. If you fancy a night in some shithole in West Cumbria I can certainly pass on a couple of addresses, all you will need is a bottle of white lightening, 40 Lambert and Butler and a hep B jab before you go. I know where I'd rather be.... The trouble with "come the revolution, comrades" is that it will be the same hooded verminous scum that carried out last years looting, robbing and murdering during the "riots" that will be your Revolutionaries, but "one mans terrorist is another mans freedom fighter" Don't forget that the "riots" began with a family justifiably and peacefully confronting the police over the shooting of an unarmed man. Also don't forget that - horrible though some of the things that happened in the riots were - the bankers before 2008 looted every single one of us with impunity, by creating financial "instruments" designed to profit only a few, and built upon foundations as shaky as the mortgages that underwrote those same instruments. For a more detailed insight into exactly what their game was, you should read Sebastian Faulks' "A Week In December". When you add into the equation the misselling of pensions scandal, plus the billions now being paid back as part of the "loan insurance" scandal, It's enough to make anyone a communist. My sympathies are 100% with those who peacefully occupied the Square outside St Paul's for months, in protest. I totally agree Peck, Communism is fantastic, as long as you are a Politburo member of course. I don't think life was a bed of roses for the Russian peasant before or after their Revolution and it certainly got a lot worse under uncle Joe. There is not a single political system on the planet that creates a totally fair and just society, BUT, the UK's system is up there with the best of them "warts and all"

Unfortunately Peter, you, I (and I would hazard a guess everybody else on this forum) are the same, but we are the 10% minority in this country. The underclass (pondlife if you will) believe in copious amounts of alcohol, Ciggies, drugs, social handouts, free housing and a lack of soap. They believe that the god of take what you want, when you want was the creator of all things. As for getting on with people, well the only "getting on" they can manage is getting on top of the opposite sex to spawn more of the same. As opposed to the banking class who believe in copious amounts of champagne, cigars, cocaine, state bail-outs, multiple housing, and a lack of ethics. They believe that the god of take what you want, when you want was the creator of all things. Come the revolution, comrades ... If you know any bankers having a party and you can get me an invite, do send it on. If you fancy a night in some shithole in West Cumbria I can certainly pass on a couple of addresses, all you will need is a bottle of white lightening, 40 Lambert and Butler and a hep B jab before you go. I know where I'd rather be.... The trouble with "come the revolution, comrades" is that it will be the same hooded verminous scum that carried out last years looting, robbing and murdering during the "riots" that will be your Revolutionaries, but "one mans terrorist is another mans freedom fighter"

You were only good because of Sir Bobby!

Unfortunately Peter, you, I (and I would hazard a guess everybody else on this forum) are the same, but we are the 10% minority in this country. The underclass (pondlife if you will) believe in copious amounts of alcohol, Ciggies, drugs, social handouts, free housing and a lack of soap. They believe that the god of take what you want, when you want was the creator of all things. As for getting on with people, well the only "getting on" they can manage is getting on top of the opposite sex to spawn more of the same.

But before that they were made of brass and used on military uniforms around the world. Nope, sorry Richard I think yours is the circa 1975 model which you have kindly shown They were good belts though weren't they? It used to be a reet good laugh "twanging" the other kids at school

Were they not silver originally? I am sure they used to attach to brightly coloured fabric covered elastic..... snake belts, that's it!

Tis done Chris.

Assange On a forum that I frequent, religious type threads usually degenerate into slnging matches as well. The harshest invective generally stems from atheists towards believers. Wow. What do they sing? Would that they would confine themselves just to the art of song Yes, I find the same. Which is odd, I'd have thought fundamentalists would crawl out of their strait-jackets and join in, but perhaps I frequent the wrong forums! Slanging !!! Personally, I find it difficult to understand. As far as I'm concerned, religion is a matter for the individual. Just so long as they don't try and inflict their beliefs on me, they can believe in what God they like. I don't care. The expenditure of emotional energy that goes into some of these debates is unreal. Totally agree Mike. Life's short enough already without wasting time and effort trying to impose your beliefs on others. Live and let live.

Wenger is one of the Great Managers in Premier League (maybe even Football League) history. It is just a shame that the man has no humility or good grace in defeat. Arsenal lose and out comes the Guiness Book of Excuses, "Refs fault", "assistant refs fault", "we should have had a penalty", "we should have had 2 penalties", "their player should have been sent off", "our player shouldn't have been sent off", when asked about his player getting sent off "I didn't see the incident", when asked about the other teams player not getting sent off "Yes, it was a blatant red card" etc etc etc

If Di Matteo has any sense, he'll get out of Chelsea whilst still on a high. After all after that performance, the team isn't likely to do better next season, and the expectation will be that they should do so. Then there's the fact that football management is probably the most poisonous in the UK, with the Chelsea job up there as possibly the most toxic. Add these together and, if it was me, I'd be off to another management job in the premier league, hopefully to win something and then move again, and so on. If he stays, then I don't see him there very long, despite this last season. Good points, though now that Abramovich has got what he most wanted all along, perhaps he will be less trigger happy? (And maybe the Pope will become a Protestant ). But Di Matteo is welcome to take over at Liverpool on a temporary trial basis - maybe he'll win the league for us! With the current squad at Liverpool the only man that could win you the title was nailed to a cross nearly 2000 years ago OY!! The graffiti of old around Anfield used to read JESUS SAVES BUT DALGLISH KNOCKS IN THE REBOUND. I think City's squad and Chelsea's are pretty damn good (though Chelsea's is now ageing), as witness what they've won this season. However, I wouldn't say United's was streets ahead of ours, and Arsenal's is no better than ours, though theirs has been settled for longer. If the next manager builds on what Steve Clarke and KD began, we could do better than merely two cup finals. I look at the current crop and only see 4 players that would get into the current Newcastle team (and we are by no means title challengers). Gerrard (when fit) would probably get into any Premier League side, Johnson, Enrique (traitorous git that he is I reckon on his day there are few better in world football) and Saurez (although I think he is a poisonous little toad) who is the most gifted player you have. Other than those 4 I think they are either has beens or never will be's (the lang haired Jessie may yet prove me wrong though). City are head and shoulders above the others. Man Utd some way behind followed by Totteringham, Arsenal and Chelski. Unless there is heavy investment/retention by that group I can't see City being caught any time soon. As for Liverpool, well I think you can fight us for 6th next year

Hmm. Then why have all peoples and politicians down the ages (well, for donkeys centuries anyway) described war as a necessary 'evil' which they only engaged in a last resort? If man was so violent, war would surely be celebrated and peace decried. How do 90% of the males of the species respond to a hostile act? We are programmed with "fight or flight", most of us fight. When you argue with somebody, a heated argument, do you stay calm and peaceful? OR; Do your nostrils flare? Do your fists clench? Your blood pressure rise? We plough more into weapons than we do health, like most countries on the planet. Neolithic mans first inventions were weapons and we have continued to invent them ever since. We are, by nature, violent and if you don't agree I might just come down and stick one on you

Nah, he was born in the year 1 AD (Anno Domini, year of the Lord) BC (before Christ). He died when aged 33 in 33/34AD, simples!

You can pretty much boil it down to the fact that all wars are started because man is by his nature a destructive, violent, beast.

If Di Matteo has any sense, he'll get out of Chelsea whilst still on a high. After all after that performance, the team isn't likely to do better next season, and the expectation will be that they should do so. Then there's the fact that football management is probably the most poisonous in the UK, with the Chelsea job up there as possibly the most toxic. Add these together and, if it was me, I'd be off to another management job in the premier league, hopefully to win something and then move again, and so on. If he stays, then I don't see him there very long, despite this last season. Good points, though now that Abramovich has got what he most wanted all along, perhaps he will be less trigger happy? (And maybe the Pope will become a Protestant ). But Di Matteo is welcome to take over at Liverpool on a temporary trial basis - maybe he'll win the league for us! With the current squad at Liverpool the only man that could win you the title was nailed to a cross nearly 2000 years ago

Maybe you should PM Arry Redbonce and ask him

Ah, that's more my thing. Since I barely have enough money for coins let alone classic cars (Dinky or otherwise) I collect rubbish ephemera and oddities. Bottle caps (of bottles I have emptied myself usually!), fossils, beach pebbles, shells, bits of bone, religious medallions and talismans, four leaved clover and stuff people have thrown away or that catch my eye and imagination. Sometimes I make them into .. assembages. Other times, they just sit in a box. That's my man! Are you sure you're not living in a caravan too? Looks a tad hippy to me! Looks more like the all seeing eye of the funny handshake crew to me.

I don't know whether it's my imagination or not, but to me, stylus on vinyl sounds better than a CD, or downloaded track played through a PC. Deeper richer & more lifelike tones My collection pieces other than coins, are decorative plates. They're plastered on every wall all over the house. It's only a small house, so I'm running out of room. Not your imagination - I have a subscription to MOJO and each month their featured interview asks "L.P., CD, or MP3?" - nine times out of ten the answer is LP. The most hated format is CD by a nose. The vinyl must be played through valves rather than hissing transistors. Obsessive!! As a child of the 60s, when hissing transistors became all the rage, I can assure you that vinyl still spanks its rivals I'm with you here regarding records. I built up a collection of about 200 vinyl LPs, eventually found that the stereo I had was on it's last legs and bought a new system. Didn't bother with a record deck and so I'm left with a pile of LPs. All in pretty good nick as I wasn't careless with them when they were bought and I'm amazed at the going prices for some of them. For example I have some early stones stuff, like 'Between the Buttons' and 'Aftermath' and these can go for around the £60 each mark. Ditto The Beatles and some of the other early rock material like the Who. There's a vinyl record specialist shop next to where my other half works part time, and they have some really interesting old and new material, and they have a phenomenal knowldge base. As for other other interests, I have a Volvo P1800, but that's just a labour of love, not part of a collection. My other main interest is a Yamaha Motif XS synthsiser, which I have learned to use and have produced several songs on. Eventually, I want to get enough material together to produce a full blown album - top of the charts here I come. My stuff is my own style and as a result, and in keeping with my personal vintage, I call it the 'mature retro' genre! There's something about modern styles, using an older person's themes and Stratocasters that works for me. I have My Generation, the original Brunswick release, which was a chart album. I was utterly gobsmacked to see that the latest Record Collector price for it (in mint) is £400 !! Religion is the cancer in society, continuing to foster warfare and a host of other ills under a feeble veneer of legitimacy. When will we all wake up to reality? Most of us have which is why we tend to be tolerant and indifferent to religion on the whole. The big problem with all religions is they will never acknowledge that another one has a good idea. Everything is black and white, for us or against us. It is the root cause of immigrant minorities failing to integrate and often the fundamental reason behind racial tension. Although not the full story, when a religion forbids you to inter-marry without the outsider adopting the other's religion, you have just ensured another generation of resentment by outsiders and another course of brickwork added to the wall. There are people who bridge the divide, but they tend to be in the minority and are frequently helped by a degree of affluence. Well, quite. Except for Quakers. Oh, and Buddhists. And Menonites, the Ba'hai, Sikhs, many branches of Hinduism, Taoism, Unitarians, Jains, Sufis, ... um, shall I go on? Theology is an area best left to Theologians. I was going to study Horology but found I did not have the time for it.

Lockdales is okay for me I am fairly disorganised myself (office like a bombsite) so the random placing doesn't stress me out.

Idiots, they are drawn to me like a moth to a candle. "how rare is my undated twenty pence worth? I just paid £45 for it on ebay" etc etc

Unless, of course, you are an English teacher.

Interesting that their letter to you states "breakdown of machinery" while the actual Report states "fully occupied with gold and silver [issues]". I wonder where the modern Mint gets its information about "breakdown" from? I'd hazard a guess from the 1875 report. The text says that the 1876 coins were contracted out because the equipment was fully occupied striking silver and gold. The number of presses at the Tower mint would have to be investigated, but is likely to have been a minimum of half a dozen, so if a couple of them were unavailable, then sub-contracting the copper would be the logical option security-wise. Also, the Heaton mint was regularly striking coins on the same size blanks, so familiarity with the product wasn't an issue. There were a lot of halfcrowns and shillings coming off the press in 1874 onwards. How long this upsurge in demand lasted I don't know because I don't have the records, but thinking about it, the equipment probably broke down due to the excesses of the previous two years because there was no time for maintenance and a lot of coins produced. That makes logical sense. I wonder where the 1875 100 tons comes from - the penny is rare so must we assume it is mostly made up from halfpennies and farthings? I know Heaton's farthing issue for 1875 was pretty sizeable Either that, or given that mintage records, for what they are worth, show 752,640 pennies being produced dated 1875 by Heaton, and 11,074,560 produced by Heaton in 1876, can we logically conclude that the contract started towards the end of 1875, continued into the new year, and the date of those coins produced after 1st January, was changed to 1876 ? 11 million was a high mintage for Victorian buns, and we know that for pennies at least, these are not from 1875. Heaton halfpennies and Farthings also indicate a high mintage from Heaton. The halfpennies showing a similar, though narrower ratio between 1875 and 1876, whereas the Farthings show the greater production from 1875. The mintage figures don't actually tell you how many were dated 1875 or 1876 or 1874 for that matter (if they were struck in 75), they are merely an output for the year. It would be entirely possible that a very high proportion of the 1875 coins were actually dated 1874 hence the scarcity of the 75H.

Thanks for the information Mike.

Steve if I had that sort of spare cash lying around I would probably spend £42k on wine, women and gambling, then just waste the £500 that was left over

Why Gary? Are you looking for a free holiday? :D