Gary D

Sorry Rob, I used up all my energy and time responding to Colin's points about disability benefits. I've nothing left for the banking situation. I'll read it all tomorrow and see if I have a sensible response to make. I believe the system was going to break eventually with or without the Bankers. When it happened it just gave gov someone to kick for their own excesses.

I feel very frustrated about it all, I've worked hard, well worked, all my life, and religiously paid into a pension. But the way everything is moving under my feet I just don't know if I've done the right thing or just wasted my time and money. As a family we are well and truly in the squeezed middle, too much money to get any help and not rich enough not to worry. A case in point our son is a year away from university and we are now doing the rounds of open days. Because of our family income we are right on the limit of receiving nothing and will have to pay in full for any place. I can see very soon that universities are becoming places for the very rich and the poor who go virtually free with the middle classes excluded or becoming massively in debt. In this country we are too happy to penalize the people who try and give it the people who haven't tried, we definitely promote the wastrel in this country. Anyway back to gold, I have heard somewhere recently that if the value of gold had kept up with inflation its value should be nearer $4000 per ounce.

Yes, very strange to see the full rim! One of the farthing boys on here has snaffled it I reckon! What looks odd to me which may just be an optical illusion is that the lettering looks too close to the rim for there to be denticals down the left side.

I particularly like the description of this one...... and the ridiculous postage. "Description: On one side: A picture of a soldier with a roman helmet, a septor with three prongs, wearing a toga and sitting on a British shield. to the top of the soldier it says 'FARTHING', their is no lighthouse, but on the right, there is no ship!, just open water. on the back side: a picture of a man, and around him it says (from left to right), GEORGIVS V DEI GRA: BRITT: OMN: REX FID: DEF: IND: IMP" Lost the plot

if only it had any! Once you get all that black off you will see it.

Thank you Peter - actually I haven't (yet) lost my benefits as I haven't been "migrated" to the new benefit. However, I do live in a fair amount of anxiety worrying about whether I will receive justice or be one of the many unlucky ones. Samantha? My concern is the changes to the 2nd pension. Having paid into it for the last 40 years I was expecting about another £100 per week. Looks is if that will be cut back to about £40 and the rest given to those who didn't pay into it.

Nope, made a bid a couple of weeks ago but have heard nothing, could you let me know if/when you do? Will do ~ and vice versa, hopefully. I had a card put through the letterbox yesterday saying a parcel needed collecting from the post office with a fee to pay. I sent the wife hot footing down there to collect it as I couldn't think what it could be. It turned out to be their catalogue with no postage on it. Don't mind getting a free copy but don't expect to have to pay £2.40 for it.

You've been trawling 1911's for a Gouby X, haven't you? I don't know if this is a trend but I have noticed lately there are a few stupid p&p from the States. I wonder if there is a move to put off overseas buyers.

I don't know what this guy is on but can I have some. Postage, HOW MUCH!!!!

My wife is from the Philippines so we spend a bit of time there. We don't know we are born in this country compared to how real poor people live. There's no benefits at all and the local hospitals are just somewhere you go to die. Healthcare in general is set up on the US model and can be very good if you can afford it, but on $2 a day you don't get a lot of care. We are lucky because we will live very well there even on just our state pension, somewhere in the top 20%. Just 7 years away unless gov moves it all again Anyway only six week until our hols, out there for 4 weeks

Apologies, Richard, I'm not ignoring you, I just haven't had a chance to use the laptop today and checkout your suggestions! I have been working from the phone today, which doesn't give me all the full website features, settings etc! What phone are you using coinery? If the iphone it has an app for forums called IPB, this gives you full website functions, but its shite when predictive messaging kicks in and you don't check it before hand Thanks Azda, yes an iPhone, will check that app out! Predictive text is a pain in the arse unless you're incredibly vigilant which, on a small screen in the small hours... The keys are really close together too - the number of times I've nearly written coon for coin is immeasurable! I'm not getting notifications on hotmail anymore either.

You also did not notice that this is no longer a coin forum but now a spelling bee.

Hi are there any members on this forum who live in the States?

Thanks Bob, PM sent, need a thumb up smiley. Note to Chris, a lot of forums have loads of emoticons, how about a few more. Need a please smiley now.

To save spending hours everyday trawling ebay and to finish my Maundy coins date run, actually it would finish my entire collection, I'm looking for the following; a 1915 3d and 1d, 1917 3d, 1919 1d, 1931 1d, 1949 1d, 2d and 3d and a 1959 1d. That's it nine coins and my life's work will be complete.

i have a 1919 and a 1931 pennys That's maundy pennies, just checking.

The reason I ask is that I'm looking for a big favour. There's a $10 dollar coin coming up in a couple of days on ebay and the seller wants $37 p+p to the UK or $1.25 to the US. Just wondering if someone would do the decent thing and bid on it for me then post to the Uk at a decent rate. All costs incured would obviously be covered.

Sterling has risen against both the dollar and the euro recently making foreign holidays look cheaper and UK holiday even more expencive by comparison. I'm away for most of the Olympics, can't wait.

Very, in high grade, along with the 05 Halfcrown which is also faked in abundance. Whats more worrying is that John mentioned that the shilling was in someones collection for 10 years and he thought for all those 10 years it was genuine. We all assumed the Chinese has been at this for 4 or 5 years, but who knows where this one has come from. Did the seller tell you John? He couldn't recall due to the length of time he had held it. The fake half crown I have supposidly came out of the middle east, possibly Turkey, in the sixties. They have been around much longer than the Chinese fakes.

A direct quote from my weekly bulletin. "Gold is now behaving like a risky asset. This can be seen in the unusually high correlation in daily prices of gold and European equities. A low or negative correlation should be a key characteristic for a safe haven.â€

8 million pound link That's that extremely rare worn but tidy variety

I suppose using a 1951 halfcrown with a 2 from 1942 would be a bit of a giveaway unless the forger could disguise silver as cupro-nickel Carefully crafted perhaps, but he could have at leact carefully selected the correct monarch

What do you make of this Half Crown

I think it's a great idea. In fact I think I'll start one this very minute

Luckily everything is UNC so we should not worry our little heads about any of those annoying lesser grades.