1949threepence

what a hoot ......

Right now Harry Kane on 166, is exactly 100 behind Jimmy Greaves, 266, in goals scored for Tottenham. I don't think he will reach Greaves' total in his playing career, even assuming he stays at Tottenham. RIP Jimmy Greaves. A truly magnificent player and footballing legend.

That was the whole point. Lack of shopkeeper freedom due entirely to EU rules. Obviously customers can ask for what they like. Many of our drivers came from Poland whose driver crisis is worse than ours. The effect of Brexit is marginal at most. This would have happened even if we'd never left. The average age of a driver is 55, and many have used the pandemic as a reason to retire completely. I know for a fact how fed up to the teeth they were - not only with lousy working conditions, but also the fact they were held personally legally liable for any illegal migrants - not the firm they were employed by, but them personally. Border Force have issued fines of up to £20k even when the stowaways have been declared. An ex lorry driver in the local news round here asked, how many times were they supposed to check the vehicle, five, ten, twenty, a hundred times - and then risk violence from the migrants. He's now asking why Border Force aren't being fined for escorting them in - the irony is sick making for the drivers. Working conditions, wages, plus park up clean and rest facilities have got to be massively improved before new drivers are attracted in. It'd also help if regular toilet stops could be incorporated as many drivers develop renal problems in later life due to not being able to stop for hours to take a pee. No wonder these guys are leaving in droves. ETA: the last straw for many was that prolonged hold up just before Christmas last year when they were forced to hang around in their vans for days waiting for covid tests. The only people who brought them some warm food were the local Sikh Gurdwara, and the local mosque. Nobody else bothered. That's how much they mattered.

I'm afraid they did - and here it is in a good old pro EU Guardian link The officials themselves obviously weren't hired by the EU, but they were from the council acting on the EU's behalf, by proxy, with the acquiescence of our government. Yes, it was only weights and measures, and I agree that the current generations (including mine as it goes) was brought up on metric. But surely that's not the point. The underlying issue is one of freedom of choice and not being fined for using your measurement of choice in retailing goods. At the end of the day, both imperial and metric are absolute measurements and easily converted one to the other, in the same way as Fahrenheit to Celsius. Did you ever hear the one about the Labour MP going door to door before the 2010 election, and when he was defending the compulsory use of metric measurements. A constituent asked him what he weighed - "13 stone" came the reply - "OK", came the further question, what's that in kilos? MP didn't know. Nor for that matter did he know what his height was in metres. The lorry driver shortage is Europe wide. It has zero connection to brexit, but the pandemic aggravated an already existing problem - link

Ha ha - nonetheless, the bonfire of EU regulations is a good thing, especially when you read lines like this:- Very gracious of them. They also had an army of jobsworth council acolytes to rigidly enforce the rule. My own view is that it's up to each trader whether they use imperial, metric or both. I'd personally use both give that we've now got different generations familiar with one or the other.

Proves the point perfectly Jon.

Thanks Ian. Even on my 1797's (10 & 11 leaves), there are noticeable ship differences - one having a much longer topsail, for example. I must say I think it takes great patience, dedication and obviously time to differentiate all the various ship types. But worthwhile as I'd bet a few would specialise in such a type collection, once known. Talking about the 11th leaf, I have noticed how many are wrongly attributed as having 11 leaves, including mistakes by LCA. I honestly believe some just don't know what the difference is.

Ian, Have you - out of interest - ever attempted to find out the number of ship variations on the 1797 penny? I understand there are possibly about 20 - maybe more.

Quite by chance when searching for something else, I've found some old articles relating to Bramah, which some may find of interest. Listener Article part 1 Listener Article part 2 Obituary (from 1942)

Absolute dream of a coin.

For convenience, here is the link to Auction 103. The 1882 No H is Lot No 175. I'll also be very interested to see what lot 174's hammer price is. This is a really nice 1860/59. Was unable to edit my previous post. Maybe a hang back of yesterday's issues.

Thanks Jerry - was trying to determine whether it was the Christopher Comber collection or Auction 49 on the St James site, and it was actually auction 103 on the Baldwin's site all along !!!

True - plus the fact there are several facebook groups. In essence they seem to consist of almost absolute beginners, and others with very little experience. Plus a few really experienced old hands like the Derek Allens, Martin Platts and Tony Crockers of this world, who offer sound guidance. There's also a few amateurish low level auction/trading sites, and those that double up as both. The problem with facebook is retrieving old information, or knowing that it even exists. Threads seem to vanish with alarming rapidity, and nothing is retained in any semblance of chronological order. In that sense a forum is much more user friendly - look at the number of times on here that threads, even well over 10 years old, are rooted out and re-posted on/used as a reference tool. Imagine trying to find something on facebook that you vaguely recall from all that time ago. There isn't even a subject line to refer to.

Hi Blake - can you point me in the right direction. I've tried search as per the screenshot below. Put in 1882 and clicked "submit", but nothing happens. Thanks.

Look out girls........

Well two of them look reasonably pleased with the idea......

Yep, absolutely. RIP David Roberts-Jones 1945 - 2021. He hadn't posted on here for quite some time, but was still posting on facebook up till quite recently. In addition to his interest in coins, David had a passion for politics, and was a strong Lib Dem supporter/activist. Unfailingly pleasant and polite to all. As you say Blake, he will be missed. Sincere condolences to his (many) friends and family.

Thanks. I might get it, or something similar. But I was quite interested to see if anyone on here had any first hand knowledge/experience. It appears not.

Yeah, why not. My mistake to attribute the sale to Pete, so you can have it instead Blake.

Twice before I've called LCA about an unsold lot the day after, only to find that someone has already been on to buy it. So that suggests there are other interested parties post auction and you therefore need to look lively asap after the results are posted, in order to secure any unsold lots you might be interested in. Another reason punters may not bid pre auction, is that they assume a given coin will go for much more than they can afford. But for whatever reason it has attracted no interest, nor does it in the room on the day. The only one of yours that I nearly went for (pre auction) at LCA was the 192A you sold in September 2019. But in the end, other things took my eye.

It's just the way I do it. ETA: I've usually already made pre auction bids on other lots, and my success or otherwise with them dictates whether I've got any spare money left over for unsold lots.

Pre - auction I always make a note of the lots I'm interested in - either direct from the website, or better yet from the catalogue if you get it. Then when the results are posted if they don't include a lot number you noted as of interest, you can then call LCA and they'll let it got at the lower estimate, plus juice. You have to be quick though and keep a sharp lookout for when the results are posted, as others have the same idea as you, and you might miss out. But you can potentially bag a great bargain.

I must take a look. Although I never find their site the easiest to navigate.

Well I'm quite risk averse, so no I won't dabble unless it goes a lot more mainstream and reliably safe. Really my interest was more general. How it actually works.