1949threepence

Your place will look a dream when it's all done. Looks pretty good now.

I love seeing cats in the garden. My own cat normally sees them off though.

There you go, Jerry -

I once stopped at the Denewood Hotel Bournemouth, which is on Sea Road. Undercliff Road runs off Sea Road as you go down the hill towards the beach. Can't beat Bournemouth for looks and atmosphere in my opinion. Holidayed there quite a few times and always enjoyed it.

Quite obviously been cleaned. The marks are clearly visible. Might be acceptable to some, but definitely not to me. Poor TP Grading.

I reckon I can live with the very superficial marks. But thanks for the advice anyway.

Thanks. Yeah...ish...To be fair, I wouldn't dispute GVF for the reverse, but I'm sticking with EF for the obverse. I don't think my pic brings out the hair detail as well as it could do. Here's a larger shot:- ETA: meant to add. I've found it surprisingly difficult to get a higher grade example (above NVF). Not (necessarily) for the want of affordability, but rather, availability. Started on the George V collection in November 2018, and it's taken 18 months to come across even this. I had imagined, perhaps naively, that a decent ME would be easier to obtain, albeit at an expensive price.

Bramah certainly was an interesting and unusual character, in the best possible senses of those words. Rare too, in that he wrote both fiction and non fiction. Not a combination you find very often in a writer. The literary equivalent of ambidexterity. I must catch up on Kai Lung and Max Carrados at some point........

Thanks Blake. Neither: it was a buy direct from a dealer's own website - our old friend, The Coin King, Nathan Smith.

Finally managed to get a 1926ME - one of the last missing pieces of the jigsaw in my 20th century pennies (just the F169 & F192A to go) Not the most scintillating specimen, but about EF/NEF and problem free. A bit of wear to Britannia's right arm, especially the upper arm, and the right of the breastplate. Overall pleased.

It might be an idea to try and obtain a common cheap coin in similar condition to your F21, and experiment on that. See what results you get on that first.

For the 1909 and 1946, not as far as I know. For the 1875, we have to remember that die cracks were very common in that era, and usually left unattended - or apparently so given their frequency. Although I don't know specifically of one in that area on any 1875. Maybe others could assist on that score.

It's as plausible a theory as any other, Bob. I must admit, I've changed my view of the F147 sllghtly, since my above post of 1.1.18. The dot is so perfectly symmetrical, and virtually the same size as the colon stops on the obverse (perhaps very fractionally larger), that I'm now inclined to believe it was put there deliberately. Quite possibly in the manner you suggest.

He's now reduced the price of the same coin on his website to £107.50 - here

Indeed, very well done. Obverse 3 is quite difficult to spot sometimes. You could perhaps try an overnight soak in balsamic vinegar to remove the verd. It'll leave a dark patch, but that is obviously better than the way it looks at present. Alternatively a several month soak in olive oil.

Did you get it?

On my outlook (which probably won't help you, as experience has taught me that every single solitary example, seems to be slightly different) there is a line in green which says "new folder". You click on it and it reveals an empty box. You then type in what you want to call it, and it stays there. Obviously the intended target won't drop in there. You have to manually put it there.

Not helping Rob, but an observation anyway - I really don't know why they bother with having separate spam or junk mail boxes, as there is clearly no intelligence behind what goes in there. It seems to be totally random. Many's the time I've found absolutely valid and legit e mails in junk, and unwanted rubbish in the ordinary in box. Be better to just have one in box, with a bin to click at the end of each e mail subject line if you want to get rid of it. In other words, the users themselves decide what is and what is not for deletion.

Nice job, Jon.

I've spent a lot of time sitting in the garden (and gardening there) over the last few weeks, during the fine weather, and listened as never before to the bird song. Watching the birds, and trying to ID which ones they are. Some like the blackbird, sparrow, thrush, wood pigeon and robin are obvious, but there's others I don't know. I've noted that there are nests in some of the bushes, especially in the rockery which is just outside the conservatory window. Fascinating seeing the birds fly in and out. I reckon with one tall bush, there are sparrow occupying the lower half, and blackbirds occupying the upper half. Made a lot of sense as the bush is very thick, so must be comparatively warm and dry inside. Even seen them fly in with straw in their beaks. Interesting when I sit out there they just continue with their normal chirping. But as soon as the cat comes out, they start their alarm calls - even though she's not actually that interested in them. On one occasion a group of them "mobbed" her, and she ran back indoors. The almost complete absence of planes means you can listen to them uninterrupted. Especially as all the neighbours seem unusually quiet as well.

Nothing of any interest for me this time. I'd have probably gone after the 1839 proof penny, but when compared to much better specimens at much lower prices in previous auctions, I ruled that one out. Yet another case of "slab enhancement".

Blimey O'Reilly

Thanks, Ian. Yours is certainly less tatty than the one I've bought.

Just managed to get one for £75 (best offer on e bay). Been trying to get one for several years, on and off. After I'd stumbled across mine, quite by chance as it happened, I did some extensive googling (out of curiosity) and discovered that there are 4 more specimens going:- From Amazon:- £343.90 - USA £346.71 - UK From other sources:- £99.99 - Abe Books (UK) (ex library) $295.00 - USA Given that they're obviously in demand, this might be an additional opportunity for someone else, if they haven't got one. Clearly very expensive, although the ABE books one seems a decent enough offer.

Although the 1907 specimen, doesn't actually say "black" against the details.