1949threepence

That explains why there's no Coin Monthly magazines for that later era, currently on offer. Very few were bought. Pretty obvious when you think about it. Irrespective of price, sales must have been dropping like a stone anyway, for them to abruptly cease publication. Hence the lack of availability now.

Sounds as though something occurred - probably connected with cashflow - which caused them to make the decision to cease abruptly. The fact it was so sudden, with no fanfare (for want of a better word) is probably why it's been so difficult to find out. Last editions flagged up as such, would have been more widely kept and hence available now. Probably regular readers would have thought at first that the shop they used had run out of stock. Unless they had it on mail order. At least we now know.

It was !!! I've got it from the Fitzwilliam Museum website of coin periodicals - link here If you scroll down alphabetically to Coin Monthly, or just go to pages 38 to 39, you can see that the last Coin Monthly magazine was indeed, February 1992. Mystery solved. Of course, what we don't know is precisely what caused them to suddenly fold. I'm assuming that there's no clue in that February 1992 edition, Dave?

I'll keep looking. I have actually seen a 1994 Coin News yearbook on offer, but no Coin Monthly beyond the 1992. So whether there was any overlap or not, who knows. If Coin Monthly did indeed cease at some point in 1992, then I would have thought it unlikely there would have been any more annuals from them. Unless it was much later in the year.

Same here. I could barely afford it anyway after spending £1400 on the F8 from LCA recently. Plus I've got other buying commitments coming up, so it would have been very tight. But it certainly would be good to have one.

Managed to get hold of a copy of the Coin Yearbook for 1992 - presumably the last one produced by Coin Monthly. Probably printed about September 1991 and from reading it, absolutely no clue they were in any difficulty.

Absolutely Pete. I think it may well be something to do with that, as I've had coins sent the same way from the USA marked as "gift" or "token". The seller's way of trying to make it a bit easier for the buyer. There's a certain irony in having to pay customs duty on an item which was originally produced here in the UK.

Actually it was £111,000 with commission £133,000.

£1100 hammer.......

Amazing, and something like £133k with juice added. I should be surprised, but somehow, I'm not. I wish I'd gone for the 1922 reverse of 1927. Obviously with more in the game it would have gone for more than it did, but it would still have been a bargain. Never dreamt it would go for such a low price.

Thanks gents. The other point is what rate of VAT would be properly applied. I hear of cases where 20% has been applied, but my understanding is that the legal rate is 5% on coins.

Well done. Nice buy.

Yes the 1922 with 1927 reverse was an unexpected bargain, as was, arguably the 1863 die no 4 under date at £2K. But wow, £111K for the Edward VIII penny was well above expectations, and there was obviously a bun fight for the 1849 penny.

It's now 2nd June and the auction commences at 11am on Wednesday 12th June, just 10 days time. But the lots aren't visible. The bidding instructions advise that the lots may be viewable beforehand, (but obviously not biddable before the commencement time). I did e mail Spink about this last week, asking when the lots would be viewable, but received no reply. Maybe it's me not "managing my expectations" properly, but I would have thought, not unreasonably in my opinion, that a) they'd be visible by now, or that b) that Spink would give a date and time when they will be visible. link to Spink auctions

Yes, that was a bit surprising, as was the apparent much greater number of 1919H specimens. I should have also added that in the main body of the article, the author stated: "Veiled head Victorian pennies were quite common, but the first 36,000 pennies produced none from 1895, although one came to light eventually". That too slightly surprised me.

My ongoing exploration of old Coin Monthly editions, recently purchased, has revealed a number of interesting penny surveys carried during the period 1967 to 1970. However, one of the most interesting in this regard, is from the June 1970 edition. Headed "a pile of pennies" by P J Lynch, it details the fact that on Friday 27th February 1970, some celebrities, including Richard Attenborough and Roger Moore, pulled down a record breaking column of pennies at the ABC Bowl Club, North Harrow. Weighing almost a ton, the column of pennies towered 11 feet and 10 inches. There was a total of about 117,000 - hence my interest, as this is a very significant population size to extrapolate meaningful stats from. The pennies had been collected over the previous 8 months, from contributions by patrons of the club. There was a slight bias inasmuch as all the silver and brass contributed during special collections had been exchanged for pennies at the bank, and these showed a bias towards mint state 1967 pennies (39%). There apparently wasn't time to carry out a full survey, so they concentrated on the Edwardian period and other significant dates surrounding that. The results were as follows:- DATE NUMBER OF COINS FOUND in first 30 bags in all 98 bags 1860 - 1894 buns 15 38 1895 - 1901 48 * 1902LT 2 4 1902 38 * 1903 22 * 1904 10 * 1905 32 * 1906 87 * 1907 97 * 1908 58 * 1909 41 * 1910 42 * 1912H 17 * 1918H Nil 5 1918KN 1 6 1919H 7 * 1919KN 1 4 1926 16 * 1926ME 1 1 1950 Nil 1 1951 Nil Nil 1953 Nil 1 * Numerous specimens not counted Gives some indication of just what was out there at the time.

Take a look at this post from 2017. Upthread.

Comedy gold.

They must have moved to Sovereign house in 1968. Their address in April 1968 was given as "The Numismatic Publishing Company, 10 Goodmayes Road, Goodmayes, Ilford, Essex" By January 1969 it's changed to the Sovereign House, High Street, Brentwood address. I don't have any of the magazines between April 68 and January 69, so can't pinpoint it more precisely.

Or may be they got the idea from the name itself - interesting that. Looks like a building housing a number of different concerns/organisations.

Just beehave all of you, or you'll stir up a hornet's nest.

An F38 for Richard's rarest penny website - link here ETA: Although on closer inspection, I'm pretty sure it's the same coin as example 5 on his list of F38's.

I had a wasp's nest in a gap in my old fascia boards a few years ago. To be completely safe, I waited until the first frost in November, then sealed the entrance. When you say they are in your porch, in what way? Hole in the brick, or woodwork? Do you have a pic? Might be able to suggest solutions.

Sounds like a very big job, Dave. I seem to remember you mentioning the copyright issue once before, and it all kind of fell on stony ground. Worth pursuing though - IMO any rate. Coin Monthly itself worked out of Sovereign House, High Street, Brentwood. I ought to have looked the place up when I lived down there, as I'm from Chelmsford, which is very nearby, and visited Brentwood a number of times. Not sure where the magazine was actually printed - maybe they would, in turn, know when the last edition was if they still exist. Sovereign House can be seen on this Google Street view - it's the place on the corner with the bins outside. If you close in, you can see "Sovereign House" on the blue plaque, upper side of the building. Looks like it's some type of clinic now.

Can never understand why some people are so pathologically terrified of them. They've got infinitely more to fear from any person, than we have from them. A 3 year old child could kill one with ease.