Peckris

Variety or not, that's a very nice handsome crown.

I don't think it had a separate mintage, just a 'marketing' ploy as it's merely different packaging. That's right. They've pushed those 'baby' sets via Post Offices for years now, but the set itself is simply a BU specimen set like all the others.

It's difficult to say. The pictures are suspiciously poor (as you say), but what I can see looks ok. I would wait until you see them in hand, and if you're not happy send them back on the grounds that you think they might not be genuine. The fakes coming out of China are expert and would fool most people. On the other hand, you may have got a bargain simply because the pictures were so poor - the seller wouldn't be the first coinie to take awful pictures, and he isn't a major eBay presence. You could have got lucky. I can't see anything that's obviously wrong, but you would need to see them in hand. They're not "rare", of course - that's just the normal eBay hype.

I wouldn't. Why would any honest person want a faked document? There are plenty of reasons why an honest person would want a faked document, I mean perhaps not in 2013 Europe, but such a thing would be useful in Mali today, or in the iron curtain, certainly useful in Germany in 1941 or in Burma. A secondary passport (legitimately obtained of course!) is quite useful as an insurance against disaster, although to legitimately obtain one it costs in excess of $50K or involves time actually spent in that country. I was speaking of 2013 Europe. That advert isn't aimed through time at Jews in Nazi Germany, after all. And I very much doubt if Mali citizens could afford the fees of these shysters.

"YOU ARE BIDDING ON ACTUAL HEAP OF SHITE IN PICTURES" Oops, Steve beat me to it.

I wouldn't. Why would any honest person want a faked document?

I have seen your statement. I myself am 14 years of age and have more time for my coin collection than my playstation. Just thought I'd reply to let you know there are some, bu not many young collectors out there. Welcome, anyway! And I hope you will stick around and share your acquisitions and collecting aspirations with us.

Well, I was thinking one of two things when I wrote the above; that I was either an employee of a TPGC or had my tongue in my cheek! Edit: I think you'll find the small curls that fall in front the forehead, and the proximal end of the topmost ribbon has AEF Details! I feel certain that this was what he was referring to! (Really big winky eye)! I think he slipped that "E" in, accidentally on purpose

Quite right, Stuart. You'd do whatever you thought you had to. Law or no law. Hear hear.

That's due to a combination of 1) the variety being really trivial and hard to spot, but more importantly 2) neither variety is remotely scarce! I've never been sure whether mine are merely 'average' or 'better than average' - as you say, they are difficult to find really strong strikes (these are 'blow ups' from scans as usual, so the quality of the picture is not good!). There's definitely signs of weakness on the '07 reverse - you can even see where the fields are 'dished - convex' and there is some ghosting, probably because the obverse is much stronger in hand than it looks. I remember sending off for a reasonably priced BU '06 some years ago, but when it arrived, the obverse strike was so weak I returned it and kept hold of this one.

The government won't care about that. As long as it has Bulgaria or Romania stamped on the front, from 2014 they'll roll out the red carpet. Free healthcare, benefits, even child support for the kids you left back home. Everyone's welcome. Yeah - they can take the homes of all the disabled this Government will have killed off by then.

Not a huge amount, sadly (issued in large numbers). Somewhere between £10 - £20. I'd be tempted to keep it as an interesting piece.

Can you get me an alternative ID for the internet please, so I can - without detection - spew spam all over unsuspecting forums?

First, make sure your picture is no more than 150k (you can reduce resolution and increase compression in an image editor). Then when you post, you will see Attachments under the box you type in. Choose the file on your computer, then Attach This File, then finally Add to Post (yes, yes, I know, unnecessarily complicated). Or, you can put the pictures on an external site and post the link to it here.

It's definitely a commem, but not necessarily Constantine the Great (though probably is) - it looks like one of the coins issued 330-335 AD celebrating Constantinople becoming twin capital of the Empire with Rome. Obverse legend is almost certainly CONSTANTINOPOLIS It's in a nice condition, around VF I'd say.

Especially as the authorities can't agree whether it's a pattern or a medallion.

Ye gods. It jumped £500 in the last few seconds.

That is SO annoying! And at its worst in a half hour BBC series (you know, the provider that doesn't have adverts...) where the presenter says - after two minutes on one topic - "Coming up..." and refers to what the next two minutes will be about. Then "Coming up..." as he announces they are returning to the previous bit that ended two minutes ago. Jeez. How short do they think our attention span is, FFS ?

How very dare you. Best game in the world. You have to make allowances - scott is a Man Utd supporter, and you know what they say :D

On ITV you'd be watching a great duel, and one driver positioning himself for an overtake, then BANG! - no, not a crash bl00dy adverts. By the time they'd finished, the manoeuvre was done. At least with C4 cricket, they just squeezed one ad in at the end of each over.

Any radio, TV or internet content with adverts for me, although ours are probably the most tolerable anywhere in the world For the first time in a few months I ended up on ITV to watch the FA Cup last weekend. Why would anyone watch five minutes of play, then the same amount of adverts all repeated ad infinitum? I watched three games before stopping as it was excruciating. Given that I probably only turn on ITV four or five times in a year, this recent tale of woe reminded me that even this is too often. I wonder if they realise there is more to life than LCD programming? Just kidding, nobody could really expect them to raise the quality above current levels. You're not really a football fan, are you Rob? I can only think you switched on 5 minutes before half time - has no-one told you that even on ITV you get two entire halfs uninterrupted by ads? You must be thinking of Formula1, where ITV indeed interrupted the race for adverts at frequent intervals! (I wonder if Sky do the same, or if you get the whole race?)

Price guides for coins are just that "guides". They don't necessarily reflect reality. Coin appeal consists of four factors, a) Rarity, Grade, c) Eye appeal, d) Popularity of the series concerned. You have to take all that into account when determining what a coin is worth to you, and whether you should buy it. Assuming your target type is popular, always aim high as far as grade is concerned, but strongly take into account the highly important concomitant factor of attractiveness. Just because a coin is GEF, say, doesn't necessarily mean it will actually look as good as a coin which is GVF. You might have to take a hit on grade, if your given specific target is rare, but take my advice and NEVER buy "clear date" or other space fillers. You will invariably regret it and want to upgrade. is whereas b( could be bc. I think I'll be cool, and stick to nunbers from now on....... Very poorly designed emoticon - they could at least have made it instead of

Do you want to let a fox into the chicken run?

Price guides for coins are just that "guides". They don't necessarily reflect reality. Coin appeal consists of four factors, a) Rarity, Grade, c) Eye appeal, d) Popularity of the series concerned. You have to take all that into account when determining what a coin is worth to you, and whether you should buy it. Assuming your target type is popular, always aim high as far as grade is concerned, but strongly take into account the highly important concomitant factor of attractiveness. Just because a coin is GEF, say, doesn't necessarily mean it will actually look as good as a coin which is GVF. You might have to take a hit on grade, if your given specific target is rare, but take my advice and NEVER buy "clear date" or other space fillers. You will invariably regret it and want to upgrade. is whereas b( could be bc.

Yes, the two arrows pointing up means "medal axis", the other is "coin axis". All coins nowadays are minted with medal axis