Peckris

If Di Matteo has any sense, he'll get out of Chelsea whilst still on a high. After all after that performance, the team isn't likely to do better next season, and the expectation will be that they should do so. Then there's the fact that football management is probably the most poisonous in the UK, with the Chelsea job up there as possibly the most toxic. Add these together and, if it was me, I'd be off to another management job in the premier league, hopefully to win something and then move again, and so on. If he stays, then I don't see him there very long, despite this last season. Good points, though now that Abramovich has got what he most wanted all along, perhaps he will be less trigger happy? (And maybe the Pope will become a Protestant ). But Di Matteo is welcome to take over at Liverpool on a temporary trial basis - maybe he'll win the league for us! With the current squad at Liverpool the only man that could win you the title was nailed to a cross nearly 2000 years ago OY!! The graffiti of old around Anfield used to read JESUS SAVES BUT DALGLISH KNOCKS IN THE REBOUND. I think City's squad and Chelsea's are pretty damn good (though Chelsea's is now ageing), as witness what they've won this season. However, I wouldn't say United's was streets ahead of ours, and Arsenal's is no better than ours, though theirs has been settled for longer. If the next manager builds on what Steve Clarke and KD began, we could do better than merely two cup finals.

I wouldn't say ridiculous. Atheism is simply the disbelief in any supernatural deity, whether God or fairy. It is the default state of reason in the absence of any better information (or, dare I suggest, proof). To my knowledge no such counter evidence exists. It's not a religion or a belief, any more than not collecting coins is a hobby. I have no problem with esoteric hypotheses and discussions of an entirely philosophical nature. This includes Pantheism, which does not accept the existence of a personal creator but throws the net so wide as to simply state that "God is everything and everything is God'. What I do have a major problem with, are the religious doctrines such as Christianity, Judaism, Islam etc. which are prescriptive and specific in nature and believe in a personal God. 1. That's another atheist tactic, turning religion on its head and saying "You can't prove or disprove a negative" (actually, in mathematics, you can!). However, to declare oneself an atheist is to state a belief position, albeit the direct opposite to someone religious - they are both belief positions, as the central tenet is unprovable. The intellectually honest position would be to declare oneself an agnostic. However, that word too has been sullied by atheists who have come to the conclusion (at least in militant-atheist-America) that agnosticism is closer to "I believe" than "I don't believe". Which is scandalous as the word simply means "don't know". 2. You're talking about the monotheistic Abrahamic religions, home to nearly all the world's fundamentalists. Much of what you say about them is true, though not of the silent mystical branches of them which never make headlines and are far more tolerant to new discoveries and science. It would help if people pontificating about religion would make the distinction between West and East clear before they launch their missiles.

Even so, I've yet to see one in my change. And I never ever found a 1951 penny in mine! But had NO difficulty at all getting one for my collection, from a dealer. When they're still in circulation, most of the fun is finding one in your change. I never had that chance with pre-decimal. This one, and the £2 coins are my only possibilities to emulate that scenario. Even then a pale imitation of what you had on offer before decimalisation True. Nothing can describe the thrill of the moment I found a 1949 3d bit, realising my first ever 1926 penny was the ME, and finding the following halfpennies - 1909 GVF, 1935 EF lustre, 1938 Unc with/good lustre. If only I'd had the capital to get bags of silver from the banks as well as five bob bags of lower denominations. Sigh.

That's certainly a convincing theory. The 'coating' on the florin reverse is even more evident on your example. The only remaining question is "Why?". It couldn't have been passed off as a florin, and anyway it cost a 2s1d to make! Plus all the effort.

Oh no. I make a small charge.

Wrong. So-called religious wars are almost always about power or economic oppression, and you can include the Inquisition and Crusades in that. And Hitler, Stalin, Mao Tse Tung, Pol Pot were all either atheist or else non-religious. You have to go back to the English Civil War to find wars fought on grnuinely religious principles. It is notable that those who - wittingly or unwittingly - start or originate a religious system are pretty much all peace loving hippie types. The common thread in all religions is The Golden Rule which can be loosely expressed as "Do unto others as you would they should do unto you".

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If Di Matteo has any sense, he'll get out of Chelsea whilst still on a high. After all after that performance, the team isn't likely to do better next season, and the expectation will be that they should do so. Then there's the fact that football management is probably the most poisonous in the UK, with the Chelsea job up there as possibly the most toxic. Add these together and, if it was me, I'd be off to another management job in the premier league, hopefully to win something and then move again, and so on. If he stays, then I don't see him there very long, despite this last season. Good points, though now that Abramovich has got what he most wanted all along, perhaps he will be less trigger happy? (And maybe the Pope will become a Protestant ). But Di Matteo is welcome to take over at Liverpool on a temporary trial basis - maybe he'll win the league for us!

I'm precisely the kind of dinosaur that checks the 'number of messages' bubble above rather than check my email. That function still seems to work.

Religion is the cancer in society, continuing to foster warfare and a host of other ills under a feeble veneer of legitimacy. When will we all wake up to reality? Most of us have which is why we tend to be tolerant and indifferent to religion on the whole. The big problem with all religions is they will never acknowledge that another one has a good idea. Everything is black and white, for us or against us. It is the root cause of immigrant minorities failing to integrate and often the fundamental reason behind racial tension. Although not the full story, when a religion forbids you to inter-marry without the outsider adopting the other's religion, you have just ensured another generation of resentment by outsiders and another course of brickwork added to the wall. There are people who bridge the divide, but they tend to be in the minority and are frequently helped by a degree of affluence. Well, quite. Except for Quakers. Oh, and Buddhists. And Menonites, the Ba'hai, Sikhs, many branches of Hinduism, Taoism, Unitarians, Jains, Sufis, ... um, shall I go on? Ok, point taken. Inappropriate use of the word 'all'. But there are still more than enough of those that are inflexible to drown out the non-aggressive religions. Those religions are still the main reason for a failure to integrate into the general population. Don't mistake irritating loudness for numbers! I believe that the majority of religious believers are tolerant people quite prepared to listen to opposing views (which - as far as the existence or otherwise of God is concerned - are utterly unprovable). I'm firmly with Richard Dawkins. Theology is defined as "the organised body of knowledge dealing with the nature, attributes and governance of God". It is about as justifiable in the context of learning as the study of leprechauns. Again, that's going from the sublime to the ridiculous, a common tactic among the more militant and dogmatic atheists (I'm not accusing you of being one of them!). "There are more things in heaven and earth than are dreamt of in your philosophy Horatio." The problem is that atheists reduce religion to its more laughably superstitious elements (ignoring - for example - the science of mind that Buddhists follow in their non-theistic way) and then debate on that level. Which is tantamount to shooting fish in a barrel and conveniently ignores the more inexplicable elements of this extraordinary universe we inhabit. There is room for philosophy and metaphysics, even if there isn't (or shouldn't be) for fundamentalism and the so-called paranormal. Don't equate genuine mystical experience with UFOs : they're chalk and cheese.

Even so, I've yet to see one in my change. And I never ever found a 1951 penny in mine! But had NO difficulty at all getting one for my collection, from a dealer.

Ok, perhaps it's time to start a predecimal book. No, not the Peck variety, the Ladbrokes one. Now that Abramovich finally laid his greasy little oligarch mitts on the European Cup, what odds would you lay on Di Matteo still being Chelsea manager next season?

I don't know whether it's my imagination or not, but to me, stylus on vinyl sounds better than a CD, or downloaded track played through a PC. Deeper richer & more lifelike tones My collection pieces other than coins, are decorative plates. They're plastered on every wall all over the house. It's only a small house, so I'm running out of room. Not your imagination - I have a subscription to MOJO and each month their featured interview asks "L.P., CD, or MP3?" - nine times out of ten the answer is LP. The most hated format is CD by a nose. The vinyl must be played through valves rather than hissing transistors. Obsessive!! As a child of the 60s, when hissing transistors became all the rage, I can assure you that vinyl still spanks its rivals I'm with you here regarding records. I built up a collection of about 200 vinyl LPs, eventually found that the stereo I had was on it's last legs and bought a new system. Didn't bother with a record deck and so I'm left with a pile of LPs. All in pretty good nick as I wasn't careless with them when they were bought and I'm amazed at the going prices for some of them. For example I have some early stones stuff, like 'Between the Buttons' and 'Aftermath' and these can go for around the £60 each mark. Ditto The Beatles and some of the other early rock material like the Who. There's a vinyl record specialist shop next to where my other half works part time, and they have some really interesting old and new material, and they have a phenomenal knowldge base. As for other other interests, I have a Volvo P1800, but that's just a labour of love, not part of a collection. My other main interest is a Yamaha Motif XS synthsiser, which I have learned to use and have produced several songs on. Eventually, I want to get enough material together to produce a full blown album - top of the charts here I come. My stuff is my own style and as a result, and in keeping with my personal vintage, I call it the 'mature retro' genre! There's something about modern styles, using an older person's themes and Stratocasters that works for me. I have My Generation, the original Brunswick release, which was a chart album. I was utterly gobsmacked to see that the latest Record Collector price for it (in mint) is £400 !! Religion is the cancer in society, continuing to foster warfare and a host of other ills under a feeble veneer of legitimacy. When will we all wake up to reality? Most of us have which is why we tend to be tolerant and indifferent to religion on the whole. The big problem with all religions is they will never acknowledge that another one has a good idea. Everything is black and white, for us or against us. It is the root cause of immigrant minorities failing to integrate and often the fundamental reason behind racial tension. Although not the full story, when a religion forbids you to inter-marry without the outsider adopting the other's religion, you have just ensured another generation of resentment by outsiders and another course of brickwork added to the wall. There are people who bridge the divide, but they tend to be in the minority and are frequently helped by a degree of affluence. Well, quite. Except for Quakers. Oh, and Buddhists. And Menonites, the Ba'hai, Sikhs, many branches of Hinduism, Taoism, Unitarians, Jains, Sufis, ... um, shall I go on?

Making it considerably more common than the 1951 penny, that well-known "rarity"!

Lockdales being a smaller and more provincial operation, they're a better bet than London Coins, that's for sure.

I don't know whether it's my imagination or not, but to me, stylus on vinyl sounds better than a CD, or downloaded track played through a PC. Deeper richer & more lifelike tones My collection pieces other than coins, are decorative plates. They're plastered on every wall all over the house. It's only a small house, so I'm running out of room. Not your imagination - I have a subscription to MOJO and each month their featured interview asks "L.P., CD, or MP3?" - nine times out of ten the answer is LP. The most hated format is CD by a nose.

Aka porn?

Yes - Peck, though awesome, wouldn't have kick started the bun penny craze on his own.

I find it incredibly annoying too. The link is Stephen Lockett of course, but he may not be responsible for the website layout(s).

My record collection became a collection simply through inertia - they were bought as records, but I suddenly found circa 1989 that people collected vinyl, so I've hung onto them ever since!

Interesting that their letter to you states "breakdown of machinery" while the actual Report states "fully occupied with gold and silver [issues]". I wonder where the modern Mint gets its information about "breakdown" from? I'd hazard a guess from the 1875 report. The text says that the 1876 coins were contracted out because the equipment was fully occupied striking silver and gold. The number of presses at the Tower mint would have to be investigated, but is likely to have been a minimum of half a dozen, so if a couple of them were unavailable, then sub-contracting the copper would be the logical option security-wise. Also, the Heaton mint was regularly striking coins on the same size blanks, so familiarity with the product wasn't an issue. There were a lot of halfcrowns and shillings coming off the press in 1874 onwards. How long this upsurge in demand lasted I don't know because I don't have the records, but thinking about it, the equipment probably broke down due to the excesses of the previous two years because there was no time for maintenance and a lot of coins produced. That makes logical sense. I wonder where the 1875 100 tons comes from - the penny is rare so must we assume it is mostly made up from halfpennies and farthings? I know Heaton's farthing issue for 1875 was pretty sizeable

To those who are interested (a small minority, I'm guessing), it's probably worth a lot more than that. It is said to be a very scarce variety.

I don't think the reverse IS bronze. What I'm seeing is a coating peeling off at the point you mention. The coating (whatever it is) would also account for the blurred look of the reverse design.

Relax. Forgeries of 1905 coins have been occurring for donkeys yonks. Don't confuse them with the Chinese factories, well not all of them . Hmmmmm never seen a Penny forged yet then Halfcrowns and shillings, you muppet. Do I have to spell everything out?

Even to this hammered non-fan, that's a little beauty. I must say I was surprised that RR is still around. How old is he now? His 1990s price lists were full of very top quality, very expensive, coins. Clearly they still are.