Peckris

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.

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.

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?

Bargain!

Either the long arm of coincidence is at work here, or our scott has got himself another account here! The coincidence is deepened by both of you being highly interested in 1992 10p varieties. Hmmmm.

BRITT OMN was only ever used on UK coinage, not Imperial, also colonies normally used a crowned effigy of George V I think obverse is from a (1928-36) penny Agreed. And the reverse looks like a battered (to fit) genuine florin reverse that's been coated in some ugly finish to simulate bronze - you can see the coating peeling and the underlying silver at one rim point.