Peckris

Ok, I'll bite. What is it, your 'best ever'? I don't know. Is that the best April Fool ever? I won't be trying it next year! Nor me!

I suppose Mel Gibson is now a historical figure - it seems ages since he made a film

Sic(k)

Yeah, and the rest..

Maybe someone who has coin collectomania, loves coins, but has no coin budget? Though financially strangled at the moment, I did hit Declan for nearly 40 pre-decimal EII coins, which I justify by telling myself I'm collecting the two Elizabethan reigns! This also loosely permits me to pick from change! Incidentally, it was an absolute pleasure to share the first ever scratch-made cuppa with you aboard the boat and talk some coin! Damn nice chap that Declan! An intellectohippy for sure! Great stuff! I remember at the Midland buying Stephen Lockett's box of Unc modern stuff (60s and decimals) for stock purposes - he charged me two-and-a-half-times face for it. Needless to say I made all that back, and more. Quite a nice little earner when you're running a list

Asumel only posted the link - it wasn't actually him!

Like Rob says, this is a random error but because of the poor quality control these aren't as infrequent as you might think. This also isn't confined to the 20p, all denominations would have errors such as this. The 1897 o'ne penny flaw is different to a blob of metal attached to the coin, this is where the die itself has become damaged and when coins were struck the metal raised up into the damaged part of the die to create the dot. It's interesting to know, as you can find examples of it (and the 1946 one' flaw) with a fairly small dot, and then others which are so obviously pronounced and have clearly been struck well after the die was damaged. Matt The alternative point of view is that the 1897 dot was a deliberate die identifier, and the so-called 'progression' of it is in fact the reverse - the dot gradually filling in on the die as happened so often with colons in the copper series.

Just reread this and obviously hadn't read Nordle's reply in relation to Peck's. Nordle is right. My reply was directed at the previous posts. This referred to the OP which is a pit on the die. Cuds are usually flat and featureless. The only interesting cud I've seen is one positioned under Queenie's nose, makes it look like a huge blob of snot. I'd still not pay more than a quid or so for something like that though. Chewing the cud? EUWWWWWWWWWWW

Ok, I'll bite. What is it, your 'best ever'?

The Mint quality control, as Rob says, is pitiful these days. But then, so is the circulating coinage as a percentage of the money supply. There's a technical term for these extraneous lumps of metal attached to modern coins but for the life of me I cannot remember what it is.

I can't see the legend on the bronze clear enough to tell much. I don't recognise the emperor portrait as one of the Constantine clan, but the reverse - two legionaries with legionary standards - is a common enough type.

The silver coin is a Trajan denarius in about Fine grade. The bronze I would need to spend more time looking at the legend (not now, it's bedtime), but my quick first impression is that it looks to be a follis or small bronze (AE3 or AE4) of somewhere round about Constantine's era. It's in decent condition - I'd say GVF minimum.

A penny farthing??? They do look virtually identical it must be admitted ... except the penny is even larger than the old predecimal penny, and the farthing is approximately the size of a modern 1p Yours is a farthing as there weren't pennies in 1850. As to the 3rd digit, it's definitely a 5, though probably the '5 over inverted 5' variety. I'm afraid it is worn - between Fair and Fine grade, so worth only a couple of pounds.

Now that has to be the very worst 'home made' example I've ever seen : dig a hole roughly where the second 3 should be, dig out a 3 from another penny, then take a hammer...

1967 "clear date" halfpennies? Wow.

Confucius, he say "Woman who seek equality with men, lack ambition".

Well spotted - I couldn't see it for looking, even after zooming my screen. Then I finally found it - 4 o'clock

The difficulty comes because there are at least three types. The original 6 (or 7!) were produced to go under foundation stones which Geo V was laying in 1933. At least one of those was robbed out later, and one other sold by the church owners who didn't want to run the risk. Then there is the 'Lavrillier' pattern, where the portrait has been completely refashioned, and Britannia comes with a much wider rim and longer teeth (not Britannia herself you understand ). There are at least four of these, and they are the ones that come up for sale most often - Colin Cooke sold one a few years back, and it's still on his website. Finally there is a uniface strike of the Lavrillier pattern (obverse only), which has also been sold. The biggest unknown is the whereabouts of all the original 6 or 7, though most are actually accounted for.

Yes - it's a very nice example of that particular halfcrown. It will set you back a fair few hundred £ though...

A picture would be good. Letters on the collar are often weakly struck - the "PEMEMBER" is not a misstruck R but simply a weak R with its down stroke not clear. I suspect your F FTH is the same - a weak I that doesn't show clear or even at all. But as I say - pictures are best.

Many businesses (including my employers) have stuck with the tried and tested XP. Our computer at work has a Win7 sticker but that was removed and XP loaded ( ) 8 really seems to have been designed for mobile device use. Unfortunately that doesn't fit what most businesses use. I think Microsoft need to decide whether they can afford to run a business and a mobile package, whether 8 needs tweaking so it will work better on conventional keyboard/ desk based setups, or whether one OS will have to go ... Microsoft obviously decided they could do better than Apple (not for the first time). They simply ignored the fact that there is a good reason why Apple have two distinct OS's - one for mobile devices and one for desktops and laptops.

There aren't any real 'key pieces' from 1960 - but the polished die 1960 crown is nice enough, and cupro-nickel of 1960 itself isn't too easy to get in proper UNC (one rule you can say for the 1960s: coins pretty much all get easier and cheaper the further you get from 1960 - that's because literally millions were kept aside, mint sealed bags, filched from banks and post offices, from change, you name it. Don't buy gold unless you enjoy buying at the top of the market - 1960s pieces are BV anyway.) Good luck!

Is that a Digital PDP-11? (DEC). That looks like the usual config, CPU/ 2 Drives/9 track tape. That was a popular unit early on. It looks like you are ready for any contingency with the full set of replacement cards on top of the Tape Drive! Ha, Ha! See my reply just above yours - there's been some Photoshop jiggery pokery going on I can assure you there's been no Photoshop jiggery-pokery going on at all. It took an awful lot of looking after - PC1-2.jpg A Digico M28 with 3 Pertec 23Mb hard drives, a Pertec tape deck and around a couple of Meg of RAM. OK if you want to do some accounts, word processing or play DND. Ok, I believe you! But I NEVER saw a domestic unit like that - it looks like a computer you'd find in the IT department of some small to medium company of the early 80s. My inevitable follow-up question would be, why didn't you get the Apple II, which was pre-Mac (presumably the era we're talking about), but was the leading home computer of its day or, if we're past 1981, why not an IBM PC or even a clone? Or a DEC? That unit you have there is totally OTT for home computing.

I'd just like to object to the phrase that I "couldn't be ar*ed" to collect hammered - I just don't like them! Well, apart from late finework/Liz I milled, and drawing the line at medieval (i.e. post-Saxon).

Edit: Link. MM=Maklouf?