davidrj

Very French, and nice David

I stole the timeline from Wikipedia My first computing experience was was with CP/M (anyone remember that - Digital research) using a Z80 card in an Apple ][, we had a massive brute of a hard disk with the amazing capacity of 5MB! Later we migrated to DOS and then Santa Cruz Xenix - using a Tandon AT with a 100MB disk (this hardware cost £2000 in 1986) My favourite operating system has to be RiscOS running on an Acorn Archimedes, though Amiga Dos was interesting So yes Bob, I am that old, and I haven't written a line of code for over 20 years now,so everything getting a bit rusty David

Yes, it was ME that was the awful one (the last one running under MSDOS) Though XP had a DOS emulator There are an awful lot of companies still using DOS based software under XP - a problem now Microsoft have stopped supporting XP Windoze 8 is still based on the NT core (NT6.3)

I had a laptop with ME on - total crap, both my desktop & laptop run 7 - very happy with that I remember buying a computer for work around about 2001 which had the very brief successor to W98, can't remember what it was called, but it was the worst OS Microsoft ever produced. And I've used them all from DOS3 to 6, Windows2 I used Xenix (an early UNIX clone for PCs) back in the late 80's much better, does any one have any experience of the current Linux type versions? I've chickened out of trying as I'm not sure I would get my favourite DTP (Serif Pageplus) to work under emulation mode David

This looks a useful gadget Lighthouse Phonescope Precision Magnifier For Smartphones David

Interesting article in today's Independent Dutch counterfeiting ring's £30m swindle behind decision to replace £1 coinDavid

Yes it used to be bleak, but Burnley is now on the up http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-lancashire-23849081

My name is David, I collect coins

Guess I'm still a newbie, coming up to 5 years David

like this 20p

I like that

That would be an interesting pattern/essai with the reverse legend "Watch this space"

Good guide, there are many coins that are low cost in the catalogues purely because there are no sales records Try finding one of these - a circulation issue 1883 2 centavos from Bolivia mintage 250,000 Krause VG $3.50, F $7.50, VF $15, XF $50, Unc $85 You can always find a proof though:- http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/1883-BOLIVIA-2-CENTAVOS-ESSAI-UNC-PLAIN-EDGE-/281283702313?pt=US_World_Coins&hash=item417dd0ae29 The same holds true for many copper minors even of supposedly common 20th century issues, mintage is no guide to availability David

reverse of the pattern I wonder what the mintage is, are these going out to the vending machine industry? David

i don't know any Shetlanders, but my Orcadian friends feel far more Scandinavian than Scottish Islands referendum petition launched David

I suspect that is an actual pattern, wonder what's on the reverse

And edge on bit of a squeeze when they get to 2038 MMXXXVIII, maybe we'll be using Euros or even Roubles by then And can we have proper thrupenny bit smooth and sharp corners please?

I can see micro-variety fans having a field day with missing bits of micro script

I'm so confused. What is this half-American, half-English coin?! Opens up a new category for collecting Listed in category: Coins > Coins > British > Hammered (Pre-c.1662) > Tudor Coins (1485-1603)

There's a story (possibly an urban myth) that a second copy of the "rarest" stamp the British Guiana Magenta 1 cent was bought and destroyed by the owner of the only known copy David

Interesting article on a standardised rarity scale here Though its extension to "16,000,000 known" seems way OTT even for collectors of US coins David

I resort to sending Euro or Dollar notes from the Post Office, for such a small amount, never had a problem

What will this do to US coin prices? “Stack’s West 57th Street Collection” c Be fun to sort through though

David

and Frederic Henri de Nassau - Feudal issue for Orange 1640