Nutsaboutcoins

There are numerous phone apps as well.

Of course it is a different design, sorry for asking a stupid question.

Are the Baby Sets BU or circulation quality? The reason I ask is the Mint were advertising that 2016 £1 coins in circulation quality were only available from the Royal Mint visitor centre tour when you were able to strike your own. That said I doubt many would be able to tell the difference between the two. Ian..

Don't get me wrong Rob, i'm not taring all dealers with the same brush, but those that engage with me are those I buy from. I'm probably guilty of saying "I'm just browsing" usually when I'm looking at stuff I'm not that interested in and wouldn't want to take up a dealers time when he/she could be talking to a "real customer". but I do wonder if playing it cool and not showing interest stems from all those antique shows on TV? Manning a show, especially a two day one, must be mind numbing at times but there are a core of dealers who are far more interested in their laptops, papers or chatting among themselves than serving their potential customers. If I ever make Wakefield I'll be sure to introduce myself Ian..

I couldn't make it this time, I normally attend the Saturday due to work commitments, but find a lot of dealers, shall we say "less than interested". A couple of years ago a dealer tuted at me when I asked him to move his newspaper that was open across his full table. Goes without saying I didn't buy from him. May be I can't be a serious collector turning up on the Saturday? Ian..

Great work Brian, and great to see it in print.

Three Mirror journalists went to jail in 2005 for insider dealing by buying shares before publishing favorable articles on the companies. I'm convinced this is another manifestation of the same trick.

Is someone at the Daily Mail cashing in? Do a little research on a coin with a lower than normal mintage, buy them all at low prices, publish an article saying they are rare, then SELL, SELL, SELL. Ian..

On a visit to the RM's Visitor Center the guide said the new £1 coin contained "Fairy Dust" a secret ingredient that the RM would use to identify genuine coins from forgeries. From the way she said it, it sounds as if it is something in the metal mix. Ian..

It's a good job the new £1 coin is bi metallic to stop it being faked

Stop it Brian, my decimal collection was pretty much complete until you started all these shenanigans But seriously, great work but I have a lot of varieties to find now. Ian..

This made me smile, ukcoins.co.uk doesn't know if he can post a link to his website

I'm sure her gold coin must be dated 2009 as it would be a poor presentation if they said "congratulations, we will give you a gold coin in 2 years time". Insistently, presumably the gold Olympic coins would be produced from proof dies, which means they would have been produced separately from the dies used for the BU Set & circulating coins, therefore there could be other design differences. Also was Jonathan Olliffe's gold Aquatic 50p an under water one? Ian..

I wonder if these are of more interest to art or bank note collectors?

WOW Brian! I have a number of pennies that have been saved over a number of years which I have just started sorting, I hope to add to the work above, but I'm under no illusion that I am "Standing on the shoulders of giants". or "late to the party" depending on your view I cant help thinking if there are a number of reverse dies there must have been a number of obverse dies too I feel in coming years people will be hunting down obverse & reverse die pairings. "I need a 1992 BHX - D + 3"

Great work Brian. But must say my brain is starting to hurt Also sorted all the pennies from the better half's copper jar last night...What have you started

Excellent work Brian. Must raid the Missus' penny jar The beads on your 1s & Ps to the left & right look different sizes, have you counted them? I wonder if there are different numbers. Love the "No Rivet" variety also, what is your thoughts, is it a worn/filled die or a different die altogether? Ian..

He says: " You will receive 3 Gold Sovereigns. 1 Full Gold Sovereign in 22 Carat Gold. 1 Half Sovereign In 22 Carat Gold. 1 Quarter Sovereign In 22 Carat Gold." So I suspect your not getting the pretty box, for your money.

False Alarm! On seeing the coin there was no die rotation.

Thanks Sarah, I misunderstood, I thought the 2 runners were on the coin not the cover I'm not a fan of coins in covers where you can not see both sides of the coin. It would be really insetting to know if the coins in the 2 covers are consistently dated or whether both designs hold both dates. My hunch would be that the coins for the second "High Jump" cover would be a specific batch produced for the purpose and therefore would be additional to the mintage for the Blue Peter coin holders, making the 2009 coins more common than the mint figures suggest? Ian..

Hi Sarah, Which coin with 2 runners are you referring to please? Ian..

Like the 50p & 20p I think the "straight" sides are actually curved, with the inner lines there to accentuate the 12 sided look.

Presumably "handling stolen goods"

A friend has told me he has a 2013 £2 with the Guinea reverse which has a similar "Die Rotation" issue. I haven't seen the coin yet, but is this a known variety? Ian..

The presses used for circulating coins strike 750 coins a minute and their hoppers are loaded with 10 of thousands of blanks at a time, so even if it was only 1 "batch" that escaped the "meticulous" quality control it should result in a lot of affected coins. And as a pair of dies can strike up to 400,000 coins it could be a very high number. If the die "worked its way loose" or moved during the striking run, so it didn't affect a full batch, I would expect the rotation to vary between coins, which on the limited evidence Chris has reported doesn't seem to be the case.