Emperor Oli

I said a few months ago that i was afraid of verdi gris appearing on my coins and now it has happened. I've spotted it on about ten of my coins which have been swiftly removed and some are for sale on ebay now (with a warning of course). I have ordered about two or three kilos of silica gel and a few boxes for it. Plus, I'm going to borrow a dehumidifier before the silica gel arrives to hopefully stem the flow. My cartwheel penny too has verdi gris on it, a very fait stroke of deep green. I'm incredibly annoyed! Does anyone have any tips to lower humidity to a safe level besides a dehumidifier and silica gel?

Thanks for the tip about the half sovereigns! £35-£60 is what I was expecting to pay really, plus gold holds its value so i suppose it's a good investment as well as an enjoyable hobby! Gold just has an aura around it that's quite indescribable doesn't it. I'm getting quite giddy now just thinking about starting but I'm going to finish my meagre date run first!

I can pick up a french radio station on LW168 all the way up in Lancashire!

I think it's a fake- the base of the neck doesn't look right and the coin as a whole look counterfeit. Perhaps if we had better pictures....

After some thought, I have decided unfortunately to cut short my farthing date run to 1937-56. Because of the spectre of verdi gris hanging over, I really cannot afford to lavish money on farthings to have them ruined by this horrible affliction. To this end, I am offering for sale six BU farthings, all with full lustre 1919 1927 1931 1932 1934 1936 They will be priced competitively so PM me if you want them. I will, however, complete my rather thin date run of 1937-52 and then probably move into gold. I fancy getting a sovereign from every monarch from George III to our Queen Elizabeth but we'll soon see. I'm sad to be leaving them but as I said, it would ruin my collection if they did succumb to verdi gris.

It's Three Counties radio so thats broadcasted to Bedfordshire, Hertfordshire and Buckinghamshire I think

I received his Farthing list 49 a week ago and if you pick it up with wet or sweaty hands, the ink runs and smudges on it. I think it's the new card he's using - it's kinda luminescent! I don't know whether his standard catalogue is like that but the farthing list certainly is!

I don't know - perhaps you don't place big enough orders?! I normally buy about £30 at a time but I'm sure some halfpennies would more than cover that.

You get free copies if you order from him. I order every month or so otherwise I feel a bit mean!

I've just remembered this which I meant to post when it was hot off the presses, so to speak. An asian woman Judge told a security guard at some courts that she was "friends with Bin Laden". Besides this being incredibly stupid, it was obviously also a security risk. She was supended on full pay. However, the woman has launched legal action, and won, because she said that "it [being suspended] wouldn't happen to a white man". The sum was around £400,000 I think. This is complete and utter rubbish. Of course anyone who had links, real or suspected, to a terrorist who is probably the most wanted man in the world would be suspended as they are a security risk, simple as that. It has absolutely no bearing on the case whether the person is black, white, yellow, brown, purple or green - they still pose a threat!

Only if you live in humid, damp houses, like Sylvester and I. My house, in Mellor (an old Roman town) is located on a huge hill with piss poor weather allyear round. It's rarely sunny, apart from in summer when it's unbearably hot. It's always damp and wet so that's probably my problem. If you live nearer to sea level then I imagine that you woun't suffer the same fate.

Ha! It didn't for me did it?! I think capsules might, as they are, for want of a better word, encapsulated!

Doubtful. I wouldn't have thought that a hammer and an arm would be strong enough to create that kind of design. Also, I don't think the metals the coins are made out of (whether he stamped it with a penny or five pence) are strong enough to withstand it.

Excess moisture in the air causes it HPJ. And its VERDI GRIS I saw one with some on and I thought oh well you win some you lose some (it was only a hapenny from the forties I think) but then I found about six and just screamed many many expletives at the top of my voice.

Well there's really two things this could be 1) Joke piece This means that the coin is really just two coins stuck together. If it's an amateur job, the coin will obviously be double the weight/thickness as it will just be two glued together. A higher class of joke toy has one 10p ground away in the middle with a very thin rim left and the other ground down to just fit inside it, so no change in thickness or weight is noticed. If it is this, it isn't worth much 2) Proper minting error This is caused by the coin going through the dies twice. I don't really have any idea how much it's worth, but it will definitely be more than 10p - probably more around £10?! I am just guessing here.

Depends what condition it's in but you could probably expect around £1 for it.

It crossed my mind but then I thought my farthings just fit in their holes with perhaps a millimetre around the edge so if they were in capsules, I would have to put them in the next biggest hole and they would take up lots of space. I may (ooh this has just come to me) buy a Lindner (sp?) from Chris to use. If those are not air tight, I could just buy the capsules to put in them.

Probably but I'm not buying any after shelling out £100 on a bloody cabinet! Silica gel will probably do fine

I will bid. I've never seen one with two different designs on, plus these coins are struck in different metals! It will probably go to crazy bidding though, £50+

No, HPJ, that's the actual gold value of the coin. Its face value is £1 if I remember correctly so yes, you could spend a sovereign if you wanted to, but it would be incredibly stupid as the price a collector would pay for it would far exceed the value of goods purchased wih it. Edit: Off the top of my head, an interesting fact is that the design on the reverse (back ) of St. George slaying thedragon was engraved by a guy called Benedetto Pistrucci.

There's a biiiiig (and I mean big!) reference bookout called Krause. If anyone's got a copy of that, with a good description, you could determine its value

Wow over his head

Don't waste your money on a custom-made one, just go for the standard. Nobody really cares what method your coins are displayed in and a custom cabinet won't look any different to a generic type.

HPJ, it is not that much of an expenditure when you think what you gain. My cabinet cost me around £100 - that was for the best model of its range (called the Mascle). It comfortably houses my collection and I can make space by chucking out some of my rubbish/foreign (!) coins. Think of the money you would save instead of buying trays or whatever system you use - although it is a significant outlay, the advantages outweigh the disadvantages. Alternatively, which I am thinking of doing, is buying a separate cabinet for just my farthings. Although it's not a cabinet per se, it's more of a box. It could be made to house 54 farthings, so all my farthings are in one place. The huge bonus is that it's only £40 (approx.). It's called Martlet if you're interested. If you're dead set on buying a cabinet, I thoroughly recommend this man, Peter Nichols. He caters for all budgets and needs and produces a great product at the end. They're so good, the British museum even have them! A clever thing also is that he names the models after provincial mints (I think this is true although it may be utter tripe).

Five trays!? I haven't even put them in my cabinet! They're in a box under my desk