Coinery

Any ideas what's going on with the Privy Mark? 180999770343

Many thanks to Roger Shuttlewood, Colin Cooke, and Rob Pearce, the previous caring custodians of a rather pretty hammered copper (IMHO). A pint of scrumpy, a lump of cheese, some gibbles (spring onions), a copy of Everson, and the above coin in a lighthouse flip ( ), a perfect day! It's a terrible shame you have to be so secretive about such pleasures when out!

Same kind of shock factor as the Elizabeth slabbed material! I was going to say shocking but I think...amazing! It means we can sell all our fine-VF stock, and go for a MAJOR upgrade! Thank-you very much, I say!

Thanks, Dave, that's neat! How do you know which catalogue to download, it's all abbreviated in the library view?

The above was meant to read: 'However, the LATEST known pairing...' The edit facility was unavailable this morning!

Go on then, PM me too! This may not be the popular vote, but I'm going to stick my neck out and say get yourself a Spink's catalogue. At your son's level it doesn't have to be the 2012, you can get a two or three year old copy for a couple of quid on ebay. I think it would be your best bet for now! And possibly 'check your change' available on this website's homepage? Good luck with it all, and welcome aboard.

Well, it wouldn't be decent other than to stir-up a bit of a debate, particularly as this blows quite a few of the numismatic 'knowns' out of the water! I can only quote from BCW, knowing of no better reference so, as a basis for discussion, we have: Obverse TN-1 (Tun over Hand) which is obviously a known pairing with a 1592 reverse. Also we have: Obverse HA-1, and this gives us our earliest known hand over crescent die. However, the earliest known pairing for HA-1 is with a 1590 reverse. So, numismatically, absolutely nothing works for a triple-mark, but it's an interesting IM window for such possibilities, given the lack of pyx details spanning the 3 privy marks. I wonder if you have some interesting Challis info. to add fire? Whilst I cannot personally pick out the 3 marks in the image, I'd be really interested to hear your ideas behind its occurrence. The crescent sixpence (whilst not the commonest) has sufficient enough numbers surviving that it may be possible to find a die-match. This is what the entire Elizabeth die project is about for me...having a series of library dies available to all for clarification, where details or multiple marks aren't as clear as we would like. It really interests me! I'll have a little dig around the die-thing on this one, because I truly believe that die-databases are the way forward in all areas...not to dig out new varieties, but quite simply to assist in situations such as these.

If I can do something for you Rob, it would be my pleasure! I'll email you later!

It's taking hold, then, this coin collecting thing? A great move to get a book on the subject, so much to learn!

Starbucks would probably find a way round it!

Not sure Surrey******* could've sat calmly by for the best part of a year (as Danz has) without responding to the 'occasional' time the **** name has been taken in vain!

Geoffrey, I could lose myself for hours on your site! It's a wonderful thing, akin to finding a secret door in an old castle and being the first to look around it in 500 years, superb!

Who in their right mind will pay a premium for some Mickey Mouse TPG to tell them what they have.? "it's got a hole in it, been cleaned with a Brillo pad, and is possibly made of silver"! Oh, and "we think it's a 4p! Ah, no, hang on, sorry, we think it's a sixpence"! Ahh, and not forgetting "there's a serif on the E that's got VF detail"! Actually, we should say "VF details," as it may have been, but for the Dick Emery clean! Emery as in cloth/paper! Dick, as in...well we know that bit! Oh, and that's £25 thank-you, Sir! It's been our pleasure 'Monsieur' please call again!

I've HAD one of these, and seen around 4, one at the last W&W sale in a lot I bought (was kindly credited)! The gouge through the crown is standard on this copy, unless of course this is the original? 230851403945

You know it intimately, Rob, you'll be getting yourself a reputation (I'm very impressed, though)! If I ever get the sense I've seen you somewhere before (when I finally bump into you), I'm going to know where from!

I'll bet Peter started it! A fellow veggie, Richard, good on you! Even more so that it's for all the right reasons. To actually like the flavour of meat, yet still make the call, great stuff!

I'm glad to say there are many emergency pit stops in the region! Fresh bread, a lump of cheddar, and some onion (spring or otherwise), is a perfect accompaniment!

I grabbed this one as I saw a high-point shining through a mediocre photo, and wondered whether there might be something unusual with the date! Does a 5/3 exist? Does the 5 date punch look anything like the 'shape' in the picture, or is this a 3 with nothing more interesting than a surplus 'BLOB' of something?

I have to confess that I did...quite some time ago! It has been slabbed since then ( not by me) and I paid a lot less. I was so attracted to the colour! I couldn't get over how a piece of copper could look as good as a B&Q compression joint olive! I was surfin' to see how the 4's typically looked on the type, as I spotted a coin on eBay with a 4 that looked so much like a 5/4 I was going to buy it just to see...I just couldn't justify it on this occasion! It was then that I stumbled upon this surprising link! I will be selling it on, now I've realised my interest in copper goes back another two generations! I have to say, though, it's an amazing area for someone to research, I've barely seen a die the same! O's all over the place, there must even be an O as an earring somewhere?

It's still around a fiver if you go to the local farms, where the yeasts are still the natural, unpredictable, 'uncultured' kind, and the outcome unfettered! Did you know that commercial cider had to reign in its natural 'limit' in order to stay within the alcohol tax band? Proper farmhouse cider more often than not breached the fortified wine category! The commercial variant has changed somewhat nowadays!

Lucky b****r. I had to drive to Thatchers. I always used to go and fill the van up on trips home before it became too commercial - 60 or 70 5 litre containers on every run at less than a couple quid each. Much easier to fit in the van than the 144 gallon barrels they had there in the barn. Taste as much as you wanted. Wonderful. It's all gone to pot now they've gone national and exported it outside the local area. The little family business is no more. Ahh, you entered my house there Rob! In Winscombe and the immediate surrounding alehouses you could buy Thatchers cider at .52p a pint, the earliest I can remember, and I'm only 45, Christ we were spoilt/ruined! John Thatcher was an ordinary man amongst our village, who still drank in the local pubs around us, was nothing special (THEN), the Woodborough Arms in Winscombe, the Legion Club in Winscombe (the scene of hand-peeled gibble and cheese, dominos, horse betting and singing, all in a lunchtime) and, of course, The Railway Inn, not 20 yards from the free-tasting room of Thatcher's in Sandford! Whilst the product has changed, I popped my head in there about 6 month's ago, and they still have their range of old barrels - you can get a few free tastes (though touristy now, of course), AND the same woman is still serving it there from 25+year's ago! Two of my old village friends still work there (from school), so something at the core is still strong, though Sainsbury's, Tesco's, and the rest, will never quite capture it! You may very well have passed me by, Rob! I had a lovely golden lurcher of Brian Plummer's, a box of ferrets, and a Merlin back then! My God, how life moves on! I'm now a gentle vegetarian, who has forfeited the capture of wild game for caravan Mosquitos, using nothing other than a cup and a piece of paper, only to cast them outside and let 2 more in! Hmmm

Can I ask for your thoughts about this: http://jonblyth.com/coins/coin-details.aspx?id=1475 The first three letters of CAROLO are obviously pointing towards a corroded/knackered die so, in view of the lustre and high grade, is the weak britannia reverse (although unconnected to the obverse, strictly speaking) also about die integrity? Would you say it's twice the market value with the price?

A friend of mine, who was a chef at Sidcot School, was also a dab hand with a homemade smoke house (he was in catering with the army in Germany, and ended up marrying a German girl and living there for quite some time). Anyway, he managed to convinced me to save up all the pig's brains and make them into a sausage (to his german recipe) called something like braeganvorst, after which he smoked them. I love smoked food, and thought these tasted really good, but I just couldn't get past the gag reflex and eat a whole one! Really strange, because i could eat just about anything else! V. Anyone for a carrot? caraway seeds and honey, of course!

Now we're talking! I was a butcher for 15years (nothing to do with my vegetarianism), and my top-favourite on a lunch break was a bag of chitterlings, with lots of pepper and vinegar, and a pint of Thatchers Cider (when it WAS cider [i grew up 2 mins from the original cider farm in Sandford]) in the local Legion Club. This was after hot trotters in the morning (these were all cooked up with the chitterlings and Bath Chaps on the same day)!

I've noticed this myself Nick. My normal pictures are bigger than ebay enlarged ones which to me is quite strange.......I've enlarged my own pictures on ebay only to find they are smaller than the ones i've uploaded or are on the main auction picture. I completely sympathise with eBay because their storage requirements must be gargantuan, but for me - if the button doesn't result in an enlarged image then don't call it 'enlarge'. Here, here! A huge bugbear for me too!