scottishmoney

I started doing my research back in the pre-internet era and was fortunate that one of my great grandmothers was still alive - she lived into her 90s but was the 11th child of her father who was born in 1835 - he was 70 when she was born!

I agree that on the surface it would appear pretty selfish, but when you factor in the instability of the "innocent" party - it is one of those grey areas where you leave well enough alone and not endeavour to stir a nests of angry bees.

Few years ago I was going through some belongings that belonged to a relative of mine who passed away more than thirty years ago - found a box of lettres from the early 1940s on up through the 1960s that were from two people seeing each other outside of their long marriages - even that the purported child was actually the lover's child and not the reported father. Some secrets are meant to be kept - I felt that neither of the people wanted to have their secret shared - so I burned the lettres and have never shared with the living people involved.

It is a lot different world now doing ancestry research as opposed to 20+ years ago. The internet has made so much more available - whereas in the past I had to travel to distant places to look up information. I also learnt long ago never share too much of what you find - especially if it contrasts popular family stories. Gees, imagine, I found ancestors that had "shotgun" weddings that happened only a couple of months before the birth of their first child etc. It is just confirmation that people are people no matter when and where - but you don't mess with older relatives by sharing that info. OTOH my family research did confirm why there was such an anti-English feeling - 1692 and 1745 were the times!

One of my grandmother's brothers retired at 65, and passed away two weeks later. His wife had been on him to retire at 60 - he should have listened to her.

I find it curious that beginning in the 19th century all the little petty states melded into larger empires that were then dismembered beginning in WWI, then we have now states splitting every which way - ala Jugoslavia and the USSR, Czechoslovakia and even more aspiring so. Why cannot people just make up their flipping minds?

Some people like paying too much for overgraded, overpriced coins. That to me is absurd. Your opinion of my coin doesn't hold candle to my opin of my own coin. Same for some opin of someone in a stuffy, allegedly sterile environment that "grades, authenticates etc" a coin.

I am guessing INS - India Native States, probably something like Jodhpur, Hyderabad etc in the NW of the country.

A sa'age Scot am I, an' partaking of nice original and unmussed wi' cunyie I pursue. Most of my coins, rather like 95% are not in those ridiculous little extruded polystyrene coffins. Note I cracked poor sot Anne out of hers and let her get a breath once the more. People have been sayin' that this or that is here to stay as a fixture of coin collecting for ages. Rather I believe plastic is an evolutional fad. See my post above with the Swedish Kristina crown. Overgraded. Some poke can think it is XF and pay such a fiendish price for it, Eventually sense always prevails. I would buy such piece at VF prices, an' not what some poke in PCGS thinks it prices at but what auction results price it at. People think price guide is a rule, rather it is a suggestion.

Minisodah - ya, eh, I heard o' the place:

I do accept that, but HE could'nt accept that i'm not a fan of plastic and have MY OWN OPINION ON THAT SUBJECT nor am i a fan of how the Plastic fans in America would trade the same coin for a 1 Point difference on said plastic plus he disliked that i mentioned Artificial Toning. I don't quite understand how you can come in at the END of all this and quite simply say it all down to me. You Need to have looked back at the Facts and not just simply delete the plain truth of where and why i exploded. BTW I was just looking at a rather well known USA auction sight, I really like Queen Kristina of Sweden crowns - http://coins.ha.com/c/item.zx?saleNo=231348&lotNo=60156 Huh? I know these coins, I have this certain little side pursuit of 17th and 18th century Swedes - no doubting this is a nice coin and I would be interested in it at my opinion - a VF coin at a VF price - but it is rather oversexed in the plastic - XF! I'd like to think anyone that really pursues these coins would view it as a VF as it is, and ignore the coffin. So my point is - don't argue with the bloke - he relies on others for opinions of coins - not his own opin certainly. And by all means let him not slither under your hide nayther. You right hae more supporters in our vernacular than his.

Azda - you have to accept that there are certain individuals out there that like their plastic. Quite frankly I have been collecting coins since before they started tombing them in plastic and I do not feel it performs any service to "real" coin collectors. For better or worse there are those of us out there that enjoy the history, the artistry etc of coins and in a righteous fashion we only really value what we think of a coin - and not the opin of some anonymous person in a stuffy, underventilated and windowless and allegedly sterile environment has! Surely you have seen my coin above, I hae others of that vernacular. I couldn't care the less what some dolt in some office in Florida USA or Blackpool Lancashire thinks of my coin. I only care what I think. Gees, whilst I would like for you to like my coin, i' you don't all the betters for me. Sometime about five years ago I chanced upon an Anne Crown from 1707-E that was so tombed. If anything it being in a plastic coffin was a bit of a put off an' I talked the price down because of it. After I brought her home I cracked the old sot out of her coffin an' let her breathe again. Now she resides in non-PVC holder and can enjoy a wee bit of fresh air once the more. I don't get this thing for having coins "graded" and even "authenticated" - a real collector can do such with their own knowledge. Righteous, sure. Purist, sure.

An' me avatar is wee better lookin' 'han yours twa.

Canna imagine someone or someones getting so kerfuffled about TPG's that they resort to some of the name calling, the foul invectives, and discussion of racial epithets. Just sayin'.

I got the bit about birds not singing and without you, but not much more! But then I can't speak Spanish and still enjoy Shakira! It is funny having Shakira song as ringtone on my phone in Ukraine - people expect to hear either Russian or English on my phone. I listen to much Spanish language music - actually like Latin music.

I have been collecting coins since the late 1970s or so ie from when I was a little kid. I have been collecting seriously enough to buy up all the numismatic books, and attend shows etc since the early 1980s. I have seen stuff come and go - slabs have been around awhile and will continue to be - but they don't do anything for me. I collect because I enjoy history and artistry. I understand that people get their knickers all bunched up about slabs, and even resort to potty language in forums. I don't get it. I frankly couldn't give a rat's crusty barm if someone likes slabs or not. That said I have some early Scots and English hammered that has been "slabbed" as MS this or that - but I bought the coin and not the plastic. I think slabbing hammered as MS is pure nonsense -because the striking characteristics of hammer and die coinage are very variable and different from screw press and then machine struck coinage. Raw - uncooked:

I love finding Brit hammered in these TPG holders graded MS whatever the $#!+ where I can clearly see very light circulation wear.

The point is - buy and collect what you like and what has good eye appeal. Be knowledgeable about what you collect. Don't let some miscreant fool in a windowless sterile environment decide what you should like.

Ach, you surely mean Mrs Brown.

I see a whole new line of coinage coming soon...

Ha ha.

Somewhere in there I want to assail Camilla - but I think it more appropriate to skip the generation and be thankful that Duchess Kate is far more attractive - literally and figuratively.

But as a teenager hearing those lyrics I thought they were funny as all hell.

Holly came from Miami FLA Hitch-hiked her way across the USA Plucked her eyebrows on the way Shaved her legs and she was a he They don't write songs like that anymore! I am not so sure the rest of the lyrics would be quite as socially politically correct these days.

Knowing him he might well wanna be Henry IX - he thinks VIII got a bad rap.