Sword

At least it has now been removed. Most of the other items are school books and so I guess the person is either a parent or a kid. What a crazy and reckless thing to do. You have done a good deed and saved him or her from getting into some serious trouble.

Removing stones from beaches is illegal under the Coast Protection Act 1949!

I agree with Jerry that the "S" is probably Sheffield and the letters after that are "EP" I think, and stands for electroplate. The marks for a "Roberts and Belk" sterling silver item are shown below. They look similar but the all-important lion passant mark, which signifies sterling silver is present. The assay office mark (crown for Sheffield) would also not be present on a silver plate object.

I think British Law makes it illegal to counterfeit any "protected coins" meaning any coin which is customarily used as money in any country. In addition the following are also protected: Sovereign, Half sovereign, Krugerrand, any coin denominated as a fraction of a Krugerrand, Maria Theresia thaler bearing the date of 1780 and any euro coin. I think it might therefore not illegal to make replica of coins not included in the above. However, attempting to sell them without clearing stating they are replicas would certainly be treated as fraud, or misrepresentation of goods which would be illegal of course.

I think for coins or tokens, a repro needs to have a feature that enables it to be readily distinguished from the original. E.g. stamped with WRL for example. Even if it was originally sold cheaply as a replica, someone will undoubtedly try to sell it as genuine later on.

Correct. The complete meaning is: 3.5 shots of gin and half a shot of vermouth over 4 parts ice, finished off with three stirs (the 3×360o). Just in case anything is not obvious: H2O = water. Hence H2O3 = water cube or ice (power of three = cube) The Gin and Vermouth is on top of H2O3. Hence the over ice cube. 360o is a full circle or one stir. Parker Pen Company ran an advertising campaign in the early 1970s, showing a hand using a Parker Pen to write the 'mathematical' formula on a piece of paper. The result was that they received numerous inquiries by chemists, mathematicians, and physicists, asking for the meaning of the formula. Apparently the campaign received one very critical letter asking "Who ever heard of a martini without an olive?"

Very good!

I came across this "formula" many years ago. It was used in the advert of a well-known writing instrument company. What is it for? Hint 1: it is obvious something humorous to be in this tread. Hint 2: it is a recipe for something consumable. Can you work out the meaning of any part of this "equation"?

Well done and superb buy! A nicely struck example too. It has probably had a serious dipping in an attempt to remove the staining. But it still has better eye appeal than your second example, despite the loss of some lustre. Bargain. Here is a bigger photo from the PGCS site.

"I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears and sweat" is an extremely powerful statement in my view. It embraces the spirit of achieving a just goal at any personal cost. It is a statement of extreme determination. It's all an individual can give. "We shall never surrender" is obviously a strong statement too. However, it is only an aspiration or target in war. The Japanese army obviously believed in that, but they did end up surrendering due to use of previously unknown atomic weapons. I think it is wrong to order soldiers to fight to the last man just to delay an inevitable defeat. However, surrendering on the battle field, is not the same as surrendering one's ideals.

I would balance the coin on a finger and gently tap with another coin to see if it rings like silver. The sound of silver is very distinctive. cupronickel gives a dull short ring.

I love the sitcom The Thin Blue Line and found the following dialogue hilarious. Inspector Fowler: Do you know that 12-year-olds in Holland and Belgium can already speak fluent English? Constable Goody: They're no cleverer than British children, sir. My niece is only 10, and she can speak fluent English. Inspector Fowler: [berating Goody] Your head is just something you keep your hat on, isn't it?

You wouldn't happen to be Norman Quentin Cook would you?

Since we are all self-isolating, I wonder if members would like to post good puzzles, riddles, number games etc to help pass the time? How about starting off with a chess puzzle? Not difficult but needs a bit of thinking. It was actually composed by one of the most famous chess players of all time. Sorry, forgot to mention that it is White to move and mate in two.

One, Two, Buckle My Shoe. I remember reading that Agatha Christie novel many years ago. Can't remember if the story is any good now. Peckris' puzzle: You can make any number from 1-7 inclusive using the numbers 1, 2 and 4. Hence, 1, 2, 4 and 8 let you make any number from 1-15 inclusive. 1, 2, 4, 8, 16 can get you any number 1-31 inclusive. 1, 2, 4, 8,16, 32, 64, 128 and 256 get you any number 1-511 inclusive. That leaves you with 489 which is the number in the last envelope. There are probably a number of other solutions.

How about: 1, 2, 4, 8,16, 32, 64, 128, 256, 489

Very nice. The lack of contact marks makes it attractive despite a trace of wear. I have always like the proof-like quality of Victorian currency.

I just googled "coin ticket hand of Peter Mitchell" and had a look at the images that came up.

Don't have anything to do at the moment and so looked up tickets written by Peter Mitchell. Two examples are shown below. Does look like that the right two could be his. The bottom stroke of the Roman numeral III is missing. This is also the case in the Roman II shown below. The lower case s looks similar.

The florin has arrived and the obverse tone is richer than shown in the photos. Although the obverse fields are not "clean", the marks are light and have toned in. Hence, they mostly cannot be seen without magnification. Reasonably happy with it. There is one thing I have never understood. Why do double florins have both Roman and Arabic One for 1887 and then just Arabic for later years? One theory is that the Roman I was a "mistake" and was corrected later. I never believed this as the florins used just the Roman One all the way through. Any ideas?

😀

There is the PCGS in Paris. https://www.pcgseurope.com/submit?l=en

I was debating that point with myself. There are quite a few marks on the obverse but they are not deep. Will soon be able to see how it looks in hand.

Shipping to UK is practically selling ice to Eskimos.