Sword

I had a short break in the Netherlands and been to The Hague on a day trip. The entries for the "World Sand Sculpting Championship" were on open display. Winner of the World Championship 2018!

Well, there is now the play-off for third place. England still has a chance to achieve their best World Cup performance since 1966!

The issue price of the 1927 proof set in cardboard box was 15 shillings. Face value of the coins is 11 shillings 3d. (Information from a document posted by Gary D several years ago.) Hence, it would not have been a big loss for spending them if you were hard up.

Great prediction Pete! 2-0 it is. Great game too.

Didn't realised I sweated so much during the shootout! It was so typical of England's attitude in big world cup matches. Initially, we would play well and gain an advantage. Then we just won't push for another goal and try to make it to full time. The opponents always have a good chance to equalize or even get ahead as a result. And yes, the number of yellow cards for the Colombian Team was shocking.

Perhaps he should try producing his own death certificate and then commit suicide to ensure the accuracy of the details on the document.

The portrait looks like a man ...

How about this one from Amazon?

"As we move to a cashless society, there may be an increasing lack of nostalgia for coins and banknotes." This has crossed my mind too. It can't be long until we pay everything by contactless cards and coins will be be a thing of the past.

Really sorry to hear that. At least they medicated you quickly and hopefully it will all clear up before long.

I think the term "Brilliant Uncirculated" or BU has a number of different meanings. For the Royal Mint, polish dies are used for minting brilliant uncirculated coins and each coin is struck twice for superior quality. The Royal mint has different minting standards for proof, BU and bullion / circulating coins. Alternatively, it can just mean that a coin has never been circulated and has full lustre and does not relate to how the coin was struck. A coin that was sealed in the mint would of course fit this category even if it was minted to the same standard as a normal circulating coin. The Pobjoy MInt (which mints so many of the Isle of Man coins) only describes the differences between minting processes for proof and circulating coins in their website. Hence a BU coin by Pobjoy could very well be the same as a normal circulating.

"Fear God and honour the Queen". Motto of Fiji. Apparently, Tui Viti translates to king, queen or paramount chief. So I guess at least the motto does not need to be changed when Charles succeeds the Queen.

I find the colours on the endangered wildlife coin truly off awful. However, the red cabochon on the snake coin is discrete enough. OK, a true coin shouldn't of course have colour or a "gem" set. And what has the Chinese Zodiac got to do with Fuji? But it is still nice to (occasionally) buy things we like the look of.

Buy it if you like it! The snake design is really quite cool and it is a much better effort than most modern offerings these days. I wouldn't worry too much if it is "worth" £70. There is a feel good factor when you know you have spent a bit more than an item's intrinsic value just to please yourself.

Exactly. "Cabinet Friction" is merely a wishful thinking term. If a coin has wear, it is no longer unc in my view.

The hobby of metal detecting is of course a lot more than the intrinsic values of the finds. One get the suspense, excitement and some good exercise!

I always smile at the phrase "visible under magnification" used by so many dealers. This always mean the marks are also visible without magnification. Marks not visible without magnification are of course (rightly) never mentioned by anyone.

I have always liked Paulus' 1834 halfcrown and think that the grade of CGS65 was somewhat mean.

The war reparation demanded in April 1921 was equivalent to £6600 million or about a quarter of the then known gold reserves of the entire world. So I think it is more like "While Germany is still unconscious, they sold him into slavery ..."

nice joke

When viewing the photo on my tablet which has higher resolution compared to my laptop, I think there are green spots on quite a few other places also. E.g. below the mustache, around the ear, neck, R and E of Rex etc. I am not saying they must be verd spots however.