Red Riley

I'm not sure what the issue is here. Has he changed the listing since he originally put it up on e-bay? I would probably have given it a straight VF but other than that, I'm struggling.

I once went on holiday with his sister. Absolutely true, but not as exciting as it sounds...

As far as cycling and rowing are concerned, it's actually a very clever policy by the Brits first rolled out in Beijing. You target the 'soft' (i.e. not that many people participating worldwide) sports with lots of medals on offer and allocate disproportionate resources to them - result, shedloads of medals. Doesn't explain our three athletics golds though! Although I do have some sympathy with Oscar Wilde on patriotism, it's still nice to see us doing well.

A lot. I spent some time working for the Financial Ombudsman Service and essentially we started with the assumption that the claimant was in the right. Certain occupations - teachers, policemen (sorry John) were prevalent in making claims and a fair few won despite the fact that you knew in your heart of hearts that they were being somewhat economical with the truth, you just couldn't put your finger on it. In my time there, the assumption was made that professionals such as solicitors or accountants should really have known what they were doing and would have had the nous to read the small print and ask questions. However, I understand that has now changed and solicitors are now claiming like there is no tomorrow. So either we've got the worst legal profession in the world, or someone is pulling a fast one. Bizarre. I do have a degree of sympathy with anyone (apart from the above) who was mis-sold Payment Protection Insurance however as it was normally an add-on to something else, such as a pension. The cost was usually a fraction of the overall total and as such people tended to disregard it. When you add up many years worth of payments however, it does come to a tidy sum.

Oh, you can't do this to me, a died in the wool republican! OK you've persuaded me; 1) Alfred the Great - man of great learning and no mean military tactician. 2) Elizabeth I - brilliant tactician and to my mind founder of the modern British state. 3) George IV - because he was so bad, had he lived another 10 years we would have become a republic 170 years ago!

Or a cheap hooker and a Cromwell crown.

The approach I have used is to never, EVER take an e-bay seller's description of Unc at face value. Unless you have reason to believe the contrary assume it is no more than EF and certainly never more than GEF. Yes, you may lose a few auctions but as often as not, you will have saved yourself from buying a pig in a poke. And if it does turn out to be Unc when you get the coin in hand, then you have got yourself a bargain! On the other hand, it really winds me up when I have sold a coin at say, NEF and see it a week later on e-bay still using my photo but described as AU. Dave's friends that use the asterisks in their names are good for that... (where's the angry emoticon when I need it?)

There is a product on the market for removing the opacity from the plastic windows on car soft tops - http://www.renovointernational.com/products/plastic-polish.php. The bad news is, I had some and threw it away after a general clear out of my garage a few months ago. The even worse news is, it didn't seem to work anyway. I always use white spirit for removing sellotape residue.

It is, as you say a very poor image. From what I can see, there may be a little wear on the hairline which should really preclude it from being EF but, as I said a pretty awful image. If you really want it, you may have to take it on trust but don't be afraid to send it back if it doesn't come up to expectations. Not really a gold expert but have seen them varying shades. I suspect that once again this is the dodgy photograph though.

He is on record as saying he wants to be George VII.

They'd have to increase the size of the coins to accommodate his ears.

Damn, missed it!

Can't say I disagree with you (and this is a hobbyhorse of mine) as it is probably the ownly accurate portrait of her entire reign. However beautiful you may think the Wyon portraits of Victoria were, they looked buggerall like the short plump chinless monarch. As such, I can't bring myself to nominate them as my favourite, even though I would love to spend an afternoon of pleasure with the lady portrayed, it just wouldn't be Victoria... Anyway, here's the lady herself photographed in her thirties;

I would rate it EF but you're right about the general ugliness. Someone paid way too much IMO. Yes, I'd go with EF or around that, but it's a fairly poor photo and could be lower. I think my valuation would be round about what pies offered, so somebody may well have got carried away.

We're not all Coincraft.

Sorry John, I was clearly asleep. Given your location, think I would go for a couple of bottles of Bluebird. Sadly, I am precluded from drinking malt whisky (or any other spirit for that matter...).

I don't smoke and as for the Foster's, I'd rather waste it on the lottery!

I was going to say something but despair has taken over... I really do wonder who they sell to, and where do I get their addresses from?!

Dave, what were you doing up at that time?

Therein lies both the problem and the advantage. In middle grades you are spoilt for choice about the problem but can usually pick up a cheap example of most things. Obviously, in most cases it will just be wear but in this case it was verd too. If not happy with a problem, leave the coin and move on. It's always better to buy something where you wouldn't have any intention of upgrading. Do that a few times and magically you find you have enough for a coin that's a grade up on what you intended to spend originally. Buying middle grade coins can actually be quite rewarding but what you MUST do, is ensure you buy problem free coins - no edge knocks, good patina, uncleaned etc. etc. That way, the coins will be easy to sell on, and who knows you might like a coin so much that you decide to keep it long term.

Not the easiest coin to grade and the picture really doesn't help. The ear is around VF but the rest of the head looks rather featureless - could be a weak strike or just a lousy photo! And has it been cleaned? If I were buying I would take a stab at GF, knock a bit off for the (potential) cleaning and verdigris and offer accordingly. The verdigris probably won't appear so obvious on the actual coin but you never know...

The difficulty of course is retrieving it afterwards...

Spot on Peck. I have never seen a slab with a space for an old coin ticket.

With life assurance and insurance generally, you can get very simple products but the one thing that is never known is how much resources any individual company puts into the claims side of its operation. My son had some very cheap contents insurance when he was at university in Leeds. His flat was duly broken into and some expensive stuff stolen. Getting the money out of the company was like drawing teeth - quite simply they employed one knuckle scraper when half a dozen clued up individuals would do. Eventually I had to phone them every day for a month and threaten to lobby my MP before they finally coughed up. The product was cheap and simple but absolutely bloody useless. Other examples include the bank that looks good and then switches its operations to a call centre in Bangalore, the pensions company that is cheap but when you cash in early employs a market value penalty on the cash you transfer, or the life assurer who refuses to grant you ordinary rates because you had an ingrowing toenail 20 years ago. In the 1990s, if you had asked the man in the street who was the most trusted life assurer, you may well have come up with Equitable Life. Oh dear... What I am trying to say is that with the best will in the world there are many pitfalls which transcend upfront cost and really would be outside the scope of most people to assess; it was known that Equitable had a low free asset ratio but only a few people would have known that they had given guarantees that they couldn't honour. Yes, I agree with you about bizarre add-ons but when you get past the introductory offers, weighing up financial products is still going to be beyond most non-involved individuals' abilities - hence the need for the levels of regulation which we have today.

To be honest, most people in full time employment lead pretty busy lives and if they chased every last penny, would end up doing nothing else. If you find that your bank is ripping you off, it's a royal pain to switch your account to another, and I have no doubt that the banks collude in making it as difficult as possible. Furthermore, the financial sector is awash with obfuscation and subterfuge, so you need to be a Professor of Mathematics to work out exactly what it is you are being charged, and whether XYZ Bank down the road is any cheaper. Ergo, the market has ceased to operate in a free and fair fashion and we, quite rightly in my view, look to government to kick arse - as nobody else will have the time. Hence, we have come to the heavily regulated financial sector which we have at present. For many years I was an industry insider and it appeared to me that we were being virtually regulated out of existence, but it is only too easy to follow the party line when you are too close to the centre of operations to get a wider view. Although I never saw my colleagues doing anything actually illegal, some things were certainly immoral and the people being ripped off just weren't clued up enough to spot what was going on. My opinion now is that the organisations involved in the banking and insurance sectors are just too big and need to be broken down into smaller units and the role of the whistle-blower greatly strengthened and protected - it is only when those that are likely to act against the public interest are constantly looking over their shoulders that we will have a more accountable financial sector.