secret santa

I've written to a solicitor colleague of mine to establish the exact legal position before I contact the buyer, in order to make sure all the facts are clear. I certainly don't want to start a dialogue with the buyer based on assumption and hearsay. He was honest enough to tell me that he'd received the coin so I hope that it can all be resolved amicably.

I wonder if he sees it like that !

It was more complicated than that. It was eventually found in the bottom of a sack at Swindon and the next steps are vague but the buyer's neighbour then went to a local post office to pick it up (in Scotland) when there was some discussion around the issue of the compensation. So, the RM are aware of the issue but I don't know what, if anything, happens next. I've lost details of the tracking.

That's an interesting one - the Royal Mail compensated me because I had refunded the buyer but I hope they won't pursue me for a refund as I would be completely out of pocket then. They may pursue the buyer but if they don't he may end up with a very rare coin free of charge.

Surprise, surprise - the 1862 over 1 has finally turned up at the buyer's house, over four and a half months late !

Different coins for me, too. I've also compared the Colin Cooke pictures of yours and I think they are different.

Michael now agrees that this 1889 wide date with the raised numeral 9 appears to be paired with obverse R (12) and should thus be reclassified as 1889Ad. There is nothing to preclude this reverse from being paired with obverse S but there don't seem to be any confirmed examples.

A wood louse is called a "cheeselog" in my neck of the woods. It seems to be quite local to South Oxfordshire, unless you know better.

The website says £70 but I wrote £35 into the catalogue at the time - spooky !

I have just sent Pete's and Ian's pictures to Michael for his comments.

I called it Cd straight from Michael's book (without noticing that he had it as S+r) and obverse R because it was sold as obv 12 (R) in Colin Cooke's catalogue (lot 107) for the Tony Crocker sale. I probably never bothered to check the obverse but, as you say, it is so worn as to make it unidentifiable. I will now change it on the basis of the above information - many thanks.

Could you put the reverse up please Pete - I'd like to include this on my varieties website as illustration.

It definitely appears more human

And this one went to Wales.

The customer base for these sorts of coins must be incredibly small ???

That's a great price and it's interesting that 2 bidders bid it up that high. Wonder who bought it ? (KB ?)

I can't make up my mind whether the pennies with missing waves are truly rare and merit an entry on my Rare Penny site. Example occur for 1934, 1937, 1966 and 1967 (these are the dates that I know about) and I have pictures of fewer than 5 for each date. Although I don't regard them as a truly recordable man-made "variety", they are genuinely collectable and appear to be scarce. At first I created a web page for each year but now I have summarised them on a single page, although I am continuing to update the individual year pages and they can be reinstated at any time if collectors show the interest. I'd be grateful to know of any other years which exhibit this feature.

I've just seen a better example of the 1921 missing waves:

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Interesting but not to the tune of £100 !

How long before forged "vaccination passports" are available on Ebay ?

He has now removed the listing. I think it was an honest mistake but it's a pity he didn't check after our first polite interventions. All's well that ends well, though it leaves a few questions about Lockdale's declared results....... And I've just received this message from him: You were correct the item has been took down the correct one relisted later tonight. I am sorry for the confusion.

I do believe that he has mixed his photos up unintentionally but has been unwilling to even consider that it might be his fault.

When you look at Lockdale's catalogue for the auction, every item seems to have a "hammer price" suggesting that everything was sold, which is seemingly not the case. Presumably many of the "hammer prices" are actually the reserve, which was not met ? But it makes Lockdale's look like a very successful auction house. Is there anything we can believe nowadays ???

He has now sent me a message admitting that he might have posted the wrong picture and will check it when he gets back into work on Monday. If so, I'll post details on here but it's no excuse for the foul-mouthed denials that he sent before checking his own work. Apparently, he's getting a lot of abuse so can I ask everyone to hang fire until we hear that he's made a genuine mistake.