secret santa

On a slightly different note, but still worth noting in the current climate, is that I bought a golf club from the USA a couple of months ago. The USPS tracking data shows it to be delivered to a "facility" in the UK on 5th October. However, it's not possible to contact USPS to find out more details and so this is another non-delivered item. These are (relatively) dangerous times to be mailing items.

No, I sensibly insured it for the price I sold it - ~£2350

Special Delivery is what I used when the Royal Mail lost my rare 1862/1 penny recently (see thread on that subject) - I did at least get refunded.

The A of BRITANNIAR for those of you that are interested.

From the Daily Mail this week: I saw on display in a Pet Shop an animal described as an "Amsterdam cat" so I went in and asked "how Dutch is that moggy in the window ?"

Have you been charged 20% or the correct 5% ?

Great find - always nice to find a second example of a rarity to prove that it was a genuine strike and not a man-made variety. I'll add this to my website.

I've always felt that this must be the case given the way that different nations/races get affected. There must be a reason why some apparently "healthy" people under 50 in this country were so badly affected.

More likely a partially filled reverse die in my opinion. A worn die will have the highest parts worn down which would cause the incuse parts of the coin to be weak, and even on the highest quality 1860/59 pennies the left breast is usually flat whereas the rose etc at the bottom is usually fairly sharp.

They'll only work if people follow basic rules of common sense, and we've seen and heard enough to know that there's too many of the population who will ignore them.

Pete, could you mail me pics please. Thanks R

What's a sticky post, please ?

I would certainly be very happy to add many more of the variations that you have posted previously (bringing the posts together would be ideal) and I agree that it would be perfect if a new naming convention could be agreed among a few specialists, perhaps along the lines of CP9999AA as per Gouby's bronze penny convention.

Ian, you must seriously consider making all your many hours of work on copper pennies available to the numismatic community in some way.

Interestingly, my large rose penny seems to have this obverse including die crack.

Just heard from Michael that he'd sent 2 update packs to Gary Schindler in the States but when they arrived with Gary, the packet had been broken open and packets of sweets substituted for the updates ! Can you imagine the mentality of the person did that ? Michael is understandably distraught and this is yet another unfortunate experience that he's had sending things to the US. He has vowed never to ship to the US again and who can blame him ?

I'm sure that if I were in business, having an efficient website would be the top priority.

Yes, it's a lousy site in that you can't go directly to a particular monarch/denomination. All the coins are in random order rather than date sequence so you have to go through every page of, say, base metal, to check out every penny. Staggering in its non-simplicity.

There was a Mick Martin who produced a comprehensive study of copper pennies I believe. I'll check.

For zero, read normal though it felt like zero.

Not directly related, but may be of interest. Last Friday, my doctor told me to get a Covid test. I got online and was able to book a test at our local rugby club, just over 4 miles away. Perfect. It was a drive through test which means everyone there is in full PPE and they don't let you open your car window other than to throw in the test kit. They then give you instructions from behind their shields and through a closed car window. Not surprisingly, I couldn't hear properly and ended up not swabbing my mouth in the right place (I swabbed the inside of my cheeks towards the back as you see people do it on crime thrillers whereas they want you to sway the back of your throat next to your tonsils as I found out when I got home and read the instructions which they did not ask me to read on site). I received a Negative result but was worried that it have compromised by incorrect swabbing so I checked with my GP who told me to get another test. I tried to book another test on Monday and was offered the middle of Oxford. I tried again on Tuesday and was offered the middle of Coventry (67 miles away). Needless to say I have given up and today, after 9 days, my temperature has actually returned to zero. It seems that you are offered a different test site every time you get online - surely this can't be right ? Do these sites exist for 1 day only ? I never had classic Covid symptoms and I'm pretty sure I didn't have Covid but I did have a nasty flu-like bug. I am loathe to criticise the NHS but this testing regime is bizarre.

I've now added coin but need your surname, to credit you properly, Mick.

I do not intend to add Mick's coin to the population of F28s on my website without a better photograph.

Sorry, I meant 1860JB. I'm not at my best at the moment - I had to go for a Covid19 test today after 4 days of fever.

So annoying that neither Michael or I noticed that he'd included the wrong "zoom" of BP1890JB - I was so intent on checking the text throughout that an incorrect photo slipped the net ! It's so blindingly obvious once pointed out.