secret santa

Boris or Jeremy ? The circus starts again today.

Unlike politicians, the teeth never lie - reverse A

My own 1877 F90 originally went up at 99p so I immediately contacted the vendor to tell him it was worth thousands and not to accept a tempting cash offer. Wound up driving up to Derby to inspect the coin before paying an arm and a leg for it !

Julie Etchingham - she's lovely. Reads our news at 10 on ITV quite often.

Shyster !!!!!!!!!!!!! I messaged them after they put up the first 1877 "narrow date" to correct them and, when they didn't, I threatened to message Ebay at which stage they replied that their (I don't know their gender) father had just died and they hadn't had time. This may be true but I suspect not.

Sadly, I have to locate, and put on, reading glasses to operate a mobile phone. This trend to do more and more with one's mobile phone drives me to distraction. I don't normally carry reading glasses around with me but soon I'll have to have them grafted to my face.

Talking of coins not being what they purport to be, I see our old friend Lukasz has come up with another rarity - he certainly finds more than his fair share. https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Victoria-Penny-1862-Struck-In-Silver-RARE/333252930899?hash=item4d976c2d53:g:pFAAAOSwug5dGQJJ

Got it - thanks Mike.

I may have missed these - can anyone supply links ?

I'm deeply suspicious of this vendor. His photographs seem to be randomly taken on a leather sofa, in his hand etc etc but his feedback is 100%. Has anyone done business with Torcoins ?

It was passed yet again.

Continuing with this speculation, I recently bought a penny on Ebay advertised as a possible inverted V but which, on close inspection, had a very clear and sharp but thin bar to the A, especially when viewed at an angle. I was going to send it back because of this but then spent more time looking at it. In my view, the crossbar of the A is too clear and sharp for it to be the result of a partially filled die. In fact it reminded me of the residual date figures that have been overpunched, e.g F30 6 over 8 where the remains of the 8 are thin and sharp (see bottom picture). Could it be possible that someone set out to repair the A of VICTORIA on a working die (we know that specimens of F10 clearly show other attempts to repair the A - see right hand picture) on a die where the crossbar seemed to be strong enough for the repairer to use an inverted V punch to strengthen the legs, resulting in a thin residual crossbar ? The bar is hardly visible in the photo below but is clear and sharp at an angle under a magnifier and the left leg shows signs of repair (left hand picture). I'll leave it others to comment.

Just had a look at the Michael Cole collection and the lots seemed to be in a random order until I noticed they were in descending hammer price - not easy to find anything particular. Surely date within denomination would be more logical ?

Bob, I don't think I have yours - but take a look at the site and see if it's up there.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/VICTORIA-1860-TB-BB-MULE-BRONZE-BUN-HEAD-PENNY-2-B-FREEMAN-9-EXTREMELY-RARE/283515298259?ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT&_trksid=p2060353.m1438.l2649 Thanks Blake - I've now added the F9 mule to my rare penny site - if anyone has additional examples, I'd be pleased to include them. Richard

Anyone got a link to the F9 ?

When I tried to get one a few years ago, Michael told me they were impossible to find.

or "sighted" ?😎

Sorry, I wasn't correcting/commenting on your statement - merely pointing out where people could get a better view. R

It's example 1 of 8 on my rare penny site.

Hopefully not - there's at least half a dozen of these.

Yes, monetary value was never a consideration in my collecting although I was always hoping that it would hold its value in case I found myself with the need for costly medical attention or care.

This reflects my own view - I think I have missed out on the optimum time to dispose of my collection so the question is whether to wait and hope for an upturn or cut my losses and sell before things get worse?