Geoff T

Given that Old Head farthings were first issued in 1895, there's an interesting parallel with the first issue of Jubilee Head silver coins in 1887. Some of the early strikings have a very proof-like appearance, especially in the mirrored fields, together with notably sharp detail. They're not, however, proofs, as becomes apparent when you put one side by side with the genunie proofs from that year. Geoff

I don't think it's fair to class the silver Britannias with all the other commemorative tat. Surely they're a bit more upmarket than that! G

The item appears to have been removed - perhaps a hint was taken. G

Hi Geoff, It was one of these ones But a nicer silver finish ! I thought maybe it was made for Canada,India or some other British commonwealth country at the time ? No, that's definitely a British penny. Geoff

As far as I know there were no pennies issued in silver in 1902, so what you have must have been silvered. Are you sure it was a penny? The Maundy penny would have been much, much smaller anyway - really quite miniscule. Geoff

...to the 50p coin, 37 years old today. I remember it being introduced on Blue Peter as the world's first heptagonal coin, but I don't think they claimed "Here's one I struck earlier". G

Speaking of foreign tongued monarchs, it was not until George III that the UK had a monarch with greater fluency in the English language. The first two Georges considered themselves more German than English and especially the first George never bothered to learn the language at all and spent most of his time back in Hannover.

[Chris,I've never been to Ulster,but I do have a good friend who originally comes from County Armagh.Like me,she is a Paisleyite.Gerry Adams & Martin McGuinness are Hell-bound anyway,& should have been shot years ago,because they've killed people themselves.Ian Paisley has never killed anyone.I do agree with Ian Paisley's views on the Roman Catholic 'church',& I do agree with his views on homosexuality. Aidan.

I can't help feeling that the issue of slabbing is part of the much bigger picture of the difference between the American and the British mind-set. At risk of over generalising, I get the impression that the American mind thinks in absolutes. Consequently there has to be a definitive grading for a coin just as there has to be the definitive diet or lifestyle guru. Once you have the "right" answer, all others become wrong by default. The British mind, on the other hand, thinks in terms of grey areas and compromise rather than mutually exclusive polar opposites. Both approaches can be seen as having intrinsic strengths or weaknesses, although it appears the former produces particularly disastrous results when applied to foreign policy... G

Er...yes...why? G

These are 19th century gaming tokens and are fairly common. The character on horseback is Queen Victoria's uncle, Ernst August. When George I became king, the British crown and the Electorate and later Kingdon of Hanover/Hannover were united. Since the Hanoverian crown could not pass through the female line, on the death of William IV in 1837 his niece Victoria succeeded him in the UK but the Hanoverian throne passed to the next male heir, her uncle Ernst. He wasn't that popular either here or there and the tokens suggest we were glad to see the back of him. Ernst's son, George V of Hanover, is the person after whom the Hotel Georges Cinq in Paris is named. He was blind from a childhood accident and during his reign the Kingdom of Hanover was annexed by Prussia. Geoff

Well, I can't say I'm not tempted - and it would be going to a good home. Do you want to private me and we'll sort something out. Thanks - Geoff

Unfortunately they are all 'correct' forgeries, i haven't seen any wrong reverse for year, or wrong edge inscription for design ones in some time. I've still yet to find one with all three wrong, but one day perhaps!

The "v" on gothic florins has a curled serif which makes it look like a "b", so I reckon you have an 1885. Geoff

I have a fake £1 which is so bad there are about seven things about it which shout "dead giveaway". I got it in change from a taxi driver last year. He was about to give me change and then fumbled again in his coins, no doubt aiming to offload a fake on a gullible passenger. I might have called his bluff and said something, but the coin was so bad it was good, so I held my peace and kept it. Geoff

Happy birthday and be careful of all those southerners with their jellied eels and funny voices. They don't feel like we do G

1942 is infact an extremely common year for florins and half crowns. Mintage of the former was 39,895,243 - hardly rare. You should be able to get an uncirculated one from any decent dealer with very little effort. Geoff Whoops - should have logged in first!

Thanks. I hope it doesn't turn out as surreal as last year's, where I sat glued to the televison worried stiff about all the friends I have who work in London. Anyone who can get to Manchester in the next hour or so will find that there's still some cake and Chateau Monbazaillac '98 left but it's going fast. G

Why? Maybe we English will finally realise that football is simply a game and not an industry or a celebrity bandwagon, that an overpaid yob is still a yob and that you can't expect to have a decent England team when a substantial chunk of Premiership players don't actually qualify to be in it. Sadly, even though they know it's all over, the English will quickly find something equally trivial to get worked up about. Grumpy old man - moi? Geoff

I can tell you that it's a Swedish piece of Karl XI, but I don't know for sure what event it celebrates. However I'd hazard a guess that it was struck in connection with king's coming of age in 1673. He succeeded at the age of five and Sweden was ruled by a regency until 1672, so 1673 was the first year of Karl XI's personal reign after the regency ended. Geoff

Last week I had the interesting experience of being in Sweden while the England-Sweden match was being played. Let me say I have no interest in watching overpaid thickos kicking a ball around, but it was impossible to escape it on that occasion. Having found a restaurant which didn't have a big screen, we heard the cheers and groans coming from those which did and had various messengers running in with the latest score on the assumption that we were interested in knowing it. What struck me most forcibly was how well behaved all the Swedish fans were. OK, they didn't actually lose on that occasion, but for all the crowds and high spirits there was no yobbish or threatening behaviour, even to those of us who were patently English. All I can say about the World Cup is that it's marginally preferable to the annual Yawnfest called Wimbledon and, unlike in a cricket match, the players actually move around once in a while. Geoff

...if you insist. G

These coins were produced by the shedload - India is a big country - so they're not that rare. The William IV 1835 is the first, but they had a habit of restriking them with the same date until the need for change - in this case the accession of Victoria, and even then it was 1840 before they got round to doing anything. Your coin could thus be from any year from 1835 through to 1839-40. The only way to tell the difference is that the genuine 1835 ones will have a different set of initials for the mintmaster. Geoff

Thanks Chris. Geoff