Scottishmoney

Happy birthday and oh by the way I was looking at the set of gold coins I bought from you years ago just the other day.

Slovenija 2 cents 2007 and a Canadian dime.

Hyvää syntymäpäivää Sir Sisu

Oh and congratulations Finland on the World Junior Hockey Championship win last night! Great game and wonderful teams.

I'd prefer to see a commemorative for the end of a war as opposed to the beginning of one.

Maybe in 2017 the Royal Mint will commemorate the Saxe-Coburg-Gothas becoming the House of Windsor and the shedding of their Germanic majesties origins?

Must really be the Puppet de Soc's birthday

I find the depiction of Lord Kitchener's poster to mark the start of World War One somewhat inappropriate considering the other motifs and ways of remembrance for such a huge, tragic loss of life.

 

As far as I can tell this is yet another nail in the Royal Mint's coffin...

I concur - "Your country needs you!" to become cannon fodder for a senseless war that will only result in another war 21 years later. In my entry closet I have my great uncle's WWI trenchcoat - everytime I see it whilst getting a jacket or something I think of him being gassed by phosgene or something and having breathing difficulties for the rest of his long life. The trenchcoat is a very heavy woolen item, cannot imagine being out in the open in that thing soaking wet.

No pics, but at my credit union the lovely young teller had a series 1953 $5 SC awaiting my purchase.

MMMM, that Costa Rica 50 is on my list! I also like your Congo 20000 too!

 

Scottishmoney, Your set is a very nice one. That Maine issue is a rarity indeed. But adding Vermont would be awesome - any hopes for La Louisiane?

The La Louisiane notes are probably not as rare as the Vermont - they were issued during the South Sea Bubble time so there are probably more around than the Vermonts. What I find fascinating with colonials is since the run up to the Bicentennial in 1976 some hoards of some formerly quite scarce notes have flooded the market - notably the Carolinas. NC notes are so flipping common now, even into the 1750s. There have been some archival finds of Maryland and Delaware, the latter printed by the Ben himself, that have turned up in smaller numbers than the NC notes - but formerly prohibitive 1733 dated notes from Maryland from the London made plates have slipped into auctions in the past few years. My one Delaware 20/- from 1746 was printed by Benjamin Franklin in his print shop in Philadelphia - years before he brought in David Hall as an apprentice and later partner.

I collect them primarily for the history, family links to the Revolution etc - not because they are particularly rare or pretty - they sure are not really lovely notes, no attractive females or nice designs certainly. But the whole leaf print thing started by Franklin adds to the allure of them - he figured out that leaf prints could not be duplicated - no leaf is the same as the other - so otherwise you would have to do a clumsy looking woodcut to duplicate a leaf pattern.

On your notes you can clearly see that in the colonies on the borders of civilisation that the printing and ornamentation clearly were much more spartan in the Carolinas and Georgia than in the northern colonies. I nearly bid on a 1789 Charleston note recently, not sure why I didn't.

Another aspect that is fun with the signatures is to research the signers and even the printers of the notes. Some would turn out to be Tories and later fled to Britain or Canada. Others such as Hugh Gaines somehow managed to slip through the dragnet of popular opinion of the time and remain in their business long afterwards - he printed the NYC corporation notes of 1790. I have a couple of Ben Franklin printed notes, some Hugh Gaines, and some famous signers - Laommi Baldwin(war hero and horticulturalist who discovered the Baldwin apple) and John Hart(signer of the Declaration of Independence).

Nice New Hampster note Dave - amazing to think that the note had a nearly 12 year payout time period planned in 1776 - at least there in New Hampster they are honest about how long it will take to pay a debt. Holders of the 1780 Continentals were only finally paid by 1812, and then only 1% of the original debt after the bonds issued in the 1790s were paid up.

Sometime I want to finish my colonies, I still have Vermont, New Hampshire, Georgia, N and S Carolina to go. Curiously enough I have a Maine item from 1758 that is probably much scarcer than Vermont even.

Nice images Stef - you have an eye for nice coins.

My main fascination is the reduction in size of the notes - paper/plastic changes don't generally involve a size change as well (and in recent decades, most currencies have already been "small size" though the British £50 is still a relatively large sized note.

From collecting British notes - the size reductions over the last century are pretty dramatic.

One big thing - Ted Kennedy is out of the picture - his "in" with Crane and Co was a big factor in keeping paper money from being changed more than Crane and Co could handle. Kennedy did a fantastic job of looking out for his donors and people in Massachusetts. Cannot say the rest of the country benefited so much though.

Vedy vedy nice!

Rod - I collect medals from World's Fairs - especially the 1904 St Louis fair - amazing how few boxes and paperwork are available for the medals - I did buy one on eBay once curiously enough from a seller in Great Britain and for a pittance of a price. I also collect the 1918-1920 Memorial Plaques or "death pennies" with original paperwork and it is even much more difficult to find them - but I did find the original mailer, paperwork etc for an American soldier that served in the Royal Army during the war.

Yeah, that is a medal I would buy

I got a 1922 Canadian nickel in change:-)

That was the first year those were minted - I don't think I have ever found one in circulation dated before 1929. I can sort of see getting one of the GVI coins since the beaver reverse is the same - but those GV coins have the numeral reverse.

I have spied GVI coins in donation bins several times. Cannot imagine spending a 61+ year old coin, but I guess a lot of people don't care. That way I find GVI 10c coins in reject slots of coin machines occasionally.

I only own one known pattern, a 25 RPF from Germany that was created by Karl Goetz:

The seller of said piece described it as a token and sold it to me for something like $8-10.

Still working on this, no bobs from either country dated 1940 - lots of '39s and 41s though, have both threenubs, the tanner an' a florin. The pennies an haepennies are going to be a bit longer - there are many thousands of them to go through.

 

(getting a lot of error messages)

 

 

Seems to be something with the forum software. I see errors when I post but when I reload the message is fine.

There are no specifically Scottish coins after 1707 - but there were "Scottish" shillings that were minted from 1937-70 that have a different reverse with the Scots lion instead of the English one. I have many thousands of British coins in a rather sizable accumulation that I am at current sifting through for dispersal soon. I know I have coins of both dates - nae sure of finding complete sets of the 1900 though. 1940 is a wee bit easier, do bear patience an' I'll get back to ya with what I hae.

It has to be very nerve wracking to have family over there - and not be able to contact them either. Hope they are all well and dry.

Thank you all for your kind words - my whole last week just was awful. It was one of those times when everything that could go wrong did. I won't go into the details. But I am glad it is over. When you are already on the bottom it can only get better - hopefully.

One a little near and dear - I spend these in circulation and Lesya Kosach aka Ukrainka was a foremost poet and author in Ukrainian literature:

Fascinating you mention the Ben Franklin notes. I remember reading somewhere that Ben Franklin was actually revolutionary in the field of currency printing in that he incorporated tree leaves into the print as an anti-forgery device (leaf impressions are like fingerprints and very hard (at least in those times) to replicate)

Indeed they are - of course the British went about trying to duplicate them during the Revolution - but they show up as heavily inked and not realistic in appearance.

One printed in Ben Franklin and David Hall's shop - by Mr. Hall no doubt as Franklin had become a passive owner of the printing shop by then.