Ætheling

If i knew what a sunflower note was! I take it they're not common in UNC these days?

I fold and crease crisp £5 notes (often in sequence) nearly every day. Infact i kinda enjoy it, it's nice being able to have a nice new crisp note to spend rather than a ragged, torn in half and sellotaped together dogeared fiver that spent some time in a puddle before being picked up by some lucky person. Usually not me... How such nasty notes stay in sirculation is beyond me, i thought the banks were supposed to remove them and replace them with new ones and send the ragged ones in for incineration.

I never had video games when i was growing up, well except Sonic the Hedgehog and stuff like Pacman, Tetris and Space Invaders. Mortal Kombat too, Road Rash etc. But i was much older before i got the Sega, and i didn't really take to it. I've got a playstation somewhere but can i remember where i put it? Infact until now i had forgot i'd got it. I wasn't much of a sports person, i avoided it, i still do. Which is perhaps why i never came across him before now. Still it seems like a fitting gesture to include him on a banknote.

I had never heard of the man, i even had to ask what he was famous for. Oh dear... i'm so out of touch these days. Why not Tiger Woods though? Someone i've actually heard of? (Well that's my full compendium of famous golfer knowledge). Never did take much interest in the game as far as watching people play it goes. But i have to admit it's a decent game to play. I tried it once and i thoroughly enjoyed it, i dunno why i didn't take it up actually.

If i press AltGr=E then i get é

This can vary greatly from country to country. For instance on my keyboard you get the following; Shift+3 = £ Shift+4 = $ Ctrl+Alt+4 = € (AltGr+4 also works)

Which goes down well with us dialuppers. You're pictures are too large for my connection to cope with. I couldn't even wait for the proper "quote" button to load. Well i'm not waiting 10 minutes.

But you'll note i don't collect that junk. Churchill's are hideous and should never have been minted. As for the George III post 1816 stuff that's the work of Bendetto Pistrucci so what do you expect? He was less interested in making the design nice, but he was more interested in making it striking. He often went over the top with things. If he were alive now he'd probably be one of the minimalist modern 'artists' that chuck a pile of stones in the centre of the flor and call it artistic expression. I call it a pile of stones whichever way you look at it. If you think his George III stuff is hideous you should sample some of his other work, namely a certain George IV farthing. I'm also not keen on any of the obverse of British coinge issued since 1985, i hate the 5p, the reverse commemoratives are forced and are total drivel. Did you see that stupid 2002 £5 coin? A child of 7 could have drawn that and submitted it. Then there was that Cordial Entende £5 coin for 2004 another pile of trash. Wreath reverse crowns are naff, as is most of the coinage produced since the mid 1920s. The Edward VII and George V obverses aren't all that great either, they are a graders worst nightmare. The 1977 crown was particularly bad too. Anything else i forget? Oh yeah Henry VIII old head coinage and Edward VI base issue coinages are pretty nasty in the scheme of things. Most of the other modern British coins i'm luke warm to. So i think the Brits are rivaling the Usians for crap designs. Although let it be noted we haven't gone to spaghetti hair just yet.

Nickel's my least favourite of those four. Copper is in third. As for gold and silver i like them about the same. I like gold cos well it's a one of a kind metal, alot of metals are 'silver'. But i like silver because it's got a nice ring to it. Actually if you drop a gold coin from a height you'll notice it sounds similar. Tin's my favourite. Tin coins are out of this world!

Well it's not as bad as that incuse indian.

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! Take it away, i repent...

Actually i think i'd better throw this on in at this point. In England in the 9th-12th centuries, the coinage was generally made of very high silver content (except for a bad patch in the 1100-1140 period), but generally the 'government' made a policy of demonetising coinage regularly to maintain the high standard set. A new design would be introduced in good quality silver (think Æthelred II hand type pennies) which would circulate for about 6 or 7 years and then a new issue of say second hand type pennies would be introduced in the same standard of silver. There would be a period of grace and then the old coinage was demonetised, called in and recycled to make the new coinage. Any that were not returned only became worth their weight in silver and merchants/traders were not required to take them. Then after another say 10 years a new type of long cross coinage would arrive and the second hand type would be demonetised. This process continued for nearly 200 years. Except for the periods of internal strife during the early 12th century the system worked.

This sounds familiar. No wonder why the house turns into a humidity box around this time of year.

Oh i know the feeling, i get b's and d's mixed up all the time. And i always miss the "n't" off of words like 'does', 'is', 'should', etc. Which makes my messages make no sense whatsoever.

Oh my God that is hideous. What has that Liberty been smoking? She looks like she should go into rehab. And the hair! Member of the Addams family? I thought the Sac was bad but not after seeing that.

Hmm good point now i think on. I suppose notes from Nazi Germany are one very good example. As are US Silver Certificates, from the time when paper was backed by metal.

Well i don't think much to the whole idea of the series at all. Profit margins again for the mint = more junk. But you will be surprised to find that to be honest i actually like that design. The wig is what did it i think. It looks kinda Royal in a way, which makes me like it. The reverse is so-so, no real feeling about that one way or the other. Whenever they come out i want one of the Washington ones. I'm not entirely looking forward to the Jefferson one though...

Throws many people astray that does, i believe depending upon the period the coin is from one or other is often missed off. Usually Naples.

Well i agree with you. I've never really considered the SBA much, but it's definately not ugly. Ugly to me is those Matron Head cents, they do pick some real mingers to put on the obverse. Oh then there's the Fluffalo Nickels and the Jeffs, and the Sacs. I'm not overtly keen on any of the seated Liberty stuff (it ain't ugly at all, they just don't look American to me, i think Switzerland). Oh jeeze i thought i'd seen everything until i turned to the Gold produced between 1813-1839... yeuk. Just like the Matron head copper, nasty. You wouldn't want to meet her on a dark alley, then again the light of a well lit one wouldn't do her any favours neither. Jim you must be referring to the Morgans. (Or was it the Ikes?) I forget.

I can finally add something here. I got a Polish coin through yesterday. One commemorating John Paul II. It does bear a rather odd resemblence to a certain crown dated 1965. Although i hadn't noticed this until i'd won the giveaway. Eek.

This one was mine; (Not particularly all that good), i sold it with a whole ton of other stuff because the verdigris concerned me, i don't like verdigris much.

I don't collect cents, pennies perhaps but we've never had cents. An 1882-H was my first Victorian Penny, infact i think the only Bun head penny i ever owned was an 1882-H one. It was my favourite of my first coins. So every one i see always takes me back to my days as a newbie.

I have a special affinity for 1882-H pennies. Adore them, just 1882-H's though.

I thought you'd got a fake there for a moment. I thought why does an 1891 have the old head.

Yeah it's MA alright. I heard they overpriced by quite a bit, that's why i thought i'd ask.