Ætheling

I thought i post it in this part of the forum because generally this one gets most of the attention. I've been looking all over for one of these and finally i find one. But what do you guys think? It's a Louis XVI 1/10 Ecu and is priced up at $270, give or take a euro or two. But i don't know a huge amount about these, for example the market value...

I suppose it doesn't matter whether your money is hard cash or paper in the long run because in the words of ELO "A fool and his money soon go separate ways..." So it all depends on what you do with it.

You know i find that hard to believe. I really would have thought that the 5 pence would have been the one that got the whole unpopularity treatment. The twopence surprises me, i reckoned the penny would have not faired as well against that. Although i have noted 2p coins are the favourites with the teenagers for throwing at people, they have more bulk about them than pennies and they are quite good to throw obviously, which might explain why they seem to look unpopular. I am stunned that the £2 coin is trailing behind the £1 coin! But we do love our £1 coins... we'd never switch back to paper.

You are correct.

Ah then we are collecting for different reasons i see. You collect for æsthetics and i collect for history. I generally really don't have any what could be called "æsthetically' pleasing coins in my collection. Third Reich and Anglo-Saxon coins tend to lack those diagnostics. Firstly because Zinc is never popular (looks nice with lustre though) but the designs aren't the type that bowl people over. As for Anglo-Saxon well that's the lack of technology to blame.

Oh and spending obsolete money is illegal here because it's demonetised. People tend to hit the roof if you slip them a similar sized old five pence for a new ten pence. They hate it. Although they'll happily take old 50 pences because some vending machines accept them as £2 coins and there's a profit to be made out of them.

Well with regards to collectable coins the only guys that ever se what i've got are you guys on here. None of my friends and most of my family don't know about the hobby. The only family that do know is because my parents aren't as secretive as me. Some of my friends/family know some dodgy people who'd break in and rob you of everything you've got if they thought you'd got anything of value, or even if you hadn't. Therefore i never show or give out obsolete coins, or even talk about them if i can help it with the family, i change the subject pretty quick, "yeah i got a few euros and a few US coins i found in change, anyhow...". I don't leave tips either.

Another metal fan. Sorry McDoo nothing personal against notes but i, like Crystalk just like metals, shiny metals preferred no doubt. I love gold, adore silver, shiny copper i like, platinum never really captured me quite the same way that gold/silver did. Palladium i've yet to see in person but having seen pictures of it, it just looks cool. Although i must confess i find nearly all metals intriguing in some way but there's two that just draw me in like a nail to a magnet. Those are mercury and gallium, you'd not make coins out of either since they both tend to swish around too much. That and the former will kill you. But it's sooo shiny... Metals are truely wonderful. Add in history and you've got one heck of a combination.

The word 'fool' comes to mind. But who's more stupid the seller or any buyers that stumble upon it... ? See if we can't confuse the poor dear chap, lets explain survival rates to him and that his coins are even rarer as the full mintage will no longer be intact!

Right i've found those sixpences i have about 65 of them. Well there's about 75, but i'm pulling ten of the George ones out to keep for my own amusement. I do have some silver ones but they are really, really nasty. Infact nasty doesn't come into it, do you want the silver ones free of charge? I don't have anything else on your wish list sadly apart from the crowns but i can't find them anywhere. Unless i sent them to Labmom, but i don't recall doing such.

Harder still are Churchills below F. I'd love to see one grading Poor, talk about design improvement!

Looks like they've restraightened that one, i have seen them still bent in half before... eek.

It's not that i don't like them, it's just they're not medieval enough. And they lack the silver. I like silver.

One Æthelingian thought for you; "Gold, Silver and Paper all have one thing in common, their worth is in their weight".

How come we get coins demonetised all the time then? One or more denominations were demonetised in the following years; 1696, 1733, 1816, 1869, 1971, 1980, 1984, 1990, 1993 and latterly 1998.

Oh yeah this is the kinda stuff i need! I better find those sixers as fast as i can!

That horrifies me greatly. On the sixpence front i'll try and dig them out for you. I might also still have some Decimal crowns from the UK, 1972, 1977, 1980 and 1981. (Which is a full set of Decimals) I'll let you know when i've found them. I accept 'scrap' junk silver US coins in payment, so for instance that Washington Quarter you were so keen to get shut off, always welcome! I love silver Washington Quarters in any grade.

To be fair what really doesn't help the coin case there is the Government picked two complete duds design wise. The SBA's lack something and the Sacs are plain ugly and to make matters worse they were struck in an unsuitable alloy that just tones 'yeuk'. If they introduced a nice coin design and stuck with it then it might have worked. Of course constantly changing designs does not help the coin case in any way, shape or form. I think this Presidential series will be a total failure too. People like what they are familiar with. The President series with it rotations will just add a further feel of instability to the whole concept of a dollar coin.

Sixpences hey? You say culls... how culled can you accept? I had a bagful of about 50 or 60 George VI and Elizabeth II Cupro-Nickel ones although some had a bit or verdigris. The thing is i can't remember exactly where i had put them, but would they be the kind of thig you were looking for? Or did you want the silver ones? Cos i'm clean out of those!

On the note/coin front. If you consider yourself a forward thinking person that wants progress then you'll find the coin is progress because it makes more sense. More economical, they last longer, more durable etc. If you're the ultimate force in conservatism like me then you'd back the coin yet again, coins came before paper money, so that's a good reason to back it in the first place. See with a coin you can't lose.

As opposed to Britain of course where people tend to have very long attention spans. So much so that the older generations will still ask for a quarter of sweets for 10 bob (i.e 10 shillings). Considering we've been decimal since 1971 it might come as a surprise to some to find people over 50 still walking around referring to things in shillings. We just don't forget things, nor do we like change. So should the UK switch to the euro anytime soon (heaven forbid) then you can expect us walking around in 2030 referring to things in pounds and pence still. We do it on purpose, i'm sure.

I think Hydrofluoric acid has got to be one of the worst, really nasty stuff. Which suddenly doesn't make this stuff seem quite as bad;

Wow you guys and gals get coins all the time! I haven't had anything new since the last time i posted on here...

Depending upon how you interpret that it could just refer to the demonetisation of the SBA $s as they were the ones issued IMMEDIATELY before the Sac (which i presume is the one being referred to in; 5112(n)(7) of title 31, United States Code) Or does 'immediately' refer to every issue before the Sac? Which means this bill is effectively demonetising Morgans, Peace and Ike Dollars if they haven't already been demonetised that is?

Ha that reminds me. I remember a certain Chemistry teacher at school was trying to get the point across about how some metals were unsuitable for certain tasks. We got onto the topic of lead roofing and he said "ah here's a point in question, i mean you couldn't realistically use magnesium for such a task", whereupon on member of the class turned around and said "Sir, what if the roof was lined with Francium", the reply "we'd be dead... and there'd be no school left". Whereupon i said "and knowing us it'd be acid rain as well that day..." It'd be interesting though to see what would happen, would moisture in the air force the Fr to react and explode before a raindrop even touched it? Or would the instability of the element itself be the deciding factor? Still i bet Francium Hydroxide is particularly powerful.