Master Obit

It's pride month, which is a great time to show solidarity and support. It's a fabulous time when we recognise diversity, and embrace the beauty of who we are. Of course, it can also bring out the very worst in people, and I decided this year that if I am going to have to witness the horrible comments, I might as well make a game out of it. I present to you bigotry bingo. Feel free to play it yourselves, if you so wish.

I do love the look of 19th century coinage - have you got pictures?

The problem with these purges is that he's giving the impression that he's extremely authoritarian and will react to even the slightest hint of scandal. It conjures up an image of him being a 21st century Jim Hacker (knee-jerk reactions and has more mouth than trousers). I'm in a group chat for a different community that is about as anti-tory as they go, and there seems to have been a noticeable shift from "get Labour in at all costs" to "get the tories out, but I don't really like Starmer so I might vote greens".

I'm a bit envious as I never got one of these, and I love the NI/Scotland commemorative designs. Are you based in NI?

The Ethiopian birr are lovely! I haven't got anything from Ethiopia myself.

Does anyone know if Ann Meo http://www.ukgameshows.com/ukgs/Ann_Meo is still alive? She set the clues on Treasure Hunt, one of my all-time favourite programmes.

I suppose that's better than it suggesting Prince Andrew as being someone you might know.

Here's something to appeal to you collectors. It's a crisp 1998 edition £100 note issued by First Trust Bank, Northern Ireland. They no longer issue, and this particular example was acquired for me a bank worker when it was paid in by a customer. The bank had a strict policy against swapping obsolete currency out, but with sufficient bribing from myself (and the fact the branch was closing anyway), they were quite happy to ignore the rules in order to save some beauties from destruction for me.

I think the committee should consider putting Ruth Langsford's mother on the list. Not only is she a fossil, but the strain of her daughter's marriage breaking down might take a toll on her.

Hopefully, this will inspire the committee to rethink their strategy of "pick anyone vaguely famous who is over the age of 90". In fairness to them though, I expected there to be far more hits by this point and I can't really blame them for the apparent immortality of some of the candidates. There certainly could have been more hits (Jonnie Irwin was clearly a goner and should have been included), but hopefully there will be an avalanche soon.

I have been fairly intimate with someone who voted for UKIP in one election. If they love you and you love them, and their morals seem relatively fine then differing political standpoints shouldn't be an issue. If I'm honest, I never really understood why this guy voted for UKIP, a party that wants to close the borders and stop foreign visitors. He certainly didn't seem passionate about implementing this policy himself.

Not quite sure, got them a while back. Plenty are available though, depending on what coins you have.

21 September 2018.

I believe she is in the index as Lillian Edith Harris (the exact birth date matches, and also the was death registered in Blackpool). All records I can find for Keith's mother seem to list her as Lilian (including the 1939 census, but bizarrely I can't find a birth record) but I'm going to assume it's the same person and just a typo in the registration.

Stay well aware from PVC coin books. They will leave a very nasty coating on your coins as the material degrades over time. I store my banknotes in chemically inert wallets in folders, coins are stored in trays, or in little labelled bags in boxes.

Some very nice coins here! I'd love to see some pictures. I'll upload some of mine soon.

I'm going to guess it was a George III penny, which would date it about 100 years later. Most probably an 1806/1807, though could have been a 1797 cartwheel penny.

Gosh, what is she thinking? At 88 she should be zooming around. Lazy old bat.

It's lovely to see so many responses. I'm quite an avid collector, and have been since I was around 5 (when my dad found a bunch of foreign coins in a Coinstar machine and gave them to me). Since then, I've expanded to a collection that has some representation from (I think) 203 different territories/dependencies and a complete set of every circulating commemorative (including the Kew Gardens 50p, a few complete sets of Olympics 50ps and all four Commonwealth Games £2s all acquired at no more than face value). I do have a pre-decimal set of coins but which I've not spent quite as much time on of late, with a fairly complete set of pennies from 1860 onwards (though not all in especially good condition). I also have an expansive collection of banknotes, with an emphasis on UK and the territories, the majority of which has been sourced in the wild (with some exceptions, such as editions of ten shilling and pound notes). One of my best chance finds was a £10 note which has been misprinted (the last three digits in the serial number are missing, the result of the ink running dry), in change from a McDonalds of all places. I absolutely refuse to buy any of the so-called "coins" that the Royal Mint issues that don't get circulated. I remember the time when they used to circulate all the commemoratives, whereas now they have far more interest in profit than encouraging people to collect.

Grrr. My chances are limited now as paper notes are very hard to encounter, much less commemoratives. I need a good bank contact. I'll try and upload some images of some of my best pulls from the wild if anyone would be interested.

I'm missing the Nicklaus fiver from my Scotland set. I could easily buy one, but I prefer to try and source things naturally (which can include asking bank workers). I've got a rather good set of Scottish banknotes including one of the hundreds in very nice shape that I've sourced entirely in the wild (though I did get some help from someone who worked in a bank with a lot of elderly clients).

I That's such a pity, and they were probably sold for way less than they were worth. I've gotten to the stage where people recommend me to others to assist with valuing collections, and it makes me very happy to save a few people from having this happen. I once helped someone who had a tin of old coins that they thought were complete rubbish and were willing to just give to me, and in amongst them was a genuine Cromwellian shilling. It ended up being authenticated and sold at auction for I believe somewhere around £2,500, so it's always worth spending time on these things. I'd have absolutely killed to own it myself as it was such a beautiful specimen, but I couldn't really justify the expense at the time. I could have just not informed them and gotten it for free, but my conscience would have eaten me. They did buy me a very nice watch as a thank you gift.

That's a pity, I'd have been more than willing to take them off your hands I'm currently valuing a coin collection that a friend inherited from his grandfather - it's a proper old school collection, and full of very interesting pieces (several of which I will acquire for myself). I always think it's sad when collections that people put a lot of work in to just get split up and sold, but c'est la vie.

I've got a much simpler solution. I muted the bastard ages ago. Not sure why everyone else hasn't at this point.

You can keep Romesh. I think these type of polls necessitate bringing a few celebrities down a peg or two (which seems appropriate given that Prince William is on the list).