LawrenceChard

I wish he would come round and help with the maintenance on my home machine: Finding a well-maintained flipper table has become much more difficult these days.

That, and similar stories have been going around for years. Not just about commercial banks, but also central banks. It's worth reading about banking history, reserve banking, fractional reserve banking, leverage, gearing, derivatives... Many share prices look like bubbles. Many third world countries have rampant inflation / devaluation, but it almost certainly will happen again to one or more major currencies eventually; we just don;t know which and when. If the above sounds risky, you could always have a gamble on cryptocurrencies, and hope you get out with a profit before the next big, or final, crash. Sound cheerful, don't I? ...and I am not even a conspiracy theorist.

Yes, the inflation / devaluation factor is food for thought. When I say devaluation, instead of thinking about how much more gold (and other stuff) has gone up, think of it as how much the pound sterling (or most other currencies), have gone down in value.

Flippers! 🙂

I hope he went back the next week to see if the seller had any more! 🙂

Way back in about 1964 we were selling gold sovereigns at £4 each, £37.50 per 10, £365 per 100, and £3500 per 1000. We can remember telling collectors that collecting sovereigns was cheaper than collecting pennies. Indeed a collection from Queen Victoria to date may well have cost less in sovereigns than in pennies or most other denominations. Sovereigns usually turn up in relatively good condition, whereas most other denominations suffer from considerable wear. However more often than not our excellent advice was ignored, perhaps because it was free! The above is from a page I wrote in 1998, which you can find here: https://24carat.co.uk/collectingcoinsframe.html Nothing much has changed, except prices have gone up by a factor of about 90. Back then, we used to sell minty ones or scarce dates, mintmarks etc., for £5 each. If you think they all look the same, be sure to pick out any 1828, 1841, 1908-C, 1917-L (mintage 1,014,714), 1920-S, 1937 Edward VIII, 1953, and a whole load more. Send them to us, and we will give you at least 2-4-1. As they all look the same, you won't care! 🙂 Actually, I like Victoria shields. Many of them have die cracks or die clashes, so even if you get two with the same date and die number, they are often different. It gets even more interesting to find two sovereigns of the same date, each with the same obverse die crack, but different die numbers on the reverse. Fascinating!, and that's from someone who has seen and owned literally millions of sovereigns.

Demand at least 2 large holes, and don't settle for less than 2 medium size ones.🙂

Don't forget some of the stuff at car boots sale might be stolen. There may also be fakes. In a perfect world, all the sellers at them would be ordinary honest people offloading stuff, but crooks are bound to attend them, particularly because most transactions are cash, and anonymous. Some regular car boot traders also sell things like 1780 Maria Theresa thalers, especially worn or grubby ones. When buyers show interest, the sellers feign ignorance and naivety. Typically they will get about double the dealer selling price from "suckers".

By Virtue of the fact she left her bra off, but I thought that was Liberty? 🙂

2021 Platinum St. Helena Queens Virtues Nice looking coin. We looked at these a few days ago, but: St. Helena not UK, so not CGT exempt. Platinum, so subject to VAT. We decided not to stock them unless we get enquiries.

I hope so! Actually, yes they are, but perhaps it's because ours are the lowest premium we are aware of in the UK. Because we avoid the UK distribution monopoly, we buy ours outside the UK, and have to re-import them, so our first delivery is still about a week away, but after that we intend to carry stocks.

Anybody know who the original "Pinball Wizard" was or is? Clue: How do you think he does it?