Posts Tagged ‘coins’

I’ll wager they will sell out in a day

Posted: November 30, 2009 by datechguy in doctor who, hobbies
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At about 3:20 p.m. today my oldest son sat down to each an early supper since he had to work tonight at 5. He then told me something he had seen on the Life Dr. Who and Combom site concerning the Royal Mint coming out with Dr. who coins.

I checked out the Royal mint site and sure enough they have medals of base medal coins of the <a href=”http://www.royalmint.com/store/Medals/DRWDTBU.aspx”>10th doctor, K9 and the Daleks for £9.95 each (about $16.41 each. I also noticed that they had Silver medals of the Doctor and the Daleks at £35 ( 57.75 each) and a full Gold medal of the Doctor and the Daleks at £150 each ($247.50)

The Silver medals are limited to 5000 each and the Gold to 500. causing me to regret not having large sums of disposable income because they will turn over VERY quickly.

I gave a call to the mint and the lady there told me that they were absolutely swamped. They hadn’t even gotten the medals in the the computer system yet so all the orders were on paper. I picked up 2 each of the base metal ones and one each of the silver. Can’t afford the gold which is a shame because I don’t think they will last past tomorrow if even.

Like the 1st year issue quarter sovereigns if I was working I would have picked up a few to sit on but I can’t justify the expense without work and don’t want to teach my kids speculation when money is tight.

If you want some for yourselves I wouldn’t wait for the day to end.

Some general thoughts for the last few days.

First when you are sick it is amazing how little the vagaries of the political world matter. When you are lying in bed with fever you don’t care what joke the president cracked or no.

That being said if President Bush had said that…etc etc etc.

Is it just me or it it almost becoming a cliché to say those words “if George Bush had done that”, it’s pretty sad that this is the case only two months into a presidency.

And slate is still doing Bushisms. They just can’t help themselves. Hot Air is answering with their Obamateurism of the day.

I actually thought that the Comedy Central show “That’s my Bush” was actually kinda funny. think it’s safe to say we won’t see a comedy central show called Obama & Mama about a president dealing with his mother-in-law living in the White house. The concept of a mother-in-law comedy in the White house does have possibilities but it would never happen.

This won’t be our first post racial president until we can laugh at him like any other president.

Then again I don’t recall laughing at the president being normal until Nixon. In fact other than Carter and Bush #1 every president from Nixon on has been the butt of public jokes. That is a real change in my mind or maybe I am whitewashing history.

In my opinion Ezra Klein’s attack on Ann Althouse is dishonorable.

It’s hard to remember sometimes that only 4% of president Obama’s first term is done. There is still a lot of time for him to make things work out.

Then again after calling for Imus to be fired for insensitivity his special Olympics joke was really stupid. Not so much the joke which was kinda lame but that the President cracked it. Where was the teleprompter when you need it. Wasting its time blogging!

Of course he could have said it was candlepin bowling. That takes real skill. There has never been a perfect game in Candlepin Bowling.

And can someone tell me how a protest of 25 people at AIG make the top of Yahoo news while 3000 “tea party” protesters don’t warrant a mention?

Bert Blyleven and his Dutch team have done the sport of baseball a great service. All baseball fans should be very grateful…

Unless you are from the Dominican Republic.

This by the way is the first time that a Cuban baseball team didn’t make the semi’s of a tournament in 50 years, I’m heartbroken.

Is it just me or is there just nothing worth going to the movies to see anymore? I haven’t been excited about a movie since the LOTR trilogy.

And I still can’t believe they cut out the death of Saruman from the theatrical release. Buy the extended version instead.

Rich’s comic blog is nearing the end of his Doctor Who strip that has run 210 pages so far since march of 2007. If you are even the least bit of a doctor who fan and you haven’t already checked it out you are missing something wonderful.

I sure hope there will be an actual physical comic, I would very much like to buy it.

I have not checked for Dr. Who Audio’s on ebay now for several weeks, April 12th can’t come fast enough for me.

Eventually the normal business cycle will turn and the country will be back on its feet again. The only question is when it will happen and who will be in a position to take credit for it when it does.

And it would be nice if Catholic Colleges can have pro-life rather than pro abortion speakers at their commencements.

And those quarter sovereigns that I picked up at £47.50 (or 47.10s if you want to go old style) are now selling direct from the royal mint at £67.50 That is a £20 increase in under 3 months. I hope you followed my advice way back when and picked some up.

Oh and they make that Darwin coin in gold too. Price £625.

The Marxists, and Answer are still protesting the war. Gotta do something to keep that bankroll full.

And Gateway Pundit has more pictures from his tour of Spain and Morocco amidst his political blogging. They are really something. Just keep scrolling down.

And finally before I hit the sack and get rested up for tomorrow I want to thank one of my favorite fellows of the left Mike for his good wishes during my illness. If you haven’t figured out that good friends come from left right and center then you spend too much time on the web and are too angry to enjoy real life.

British Gold prices on the rise

Posted: February 19, 2009 by datechguy in hobbies
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Just got my latest catalog from the Royal Mint. It has an insert that increases the price on all Royal mint gold products.

Hope you followed my advice and picked up those quarter sovereigns at the lower price. They are tiny but cute.

Between the price increase and the exchange rate changing its quite a price change.

Who would counterfit a £1 coin?

Posted: February 7, 2009 by datechguy in hobbies
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On that coin site I found this link concerning counterfeit £1 coins. I wouldn’t think that it would be worth the price to counterfeit a £1 coin but this older article from the Independent gives some details:

According to coin industry sources, the economics of producing counterfeit coins, as opposed to notes, make it necessary to produce large amounts to net any kind of decent profit. Technically, it is relatively simple to produce fakes using dies made from the real thing; some are made from hand moulds, some on machines. All that is needed is sufficient nickel and brass. The kind of people doing this, in their backrooms and workshops, are most likely to be traditional criminals and gangs – Charlie Kray, elder brother of the infamous twins, was long suspected by police in London of involvement in counterfeit coin rackets.

One coin expert told The Independent that he had heard that £100 worth of counterfeit coins were being sold on the black market for £80 and £1,000 for £800 and so forth. “I think they could cost around 50p to 75p to produce, so you have to produce an awful lot to make it worthwhile,” said the expert, who added: “Frankly, if I get any, I just pass them on in my change, its not worth doing anything else.”

The real problem as far as I can see is that since coins don’t leave circulation for decades a counterfeit stays a very long time. Plus if you turn it in, you’re out a pound. I would think it is just too much work for the government to worry about it but this a newer article shows how the problem has grown:

The number of fake pound coins in circulation has doubled in the past five years and one in every 50 is now counterfeit.

The newer article has tips on spotting the bad ones and a small film as well. Apparently the fakes are getting worse, likely due to an attempt to bring down the cost of producing them. If the quality keeps dropping then the problem might fix itself.