OT; 5p coins?

[damduck-egg]

I expect a few of the contributors to this group have already given service to the community by various means without having been ordered to do so by a Magistrate or Judge. While we working on a voluntary project a colleague while reading that some toe rag had been given

30 hours community service for some offence remarked that we over a year we accumulated 3 or 4 times that amount each," I wonder" he said "if we could bank this and go out and nick a car or something then cash the hours in"

G.Harman

[Bob Eager]

[David Lang]

Especially when they don't turn up after the first week.

[Tim+]

Not so alas. Just checked my own change and found one with no bumps inside the rim. Just checked the Royal Mint site and this is a feature of some designs.

Tim

[Tim Lamb]

Oops!

You are quite correct. The bumps seem to have been replaced in 2004 with a continuous raised decoration and then discontinued altogether in 2008.

Invitation to forgers as I think those bumps must have been tricky to arrange on the master dies.

Oh well, back to feeding them through slot machines as a test:-)

[Johnny B Good]

That brought back memories of Sci-Fi stories I'd read many decades ago. The only one of those four I can't recall reading being the first in that list ("Firewater"). That doesn't necessarily mean I *hadn't* read it, just that I can't recall it, possibly because it wasn't a particularly memorable story - who knows?

[Johnny B Good]

With 23 different designs of the one pound coin to choose from, it's a counterfeiter's charter. It's no wonder there are so many fakes in circulation (5% being the last figure I saw quoted about 5 years ago - it might be nearer the 10% mark by now).

[Bob Eager]

I have two volumes which cover the entire William Tenn canon.

[News]

In message , Johnny B Good writes

Prior to retirement, I was a local postmaster, and we were constantly urged to check pound coins for forgeries, but POL themselves didn't, and the process to reclaim the value of any found was a nightmare, so few people bothered. I certainly didn't. I'm not sure what removing them from circulation would achieve - by the time they are in circulation, they have achieved their purpose.

[Tim Watts]

Yep - trying to be fancy with the regional coins, commemorative coins etc. Daft.

[Weatherlawyer]

I wonder if you mind explaining that little divergence old boy?

[Weatherlawyer]

Out where?

Do you mean out in the coppersmiths' workshop? Or the blacksmiths? Or are you talking about DIY versions?

[Weatherlawyer]

Suspended for of part of the course. As a reminder of the good old days?

[Weatherlawyer]

What if they grew fat on illegal activities.

[Cursitor Doom]

Look on it as just a form of Quantative Easing - but one that actually works for the people, as opposed to the official kind that merely results in inflated share values, depressed interest rates and localised house price booms.

[Cursitor Doom]

Yes, and it's largely the government's fault for approving so many design variations for a single coin. There's some sort of chart somewhere online

- probably the Treasury website - where you can check your suspect coins against a lengthy table of design variations to see if all the features correspond to their stated issue year and whatnot. But who can be arsed to do that?

[polygonum]

Just how many variations of, say, the old penny existed and were in circulation by the time of their demise? Numerous designs, monarchs alloys and, of course, dates.

[Tim+]

Lots I'm sure. But I suspect that the old penny every had a face value that would have made forgery economic.

The profit margins in forging a pound coin is clearly significant enough to make it worthwhile.

Tim

[polygonum]

I just took the easiest example. Consider the same for shillings, florins, half crowns, crowns, etc. All were available in numerous different designs for many years. And, at least at time of release, some of them would have been worth more than a current day pound.

[whisky-dave]

They'd get lipo suction or a gastric band fitted via the NHS.