Summer 2024

[David H. Lipman]

One of my favourite Twilight Zone episodes @NewTricks

But you are safe and sound and you made it rather unscathed, but a wee bit rattled.

[NewTricks]

2 minutes ago, AdvancedSetup said:

Back safe and sound is what matters

 

Positively.

My space is reserved here. Penny's been working on me for 7 years. I like my own little home in a place that has 4 seasons. 

[NewTricks]

3 minutes ago, David H. Lipman said:

a wee bit rattled.

Yes, and that seemed to carry over to today, mildly. But I'm getting over it. 

[NewTricks]

It's been 100 degrees here today. Then cooled off to 87 with a heavy thunderstorm. 

I hope to get some nice photos of the party tomorrow. 

[NewTricks]

I found these and didn't know they made several $1 coins. I've only seen the Susan B. Anthony in New York. 

Thomas Jefferson and Ulysses S. Grant possibly circulate more in the Southern states? Jefferson looks well worn, but Grant looks almost pristine. What kind of magnifier would be necessary for gauging wear and value? 

[digmorcrusher]

Unfortunately I think your not going to get a new car out of these. Maybe a cup of coffee. 😁 

https://www.usmint.gov/coins/coin-medal-programs/presidential-dollar-coin/thomas-jefferson

 

https://www.usmint.gov/coins/coin-medal-programs/presidential-dollar-coin/ulysses-grant

[David H. Lipman]

A "few" from the vault

[NewTricks]

6 hours ago, digmorcrusher said:

Maybe a cup of coffee. 😁 

At home! 

[NewTricks]

6 hours ago, David H. Lipman said:

A "few" from the vault

Nice selection. Did they come into your hands through daily life? 

[David H. Lipman]

Only a couple, [that I can remember].

[NewTricks]

My grandson brought me a flower bouquet and this: Wegmans Fruit Tart-a family favorite. I didn't realize how much I love it until now. Forget lemon filled donuts! 

Google has been blasting me with floating balloons all day. 

"An assortment of fresh fruit, cut in-store daily, on top of a creamy vanilla diplomat cream in a tender shortcrust shell." 

[nukecad]

When I was a child the UK coins in general circulation had various different monarch's heads depicted on them, I remember using coins depicting heads from Victoria up to Elizabeth II, and also changing depictions of some of them.

Victoria and Elizabeth II in particular were each on the throne for quite a while and their image on newly minted coins was updated as they aged.

There are of course much much older coins with monarch's heads on them, but not in general circulation.
https://www.royal.uk/coinage-and-bank-notes

In February 1971 we changed to decimal coinage and all that old LSD (Pounds, Shillings, & Pence - see the link below for why LSD and not LSP) coinage was fairly quickly withdrawn from circuation.
Although there was a short period when you could still pay for things using the old pre-decimal coins but only got new ones in your change.
https://www.historic-uk.com/HistoryUK/HistoryofBritain/Decimalisation-in-Britain/

In the UK unless you are over age 50 then you will have only ever bought things using coins with Elizabeth's head on them - until last year/this year when new coins have been released with Charles III's head on them.
https://www.royalmint.com/annual-sets/2024-annual-sets/the-2024-united-kingdom-brilliant-uncirculated-definitive-coin-set/

However by far the majority of coins in currrent circulation here are still Elizabeth II, we have been using them for 50+ years so there are a lot of them about, as opposed to the 1 year that the new Charles III ones have been out.

Edited July 9 by nukecad

[NewTricks]

Beautiful post with excellent links @nukecad. Thank you for this! I was especially intrigued by Charles III's coins, with the variety of "wild life" and plants. Compared to coins here, these are artistic and creative, lovely to look at. I can't ever remember thinking, "Oh, a nickel, how cool!" I love those pennies. 

4 hours ago, nukecad said:

Victoria and Elizabeth II in particular were each on the throne for quite a while and their image on newly minted coins was updated as they aged.

So reality is valued too. And I learned a new word, "obverse."

Being in the over 50 crowd, you've seen it all. Did you think decimalisation was a welcome change? Did that cause a big ruckus or just a little grumble?  

[David H. Lipman]

54 minutes ago, NewTricks said:

So reality is valued too. And I learned a new word, "obverse."

People all too often state "There are two sides to every coin."

But they are wrong!

There are three sides to every coin.  The Obverse, Reverse and Edge.

[nukecad]

1 hour ago, NewTricks said:

Being in the over 50 crowd, you've seen it all. Did you think decimalisation was a welcome change? Did that cause a big ruckus or just a little grumble?  

Decimalisation of the curency was generaly taken in our stride, the older generations struggled a bit at first but soon got the hang of it.

For years there was a suspicion that it caused prices to rise more quickly, because the smallest value halfpenny coin was lost, (the new half-pee was the value of an old penny) and some still do cling to that belief (although usually in a half hearted way).
However small value coins do fall out of use, the old Farthing (1/4 of a penny) was never of much use since WW2, they stopped minting them in 1956, and it was withdrawn on 1st Jan 1960.
I never got to spend one of those farthings, not that one would have bought anything on it's own even back then.
Farthings had a picture of a Wren on them.

Side note: That new half-pee coin itself didn't last long and was withdrawn in December 1984.

At the time of the change I was a pre-teen but had a job as a collector for the local milkman, I'd go round  several hundred houses each Friday evening collecting the money owed for that past weeks milk deliveries. (Daily doorstep milk delivery is also now long gone in most places).

Any confusion about the change of currency was short lived even among pensioners, a few weeks at most, and then most had stopped asking "How much is that in old money?".

The old coins dropped out of usage much quicker than expected, well before they were officially withdrawn.
Even after withdrawal you could still deposit them in the bank, so piggy bank money was safe, you just couldn't spend them in the shops.

PS. It always makes me smile when someone says that Americans would never grasp the metric systen, US currency has always been metric and they seem to use that OK
Weights and measures can take longer to change though, we've been doing it in the UK slowly for the last couple of hundred years, debated in parliament in 1790, it came into legal use for trade in 1864, although we only really started to move to it when shopping in the 1960's
There are a few remaining hold-outs, notably:
Daught beer legally still has to be sold in quantities of  "Third, half, two-thirds of a pint and multiples of half a pint", although bottles and cans of beer are legally sold in Litres and millilitres.
Spirits can be sold by the glass as either imperial or metric and both types of optics and measures are available - but you can't have/sell a mix of imperial and metric spirits measures in the same pub, it's one or the other
Road speed restriction signs are still in Miles per Hour, although the distances on direction signs are now as likely to be in Kilometers as they are in miles.
https://metrication.uk/

Here endeth todays UK history lesson.

Edited July 9 by nukecad

[AdvancedSetup]

Interesting, thanks for the history lesson @nukecad

I won't give the subject justice, but will leave a couple of links on the subject for the USA

 

Refusing to give an inch America's only metric road
https://www.cnn.com/interactive/2015/07/us/metric-road-american-story/

Metrication in the United States
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metrication_in_the_United_States


 

[NewTricks]

6 hours ago, David H. Lipman said:

There are three sides to every coin.  The Obverse, Reverse and Edge

Only you @David H. Lipman 😳

[NewTricks]

I really like getting into these details. It's so curious how people resist or accept change. Moving society &  commerce in any new direction takes time & is dependent on who happens to be in power. 

@nukecad another question: as a collector for that milkman with hundreds of houses, I'm thinking the entire task took hours, if not days. On foot or bike? 

@AdvancedSetup thanks for finding those metric links. I thought about this subject, today, as well as many times over the years. The enormity of a total conversion seemed impossible. 

Thanks for making my day.  ☺️

 

[NewTricks]

Aw @David H. Lipman We don't have many numismatists among us.  👍

(I have to look up that word every single time!)

[David H. Lipman]

39 minutes ago, NewTricks said:

Aw @David H. Lipman We don't have many numismatists among us.  👍

(I have to look up that word every single time!)

Aye...  a wee bit

Some Proof Silver Dollars

 

 

 

US Bill of Rights Proof Set

Silver Dollar, Silver Half Dollar and Gold Five Dollar

 

Edited July 9 by David H. Lipman
Edited for content, clarity, spelling and/or grammar

[NewTricks]

These are so incredibly beautiful! I can see why you are into it. What a delight. 💖

[David H. Lipman]

The scanner does not do them justice.  They are quite lustrous. 

They are just a sample and not in their original US Mint cases as I didn't have the time to setup a well lit area for photographing them.

[NewTricks]

4 minutes ago, David H. Lipman said:

They are quite lustrous. 

My favorite word. I was wondering about the photo- I can imagine it would take some finagling to get the lighting right. Photographing metal's sheen is tough. I never would have thought to scan though...an interesting and successful choice. 

Edited July 10 by NewTricks
grammar

[David H. Lipman]

Since Proof Coins are enclosed in plastic (to prevent handling and oxidation) the plastic distorts and the distance from the glass blurs the object.

 

FYI:   https://catalog.usmint.gov/coins/coin-sets/

 

https://catalog.usmint.gov/harriet-tubman-2024-three-coin-proof-set-24CR.html

 

[nukecad]

10 hours ago, NewTricks said:

@nukecad another question: as a collector for that milkman with hundreds of houses, I'm thinking the entire task took hours, if not days. On foot or bike? 

The majority of the ones that I collected from were terrraced houses, as I recall the collection round took about 3 hours on foot, I'd start at about half Four or Five and usually be finished by Eight.
Most people had the correct money counted out and waiting so each transaction didn't take long.
(If you reckon an average of 45 seconds for each house, including walking between them, and that's 240 in 3 hours).

Knock, Knock, "Hello, milk money you owe so much this week", Here you are", Here's your change, bye".
And on to the next, if you were any good then as you were walking you would be getting the change ready for the next one if they happened to give you say a pound note so needed change.

Having to get on/off a bike all the time would have been slower.

Those lads/lasses who collected from estates with wider spaced detached or semi-detached houses had less houses on their rounds so that they could do theirs in about the same time.

Sometimes if someone was sick or on holiday I might rush through my round, and then do a half of their round as well, with someone else doing the other half.

It does make you think a bit, all across the country you had eleven and twelve year olds walking round at Eight O'clock on a dark winters Friday night with the equivalent of 2 or 3 weeks average wage for most people in a leather money pouch.
But we saw nothing unusual, or even dangerous, in it. Different times.

PS. There was a bonus to having more houses to collect from - because I had a round with more houses on it I got more tips at christmas.