Collections

[Boatbuilder]

Added quite a few new fossils to my collection the past few months--including my first actual entire dinosaur skeletons. An Anchiornis, Shenzhouraptor and a Zhongjianosaurus. At the moment, they are in storage until i finish moving house, then I will display them in my fossil room.

https://imgur.com/a/6zFO24j

Very interesting items, AngryPixie. I saw something similar to them fairly recently on the BBC news. However this one was somewhat larger than yours and you'd need to move to an even larger house than you are probably moving to, to house this one.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-68374520

[Boatbuilder]

I have added a number of coins to my collection over the past couple of months and the first two below are somewhat apt following what TheAngryPixie has posted about on the previous page:

These are the first two of three coloured 50p coins being issued in 2024 by the Royal Mint in conjunction with the Natural History Museum in the "Dinosaurs - Iconic Specimens" collection.





The next two images are the Reverse and Obverse of a £2 one-ounce silver bullion coin that has been issued by the Royal Mint in 2024 and is the first to depict both the UK's Britannia and the USA's Liberty on the same coin.





The next two images are of the Reverse and Obverse of the 2024 UK Proof set of coins. As well as the standard circulating coins in the three centre columns, there are several commemorative coins. A 50p coin in recognition of Team GB and Paralympics GB in the forthcoming 2024 Olympics; A 50p coin commemorating 200 years of the RNLI; A £2 coin commemorating 150 years since the birth of Winston Churchill; A £2 coin commemorating 200 years of The National Gallery; A £5 coin commemorating Buckingham Palace. At the top right is the Royal Mint Medal.





The next two images are of a USA Half Dollar coin that was issued in 1964 commemorating President John F Kennedy following his assasination on November 22nd 1963. This 1964 coin was struck in 90% silver and 10% copper. However, subsequent year's strikings contained lesser amounts of silver and for those from 1971 onwards, silver was eliminated altogether.





This is a Royal Mail stamps First day cover commemorating 'Viking Britain' that was issued on 20th Februry 2024.

[Anita Bensoussane]

Those Viking Britain stamps are lovely, John (Boatbuilder). I love the intricate metalwork of that era.

[Courtenay]

Those are excellent stamps! Very appropriate to have York as the postmark, too. I haven't yet been there, despite having lived in "the North" for over two years, but York is definitely on my list, with one of the main attractions being Jorvik Viking City!

[Boatbuilder]

Last month I posted a couple of pictures of the first two of three coloured coins in the Royal Mint's Jurassic collection. I have now received the third coin shown in the image below, and that is followed by an image of the complete set of three.

To correspond with this, Royal Mail issued a set of eight stamps under the title 'The Age of the Dinosaurs' and below these is the First Day Cover postmarked, quite appropriately, in Lyme Regis.

[Katharine]

Interesting coins.

I got a Sherlock Holmes 50p in some change today. I was really pleased, as I'm fairly sure I don't have that one.

[Boatbuilder]

I guess this is the coin you are referring to Katharine. I have it in my 2019 Proof collection.



And if this one is worth £4,500 then mine must be worth £4,500,000

[Katharine]

Well yours is definitely in better condition than the one I received today, but not sure it's worth quite that much.

[Courtenay]

Ooh, excellent that you now have all the dinosaur coins, John BB. I visited Lyme Regis a few years ago, aware of the history of Mary Anning (and Jane Austen for that matter ), and was fascinated to learn that people do still find fossils on the beach quite regularly... I went for a beach walk up towards Charmouth, but didn't spot any fossils, and didn't like to go poking around too close to the cliffs in case they fell on me!

[Bertie]

This has got my train loving dad and brothers drooling...

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-yor ... 645753.amp

... Especially my dad, who is the most into steam trains. My brother's like them, but are more into the diesels of the 70's and 80's.

I can appreciate them, but not with the same level of enthusiasm. Though I did used to like going to the exhibitions as a youngster and seeing all the layouts - more so for the scenery and village scenes as for the trains (as my subsequent collection of Lilliput Lane cottages probably highlights).

[Anita Bensoussane]

Same here, Bertie. I like model railways but what fascinates me is the miniature world that the tracks run through, rather than the trains themselves.

[Bertie]

Absolutely, Anita.

One of my favourites in my collection isn't actually a Lilliput Lane, it's a Jane Hart one. And it always reminds me of the type of scenes on layouts at those exhibitions. I haven't taken a photo of mine, but here's a link to a Google image of the same one. It's called 'The Windmill Line'...

https://images.app.goo.gl/rxqBv8mkXTNcNmgc7

...I have a few Lilliput Lane ones with a railway link - an old fashioned platform, old train carriage that's now used as a cafe by the looks of it*... - and I've got them all together in the 'railway' section of a mini village that I've got laid out: with shops as a little village centre, church and school together, etc. I think of it as Peterswood.

*Here's a Google link to the Lilliput Lane old train carriage one. It's called The Sidings...

https://images.app.goo.gl/Ki2fQRi7j7cWQTjp6

[Anita Bensoussane]

Nice items. Some of them do have a Blytonian feel to them.