Coin Shaving?

Hello John:

Now I'm confused, but I'm generally that way. Looking at the link it seems like they were only released last year for general circulation. Your vending machines must not be as picky as the ones here in the US.

Of course nowadays they're generally taking bills which is more practical sense our largest coin in general circulation is $.25 (larger denominations but you hardly ever see them) and you can't get much for a quarter nowadays.

Off this topic I thought about you the other day when I upgraded to a N router, saw some really nice high gain antennas/adapter down at the computer supply that would probably solve your range problem, for your second office.

You know the one Across the street.

From the link, they were first issued in 1969 (188,400,000 coins, with Britannia on the reverse as per the pic in TVP45's OP).

Re the wi-fi link, I've been working away from home (and not just across the road !) most of the time for the past 10 months or so, so the need for the "2nd office" has been less pressing.

Well, you know that the queen had someone ELSE do the dropping of the coin in water

Can you lend me a tanner, mate? My suspenders have broken.

WooooOOOoowwoooo I think that's going to be very lost on our US friends.

And anyone who wasn't aged over 15 in 1971 ! (Or like me, who heard the tales at her mother's knee - I found new 5p pieces work rather well....)

Our US friends will have to get their UK English - US English dictionaries out first...then worry about the timing.

Tanners were prefered over farthings since they (the tanners) were silver and so didn't mark the skin. Anyone know where the name "tanner" came from?

Go on do tell....... LOL

But I don't know why they're called tanners - I was hoping some of you who'd used them could tell me...

I've still got a handful of them that I kept as momentos.

But I must admit to being old enough to have used them as well as the farthings - remember farthing chews? sweets like fruit salad, blackjacks etc... 4 for a penny.

Ah, yes, I remember it well ....

.... blackjacks on the way to school .... pressing button B in phone boxes .... those were the days.

pressing button B in phone boxes

Oh you guys are showing your age !

I wuz always told "if you've got it - flaunt it"

_{^{Or somethin' like that - mumble - bugger! them young'uns 'as gone joyridin' me Zimmer again.}}

_^Memo:

OK, here's the tell ; what is your lots favourite coin of memory ? Mine's the thrupenny bit. That damn thing make me salivate when I see them now. It's the quintisential coin of recent Brit times. I could wax lyrical ( OK, just 'wax' with my literary skills !), about that coin, but what do ye all think ? Name your fave coin !

I'm swayed by the thrupenny bit:

... but I think the portcullis has turned me off - reminiscent of a prison? .

I'll stick with the farthing.

[Silver thrupenny bits were nice, but AFAIK not legal tender in my time - so I'm not counting them].

reminiscent of a prison?

You may not be far wrong - bring back a Portcullis at Westminster, it wouldn't be at all out of place !!

I'll stick with the farthing.

Had to read that twice !

The New Two Pence Piece (you'll still not get my age right ) because it's the same size as the old 1d coin, so it could be used to get a platform ticket at BTM (that one's for PWS).

OR

The coins issued by Esso about the Space Race and Moon Landings...my collection is one short .

???

BTM Bottom
BTM Betäubungsmittel (German: drugs)
BTM Break The Matrix
BTM Business Technology Management
BTM Best Tuning Memory (Sony)
BTM Behind the Music (VH1)
BTM Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi, Ltd.
BTM Bluetooth Module (wireless technology)
BTM Beneath the Massacre (band)
BTM Butte, MT, USA (Airport Code)
BTM Big Thunder Mountain (Disney Theme Parks)
BTM Boys to Men
BTM Benchmark Timing Methodology
BTM Bromotrifluoromethane
BTM Boarding Team
BTM Ballet Theatre of Maryland (Annapolis, MD)
BTM Boarding Team Member
BTM Betäubungsmittelmißbrauch (German: Drug Abuse, used in the police records)
BTM Blame the Media
BTM Basic Transfer Mode
BTM Blood Temperature Monitoring
BTM Baggage Transfer Message
BTM Biotech Monthly (independent research firm)
BTM Baltimore Tattoo Museum
BTM Big Trellis Model
BTM Boat Tail Match (ammunition)
BTM Base TEMPEST Manager
BTM Blast Test Missile
BTM Bout That Money (band)
BTM Burst Transmission Mode
BTM Bell Telephone Number (sic)
BTM Branch Terminal Manager (banking)
BTM Backward Transformation Method
BTM Bearer Transport Node (sic)
BTM Black Top Maintenance
BTM Big Time Mafia (video game; graffiti gang)

Those are from http://acronyms.thefreedictionary.com/BTM

Also found Bradworthy Transport Museum and Bury Transport Museum, which look more promising in this context.

<sigh>

I said you needed a platform ticket....do you want one more go?

Ah! Brisole!

<slap>

Bris-tOLLLLLL I'll 'ave ee know. It'd be a good ideal if ee knew what ee was talkin' abou' wi' pronouncin' my 'ome city & county's name. Up the Robins!!!

John might have been having a Bisto momment

I've only just noticed, but somewhere along the line that added an 'a';

I was prob'ly just having a Bistro moment - 'til I got expurgated.

But then I nivar cood spel.

_{^{[BTW, Kris - thanks for giving me a get-out, saving my BTM from the Wrath of ER]}}

Bristols a word that send my typing completely off track

_{^{DON'T GO THERE !}}

Of course with my heritage, I'm a Bristol City fan...up the Robins !!!! (_{^{haven't I said that before ???}})

It's the thorns that cause the most damage

<Ouch!>

The Sims ? Pulwhari Sharif railway station ??

Bristol Temple Meads - the terminus of one Isambard Kingdom Brunel's 7ft gauge railway that still runs in 1432mm form from London Paddington. "Brunel's billiard table" - at least the bit east of Swindon was.

hehehe.....the jigsaw is forming....

I've still got some cool coin collections (a little tatty) from filling stations; vintage cars, animals, and historic figure. Oops, the last one is cards, and without going to the cupboard I'm not sure who issued them.

Which coin are you short of ? There's still a few weeks of car boot sale season left....

From memory one towards the bottom right of the mounting card. Being more exact would entail a trip into the loft and knowing which box it's in...if it's not still at my parents' house

Nonononononono!

The 2p is the same size as the old ¹/₂d. Honest!

Have you found my marbles over there? I seem to have misplaced them.

Now you've said that, I think we had to buy a 1d piece (for 2p?) to operate the machines. The station recirculated the 1d pieces - cheaper that installing new machines, and a delight for small children....it's all so long ago....

The conversion would seem about right, since £1 = 240d = 100p

Once upon a time, in a galaxy far, far away, there was a coin sorting centre for a major high street bank that employed layabouts students inbetween terms. Much of their work involved shooting coins out of coin bags onto a table, and throwing out the foreigners and the bent ones prior to loading the rest by the bucket-full into coin sorting and counting machines.

Although the 2p and the old ha'penny were the same size and shape, UK coinage has a distinctive "ring" that is not shared by the coinage of any other nation. One knew instantly whether an odd-bod was in the heap because of the sound. Even ha'pennies and 2ps, although they are the same size and weight, ring differently. So one could carry on with a chat and a leg-pull around the table without looking at what was there and still get it right. Indeed, if one looked too long, all one saw was circles for weeks afterwards....

That is soooo true....

Reminds me of when I worked at a place with a coffee machine, I was talking to the guy as he emptied the coins out and one fell on the floor and DEFINITELY did not sound right....

We both stopped and picked it up took it into quality control and put it under a microscope.... It was a one shilling bit made from two halfs glued together!!!

A definite forgery....

.....which is the derivation of the colloquialism "spend a penny".

I used to be a dab hand at getting into those for free....and then handing the cubicle over to my little sister....people used to get so upset.

I did it as a student at Birmingham New Street...and the attendant came and hammered on the door and yelled abuse. I took a little longer than usual and scuttled out! I always regarded it as a game...

My favourite is the crown as it was worth a lot of money when I was young.... 5/- or five bob to you young 'uns....

Failing that my favourite would have to be the half-crown.... 2/6d or two and a tanner to the younger ones....

<...half-crown.... 2/6d or two and a tanner to the younger ones....>

One could get double-egg-and-chips and a cup of tea for 2/6d at one time. _<Sigh>

... or a pint of Best and a packet of crisps ... complete with blue twist of salt ... _<Sigh>

Even nostalgia isn't what it used to be...._<sigh>

pressing button B in phone boxes

I heard about those on the reruns of Paul Temple....what were they for again ?

Best I could find:

"tanner - sixpence (6d). The slang word 'tanner' meaning sixpence dates from the early 1800s and is derived most probably from Romany gypsy 'tawno' meaning small one, and Italian 'danaro' meaning small change. The 'tanner' slang was later reinforced (Ack L Bamford) via jocular reference to a biblical extract about St Peter lodging with Simon, a tanner (of hides). The biblical text (from Acts chapter 10 verse 6) is: "He (Peter) lodgeth with one Simon a tanner, whose house is by the sea side..", which was construed by jokers as banking transaction instead of a reference to overnight accommodation. Below in more money history Nick Ratnieks suggests the tanner was named after a Master of the Mint of that name. A further suggestion (ack S Kopec) refers to sixpence being connected with pricing in the leather trade. I have no other evidence of this and if anyone has any more detail relating to the derivation of the tanner please send it. An obscure point of nostalgic trivia about the tanner is (thanks J Veitch) a rhyme, from around the mid-1900s, sung to the tune of Rule Britannia: "Rule Brittania, two tanners make a bob, three make eighteen pence and four two bob…" I am informed also since mentioning this here (thanks to the lady from London) who recalls her father signing the rhyme in the 1950s, in which the words 'one-and-sixpence' were used instead of 'eighteen pence'."

The above is from http://www.businessballs.com/moneyslanghistory.htm

I doff my cap to you, kind sir.

Interesting - here is another reference from Online Etymology. The dating and the reference to its small size are common to both references.

tanner "sixpence," slang word first recorded 1811, of unknown origin. J.C. Hotten, lexicographer of Victorian slang, thinks it may be from tanner and skin, rhyming slang for "thin," presumably in reference to the smallness of the coin. (Not to be confused with tenner, slang for "ten pound note," which dates from 1861.)

Started doing it symbolically, but gave it up (as a waste of time) after:

R = ²√(r²sin²(Θ/2)+(r(1+cos(Θ/2)))²),

... where R and r follow your notation, and Θ = 2π/7