peter monahan

I'm not into numismatics buty I'd like to learn more too! Many many years ago - 19 actually - on my one and only trip to Forida from the Frozen North, I came across a guy selling jewellery made from "cut up" coins. I particularly a gold or gold coloured coin whose central image, obverse I assume, was an Austrian eagle. He'd cut out the eagle and made pendant out of it. Very classy and I've always kicked myself that I didn't buy it, though it wasn't cheap. He had several dozen types of coin from various places he was using, I assume all fairly common or he'd have lost money but a neat idea, I thought. (Sorry, sorry! I did say I wasn't a numismatist!) Peter

Very Freudian! "Look, daddy. That man's hat has a knob on top! It looks just like yours." Peter PS It isn't just the painkillers - I'm like this when I'm not stoned too! "Better living through modern pharmaceuticals". (big beer grin here) P

Looks great, Stuart! Peter

Stuart First time I looked I thought the covered billiards table was a bed. Too too Freudian! Shows where my minds at, don' it? P

Some of the lower deeps are so hot that the air which runs the drills and so on is refrigerated on surface firts, if the ventilation goes out you'd have about 90 minutes before you baked and the rock is hot enough to burn your skin! Yucch! What we'll do for the "precious stuff". I've worked in mines, but you wouldn't get me down in one of those! Peter

Good question! I don't suppose gold "stale dates" but the logical thing would be to use the oldest stock first, no? It would make a difference too whether the gold, especially SA gold, is in the same category as the diamonds: they're sitting on PILES of it and only let out a bit at a time to keep the price up. (Apparently the world has enopugh diamonds to drop the price to the same as for cubic zirconium if they all hit the street at once) If the SA mint has piles of the stuff then they could be using old or new or a mix but if production more or less matches output to the market then presumably they use this or last year's gold for this year's Krugerrands. don't know how you'd find out though, I can't imagine they'd tell one!

Vot a clever idea! I was going to guess it might be for the lovely plumed version of the pith helmet one sees worn by Viceroy's and other nobs, but of course the plume comes off, dudn't it, so in fact there'd be no need for a taller tin. What will they think of next!

I spent 90 minutes in a dental chair yesterday! (Don't even ask ) In the course of whicj I asked my dentist, a Liverpudlian originallly, about the "Swiss teeth". He said, Johnsy, that he'd read that all the gold in the world would only actually make a pile the size of a two story 3000 sq foot house! Most of the gold ever found is used and re-used. Also agreed that nercury has a real affinity for gold but was very skeptical of the Swiss tooth story. For what it's worth P

Great photos, Tony! One of the units decimated at Dieppe was the "Riley's" - First Battalion, Royal Hamilton Light Infantry. An uncle of my dad's - George Kennedy - joined the Second Battalion and went to Europe after D-Day. He was a bit of an "operator" and, right after the war, he got his hands on hours and reams of German propaganda film and photos which he turned into a movie about the raid. Family legend says it played at the Imperial war Museum for years but I wouldn't know. Any body ever heard tell of it? (George was around till a few years ago, always a bit of a black sheep but a real charmer and invariable involved in some "sure fire" money making scheme which never quite came off, but always on behalf of Brabntford, his home town, or some worthy group rather than himself, so people kept kicking in and never blamed George for anything except poor judgement!) Peter

Luu-verly, Stuart. Drooling on my keyboard here! Hope they give you great pleasure, but not even gonna comment on them being in the bedroom! Peter

It has "fraternal order" written all over it! (In VERY tiny type ) Not Knights of Columbus - they use a helmet finial on their swords, but possibly Masonic or some other order of "knights'. Probably though, as Coastie says, a letter opener or decorator item owned by a member of one of the orders, as I've never seen/heard of daggers to go with the swords in thses orders. my tuppence worth Peter

Gilbert Apparently the shackling went on in a number of Oflag for up to a year. In some the POW's were actually shackled all day every day - "dawn to dusk" so to speak while in others they were cuffed for morning "Appel" then turned lose again. Apparently it depended entiorely on the camp Kommandants and their "interpretation" of the command from Berlin (read sympathy/lack of sympathy for the POWs). Don't ask me now where i read all this years ago but the details shouldn't be tough to check. An interesting sidelight on an already interesting bloke! peter

I stand corrected, Peter! I thought that the partroop model always had a solid chin cup. My apologies for any msileading I've done

[Gilbert Just picking up on an earlier point - re-read this thread carefully this time. The Canadians took a few (very few) prisoners during the ill fated Dieppe raid and handcuffed them for the trip back to England - "to prevent them destroying items of intelligence value" was the stated reason. This made the papers in England and the Germans responded by shackling POWs in germany for a number of months. Or maybe you knew this already. Peter

Stuart It looks as if you've got copper/brass corrosion happening, which is generally a result of atmospheric pollution but in a piece this old could be the actual composition of the metal. Either way it's specialist work. As a short term measure I'd suggest wiping it down gently with cotton swabs or a soft cloth dampened (not wet) with distilled water and putting it into a box. Do NOT use paper towels as they have sulphur dioxide in them which becomes acid when exposed to any moisture at all. Don't seal the box 'cause if it's a result of internal contaminents you don't want to seal them in, but a closed box creates a "min-environment" of humidity and air which tends to slow corrosion. The US National Parks Service has a great series of publications called "Conserv-O-grams" on preserving artifacts. Many are meant for museum professionals but a lot also aimed at the general public who own "old stuff". If you find someone to work on it for you, make sure she/he is a "conservator" - a very specialized (and expensive field). Good luck! Peter

What a lovely looking order! Congratulations to all Poles for having a government who still realizes the importance of such symbols. Peter

I'd agree that no. 2 isn't (Br.) military - maybe a civilian band in the military style? Certainly the well polished crown on no. 1 looks like a soldier's badge, but whose soldier is trickier except to say it has a British/Empire look about it. Graham The arm badge loks very similar to no. 1 but how would one affix the brass one to a sleeve? Would it not be a cap or collar with the pin fastening? Puzzled. Peter

Jens Fascinating ! In general design they are very like the "clogs" produced in the north of England (Yorkshire in particular) for wear by miners, labourers and factory workers. Clogs are incredibly duarable, protect the feet from wet floors/ground - like wooden schoen - and are much cheaper to produce than shoes/boots with proper leather soles, as the "sole bend" (sole leather) is the most expensive and hardest to work part of the boot. These might be late war production? Either for issue to factory workers or perhaps even troops who weren't actually in the line? My two pfennings worth! Peter

Doc Gordon's is the Bible for British ODM, so yes, some edition is a must have. OTOH, sixth editions will now be going cheap when the keeners buy the new one so... Peter

Motorcycle despatch rider's helmet?? (WWII). Paint job - paint sprinkled with sand - is not a factory job but fairly common - probably a field modification as opposed to some collector's idea. But that's my very uninformed (used to know but have forgotten all the details) opinion. Peter

"July 29, 1993: A veteran CIA operative claiming to be with an especially secretive group known as Pegasus, was guest. Trenton Parker, a "sheep-dipped" Marine Colonel, told of his role in planning/execution of the "great energy scam" of the 70s when Big Oil drove U.S. independent oil companies out of business, closed/opened the Suez Canal, created lines at gas pumps to drive up price of oil, filched stolen gold into the market by opening the gold window to Americans for 1st time since 1933, sold weapons to Arab states getting rich from the oil scam and sealed the deal with Portland cement from Spain. " Didn't they kidnap Elvis and sell him to the aliens too?

Lovely photos, Christophe! On the Admiral's fruit salad I notice two different devices - a coat of arms? and an anchor - added to a number of ribbons each. Do these indicate multiple awards, the grade of the warrds or something else? Peter

You mean this baby's actually been silver plated on the fron, as opposed to just polished within an inch of it's everlovin' life? Ouch! ( I think we tend to assume that vets knew and cared about dress regs and so on, when in fact there are some awful crimes against good taste and the King's/Queen's Regs perpetrated by the legitinate owners of uniforms and medals who've decided to "improve" on what they were issued/awarded.) Peter

Tony What's the "NA site"? I'd guess that the shoulder title says "INF" but that's just a guess, WWI is not my field. I do know, however, that many of the CEF battalions numbered above 100 never got to be any bigger than 400-500. Most of these were parcelled out as reinforcenmenst to the first 100 or so units after they hit England. The numbers went as high as 270 but most of those never got beyond 200-300 men and were broken up for reinforcements before even rewaching England. The 256th CEF, for example, was from Lindsay, Ontario, my wife's home town and I think numbered less than 200 men in total - raised in 1916 or later. Mkes the badges very rare and desireable but service tought to trace because none of them were 256th by the time they left England for the Western Front! Peter

Steve Thanks very much for posting this. I'd never heard of Ricketts before. A true Newfoundlander! Peter Monahan Sergeant, Bulger's Company, R Nfld Reg't (War of 1812 Reenactment Unit)