The Lemon Fool

If a coin is made of antimony, do you receive it when you buy something?

http://www.charm.ru/library/antimony.htm


Julian F. G. W.

I have two coins whose combined value is 25p.

One of the coins is not a 5p piece.

What are the values of the coins?

Watis

Watis wrote:I have two coins whose combined value is 25p.

One of the coins is not a 5p piece.

But the other one is.

Watis wrote:I have two coins whose combined value is 25p.

One of the coins is not a 5p piece.

What are the values of the coins?

Not sure about the value, per se, but presumably you have a number of half crowns (as do I).

malkymoo wrote:Maundy money again.

Two coins, crown (25p) plus 4p Maundy money.

Indeed so. One 25p coin, and one 4p from the Maundy money makes a face value of 29p. Unless someone's going to find a 29p coin having been issued, that's the least number possible.

There are a surprising number of coins which are legal tender, but as many of them are made of precious metals they're worth far more than the face value. Apart from the Maundy coins (1p, 2p, 3p and 4p) there are also £20 and £100 coins.

Though the Australian mint has decided to out-do everyone and make a $10,000,000 coin weighing 1000kg - possibly the least practical coin ever.

SteelCamel wrote:there are also £20 and £100 coins.

Though the Australian mint has decided to out-do everyone and make a $10,000,000 coin weighing 1000kg - possibly the least practical coin ever.

A £100 coin is interesting because there is no equivalent £100 note, except in Scotland. There is reputably a £100,000,000 note issued by the Bank of England but I doubt that anyone has seen one.

There has been a tendency in recent years to remove high-denomination banknotes to try and prevent money laundering and illicit transfers of large anonymous amounts. 500 Euro notes and 1,000 Swiss Franc notes are favourites, or so I have heard . . .

Probably the same person who told me that a million in 100 notes weighs about 10 kilograms.

malkymoo wrote:

UncleEbenezer wrote:However, it does falsely claim that the answers are all in LSD. That gave cognitive dissonance as soon as I saw the bike. Never having seen an actual farthing I didn't know what they were worth in LSD terms, and I CBA to look it up.

Not sure what you mean by "falsely claim". A farthing is/was a quarter of a penny, £0 0s 1/4d, how is that not Lsd?

Although they were withdrawn in 1961, they were obsolete a while before that. I was born in 1948 and never remember seeing one except as a curiosity. It was rather an attractive little coin, similar in size to a current 1p, with a wren on the tails side.

Yep!

I still remember when I first saw one - God knows when. In the fifties 1/4d was still marked up when pricing quantities in shops, but everyone just ignored it in the total. For some reason the baker's wife didn't. I ran home and asked my mum what the "funny coin" was.

malkymoo wrote:Although they were withdrawn in 1961, they were obsolete a while before that. I was born in 1948 and never remember seeing one except as a curiosity. It was rather an attractive little coin, similar in size to a current 1p, with a wren on the tails side.

I too liked the coin (although my favourite was probably the thruppenny bit).

Anecdotally, I distinctly recall using one. I bet a nurse £20 that she wouldn't give me an anti tetanus injection, for a severe chin injury, in my posterior. I was young and thought she was joking. I lost the bet but had nowhere near the £20.

I still owe her £19/19/11¾.

PinkDalek wrote: a severe chin injury in my posterior.

I expect you can tell your [expletive deleted] from your elbow, but that's a new one on me

UncleEbenezer wrote:

PinkDalek wrote: a severe chin injury in my posterior.

I expect you can tell your Pink marshmallows from your elbow, but that's a new one on me

He didn't say it was his chin.

UncleE was playing the game of old - not quite quoting correctly for comedic effect. Oh how I chortled.

PinkDalek wrote:UncleE was playing the game of old - not quite quoting correctly for comedic effect. Oh how I chortled.

Knowing your commas to mean exactly what they say, I considered you fair game. The pink marshmallows offer an extra level of silliness.

SteelCamel wrote:Though the Australian mint has decided to out-do everyone and make a $10,000,000 coin weighing 1000kg - possibly the least practical coin ever.

There is a $A1,000,000, one tonne coin in the Perth Mint, https://www.perthmint.com/1-tonne-gold-coin.aspx I have seen it, I did try to post a pic I took but could not manage it. The coin is in a special cradle that can whisk it into the basement if needed.

Until 2005 there was a ten million Turkish lira coin in circulation, then worth about £5. They have since knocked 6 zeros off the currency.

malkymoo wrote:

SteelCamel wrote:Though the Australian mint has decided to out-do everyone and make a $10,000,000 coin weighing 1000kg - possibly the least practical coin ever.

There is a $A1,000,000, one tonne coin in the Perth Mint, https://www.perthmint.com/1-tonne-gold-coin.aspx I have seen it, I did try to post a pic I took but could not manage it. The coin is in a special cradle that can whisk it into the basement if needed.

Until 2005 there was a ten million Turkish lira coin in circulation, then worth about £5. They have since knocked 6 zeros off the currency.

Yes, that's the one I meant - it's 1 million not 10 million face value, my mistake. But with a tonne of gold, it's worth far more than face value - unlike the Canadian 1 million dollar coin, which is only(!) 100kg and does have about 1 million dollars of gold.

For ridiculous face values, it's hard to beat the Hungarian 100 million trillion pengő notes. The pengő was replaced by the forint, knocking off 29(!) zeros - you got one forint for 400 octillion pengő - except you didn't, as that many pengő didn't exist.

I struggled with this quiz a little as, although I am old enough to know about "old money" I lived in foreign countries until January 1971 and decimalisation took place a couple of weeks after I returned. I got a couple though.

Good quiz all the same

AiY