PaddyB

Hi Paddy,

You are right! And thanks for the buddy invite just accepted. I noticed your handle a few days ago and wondered if we could have much in common, but at that stage most of your posts seemed to be about US coins (which are of only passing interest to me). Then I saw your lovely selection of enameled coins - many of them British - and I knew we were on the same wavelength!

I will watch out for any over here - they come up occasionally at local auctions.

Paddy

Ya can never have enough Paddy's in the world! :yes:

sent :)

hey paddy, im after various victorian ones inc the big copper type, both ornamental and plain trident, im also on the look out for a william IV penny.
im also collecting half pennies if you have any i would like..
George VI, George V,Edward VII, Victoria (Later bonze type) william IV, George IV, George III (pre 1797 style 1/2d) William III and a James II if there even was one lol !

Yes, very true. Humanity is testing the limits of natural resources.

There is of course a bigger issue looming even than Europe. If we don't find a way of controlling world population very soon, mother nature will do it for us with either a plague or mass starvation in order to bring us down to a manageable size again. Manageable probably means 1 to 3 billion, so around 5 in 7 of us need to go! I hope I am not around when it happens!

Hi Goldmark,

Lots to say! Telegraph is definitely on the right wing by the way.
I agree with all you say. It has got to the stage where we trust no politicians at all. If they tell us something, we assume either the opposite is true, or they are distracting us from some other issue.
The Euro could never work unless there was economic and substantial political union across Europe, which wasn't there, and I don't think the majority of the population even want. The naive went for it because they liked the idea of "not having to change money when we go on holiday" - as if that was a good reason to screw up the economies of 20 nations! The political wise guys see the EU as a chance for greater power for themselves.
... and we could have another rant about the financial ineptitude and corruption in the bulk of the EU central orgainisations.

If the real underlying problem, the loss of competitiveness and the huge transfer of wealth, which seems to have gripped a large part of the industrialized world can not be addressed that's what's truly worrisome, equally the problems of the € may be very well seen in a larger context. Mrs Merkel is despite ongoing critics still enjoying great support among the people, leadership is indeed a problem but who else it there to rely upon? Obama, Cameron..... Berlusconi????:confused: Nobody is giving the impulses to make a real difference! Sorry I had to break up my post! On which side of the field is The Telegraph?

Not only are we deemed to be responsible for their decisions and further decisions made by them, we have no legal instrument for intervention and lack true influence, but the believe itself that there is the capacity to equal out the tremendous imbalances is a misconception and overestimation of financial limits.

A recent poll suggested that 2/3rd of all Germans are skeptical of the € and worried about it's future and financial complications (mainly inflation). What is also evident, at least out of the perspective of the persons I'm acquainted to, is the dishonesty of our politicians/decision makers to let out the truth of how bad the situation really is. I'm pretty sure we will only be able to see the cost rescuing (with more debt) the € in a few years in retrospect.

Had there been a public referendum the ambivalence of the people would have prevailed over the euphoric blindness of our politicians and we would never have adopted the € (majority was against the €).

The € is driven by political motivation and not aligned to the needs of the participating countries, which have great differences in mentality/economic structure and are in my opinion not up to the same standards. With the most serious problem being the poisoning of political climate and instead of uniting the countries we have now a discussion of a transfer union out of cross-contamination from fiscally strained nations to countries with a still healthy economy. In regards to this aspect many countries in Europe (read Italy, Spain, Greece....France too) and worldwide believe that it's within the power and responsibility of the "Northern" nations to stand in and act responsible, which is the greatest joke.

No - I was not unduly agitated! Our politicians leave me pretty aggravated at all times - regardless of their political colour. (We seem to lack any with any real leadership at present - they are far more interested in the "process" of politics than having any real conviction in any direction.)
I would agree it was good we stayed out of the Euro - although we still seem to contribute far more than we should. How do the Germans feel about it now?
The Guardian by the way is pretty left wing, so if you can detect the discontent there, imagine how much more serious it is further right!
Paddy

Wow that's a divergence in painted pictures, the way the media in Germany describes the reputation of Gordon Brown among the British public is quite different. Just from the local news media one may believe that you Britain's hail him for his success story under the Blair government, most notably his firm stance against the €. From reading the comments of posters on economic articles in the online edition of The Guradian I've first realized that there is contrary to reports actually heavy discontent and more to the story. When I looked up the numbers for worldwide currency/gold reserves I was perplexed, with Britain having set the standard and London being at the heart of the gold pool and reserves having fallen so dramatically.

In case my question should have agitated you I feel deeply sorry, I wish you and all other Britain's great success and endurance. You Brits always made it through difficult times in the end.:yes:

Hi Goldmark,

Despite the Leftwing press trying to tell us that Gordon Brown was the "best chancellor we ever had" any one with the long term future of the country at heart know he was the worst! He spent all the reserves he could lay his hands on (the gold was not the only asset he squandered) and frittered the money away on Health, Welfare and increasing the Civil Service. This gave a temporary appearance of prosperity (there was a lot of wealth sloshing around in the market place) whilst actually achieving nothing except making us totally unprepared for future down turns in the market (such as now) and increasing our committed spending (in the form of Civil Service pensions) to an unsustainable level.
Added to this, he sold the Gold at probably the worst point in the market for the last 50 years!
So no, we were not impressed, and you have put me in a thoroughly bad mood for the rest of the day!

(Only joking!)

Paddy

No need for haste, your coins are great!
What I wanted to ask, several years ago Gordon Brown (chancellor of finance?) sold a large part of Britain's gold reserves what kind of emotions did this create? With gold having significantly risen I assume there are many critics of this policy today.

Thanks for your interest! I will post a few more occasionally - I can't afford the tie to scan everything.

Paddy

I will visit your profile from time to time to have a look at your coin albums.:yes: