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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;johnmilton, post: 8128300, member: 101855&quot;]Each year I set up this &quot;Christmas Carol&quot; display on an end table. </p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]1415707[/ATTACH] </p><p><br /></p><p>Here&#039;s a view from above. </p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]1415708[/ATTACH] </p><p><br /></p><p>In one of the versions of &quot;A Christmas Carol,&quot; Scrooge gives a gold guinea (more likely a gold sovereign) to his housekeeper after the night with the ghosts. Here are a couple of possible coins that could have been that gift. </p><p><br /></p><p>William IV Sovereign</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]1415711[/ATTACH] </p><p><br /></p><p>George IV was the son of George III, who &quot;lost America.&quot; After George III went mad permanently from porphira, George IV became the regent for 10 years before he became king.</p><p><br /></p><p>George IV was a great art collector and bought some very important paintings that are sill owned by the royal family. I had a tour of Buckingham Palace while the queen was on vacation. Walking through the halls was like touring an art museum. It was like, &quot;Oh wow! So that&#039;s who owns that piece ... never knew.&quot;</p><p><br /></p><p>Otherwise George IV was more interested in perks of being a king than being a king. He drank and ate a lot and became very fat. </p><p><br /></p><p>He was forced to marry a princess, who reportedly had bad breath and was half crazy. On his wedding night, he passed out drunk on the floor where he slept while his bride slept in the bed. On the day of his coronation, he had her locked out of Westminster Abbey, where British kings are crowned, and refused to let her in, although she was banging on the door. Sadly she died three weeks later. </p><p><br /></p><p>William IV Sovereign </p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]1415712[/ATTACH] </p><p><br /></p><p>William IV never thought that he would be king. He didn&#039;t take his education seriously and was known as &quot;Silly Billy&quot; among members of the royal family. His parents sent him off to the naval academy where he found his true calling. He became very competent naval officer.</p><p><br /></p><p>He was quite a playboy until he settled down with a actress with whom he had 10 illegitimate children. When George IV died without an heir, William became &quot;a surprise king.&quot; He ditched his long time live-in girl friend and married a much younger royal in hopes of producing a legitimate heir. The 10 kids he did have didn&#039;t count. He failed on that score.</p><p><br /></p><p>When William was on his deathbed, he was determined to live long enough so that the guardians of his niece, Princess Victoria, would not become regents. He held on until Victoria reached her 18th birthday day and became queen.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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