Due to my interest in Germany for coins, banknotes, military medals ect, my friend though I might like this.
A very small piece of the Berlin Wall
I recently read an article in the newspaper talking about the tourist traps in Berlin, that all „original“ pieces of the Berlin Wall that have been sold as souvenir in the past 34 years since the Wall came down would have been sufficient to build some 4 walls…
in the end everything will be good - if it's not good, then it's not the end...
Just been given what appears to be a set of coin related ‘Happy Families’ cards…
I've not seen these before. They're made by Bankhaus Burkhardt & Co.,. It appears they were a small bank that merged with C.G. Trinkaus (later HSBC) in 1972, so these must have been some sort of marketing giveaway 1960/70s.
Gosh, I love the weird & wonderful. Of particular note, I have an original 1867 Canadian confederation medal (one of only 500) - you might have seen it in one of the more recent additions to your collections threads.
It's now safely secured in a huge lighthouse container. Now I need to find a stand so I can have it on display properly.
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There's this Waterloo medal which took the engraver 30(!) years to produce by which time all the intended principal recipients were dead, besides the Duke of Wellington. So it was never produced until some commemorative releases much later.
This one is a full size sterling silver, in two half medals - which is how the original was intended to be produced.
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Books I have too many to possibly write down, but I'm a great lover of British comics and their annuals. I have a massive collection including a full run of original Beano, Dandy, and all spin-off annuals (The main two are still ongoing, with their first in 1939/40).
Also a near complete run of Broons & Oor Wullie annuals (1940-present). Missing one, and four are reproductions. However, I do have the hardest & rarest one. One super-serious collector is only aware of the existence of four copies which have been sold anywhere since the late 90s. And I have one! Though easily the worst condition one, but I paid a mere £4 for it (£6.30 inc postage). No other copy has sold for less than £1,800 IIRC, and that was 10+ years ago I believe. Lucky me caught someone selling something they didn't know what it was. Even still, I would have paid £1,000 and not batted an eyelid at the price. I've been offered more for it too.
Other books include a copy of Captain Cook's voyages dated 1815 being the oldest book still in my collection. I have had a few older books from the 1700s, a handful of 1600s, and just a single precious book from 1556. But I've found better homes for them (donated to museums, cathedrals, universities etc).
Early copies of some James Bond, Hornblower, Scarlet Pimpernel, English translations of Jules Verne have passed through my hands. First edition, first printings of all five Darling Buds of May though they've been gifted to a dear friend. First three have some gorgeous dust jackets.
Thing is, I'm not a serious dealer or even collector, but just happen upon them.
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Hats, I have a circa 1900 Ecole Militaire (The prestigious military school in Paris) bicorne as wells as a circa 1920s Royal Navy bicorne. And a mix of many others.
Hnmm, probably rambling now. So much zany stuff on display. 😬
A miss cut stamp error i got on a letter. And a milk bottle from the UK. Odd how a milk bottle from the UK ended up in the US. E.Schwenk dairy, Southampton.
Where to start, I have a bag of one sided medals, tokens, slabs of metal for club meetings etc that I got from buy ins.
My death penny may be the most strange and morbid all in one, 120mm in size and given to the family of a soldier that fell in WW1.
It has pride of place in its own secure case.
A 1736 Silver medal that was issued as part of a lottery! The prize was this 8,000oz silver cellar and some 10,000 of the above medals each containing around half an ounce of good silver were sold for it.
This silver cistern is huge and weighs around 250kg. I don't know who won it, but it survives and is just magnificient.
I love coins. Especially silver, gold and anything really old.
Member of the Royal Numismatic Society of New Zealand and the Auckland Numismatic Society
