Today largely I was on chauffeur duty. An old friend needed to move some paintings around and it aligned with my needs in that I had to go to the post office. I wrapped up my big parcel full of old shrapnel and together we descended on World’s End Post Office. I’m sending all my old foreign currency to LOC where they still buy that stuff, likely looking for rare serial numbers etc.
I’ve found a new app for coin valuation and got a free trial so I’m making full use of it at the moment. It is for numismatists. I’m taking photos of all my half crowns and old shady Victorian pennies and so forth. The app looks at them and assesses the condition. It is aided by AI so extremely liable to get things totally wrong with confidence. But as a quick way of establishing what things are and what people pay for them it’s proving a helpful tool and helped me find a somewhat unprepossessing George IV half crown from 1821 that is selling from anything between £60 and £600 online. I was gonna clean it up but apparently the patina adds to the value for many people. And the silver content gives it a good baseline. Haven’t really got the headspace to become an expert on antique coins as well though, there’s a lot going on at the moment. The chances are it’ll go on eBay with the rest of the ones that are worth about a tenner each if this app is to be trusted. Listing is getting quicker with AI tools so I might just sweep them into my coming wave of eBay flogging. I’m every day getting deeper into STUFF OUT mode.
I drove to Hogarth’s House. Had a little look around. You have to park in a layby. There are plenty of his etchings there. It’s an insight – right on a big arterial route out of town that would still have been busy with carriages in his day. Likely very close to a big noisy drinky roundabout that is now Fuller’s Brewery. A good spot for a man who enjoyed portraying messy people being messy.
Oh my lord my lord though, the winter is encroaching. Beautiful sunshine and clear sky in London today but as I write I’m thinking that, were it on my bed, I’d be considering popping the electric blanket on for a quick blast.
Much to do around moving things around. Flogging coins is the least of my worries but something I can do when I’m home and the day is otherwise done. I’ve never been very good at watching telly.
Funny how such a little thing can be interesting to people. Apparently they didn’t do that many because people kicked off about the crown being too big. People really do kick off about all sorts of made up bollocks. But it’s a reminder: even then we had demagogues trying to drum up support for nonsense, making an effect in the real world, spinning negative narratives.
The idiot who got a load of jobless men to use their cheap train passes to go to Dover and cosplay ninjas, he’s angry with the Daily Mail at the moment. Great people to be angry with, for once I slightly align with with someone who has the intellect of a stick. Some of his fat militia showed up in London to stand outside an office being completely useless and validating his self importance.
Nobody will ever remember this, least of all the idiots in masks as they are likely off their nuts in ‘spoons by now celebrating their “patteritism”. But that’s a thing that happened today. Crap flexing, jobless oafs trying to threaten people with jobs, all kowtowing to another posh kid in disguise who is more motivated by money than hate if he’s ever honest. But… going through all the Victorian stuff I’ve had, magazines and papers, political bits of ceramic, it makes me very aware that there’s nothing new under the sun. Twas ever thus.
