Lunaticg Duit Syiling Giveaway

Went to Bank Negara via KTM light-heartedly last week with an intention to purchase a set of Malaysia's new coins intended for circulation next year and of course, to see the money museum. Well, that might be the last time I will ever set foot onto BNM. I took the wrong turn when I walked out from the station and had to walk an entire round around the premise before I see the entrance (They have no signboards). To my agitation they informed me that the Bank Museum is closed and has shifted to a new building somewhat a walking distance from the Bank. I went without hesitation and arrived with intense heart palpitation and perspiration. Walking distance, right.. It feels like I've walked the whole of the Great Wall of China, up the Himalayas, across Sahara, under scorching hot sun! My patience worn off when I arrived at the new building.. They called it the Kijang Complex, if I spelled it correctly; It is yet to be ready for visits! Well, to sum the day up, I went home empty handed, disappointed and exhausted. I wanted the set very badly and I hope I can win the "Duit Syiling Giveaway" competition organised by http://lunaticg.blogspot.com/2011/08/duit-syiling-giveaway.html! I think I deserve to win after going through all these!

Wilson, Ashley and Vicky you guys can join too!!

New Year New Changes!

As I have noted, I have not been updating this blog as often as I did previously. My internet connection has failed me tremendously and I am only permitted to post to the extent our beloved Maxis Broadband would allow. Such service defeats the entire purpose of having a subscription. Just as I am typing this out I see this:

Could not contact Blogger.com. Saving and publishing may fail. Retrying...

So much for having myself a monthly commitment of a smacking MYR98. They have very good marketing strategies. You will have superb speed during the first month of subscription; the friendly services and great connectivity last only as long as your cooling off period in your contract between you and your beloved Maxis. Oh yes, I have yet to comment on the statistics they show. Very impressive, really; the graph will be sky rocketing while you have been refreshing your page since forever. There is a quota or limit to each and every subscription; and the graph is developed even when your page says 'webpage is not available'. Complaints will not, I mean never work. I get more agitated when I compare it to the services provided abroad.

These are a matter of opinion and written through experience of using their service. No intention is present to promote or demote their monopoly in the market.

Having said this, I will still try to commit to posting a couple of new and existing collections once in a while when the connection seems to serve the purpose of having the World Wide Web. A new approach will be adopted; more details of the coins will be given.

Egyptian Senet Piece?

As I have little knowledge on Egyptology I did not realise this piece of pebble sitting in my aquarium together with my hermit crabs, Ben and Jerry, might possibly just be an ancient game piece! I have huge interest in antiquity and so I have taken the trouble of reading plenty on the areas that catch my fancies.

As such this 'pebble' that I am bragging about clearly resembles an Egyptian Senet Piece. It bears a conical shape and stands on a flat round base. Hopefully my opinion from my untrained eyes would be correct; that this piece is medieval. It was found at a seaside and the lesion / mark found on the surface and base is presumably caused by previous aquatic plants growth. It doesn't look like it is naturally sea tumbled. If this is really an Egyptian Senet piece it is really remarkable how it could have survived and travelled the sea.

It is the usual routine when I sat myself comfortably on a cosy afternoon browsing through websites over websites looking at another bloke’s collection online until I see this very thing called Senet that he was selling. It’s at moments like this that you start to think and get excited that you’re one lucky bloke to have such an interesting find, in your own aquarium! Okay, it didn’t just appear with my hermit crabs. This ‘pebble’ was found lying on a northern coast when I was hunting for sea glass last autumn together with a whole bunch of other pebbles I bequeathed to my beloved hermit crabs. I’ve sealed it in an air-tite bottle for conservation purposes.

It measures approx 18-19mm (height), approx 15-16mm (diameter). The colour is as photographed.

Enquired the British Museum and awaiting good news from them. And... Guess my hermit crabs can have their pebble back after all. See:

Reply: Thank you for your email and the images. The piece of stone is intriguing but I must admit that I think the resemblance to a senet piece is coincidental: the image you attach is of quite an unusual one and most senet pieces are much more symmetrically and precisely shaped; they re generally of glazed composition and not stone. My own opinion would be that it is a naturally shaped pebble. - Dr R B Parkinson

Gold Investment

Not to bore readers considering myself being new to blogging and having an exhaustive collection, I am going to write about my plan on starting an investment on gold. Not exactly the best time to do any purchases now as the price is now leaning towards the high end. It is now priced at USD1355.95 / oz according to BullionVault. Well, the price has been 'stable' since early August, that is how I will term it.

Being hard on my wallet leaving myself with only some coins chinking in my pocket I bought a tiny gramme of PAMP Suisse during my transit at Dubai Airport, an act only idiots will do. I have not had the intention of investing at that point in time but I thought the craftsmanship was good, so I spent that few quid I had on that gramme. It is rather silly, or rather, brave of me to have brought so little cash with me when going on a long journey. There hasn't been a vast difference in price but if converting the price according to the rate at USD1355.95 / oz, it will cost £27.18 now. Got it at £29.29. No profit but I'm still interested to invest in these. Seen the yearly graphs for the price increase and I'm convinced to profit if my patience does not wear.

Something I have noticed recently is that Ebay sellers are scooping huge amount of money by not following gold prices. I just see one selling for £44.99. You cut-throat bastard!

The undated 20p - Value doubles to £100

What can I say? I am more than thrilled to find out and to provide an update about this! The title says it all - yes, the London Mint Office is now paying those registered sellers a 100 quid for an undated 20p piece! The very fact that the price has doubled from £50 - £100 makes having 3 pieces of these tiny treasures in my collection exiting. 3 isn't many nor is it impressive but I am glad I bought the latest 2 at very low prices a few months back. No exact figure has been reported as to how many of these were minted but according to the information provided by the Royal Mint, the error affected about 250,000 out of the 136 million pieces minted.

Happily sealed them three in plastic coin holders, air tite in eternity, safe from all types of chemical and physical harm.

p/s: My heart is still pounding with joy :)

World Cup 2010 Lucky Medal

This stunning piece of Limited Edition World Cup Memento was issued by the Royal Mint to generate luck for the England Team during the season. It has a low mintage of 150 000 and the Mint is giving it away for free! I only had to pay £1 for postage and packaging which was well worth it since it bears a brilliantly thought novel hologram design. When you turn it towards yourself you will see the words “Good Luck” and if you face it outwards the hologram shows “England”. The other side bears an image of three lions and the cheer “come on England”. The only problem with this medal is that it was struck / cast with low quality metal. What more can you expect? Its free!

Pictures taken under natural sunlight and

is represented closest to its original colour

Should you intend to use these images for any purposes,

kindly leave a comment here and provide a link back to this page.

It is a matter of courtesy.

Undated 20 Pence - A Royal Mint Error

I have recently found an undated 20 pence coin caused by a surprising error by the Royal Mint which has fallen short in their strict quality control. These error 20 pence pieces bear no date on either side because they were issued with mis-matched sides and escaped into circulation.

“The mismatch involves the new design reverse side (tails) and the old design Queen's portrait side. The old obverse (heads), bearing no date, is married to the new reverse (tails). Ordinarily this would only result in some coins of 2008 being issued with an older date (say, 2007 for example). But with the creation of the new designs for the 2008 coinage the date on the 20p was moved to the Queen's portrait side. On the old coins the Queen's portrait side had no date, so the result of this mismatch is not an incorrectly dated 20p, it is a wholly undated one.” Adapted from http://www.undated20p.co.uk.

The London Mint Office is willing to pay any registered individuals £50 in return for one of these coins. The Royal Mint does not know exactly how many undated coins were produced and released into circulation, but estimates range between 50,000 and 200,000. I personally think that figure is low and I reckon the value will increase after time when the London Mint gets hold of more of these coins, reducing them from circulation.

Pictures taken under natural sunlight and

is represented closest to its original colour

Should you intend to use these images for any purposes,

kindly leave a comment here and provide a link back to this page.

It is a matter of courtesy.