Tuesday, May 20, 2008

Funny money

At some point on my travels today (been up to Matlock, pitching our teaching-memory-skills-in-the-schools scheme) I've acquired a 1949 shilling coin passed off as a 10p piece. Quite nice condition, too, apart from a little scratch on one side that makes it look like George VI had a duelling scar on his cheek. They're being sold for two or three pounds on eBay, although whether anyone's buying them at that price is another matter, but I think I'll keep it, just in case I ever end up travelling back in time and need some money to finance my inaugural world memory championship several decades early.

I would love to know how this coin ended up coming to me in change - shillings haven't been legal tender for about 15 years now, so surely it can't have been passed around by mistake all this time? Maybe it's magic.

And speaking of taking the King's shilling, it's a great shame that Russell T Davies is leaving Doctor Who, but if he really had to go, Steven Moffat (who of course wrote Press Gang many years ago, thus making sense of that really quite brilliant "King's shilling" segue back there) is probably the best choice for a replacement. Hopefully it'll still be good and will still feature David Tennant in 2010 and beyond!

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