Is it really that time already? Friday night, another week over and time to make the sandwiches for tomorrow. It’s tuna tomorrow. More healthy fish.
We packed up a little early so the owner could get home and do some computer bidding on the Ellerby hoard. You may have seen the news report that was on the news. Julia has just been through to tell me it has been on. Here is a copy of the sale catalogue. It was a pot of gold coins from merchant family that had lived in a house in the eighteenth century – they came to light a few years ago during renovations of the kitchen floor.
We have “14 gold guineas” coming into the shop tomorrow. if you read the Ellerby story the expert from Spinks refers to his expectation that the hoard was going to be brass tokens. I’m sure that’s what ours are going to be. A number of retailers in Victorian times made tokens that looked like old guineas and we often get them brought in as gold. We will just have to see.
There was a cloud burst of surprising violence this afternoon, though they always sound like that when you work under a flat roof. It was about as bad as the one that soaked us yesterday. This seems to be the motif of the moment. Consequently there were lots of leaves in the gutters on the way home, and lots of pedestrians being soaked by passing cars. I was careful and didn’t splash anyone, so my conscience is clear. I had to laugh at one lot. They were using our forecourt and blocking our exit when we left the shop. As they sorted themselves out a car went past on the main road, hit some standing water and soaked them. It wouldn’t have happened if they had not been badly parked and I’m afraid I did let out a small triumphal “Yesssss!” as it happened.
The Haibun Journal arrived today. I’m not in it, so I had to try not to be too critical as I went through it. It is, as usual, very good, and my writing hasn’t been up to scratch recently, so I can’t complain. However, it is starting to get like a few other journals – same group of writers, same trend towards snappy verse. One of the problems is that the editor is a great writer of haibun but he never uses his own work. This is in contrast to American journals where editors and volunteer helpers always get one of their pieces included automatically. This was a surprise to me when I first saw it, and still seems strangely immodest.
One Third Guinea George III
The header picture is a George I coin, but I’m not sure now if it is a Guinea or a half or quarter Guinea. A Guinea is 21 shillings, or £1.05. It was supposed to be a con of 20s but the gold from west Africa was purer than other sources, and the gold value fluctuated, so the coin’s value was varied but was eventually fixed at 21s. Race horses are still auctioned in Guineas.