Government-owned mint that produces coins for the United Kingdom
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Juliet and Terence on: John Lennon and The Royal Mint; a way too easy pop quiz; being fooled by Spotify; Graham Gouldman at Cadogan Hall; and farewell to Jesse Colin Young; Adie Lillywhite; and Andy Peebles. {the 'magic' amulet}
fWotD Episode 2870: Five pounds (gold coin) Welcome to Featured Wiki of the Day, your daily dose of knowledge from Wikipedia’s finest articles.The featured article for Friday, 14 March 2025 is Five pounds (gold coin).The five pound British gold coin, also known as a quintuple sovereign, has a nominal value of five pounds sterling. It has been struck intermittently since 1820, though as a circulation coin only in 1887, 1893 and 1902. Through most of its history, it has depicted, on its reverse, Benedetto Pistrucci's portrayal of St George and the Dragon, which has traditionally been used on the sovereign, or one-pound gold coin.The five-pound piece was one of the original denominations of gold coins authorised as part of the Great Recoinage of 1816. It was not struck until 1820, and then only as a pattern coin. It was issued again in small numbers in 1826, 1829 and 1839, with the last using the well-regarded depiction of Una and the Lion by William Wyon. Although the Una coin was for sale for almost half a century at the Royal Mint, only about 400 are believed to have been struck.In 1887, it was struck for the first time for circulation, and this also took place in 1893 and 1902, though few actually circulated; examples struck in 1911 were only available as part of a proof set. In 1887 and 1902 it was struck in very small numbers at the Sydney Mint, with examples bearing its mint mark S. The examples struck in preparation for the coinage of Edward VIII are highly prized; one sold in 2021 for £1,654,000, the highest price paid for a British coin.Since 1980, the five-pound gold piece has been struck in most years by the Royal Mint for sale to collectors and holders of bullion. Although generally featuring Pistrucci's design, commemorative versions have been issued, such as in 2022, as a memorial following the death of Elizabeth II, featuring the bust of her son and successor, Charles III.This recording reflects the Wikipedia text as of 01:08 UTC on Friday, 14 March 2025.For the full current version of the article, see Five pounds (gold coin) on Wikipedia.This podcast uses content from Wikipedia under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License.Visit our archives at wikioftheday.com and subscribe to stay updated on new episodes.Follow us on Mastodon at @wikioftheday@masto.ai.Also check out Curmudgeon's Corner, a current events podcast.Until next time, I'm standard Amy.
This week, Etholle explores the tradition of having the monarch's face on British money, looking at the history of coinage portraits, from early rulers to Queen Elizabeth II.
Like a patient on the operating table with no pulse, the UK economy is barely growing. Prime Minister, Keir Starmer and Rachel Reeves are desperately banging on the chest of the patient trying to revive it, but they don’t know how to bring it back to life. December figures show that the economy barely grew by just 0.1%. They talk of growth, but where is it going to come from? 10,000 millionaires have quit the UK in the last six months! China’s economy grew by 5% last year. Watch video version - https://youtu.be/FgXuoDMFE3c Retail sales were down in December! I’ve never heard of retail sales falling over Christmas. More inflation is expected as UK borrowing costs and bond yields have risen sharply. The country’s additional borrowing costs will run to £12 billion per annum. Paid by us, taxpayers of course. Governments screw up, we foot the bill. This could mean higher interest rates and higher mortgage costs for all of us at a time, and the Bank of England should be cutting rates. The market has lost confidence in the UK chancellor Rachel Reeves. She is out of her depth and reminds me the person that talks a good game and job interview but in reality hasn’t got a clue when they’ve got the job. Labour have got off to the worst start and any government I’ve never known. They want to give away the Chagos islands to Mauritius, and then lease it back at a cost of £9 billion! I’ve heard of sale and leaseback, but not “give” and leaseback. This will surely be remembered as the Prime Minister’s “Gordon Brown” moment. Gordon Brown was the Labour chancellor who sold off the U.K.’s gold reserves to China at rock bottom prices. Gold has risen by at least 10 times since the ill-fated sell-off. They inexplicably cut the small winter fuel allowance for millions of pensioners, taxed private school fees, and raised national insurance costs for employers, taxed our farmers and borrowed an additional £145 billion, all of which have made them hugely unpopular. And yet, the FT 100 index, reached a record level today! Apparently they expect interest rates to be cut by 0.25% when the Bank of England meet next month Will the Bank of England hold or cut rates next month? The implications are huge for the country and for the 700,000 borrowers who will come off fixed interest rates this year, as well as the first-time buyers who want to go on the property ladder. Buy to let property investment has become almost unviable, unless you have a large deposit or buying cheap properties up in the north-east. Some good news could be on the horizon for first time buyers as regulators are expected to relax lending rules. However, could this lead to another boom and bust? The massive building firm Taylor Wimpey has reported good profits of over £400 million last year and they built almost 10,000 new homes. Perhaps labours plan to relax planning rules will bring more homes onto the housing market. China What is going on between Labour and China? Why did Rachel Reeves desert her post at the time of the bond crisis last week? What are they given away for China to buy UK bonds? The Chinese government does not give anything without expecting something in return, and they normally bargain very hard. Foreign Secretary, David Lammy is expected to approve a new super embassy for China on the site of the old Royal Mint. Why does any country need a super embassy with hundreds of “diplomats”? Donald Trump could turn the US economy around, but will we get a decent trade deal after labour have alienating themselves from the new president elect? David Lammy, with his personal attacks, labour sending 100 people to America to canvas for Joe Biden during the US elections and now rushing to sign a deal with Mauritius before the presidential inauguration on January 20. Now it appears Labour are getting closer to China. The previous government cooled relations with China over Chinese technology, tensions over Hong Kong and Taiwan, the South China Sea, cyber security and allegations of spying. In summary, the lunatics have taken over the asylum! What does this mean for you? What can we do to cope on a personal level? If you believe we are entering choppy waters and stormy weather, now is the time to batten down the hatches and tighten your belts. This is not the time to purchase an £80,000 car on a lease or buy a fast-food franchise and open up yet another burger bar on the High Street. I’ve seen at least two or three new fast-food outlets or restaurants popping up on the High Street in the last couple of months. They are occupying premises that previous owners of similar businesses who went bust. I’ve talked to some of the business owners, and they are struggling. I walk past their restaurants and see the empty tables. I talk to a lady who opened up to bubble tea outlets and lost all her savings within six months. Her sign is still above the empty shop, which means the landlord has not been able to let the property again. Manage your money and control your spending. Invest wisely. If you’re nearing retirement, I would check with your financial advisor as to where your pension funds are invested. If you are young, I would learn more about AI. AI will kill 300 million jobs worldwide according to a recent report. People already been laid off in the City of London and Wall Street due to the impact of AI. A massive rise in employer national insurance contributions will hardly encourage employers to take on more staff. Worse still, it could lead to redundancies. Could be an easier time for homebuyers, if interest rates fall and the regulators ease the stringent restrictions on mortgage lending. Expect the best but prepare for the worst. Join me for my free webinar, Three. Steps to money, management and financial freedom, Wednesday 7 pm. Places are limited, so register now below to avoid disappointment. https://bit.ly/3QPp8IH See also: Is Great Britain Finished? As the UK faces mounting economic challenges, many are asking, "Is Great Britain finished?" The debt crisis in the bond market, combined with political and economic turmoil, paints a grim picture. Watch full video - https://youtu.be/smyXgIM0lWg Section 24 Landlord Tax Hike Interview with Chartered Accountant and property tax specialist who reveals options and solutions to move your properties from your own name into a limited company or LLP whilst mitigating the potential HMRC pitfalls. Email charles@charleskelly.net for a free consultation on how to deal with Section 24. Watch video now: https://youtu.be/aMuGs_ek17s Make 2025 the year you take control of your financial future. By setting clear goals, budgeting wisely, paying yourself first, reducing debt, and investing strategically, you’ll be well on your way to building wealth and achieving financial freedom. Remember, every small step you take today can lead to significant financial growth tomorrow. For more tips and insights, watch the latest episode of the Charles Kelly Money Tips Podcast on YouTube and start your journey to financial success today! 3 Steps To Unlocking Financial Freedom! I want to take you to the next level, help you get control of your money, learn how to invest and become financially free. Join me online on my free live money management training Wednesday at 7.00PM. Places are limited, so register now below to avoid disappointment. https://bit.ly/3QPp8IH #FinancialFreedom #WealthBuilding #SaveMoney #InvestWisely #CharlesKellyMoneyTips #PersonalFinance #finance #moneytraining #moneymanagement #wealth #money #debt #financialplanning #moneymanagement #financialfreedom #section24tax #debtcrisis #rachelreeves #money #businessnews #bondcrisis #china #rachelreeves #kierstarmer
ICYMI (there were problems with the site mid-week), check out my forecasts for 2025, always one of my more popular pieces of the year.He has invented an entirely new digital system of money with the potential to change the world as we know it. He has watched it grow to a market cap of over two trillion dollars, with as many as 100 million users worldwide, including actual nations, and the US President promising a strategic bitcoin reserve in his 2024 election campaign. He has half the internet nosing about and trying to figure out who he is. His own coins are worth about $100 billion, making him one of the richest people on earth.Yet he has managed to stay completely unknown and anonymous. It is almost unbelievable.Never mind Big Foot, the Mary Rose or the Loch Ness Monster, the mystery of ‘Who is Satoshi Nakamoto?' is perhaps the greatest mystery the world has ever known - or not known.There have been thousands of investigative attempts, articles, blog posts and discussion groups involving probably millions of man hours dedicated to pinning down this man, with names bandied about from Elon Musk to little known computer scientists. They have all failed. Satoshi's identity is as bulletproof as his code.For my 2014 book, Bitcoin: the Future of Money?, from which today's piece is taken, I ventured on the same doomed journey. I spent many months poring over the 80,000 words Satoshi wrote in the three years he was active online, looking for clues. What unusual words did he use? Does he make any spelling mistakes? Does he have any quirky grammatical habits? I analysed it in such detail I can tell you where he places brackets, how he uses hyphens, even how many spaces he uses after a full stop and how that changed – all in the hope of finding idiosyncrasies that appear in the writing of other Cypherpunks - clues which might lead me to him.Profiling a genius – some broad brushstrokes‘I've had the good fortune to know many brilliant people over the course of my life, so I recognize the signs.' Hal FinneySatoshi reached such high levels of expertise in so many different fields that many believe he can't possibly be one person. He is a polymath. It is not just the breadth and depth of his knowledge, but, more importantly, its specificity that makes him unique.In order to first conceive a new system of electronic cash, one would have to have thought extensively about the nature of money and its history. Money is a subject that has found more interest in the last few years with the emergence of bitcoin, the 2000s bull market in gold, the financial crisis and the growth of libertarianism, but, in 2007–8, when bitcoin was conceived and first introduced, books and academic papers on the subject were few and far between. The subject did not have broad appeal.How many of those who cared actually had the ability to design a system like this? It is one thing declaring what needs to be done; it is another putting it into practice.Satoshi must have had expertise in computer coding, mathematics, databases, accounting, peer-to-peer systems, digital ownership, law, smart contracts, cryptography and monetary history.He had to have had experience in academia. The act of submitting a white paper, its presentation, the impeccable referencing – it all denotes academia, even government.It's also easy to infer from the way bitcoin was launched that Satoshi had experience in open-source tech start-ups.The resilience of the code suggests he had computer hacking experience. Moreover, his ability to keep his identity hidden, despite the fact that half the internet is trying to figure out who he is, suggests significant practical experience in staying anonymous. It also means he has the trust of those who know him, if anyone did, to keep his secret.Then there's the matter of his prose. It is consistent and of such a high standard it seems he must have had experience as a writer – perhaps he was a blogger, an academic or an author. He was also quite humble and dismissive of his ability in this regard. ‘I'm better with code than with words', he said.It's clear from his posts that he had the awareness to see shortcomings in his system, and the patience not to try to do too much too quickly. He had the foresight to perceive problems before they arose and the meticulousness to prepare for them. He appears to have remained calm and measured in the face of difficulty, but also of his own success. He treated those two imposters just the same. Signs of arrogance are hard to find.Then there's the way that bitcoin was introduced to the world. PR, like economics, is not an exact science. Sometimes something gains traction, sometimes it doesn't – and there's no explaining why. Bitcoin has been a PR masterstroke. The coverage it has received has been enormous. It gets more publicity than gold, which is the oldest form of money there is. Satoshi cannot take all of the credit for this, but he has to take some of it. He understood when to make his ideas known, at what point to release his creation into the open-source world and he had the self-efacement to let go of it for others to develop. He promoted his idea with huge under-statement – but the scheduled creation of bitcoins meant there would be no shortage of bitcoin-holders to do the promoting for him.So we can add an understanding of both PR and psychology to his list of qualities. His knowledge of how people on the internet, in the open source world and in large institutions work, allowed him to progress his creation.Finally, he has a certain honesty. Despite Bitcoin's similarities to a pyramid or Ponzi scheme, he never pumped-and- dumped his creation. Tempting though it must have been, he never sold the bitcoins he mined. That also suggests he already had money.There are not many people like this.From mathematics to computer programming to economics and monetary history to politics to PR and psychology to cryptography to business acumen and vision to plain old written English – in all of these fields he excelled. To cap it all, he's probably good-looking too.It's early in history to be drawing this sort of comparison, I know, but there are many parallels between Satoshi and Isaac Newton. Newton was a brilliant scientist and mathematician, of course, and an alchemist. But he was also Master of the Royal Mint. He redesigned England's monetary system, putting us onto the gold standard on which Britain's colossal progress during the next 200 years was built.If you haven't already, take a look at my buddy Charlie Morris's monthly gold report, Atlas Pulse. It is, in my view, the best gold newsletter out there, and, best of all, it's free. Sign up here.First instinctMany believe that Satoshi was Hal Finney, the veteran programmer, who invented reusable proof of works, one of the models on which bitcoin was based. This was my first instinct. Often such “first instincts”, for reasons I cannot begin to explain, prove correct. When Satoshi first announced bitcoin on the cryptography mailing list, nobody replied. The message was ignored for two days. In the short-attention-span land of the web, two days is a long time to wait for some feedback on something you've spent 18 months working on. Two days is a long time to wait when you might have nailed something Cypherpunks had been dreaming about for 20 years.The first reply came from Finney. Was he replying to himself in order to generate some interest and discussion – to bump his thread? Replying to your own posts, known as ‘sock-puppeting', is not uncommon. Let us pursue this line of thinking a little further.Finney was born in 1956 – in that same two-year golden window as so many computer-scientist geniuses that would change the world (from Bill Gates to Tim Berners-Lee to Steve Jobs) were born – and spent his life working on cryptographic systems. He was number two to Phil Zimmerman, the pioneer in the field, for many years at the Pretty Good Privacy (PGP) Corporation, where they developed the most widely used email encryption software in the world.Such were his beliefs in privacy, freedom, and Cypherpunk, Finney was known to spend many nights writing and developing code for free, just because he believed in the work.In 1993, he published the paper, ‘Detecting Double-Spending'. Solving the double-spending problem (ensuring the same money cannot be used twice) was, of course, the key problem with digital cash. It was what Satoshi was so excited about when he proposed Bitcoin. In 2004, Finney developed the ‘reusable proof-of-work' (RPOW) system, which coders regarded as a brilliant step forward – but his system never saw any economic use until b itcoin.Finney is one of the few people to have the background and expertise to have developed bitcoin – but he is also an obvious person to take an immediate interest.In his very first reply to Satoshi's announcement, he wrote:“As an amusing thought experiment, imagine that Bitcoin is successful and becomes the dominant payment system in use throughout the world. Then the total value of the currency should be equal to the total value of all the wealth in the world. Current estimates of total worldwide household wealth that I have found range from $100 trillion to $300 trillion. With 20 million coins, that gives each coin a value of about $10 million.”The comment shows extraordinary insight. Many now see this “amusing thought experiment” as inevitable. But could it also be somebody trying to get others excited? Very possibly.(By the way, ‘thought experiment' is an expression Satoshi himself uses – though it is not uncommon in coding circles).Of the many names touted as Satoshi, Finney's writing style is one of the few that match. The major difference is Satoshi used British spelling and Finney does not. There is a similar calm, understated tone, similar use of language, similar punctuation habits: two spaces after a full stop. In stylometrics tests carried out by John Noecker Jr., chief scientific officer at text analysis experts Juola & Associates, Finney consistently scored high. (However, veteran cypherpunk blogger, Nick Szabo, scored higher). Then I noticed both Finney and Satoshi had ‘@gmx.com' email addresses. (GMX is a free email provider based in Germany. Many Germans use GMX, while Americans and British tend to gravitate towards Gmail, Hotmail, or Yahoo. Today they would probably gravitate towards P rotonmail). Was this just coincidence – or was it a clue?Why did Satoshi disappear?In December 2010, Satoshi made his final post and then disappeared from the internet.Why?Perhaps to protect his anonymity in the face of rising interest from the media and, more significantly, the authorities: to protect his own safety as the WikiLeaks panic began to erupt. (After Wikileaks was shut out of the financial system, many began sending it bitcoin. The effect, ironically, was thus to make it an extraordinarily wealthy organisation).But there is also the possibility that he disappeared because he was ill.In 2009, Finney was diagnosed with Lou Gehrig's disease – amyotrophic lateral sclerosis – the same disease from which Stephen Hawking suffered. It is, for the most part, fatal and claims its victims within two to five years. ‘My symptoms were mild at first,' he says, ‘and I continued to work, but fatigue and voice problems forced me to retire in early 2011. Since then the disease has continued its inexorable progression.' Finney, eventually died in August 2014.In March 2013 he said, ‘Today, I am essentially paralyzed. I am fed through a tube, and my breathing is assisted through another tube. I operate the computer using a commercial eye-tracker system. It also has a speech synthesizer, so this is my voice now. I spend all day in my power wheelchair. I worked up an interface using an Arduino so that I can adjust my wheelchair's position using my eyes. It has been an adjustment, but my life is not too bad. I can still read, listen to music, and watch TV and movies. I recently discovered that I can even write code. It's very slow, probably 50 times slower than I was before. But I still love programming and it gives me goals.'Could a terrible illness be the reason Satoshi withdrew?Finney was one of the first to mine bitcoins. What did he do with them?I mined several blocks over the next days. But I turned it off because it made my computer run hot, and the fan noise bothered me. In retrospect, I wish I had kept it up longer, but on the other hand, I was extraordinarily lucky to be there at the beginning. It's one of those glass half full, half empty things.The next I heard of Bitcoin was late 2010, when I was surprised to find that it was not only still going, bitcoins actually had monetary value. I dusted off my old wallet, and was relieved to discover that my bitcoins were still there. As the price climbed up to real money, I transferred the coins into an offline wallet, where hopefully they'll be worth something to my heirs. Those discussions about inheriting your bitcoins are of more than academic interest. My bitcoins are stored in our safe deposit box, and my son and daughter are tech-savvy. I think they're safe enough. I'm comfortable with my legacy.Finney sold many of his bitcoins in order to pay for medical care, many at around $100. Satoshi never moved his.If you are buying gold to protect yourself in these uncertain times, I recommend The Pure Gold Company. Pricing is competitive, quality of service is high. They deliver to the UK, the US, Canada and Europe or you can store your gold with them. More here.We are all SatoshiFinney was a key player in the development of Bitcoin, no doubt. He was one of the first to ask real questions. He managed to understand from the start the inner workings of the Bitcoin protocol and its potential. He explored the weaknesses in the Bitcoin code – one of them is even named 'the Finney Attack'. He had many exchanges with Satoshi on the Bitcoin forums as they progressed the code and developed new versions. He asked question after question. But these very exchanges show there were two people talking. On January 10th, 2009, for example, Finney publicly complained to Satoshi that Bitcoin had crashed when he tried to receive a transaction. If it was his own code, and he was transacting with himself, he would surely have quietly fixed it himself.Moreover, coders all agree that Finney's coding style – and the style of the comments written in the code – is different from Satoshi's. Also, Finney preferred to code in the language C, whereas Bitcoin is coded in C++. This is something Finney himself confirms: 'I've done some changes to the Bitcoin code, and my style is completely different from Satoshi's. I program in C, which is compatible with C++, but I don't understand the tricks that Satoshi used.'Shortly before the publication of this book, the Forbes journalist Andy Greenberg published an interview with Hal Finney. Finney was now too ill to even speak – he could only raise his eyebrows to say yes. His son showed Greenberg fifteen email exchanges between Satoshi and Finney from January 2009. They mainly focused on bugs Finney had found in the code, to which Satoshi replied with fixes - and notes of thanks. Greenberg was also shown Finney's bitcoin wallet – with the transfers between Satoshi and Finney made back in 2009. As Greenberg notes, the wallet evidence and the Gmail timestamps in the emails would have been hard to forge. To cap it all, there is the fact that in 2009, at precisely the same moment Satoshi sent time-stamped e-mails, Finney, a keen runner, was photographed in the middle of a ten-mile race. Nobody, not even Satoshi Nakamoto, can be in two places at once.Bitcoin could not have happened without the work of Finney.If Satoshi Nakamoto was several people, Finney might have been one of them. But if Satoshi is an individual, Hal Finney was not him. This is an extract from my 2014 book, Bitcoin: the Future of Money? I hear the audiobook's excellent. ;)If you missed them (there were problems with the site midweek), check out my forecasts for 2025. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.theflyingfrisby.com/subscribe
ICYMI (there were problems with the site mid-week), check out my forecasts for 2025, always one of my more popular pieces of the year.He has invented an entirely new digital system of money with the potential to change the world as we know it. He has watched it grow to a market cap of over two trillion dollars, with as many as 100 million users worldwide, including actual nations, and the US President promising a strategic bitcoin reserve in his 2024 election campaign. He has half the internet nosing about and trying to figure out who he is. His own coins are worth about $100 billion, making him one of the richest people on earth.Yet he has managed to stay completely unknown and anonymous. It is almost unbelievable.Never mind Big Foot, the Mary Rose or the Loch Ness Monster, the mystery of ‘Who is Satoshi Nakamoto?' is perhaps the greatest mystery the world has ever known - or not known.There have been thousands of investigative attempts, articles, blog posts and discussion groups involving probably millions of man hours dedicated to pinning down this man, with names bandied about from Elon Musk to little known computer scientists. They have all failed. Satoshi's identity is as bulletproof as his code.For my 2014 book, Bitcoin: the Future of Money?, from which today's piece is taken, I ventured on the same doomed journey. I spent many months poring over the 80,000 words Satoshi wrote in the three years he was active online, looking for clues. What unusual words did he use? Does he make any spelling mistakes? Does he have any quirky grammatical habits? I analysed it in such detail I can tell you where he places brackets, how he uses hyphens, even how many spaces he uses after a full stop and how that changed – all in the hope of finding idiosyncrasies that appear in the writing of other Cypherpunks - clues which might lead me to him.Profiling a genius – some broad brushstrokes‘I've had the good fortune to know many brilliant people over the course of my life, so I recognize the signs.' Hal FinneySatoshi reached such high levels of expertise in so many different fields that many believe he can't possibly be one person. He is a polymath. It is not just the breadth and depth of his knowledge, but, more importantly, its specificity that makes him unique.In order to first conceive a new system of electronic cash, one would have to have thought extensively about the nature of money and its history. Money is a subject that has found more interest in the last few years with the emergence of bitcoin, the 2000s bull market in gold, the financial crisis and the growth of libertarianism, but, in 2007–8, when bitcoin was conceived and first introduced, books and academic papers on the subject were few and far between. The subject did not have broad appeal.How many of those who cared actually had the ability to design a system like this? It is one thing declaring what needs to be done; it is another putting it into practice.Satoshi must have had expertise in computer coding, mathematics, databases, accounting, peer-to-peer systems, digital ownership, law, smart contracts, cryptography and monetary history.He had to have had experience in academia. The act of submitting a white paper, its presentation, the impeccable referencing – it all denotes academia, even government.It's also easy to infer from the way bitcoin was launched that Satoshi had experience in open-source tech start-ups.The resilience of the code suggests he had computer hacking experience. Moreover, his ability to keep his identity hidden, despite the fact that half the internet is trying to figure out who he is, suggests significant practical experience in staying anonymous. It also means he has the trust of those who know him, if anyone did, to keep his secret.Then there's the matter of his prose. It is consistent and of such a high standard it seems he must have had experience as a writer – perhaps he was a blogger, an academic or an author. He was also quite humble and dismissive of his ability in this regard. ‘I'm better with code than with words', he said.It's clear from his posts that he had the awareness to see shortcomings in his system, and the patience not to try to do too much too quickly. He had the foresight to perceive problems before they arose and the meticulousness to prepare for them. He appears to have remained calm and measured in the face of difficulty, but also of his own success. He treated those two imposters just the same. Signs of arrogance are hard to find.Then there's the way that bitcoin was introduced to the world. PR, like economics, is not an exact science. Sometimes something gains traction, sometimes it doesn't – and there's no explaining why. Bitcoin has been a PR masterstroke. The coverage it has received has been enormous. It gets more publicity than gold, which is the oldest form of money there is. Satoshi cannot take all of the credit for this, but he has to take some of it. He understood when to make his ideas known, at what point to release his creation into the open-source world and he had the self-efacement to let go of it for others to develop. He promoted his idea with huge under-statement – but the scheduled creation of bitcoins meant there would be no shortage of bitcoin-holders to do the promoting for him.So we can add an understanding of both PR and psychology to his list of qualities. His knowledge of how people on the internet, in the open source world and in large institutions work, allowed him to progress his creation.Finally, he has a certain honesty. Despite Bitcoin's similarities to a pyramid or Ponzi scheme, he never pumped-and- dumped his creation. Tempting though it must have been, he never sold the bitcoins he mined. That also suggests he already had money.There are not many people like this.From mathematics to computer programming to economics and monetary history to politics to PR and psychology to cryptography to business acumen and vision to plain old written English – in all of these fields he excelled. To cap it all, he's probably good-looking too.It's early in history to be drawing this sort of comparison, I know, but there are many parallels between Satoshi and Isaac Newton. Newton was a brilliant scientist and mathematician, of course, and an alchemist. But he was also Master of the Royal Mint. He redesigned England's monetary system, putting us onto the gold standard on which Britain's colossal progress during the next 200 years was built.If you haven't already, take a look at my buddy Charlie Morris's monthly gold report, Atlas Pulse. It is, in my view, the best gold newsletter out there, and, best of all, it's free. Sign up here.First instinctMany believe that Satoshi was Hal Finney, the veteran programmer, who invented reusable proof of works, one of the models on which bitcoin was based. This was my first instinct. Often such “first instincts”, for reasons I cannot begin to explain, prove correct. When Satoshi first announced bitcoin on the cryptography mailing list, nobody replied. The message was ignored for two days. In the short-attention-span land of the web, two days is a long time to wait for some feedback on something you've spent 18 months working on. Two days is a long time to wait when you might have nailed something Cypherpunks had been dreaming about for 20 years.The first reply came from Finney. Was he replying to himself in order to generate some interest and discussion – to bump his thread? Replying to your own posts, known as ‘sock-puppeting', is not uncommon. Let us pursue this line of thinking a little further.Finney was born in 1956 – in that same two-year golden window as so many computer-scientist geniuses that would change the world (from Bill Gates to Tim Berners-Lee to Steve Jobs) were born – and spent his life working on cryptographic systems. He was number two to Phil Zimmerman, the pioneer in the field, for many years at the Pretty Good Privacy (PGP) Corporation, where they developed the most widely used email encryption software in the world.Such were his beliefs in privacy, freedom, and Cypherpunk, Finney was known to spend many nights writing and developing code for free, just because he believed in the work.In 1993, he published the paper, ‘Detecting Double-Spending'. Solving the double-spending problem (ensuring the same money cannot be used twice) was, of course, the key problem with digital cash. It was what Satoshi was so excited about when he proposed Bitcoin. In 2004, Finney developed the ‘reusable proof-of-work' (RPOW) system, which coders regarded as a brilliant step forward – but his system never saw any economic use until b itcoin.Finney is one of the few people to have the background and expertise to have developed bitcoin – but he is also an obvious person to take an immediate interest.In his very first reply to Satoshi's announcement, he wrote:“As an amusing thought experiment, imagine that Bitcoin is successful and becomes the dominant payment system in use throughout the world. Then the total value of the currency should be equal to the total value of all the wealth in the world. Current estimates of total worldwide household wealth that I have found range from $100 trillion to $300 trillion. With 20 million coins, that gives each coin a value of about $10 million.”The comment shows extraordinary insight. Many now see this “amusing thought experiment” as inevitable. But could it also be somebody trying to get others excited? Very possibly.(By the way, ‘thought experiment' is an expression Satoshi himself uses – though it is not uncommon in coding circles).Of the many names touted as Satoshi, Finney's writing style is one of the few that match. The major difference is Satoshi used British spelling and Finney does not. There is a similar calm, understated tone, similar use of language, similar punctuation habits: two spaces after a full stop. In stylometrics tests carried out by John Noecker Jr., chief scientific officer at text analysis experts Juola & Associates, Finney consistently scored high. (However, veteran cypherpunk blogger, Nick Szabo, scored higher). Then I noticed both Finney and Satoshi had ‘@gmx.com' email addresses. (GMX is a free email provider based in Germany. Many Germans use GMX, while Americans and British tend to gravitate towards Gmail, Hotmail, or Yahoo. Today they would probably gravitate towards P rotonmail). Was this just coincidence – or was it a clue?Why did Satoshi disappear?In December 2010, Satoshi made his final post and then disappeared from the internet.Why?Perhaps to protect his anonymity in the face of rising interest from the media and, more significantly, the authorities: to protect his own safety as the WikiLeaks panic began to erupt. (After Wikileaks was shut out of the financial system, many began sending it bitcoin. The effect, ironically, was thus to make it an extraordinarily wealthy organisation).But there is also the possibility that he disappeared because he was ill.In 2009, Finney was diagnosed with Lou Gehrig's disease – amyotrophic lateral sclerosis – the same disease from which Stephen Hawking suffered. It is, for the most part, fatal and claims its victims within two to five years. ‘My symptoms were mild at first,' he says, ‘and I continued to work, but fatigue and voice problems forced me to retire in early 2011. Since then the disease has continued its inexorable progression.' Finney, eventually died in August 2014.In March 2013 he said, ‘Today, I am essentially paralyzed. I am fed through a tube, and my breathing is assisted through another tube. I operate the computer using a commercial eye-tracker system. It also has a speech synthesizer, so this is my voice now. I spend all day in my power wheelchair. I worked up an interface using an Arduino so that I can adjust my wheelchair's position using my eyes. It has been an adjustment, but my life is not too bad. I can still read, listen to music, and watch TV and movies. I recently discovered that I can even write code. It's very slow, probably 50 times slower than I was before. But I still love programming and it gives me goals.'Could a terrible illness be the reason Satoshi withdrew?Finney was one of the first to mine bitcoins. What did he do with them?I mined several blocks over the next days. But I turned it off because it made my computer run hot, and the fan noise bothered me. In retrospect, I wish I had kept it up longer, but on the other hand, I was extraordinarily lucky to be there at the beginning. It's one of those glass half full, half empty things.The next I heard of Bitcoin was late 2010, when I was surprised to find that it was not only still going, bitcoins actually had monetary value. I dusted off my old wallet, and was relieved to discover that my bitcoins were still there. As the price climbed up to real money, I transferred the coins into an offline wallet, where hopefully they'll be worth something to my heirs. Those discussions about inheriting your bitcoins are of more than academic interest. My bitcoins are stored in our safe deposit box, and my son and daughter are tech-savvy. I think they're safe enough. I'm comfortable with my legacy.Finney sold many of his bitcoins in order to pay for medical care, many at around $100. Satoshi never moved his.If you are buying gold to protect yourself in these uncertain times, I recommend The Pure Gold Company. Pricing is competitive, quality of service is high. They deliver to the UK, the US, Canada and Europe or you can store your gold with them. More here.We are all SatoshiFinney was a key player in the development of Bitcoin, no doubt. He was one of the first to ask real questions. He managed to understand from the start the inner workings of the Bitcoin protocol and its potential. He explored the weaknesses in the Bitcoin code – one of them is even named 'the Finney Attack'. He had many exchanges with Satoshi on the Bitcoin forums as they progressed the code and developed new versions. He asked question after question. But these very exchanges show there were two people talking. On January 10th, 2009, for example, Finney publicly complained to Satoshi that Bitcoin had crashed when he tried to receive a transaction. If it was his own code, and he was transacting with himself, he would surely have quietly fixed it himself.Moreover, coders all agree that Finney's coding style – and the style of the comments written in the code – is different from Satoshi's. Also, Finney preferred to code in the language C, whereas Bitcoin is coded in C++. This is something Finney himself confirms: 'I've done some changes to the Bitcoin code, and my style is completely different from Satoshi's. I program in C, which is compatible with C++, but I don't understand the tricks that Satoshi used.'Shortly before the publication of this book, the Forbes journalist Andy Greenberg published an interview with Hal Finney. Finney was now too ill to even speak – he could only raise his eyebrows to say yes. His son showed Greenberg fifteen email exchanges between Satoshi and Finney from January 2009. They mainly focused on bugs Finney had found in the code, to which Satoshi replied with fixes - and notes of thanks. Greenberg was also shown Finney's bitcoin wallet – with the transfers between Satoshi and Finney made back in 2009. As Greenberg notes, the wallet evidence and the Gmail timestamps in the emails would have been hard to forge. To cap it all, there is the fact that in 2009, at precisely the same moment Satoshi sent time-stamped e-mails, Finney, a keen runner, was photographed in the middle of a ten-mile race. Nobody, not even Satoshi Nakamoto, can be in two places at once.Bitcoin could not have happened without the work of Finney.If Satoshi Nakamoto was several people, Finney might have been one of them. But if Satoshi is an individual, Hal Finney was not him. This is an extract from my 2014 book, Bitcoin: the Future of Money? I hear the audiobook's excellent. ;)If you missed them (there were problems with the site midweek), check out my forecasts for 2025. This is a public episode. 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Since Xmashanukkwanza has been an ongoing celebration since late September, we here at the UPB have already spent all of our allotted giving spirit for 2024 (#ThanksObama). Therefore it's time to focus on what we WANT to RECEIVE from The Beatleverse in the years to come. So this week, Crimbledee and Crimbledum list off all the major contenders on their fab wishlists, while leaving these remaining items for future wishlists:
Le trio belge Puggy s'ajoute à l'affiche du Ronquières Festival cet été, et du côté de Rock Werchter, de nouveaux noms ont été dévoilés : Deftones, Iggy Pop, Jacob Collier et Amenra. Indochine, le groupe de Nicola Sirkis partage – 6 mois après "Le Chant des Cygnes" – le deuxième single de son album ‘'Babel Babel'', intitulé "La Belle et la Bête". C'est la fin d'une longue attente pour les fans qui espéraient depuis plus de cinq ans les premières images du documentaire annoncé sur Led Zeppelin, les premières images sur Classic21.be. Alice Cooper, sa fille Calico Cooper et le guitariste de Guns N'Roses, Slash, ont dévoilé la vidéo de leur chanson ‘'Freewheelin'', extrait de l'album ‘'Solid Rock Revival'' de Rock for Children. The Royal Mint, l'agence officielle qui frappe la monnaie britannique, a lancé vendredi une collection de pièces de cinq livres en l'honneur de Paul McCartney, célébrant la carrière du Beatles. Mots-Clés : Jean-Louis Aubert Clara Luciani, Julien Doré, The Libertines, billetterie, ouvert, accents reggae, départ, guitariste, Oli de Sat, micro, fan, genre, D'Yer Mak'er, Led Zeppelin, composé, paroles, référence, Henry Kissinger, secrétaire d'Etat, Etats-Unis, Guerre froide, clip, écran géant, danseuses, salle, intégralité, cinéma, IMAX, USA, Canada, célébrer,50 ans, rebondissements, Becoming Led Zeppelin, retour, actualité, collectif musical, bénéfices, Solid Rock Teen Centers, nommé, catégorie, enfant, Grammy Awards, nomination, opportunité, honneur, icône, agence britannique, design, monnaie, collection, argenté, couleur, motifs psychédéliques, piano, magique, arc-en-ciel, époque, nom, artiste, basse électrique, Höfner, logo, Wings, créé, séparation, Fab Four. --- Classic 21 vous informe des dernières actualités du rock, en Belgique et partout ailleurs. Le Journal du Rock, en direct chaque jour à 7h30 et 18h30 sur votre radio rock'n'pop. Merci pour votre écoute Plus de contenus de Classic 21 sur www.rtbf.be/classic21 Ecoutez-nous en live ici: https://www.rtbf.be/radio/liveradio/classic21 ou sur l'app Radioplayer BelgiqueRetrouvez l'ensemble des contenus de la RTBF sur notre plateforme Auvio.be Et si vous avez apprécié ce podcast, n'hésitez pas à nous donner des étoiles ou des commentaires, cela nous aide à le faire connaître plus largement. Découvrez nos autres podcasts : Le journal du Rock : https://audmns.com/VCRYfsPComic Street (BD) https://audmns.com/oIcpwibLa chronique économique : https://audmns.com/NXWNCrAHey Teacher : https://audmns.com/CIeSInQHistoires sombres du rock : https://audmns.com/ebcGgvkCollection 21 : https://audmns.com/AUdgDqHMystères et Rock'n Roll : https://audmns.com/pCrZihuLa mauvaise oreille de Freddy Tougaux : https://audmns.com/PlXQOEJRock&Sciences : https://audmns.com/lQLdKWRCook as You Are: https://audmns.com/MrmqALPNobody Knows : https://audmns.com/pnuJUlDPlein Ecran : https://audmns.com/gEmXiKzRadio Caroline : https://audmns.com/WccemSkAinsi que nos séries :Rock Icons : https://audmns.com/pcmKXZHRock'n Roll Heroes: https://audmns.com/bXtHJucFever (Erotique) : https://audmns.com/MEWEOLpEt découvrez nos animateurs dans cette série Close to You : https://audmns.com/QfFankx
In this episode of the Mind Money Soul podcast, I'm diving into the fascinating world of investing in precious metals - what it is, why it matters, and how to get started. [AD] This episode is sponsored by The Royal Mint - very excited about this one hunnies. What an amazing company to partner with for me and you all to learn more about investing in precious metals - learn more here I often talk about investing as a powerful way to build wealth. Usually, I focus on topics like the stock market, property, and business. But today, I'm excited to explore the unique power of investing in precious metals. I'll admit, like anything that is new or unknown, this topic felt slightly intimidating, simply because I didn't fully understand it. Since undertaking research and learning the "what", why” and “how” behind it, I've come to realise just how empowering and impactful it can be. We invest as a way to protect our wealth, especially from inflation. Inflation erodes the buying power of your money. When you leave your money sitting in cash, it loses purchasing power year after year. By swapping cash for assets like precious metals that grow in value over time, you're not only preserving your wealth but you're also beating inflation. One of the biggest barriers to investing for women is a combination of risk aversion and lack of knowledge. Research shows that women are 45% more likely than men to hesitate when it comes to starting or expanding their investment portfolios due to a lack of knowledge. My hope is that this episode, along with resources shared by The Royal Mint, will help bridge that gap and inspire you to diversify both your knowledge and your portfolio. In this episode: What it means to invest in precious metals like gold 3 reasons why you should invest in precious metals 3 things to consider when you choose to invest 4 top tips for getting started Allow me to introduce you to The Royal Mint! Resources Check out physical and digital precious metals investment opportunities with The Royal Mint Download the ULTIMATE annual money planner Connect with me on Instagram, on LinkedIn or on TikTok Send me an Email Book a Money Mindset Exploration Session Get a copy of my FREE Monthly Spending Planner Template Get a copy of my FREE Money Date Template Join Becoming Debt Free Join The Feel Good Investor
HANetf investment writer Jake Coulson talked with Proactive's Stephen Gunnion about HANetf's partnership with The Royal Mint to bring sustainability into the gold exchange-traded commodity (ETC) market. Coulson highlighted the 2020 launch of The Royal Mint Responsibly Sourced Physical Gold ETC (RMAU), emphasising its distinctive features, such as being 100% physically backed by gold bars stored in The Royal Mint's secure vault in Wales. He explained that the gold used in this ETC is responsibly sourced, meeting post-2019 standards and includes a growing portion of 100% recycled gold, which he noted is “around 90% less carbon intensive than mined gold.” HANetf's approach, according to Coulson, allows investors with sustainability priorities to diversify away from mined gold. This partnership with The Royal Mint ensures close control over the gold's provenance, including the ability to quickly remove Russian-origin bars following geopolitical events. Coulson also introduced HANetf's latest currency-hedged ETCs, available in sterling, euros and Swiss francs, offering investors more options to manage their currency exposure while holding LBMA-approved gold bars. These additions maintain the full transparency HANetf's ETC investors expect, with an audited bar list always available on their website. For more insights and updates on HANetf's innovative products, visit Proactive's YouTube channel. Don't forget to like, subscribe, and enable notifications for more updates. #HANetf #GoldETC #RoyalMint #SustainableInvesting #RecycledGold #Investment #ETC #CurrencyHedging #CarbonNeutral #GoldInvestment #Proactive
Inequality reporter Stephanie Convery returns on a trip with Liz and Ben into the world of banking, high finance and monetary theory in Terry Pratchett's thirty-sixth Discworld novel, 2007's Making Money. The Ankh-Morpork Post Office is running very smoothly - which has left Moist von Lipwig, reformed con-man and Postmaster General, at a loose end. But he resists the Patrician's offer of a new job revitalising the Royal Mint and Royal Bank of Ankh-Morpork. The bank's current owner is a Mark 1 Feisty Old Lady who knows her rich family are out to get her - and her little dog, too. But despite Moist's best attempts to not get involved, both dog and bank wind up in his care - putting him in the sights of the Lavish family, and especially Vetinari-obsessed Cosmo Lavish. Meanwhile, manager of the Golem Trust (and Moist's fiancée) Adora Belle Dearheart is digging up something ancient out on the desert. And Moist's past is about to catch up with him... Just a few novels after debuting in Going Postal, Moist von Lipwig is back! Making Money is about the nature of money, but also about the thrill of the chase, grappling with one's inner nature, and obsession. Aside from Gladys the Golem, Moist and Adora Belle bring few of their previous supporting cast along for the ride; instead we meet a new cast including Mr Bent, the Lavishes, another Igor, the Post-Mortem Communications Department of Unseen University, and the very good boy Mr Fusspot. Does this live up to the promise of Going Postal? Could Moist be in other Discworld books in disguise - and if so, as who? Did you guess Mr Bent's secret? And if you had a Glooper, what would you use it to change in the world of money? No purchase necessary to join the conversation for this episode; just email us or use the hashtag #Pratchat80 on social media. Stephanie Convery (she/her) is is a writer and author. Previously the Deputy Culture Editor for The Guardian Australia, she's now their dedicated inequality reporter. Stephanie's first book, After the Count: The Death of Davey Browne, was published in March 2020 by Penguin Books. (We suspect it won't be her last.) You can follow Stephanie on Twitter at @gingerandhoney, and find her work at Guardian Australia. Her previous appearances on Pratchat were for #Pratchat2, “Murdering a Curry” (about Mort), and #Pratchat42, “Truth, the Printing Press, and Every -ing” (about The Truth). You'll find full notes and errata for this episode on our website...though not just yet. Watch out for it soon! In the meantime, the newly recovered story in A Stroke of the Pen is “Arnold, the Bominable Snowman” (we've not yet found it online). Also, here's the free Quickstart for the Discworld: Adventures in Ankh-Morpork roleplaying game; it's also available via DriveThruRPG. The Kickstarter launches on 15 October. Those three upcoming Discworld plays in Australia are The Fifth Elephant from Brisbane Arts Theatre from 19 October; Maskerade by Sporadic Productions in Adelaide from 30 October; and Guards! Guards! from Roleystone Theatre in Perth from 22 November. Next episode we're continuing our Moist streak (sorry) with the (so far) latest Discworld board game: Clacks! If you have questions about this game recreating the race between Moist and the Grand Trunk company, get them in to us by mid-October 2024 by tagging us or using the hashtag #Pratchat81 on social media, or emailing us at chat@pratchatpodcast.com.
On this week's episode of the AJ Bell Money & Markets podcast: Dan Coatsworth looks at the market reaction to China's stimulus package to boost growth and a six-times earnings mortgage announcement from Nationwide. Charlene Young talks us through a cliff-edge in the tax system that could lose high earning parents up to £20,000 in childcare support and how pension contributions can help you claim money back. Also, how to check if you've got over £2,000 in a child trust fund you didn't even know about. With gold prices continuing to break records, Danni Hewson talks to Stuart O'Reilly from the Royal Mint about what investors should consider when it comes to investing in precious metals. In our second interview, Dan chats to Slater Investments co-founder Mark Slater about why he likes Tesco and his ideas for driving up demand for UK stocks and shares. Plus, we wish Shares Magazine a very happy 25th birthday!
fWotD Episode 2689: Charles William Fremantle Welcome to Featured Wiki of the Day, your daily dose of knowledge from Wikipedia’s finest articles.The featured article for Saturday, 14 September 2024 is Charles William Fremantle.Sir Charles William Fremantle (12 August 1834 – 8 October 1914) was a British governmental official who served 26 years as deputy master of the Royal Mint. As the chancellor of the exchequer was ex officio master of the Royal Mint beginning in 1870, Fremantle was its executive head for almost a quarter century.Educated at Eton College, Fremantle entered the Treasury in 1853 as a clerk. He served as private secretary to several officials, lastly Benjamin Disraeli, both while Disraeli was chancellor of the exchequer, and then in 1868 while he was prime minister. Disraeli's appointment of Fremantle as deputy master of the Royal Mint excited some controversy but was supported by his political rival William Gladstone.Fremantle began as deputy master to Thomas Graham, the master of the Mint. Graham died in September 1869, and the Treasury decided the mastership should go to the chancellor of the day, with the deputy master the administrative head of the Royal Mint. Fremantle began work to modernise the antiquated Royal Mint. Much of the work had to wait until the Royal Mint was reconstructed at its premises at Tower Hill in 1882. Fremantle sought to beautify the coinage and, believing the Mint's engraver, Leonard Charles Wyon, not up to the task, sought to do so by resurrecting classic coin designs, like Benedetto Pistrucci's depiction of St George and the dragon for the sovereign.In 1894, at the age of sixty, Fremantle retired from the Royal Mint and thereafter spent time as a corporate director and as a magistrate. He died in 1914, just under two months after his eightieth birthday.This recording reflects the Wikipedia text as of 00:55 UTC on Saturday, 14 September 2024.For the full current version of the article, see Charles William Fremantle on Wikipedia.This podcast uses content from Wikipedia under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License.Visit our archives at wikioftheday.com and subscribe to stay updated on new episodes.Follow us on Mastodon at @wikioftheday@masto.ai.Also check out Curmudgeon's Corner, a current events podcast.Until next time, I'm standard Joey.
Today we will be going for gold in more ways than one. Inga Doak, the Head of Sustainability at The Royal Mint, reveals how the company plan to ‘urban mine' gold from household electronic waste and turn it into jewellery. But with tens of millions of tonnes of e-waste piling up every year, the environment policy adviser at the Royal Society of Chemistry, Izzi Monk unpacks how the UK can clean up its act. Vic puts her stable boots on to visit some very pampered thoroughbred foals to find out what their poo can reveal about their future success on the racecourse. From horses to humanity, sports geneticist Alun Williams discusses how our genetic make-up could determine whether or not we are destined for gold at the Olympics. Plus, Roland Pease channels his inner child to investigate his youthful obsession with Mars as NASA looks for new microbial life on the red planet. Presenter: Victoria Gill Producers: Ben Mitchell and Ella Hubber Editor: Martin Smith Production Co-ordinator: Jana Bennett-Holesworth
HANetf co-founder and co-CEO Hector McNeil speaks with Proactive's Stephen Gunnion about the recent developments in their exchange-traded products (ETPs). McNeil discussed the Royal Mint's e-waste recycling initiative and its impact on the The Royal Mint Physical Gold ETC (LSE:RMAU), which is now backed by over 50% recycled gold. McNeil also highlighted the performance of the HAN-GINS Tech Megatrend Equal Weight UCITS ETF (LSE:ITEK), which utilises a unique double equal-weighting strategy, reducing concentration risk and offering broad exposure to megatrends like robotics, big data, and cloud computing. In addition, McNeil commented on the geopolitical shifts in Eastern Europe and their influence on the Future of Defence UCITS ETF (LSE:NATO). The fund, which focuses on companies from NATO countries, has seen significant growth, reflecting the rising defence budgets across Europe. McNeil emphasised the importance of such investments in today's volatile environment, mentioning that the ETF recently reached an all-time high of £10 per share. For more insights into HANetf's innovative strategies and top-performing funds, watch the full interview. Don't forget to like the video, subscribe to our channel, and enable notifications for future content. #HANetf #ETFs #RoyalMint #TechInvesting #DefenseStocks #SustainableInvesting #Geopolitics #Investing #NATO #Megatrends#ProactiveInvestors #invest #investing #investment #investor #stockmarket #stocks #stock #stockmarketnews
In this week's episode, Damien discusses the pros and cons of investing in physical gold, including fractional gold coins and the storage options with the Royal Mint. Damien also explains what you need to look out for in the T&Cs when booking a last-minute holiday. Finally, Andy explains how teachers can now take advantage of the discounts and rewards that are on offer via the Blue Light card Watch the whole show on YouTube here: https://youtu.be/hQ8M4RE7v7g Check out this week's podcast article on the MTTM website to see the full list of resources from this week's show. Follow Money to the Masses on social media: YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/moneytothemasses Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/moneytothemasses Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/moneytothemasses Twitter - https://twitter.com/money2themasses Tik Tok - https://www.tiktok.com/@moneytothemasses Support the podcast You can now support the MTTM podcast by visiting our dedicated podcast page when making any financial decision. You may already compare products and services online and make purchases but by doing so via our dedicated page you might not only save money but could also earn cashback or take advantage of exclusive offers for MTTM listeners. Every time you use a link on the page we may earn a small amount of money for our podcast. We only use affiliate links that give you an identical (or better) deal than going direct. Thank you for being an incredible part of our community. Your support means the world to us. Support the show by visiting and bookmarking our dedicated podcast page: Money to the Masses Dedicated Podcast Page - Click to support the show Resources: Links referred to in the podcast: MTTM Deals Page Take out a free trial of 80 20 Investor Sign up to the Money to the Masses Newsletter Gold from The Royal Mint DigiGold from The Royal Mint Does travel insurance cover wildfires? Car hire excess insurance Blue Light Card extended to Teachers
The Royal Mint in the UK is experimenting with doing something a little different with trash- mining it! ★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★
The Standard can reveal that the Royal Mint has been told by the Treasury that it would not have to mint any new 1p and 2p coins for general circulation this year - and doesn't expect to order any more in the coming years. Our Business & Technology Correspondent, Simon Hunt, who is behind the story, explains what we know so far about the situation and whether the UK is officially becoming a cashless society. In part two, The Standard's El Hunt reveals the next wave of Taylor Swift mania, the opening of a new display at V&A Museum about the global superstar. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
fWotD Episode 2588: Double sovereign Welcome to featured Wiki of the Day where we read the summary of the featured Wikipedia article every day.The featured article for Wednesday, 5 June 2024 is Double sovereign.The double sovereign is a gold coin of the United Kingdom with a nominal value of two pounds sterling (£2). Rarely issued in the first century and a half after its debut in 1820, it never had a significant presence in circulation. It is now a collector and bullion coin, and has been struck most years since 1980. It features the reigning monarch on its obverse and, most often, Benedetto Pistrucci's depiction of Saint George and the Dragon on the reverse.The double sovereign was first minted in 1820 and depicted George III, but this issue never entered circulation, instead being considered a pattern coin. In the following century and a half, it was most often issued to mark the beginning of a new reign, or the institution of a new coinage portrait of the reigning monarch. These were mostly proof coins; the denomination was issued for circulation in only four years. Few examples that are worn from commercial use can be found.Since 1980, the double sovereign has been sold as a collector's coin by the Royal Mint. In some years it was not issued, and the Royal Mint instead placed gold versions of the commemorative £2 piece in the gold proof sets.This recording reflects the Wikipedia text as of 00:30 UTC on Wednesday, 5 June 2024.For the full current version of the article, see Double sovereign on Wikipedia.This podcast uses content from Wikipedia under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License.Visit our archives at wikioftheday.com and subscribe to stay updated on new episodes.Follow us on Mastodon at @wikioftheday@masto.ai.Also check out Curmudgeon's Corner, a current events podcast.Until next time, I'm Joey Standard.
A slightly-longer Sunday morning thought piece than usual today, but one that is well worth the effort I hope you'll discover.A reminder that:* This August I am going to the Edinburgh Fringe to do one of my “lectures with funny bits”. This one is all about the history of mining. As always, I shall be delivering it at Panmure House, where Adam Smith wrote Wealth of Nations. It's at 2pm most afternoons. Please come. Tickets here.* My first book and many readers' favourite, Life After the State - Why We Don't Need Government (2013), is now back in print - with the audiobook here: Audible UK, Audible US, Apple Books. I recommend the audiobook ;)Isaac Newton, who, along with William Shakespeare, Leonardo Da Vinci and Aristotle, must be one of the cleverest individuals to have ever lived, made groundbreaking contributions to physics, mathematics, optics, mechanics, philosophy and astronomy. The laws of motion, the theory of gravitation and the reflecting telescope were among his many contributions. He was also a brilliant alchemist, obsessed with theology and biblical prophecy. As if that isn't enough, he is credited with the design of the Gold Standard, the primary monetary system of the world for over two hundred years. Today we explore how this brilliant system was accidental.In 1695, counterfeit coins accounted for more than a tenth of all English money in circulation. Massive LOL: the English used the counterfeit coins, in particular, to pay their taxes. The Exchequer that year reported no more than ten good shillings for every hundred pounds of revenue. Coin clipping was also a major problem, especially of old coins, and silver coins were disappearing from circulation altogether. Silver was worth more on the continent as bullion than it was in the UK as tender, so arbitrageurs shipped coins abroad, melted them down, and sold them for gold. Everyone from the Jews to the French was blamed, but by 1695 it was almost impossible to find legal silver in circulation. It had all been melted down and sold.This all led to a scarcity of money, which inhibited trade. More damage was caused to the English nation in just one year by bad money than “by a quarter century of bad kings, bad Ministers, bad Parliaments and bad Judges”, said the historian Thomas Babington Macaulay.King William begged the House of Commons to respond to the crisis and, seeking help, Secretary of the Treasury, William Lowndes wrote letters to England's wisest men, asking their advice: among them, philosopher John Locke, architect Sir Christopher Wren, banker Sir Josiah Child, and scientist, Sir Isaac Newton.Newton was in his mid 40s and probably not far off the peak of his powers. He had published his most famous work, the Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica, just eight years earlier in 1687, and it had established him as the smartest man in the country. He would now put his great mind to money.With the formation of the Bank of England the previous year, Newton had become aware of the possibilities of paper money. “If interest be not yet low enough for the advantage of trade,” he wrote, “the only proper way to lower it is more paper credit till by trading and business we can get more money.” He could see that token value and intrinsic value were not necessarily one and the same.It was also obvious to Newton that the currency criminals were rational actors. They would continue to clip, counterfeit, and sell abroad while there was profit in it. Bullion smuggling carried the death sentence, yet still it went on. Coercion alone would not be enough to stop it from happening. The market itself needed to be changed.He came up with two measures. First, to deal with the clipping, all coins minted prior to 1662 should be called in, melted down, and, using machines, re-made into coins that had a single consistent edge. With no more hand-hammered coins in circulation, clipping coins would become that much more difficult. Re-minting the entire country's coin, however, at a time of such primitive machinery, was no small undertaking. Second, to deal with the silver issue, the amount of silver in coins should be lowered so that the silver content and the face value of the coin were the same.The thought of such a devaluation went against the psyche. The idea that token value and intrinsic value might be different was alien and Newton's second proposal was not widely welcomed. There were 20 shillings to a pound, so a shilling should contain a concomitant amount of silver. Newton may have thought that the token was more important than the silver content, but landowners and the government, which was largely made up of them, would lose 20% of their silver by Newton's proposal. In 1696 Parliament approved the recoinage, but stipulated the new coins maintain the old weights. Newton warned that the silver outflow would continue.The following year, nudged by John Locke, Charles Montague, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, sent Newton a letter notifying him that the King intended to make him Warden of the Mint. So began his new career. Perhaps the role was only intended as a sinecure, but Newton took it very seriously.Putting his chemical and mathematical knowledge to good use, Newton got the Mint's machines working and the coins minted at a speed that defied the predictions of even the boldest optimist and, as an industrial operation, Newton's recoinage was an enormous success. Newton would also have to learn the skills of a policeman—both investigator and interrogator—and he proved masterful. This ruthless enforcer of the law, oversaw numerous investigations, exposing frauds, and then prosecuting perpetrators. Poor counterfeiters had no idea what they were up against, and many were sent to the gallows for their crimes.So good at the job of Warden was Newton that, in 1699, he was promoted and made Master of the Royal Mint, and after the Union between England and Scotland in 1707, Newton directed a Scottish recoinage that would lead to a new currency for the new Kingdom of Great Britain.He had solved the clipping issue, the counterfeiting issue was vastly improved, but silver was still making its way across the Channel, just as Newton had said it would. As long as the silver content exceeded the face value of the coins, the trade would continue. By 1715, almost all of the coins that Newton had struck between 1696 and 1699 had left t he country.Newton's studies had moved on from tides, planetary motions, and pendulums to the gold markets. He drew up an extensive table of assays of foreign coins and in doing so realised that gold was cheaper in the new markets opening up in Asia than in Europe, and thus that silver was not just being sucked out of England, but out of Europe itself to India and China where it was traded for gold.Meanwhile, the world's next great gold rush had started.If you are interested in buying gold, check out my recent report. I have a feeling it is going to come in very handy in the not-too-distant future.My recommended bullion dealer is the Pure Gold Company.World gold output doublesSome time in 1694 Portuguese deserters had found alluvial gold two hundred miles inland from Rio De Janeiro in Minas Gerais in Brazil. Soon everyone was flocking there, “white, coloured, black, Amerindian, men and women; young and old; poor and rich; nobles and commoners; laymen and clergy,” said a Jesuit priest who lived in the area. By 1724, within just three decades of the discovery, world output had doubled. By 1750, 65% of global production was emanating from Brazil. The gold made its way to Lisbon, along with sugar, tobacco and other Brazilian products - similar amounts to that which the Conquistadors had sent back to Spain the previous century - and with it the Portuguese minted their moidores coins.The Portuguese used their gold to buy English cereal crops, beef and fish, woollen goods, manufactured articles, and luxuries. Portugal imported five times as much from England as it exported to it, and it used its gold to settle the difference. The moidores, which weighed slightly more than an English guinea, worth 28 shillings, actually became currency, especially in the west country, where there were more of them than local coins. “We hardly have any money,” wrote an Exeter man in 1713, “but Portugal gold.” In London, the Bank of England began buying vast amounts of gold, “to be coined as it comes in” and the Mint began minting guineas from the moidores. By 1715 the Bank had 800 kg/25,700 t.oz, a nascent central bank reserve, and this figure would rise would to 15.5 tonnes/500,000 t.oz by 1730. So much gold coin had never been minted before and London soon overtook Amsterdam as the foremost precious metals market. Gold was coming and staying. Silver was leaving for Asia. In 1717 Newton was called on to investigate.He came up with a new system and outlined it in a report to the Lords Commissioners of His Majesty's Treasury in September 1717. Less than three months later there was a Royal Proclamation that forbade the exchange of gold guineas for more than 21 silver shillings - even if they were clipped or underweight. Thus was a guinea just over a pound, which was 20 shillings, or 113 grains of gold. The ratio of gold to silver was effectively set at roughly 1:15.5.But silver coin clipping continued, and full-weight silver coins continued to be exported to the continent, where 21 shillings of silver could still get you more than a guinea's worth of gold (just over 7.6 grams/1/4 t.oz), and to Asia, especially India and China, often via the East India Company, where silver was even more valuable. The result was that silver was used for imports, and so left the country, while exports were traded for gold, which thus came into the country.All in all, some two-thirds of that Brazilian gold is thought to have ended up in England. Hundreds of tonnes in total.Britain had always been on a silver standard. A pound was a pound of sterling silver. “In all men's minds the only true money of the country was the silver coin,” said Sir John Craig, historian of the Mint. Although that Royal Proclamation suggested a bimetallic standard, in practice, with so much silver going abroad, it moved Britain from silver to its first gold standard. Gold was more dependable than clipped silver. The future would look back on Newton as the father of the gold standard. His system proved the bedrock of Britain's domestic and international trade through the 18th century, helping it to become such a formidable commercial power. But it was an accidental gold standard. Nobody—not the institutions nor the persons involved—had had the slightest intention of creating a new monetary system on gold. Most people wanted to sustain silver as the prime coinage of the land. Newton had tried to create a functioning bimetallic standard. But market forces had other ideas.In the 1770s there was another recoinage in Britain, which, in terms of sheer scale, was unprecedented. Some 155 tonnes/5 million t.oz of gold in total, perhaps 30 times greater than Newton's recoinage of 1696-9, greater than anything attempted by Spain or Venice, or even Rome. No attempt was made to recoin silver. It was a formal admission that Britain was now on a gold standard. Newton's accidental gold standard was formalised.Anno domini for goldThe second half of the 19th century proved the golden age of the gold rush. First California, then Australia, then New Zealand, then South Africa, then Western Australia, and finally the Klondike.Aside from taxation (see Daylight Robbery), it is difficult to think of anything more overlooked that has had a more profound influence on the course of human history than the gold rush. Nations, indeed civilisations, have been formed on the back of them. (The beneficial impact of gold discoveries in Northern Spain to the Roman Empire is dramatically understated, for example). The fifty years from January 24th, 1848, were perhaps the golden era of the gold rush. The date stands as a watershed moment, the dawn of a new golden age. You might say there are two histories of gold, one before and one after 1848, akin to a BC and AD moment in time. On that day a carpenter from New Jersey by the name of James Marshall saw something shiny at the bottom of a ditch while carrying out a routine inspection of a lumbar mill he was helping build on the western slopes of the Sierra Nevada in California. The scale of the gold business changed out of all proportion. The amount of metal available changed beyond all recognition. Annual production rose fivefold in five years. The Paris Mint coined 150 million Napoléons D'Or in eight years from 1850-57, compared to 65 million in the preceding 50 years. The US Mint's output of gold eagles rose fivefold.The gold price should surely fall with all the new supply, feared bankers and economists. “The price must fall,” said the Economist, wrong about everything even then. The Times agreed. French economist Michel Chevalier wrote an entire book, On the Probable Fall in the Value of Gold. But the gold price did not fall. It stayed constant. Surprisingly perhaps, the biggest casualty of the gold rush, and the dramatic increase in gold supply, was silver. Silver had been money for thousands of years. Not for much longer. Its price halved. In 1850 only Britain, Portugal, Brazil, and a handful of other nations were on the gold standard. Everyone else was on bi-metallic standards. Come 1900 China was the only major nation not on a pure gold standard. Scarcely had the discoveries in California been made when the US began minting $1 and $20 gold coins, in addition to the $10 eagle. Before the discovery, the US Mint struck $4 million worth; in 1851 it minted over $62 million worth. Gold is “virtually the only currency of the country,” said a Congressman proposing a $3 gold coin in a debate in 1853. 1853 would also prove the last time silver dollars were struck, though they still circulated. In practical terms, if not nominal, the US was moving to a gold standard. Then the Coinage Act of 1873 eliminated the standard silver dollar altogether. The act became known as the Crime of 1873. There was a rearguard action, a “silver crusade” to get silver reinstated, especially as silver supply was now increasing thanks to discoveries in Nevada, Colorado, and Mexico. There was, thought some, a “deep-laid plot” engineered by a foreign conspiracy to increase the national debt, which would have to be paid in gold. Bimetallism became a central issue of the election of 1896, when an ambitious young Democrat by the name of William Jennings Bryan won the nomination that he thought would carry him to the presidency with what is widely regarded as one of the greatest speeches in American political history. “Thou shalt not crucify mankind upon a cross of gold,” he bellowed. But no.Gold rather than silver was now in the pockets of millions of people around the world. The increased gold supply effectively sent both France and the US onto gold standards, even though nominally they remained bimetallic (the US until 1900). The move from silver to gold gathered pace in Europe from the 1870s. In 1872-3 Germany launched its new mark, followed by Denmark, Sweden, Norway, and the Netherlands. France, Belgium, Switzerland, and Italy had signed up to a Latin bimetallic monetary union in 1865, which was undermined by the tumbling silver price, and they largely abandoned the silver part of the equation after 1874. By the end of the century, every major nation bar China was on a gold standard, the classical gold standard which Isaac Newton is credited with having designed.But that classical gold standard, that golden age of sound money for which many hard money advocates of today, including yours truly, pine, was not designed and planned, it was accidental.As a the poet Robert Burns wrote:But Mousie, thou art no thy-lane,In proving foresight may be vain:The best laid schemes o' Mice an' MenGang aft agleyThe modern system of fiat money by which we operate today is also accidental, evolving from political expediency, political pressure, technological developments, deficit spending, suppressed interest rates, misguided obsession with GDP, and more. Many, especially the powerful, have exploited it for their own ends, but nobody designed a system in which 99% of money is digital, in which 99% of money is debt, in which loss of purchasing power and Cantillon Effect are built in, which robs the young, the salaried, and the saver, which makes an increase in the wealth gap inevitable and so on. The modern system is clearly in its endgame. Better systems are emerging. But endgames last a long time.Enjoy this article? Please consider becoming a paid subscriber. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.theflyingfrisby.com/subscribe
Hamish may have uncovered a breakthrough to connect with the Royal Mint, but on closer inspection it might not be great. Andy thinks there's a new type of awkward greeting and decides to explore it through song. The Hat Construction prank continues, with Hamish detailing the next steps, while also talking about bribing his daughter and accidentally making her one of the world's highest paid cyclists. 1. A Royal Mint connection 2. Andy's awkward ‘hi' song 3. Hat construction progress 4. Your fastest corners 5. Power Moves 6. Rudy the high paid cyclist
As promised, here is my updated guide to buying and investing in gold. I really think it is important that you own some, given what governments are doing to currency. I have also made this available as a PDF, which you can download here:(If that PDF doesn't work, try this link)Also, there are still a couple of tickets for my musical comedy show this Friday April 5 in Guildford. And on Tuesday April 9, I'm talking money, tax, gold - all that stuff - at the IEA with Tom Clougherty. Entry is free. If you fancy it, here is the link).We are living in a world of uncertainty. There is inflation, war, political discontent, financial instability and, perhaps most concerning of all, state incompetence everywhere you look. The case for owning gold, for having wealth stored outside the system, where it is nobody else's liability, is as strong as it has ever been.There is old Wall Street adage: “Put 10% of your net worth in gold, and hope it doesn't go up.” If gold is going up, it usually means there are problems elsewhere.The adage applies now, as much as it did when it was first coined many decades ago.How to invest in gold.There are five ways:* You can go old school and buy bullion - coins or bars.* You can buy gold stored in vaults in places like London, Jersey, Zurich or Singapore. This gold is allocated to you.* You can buy ETFs via your stock broker. These are funds that store gold. The price of the fund tracks the gold price, and you own shares in the fund. (See footnote 1, if you need to understand what an ETF is).* You can buy gold companies - refiners, royalty companies, miners and so on.* You can buy futures, options, CFDs or spreadbets.I'm not talking today about buying mining companies (if you are interested in mining companies, consider a paid subscription, as gold mining companies are one of my areas of expertise). Nor am I talking about futures, options, CFDs or spread betting the gold price. Neither is safeguarding your wealth. They are speculation. In the right market they can make you a lot of money. In the wrong market, they can also lose you a lot.Upgrade your subscription here.Today we are talking about old school, physical goldI'll put to one side arguments about whether gold is a good investment or not (I think it is), and whether I think it is going up or down. I'll simply explain what is the easiest, cheapest and, perhaps above all, safest way to buy gold.A note on ETFsETFs are a simple way to get exposure to the gold price. It's not really the same as owning actual metal, so the purists tend to veer away from ETFs, though institutions like them, as do traders. ETFs are easy to buy and sell. You buy an ETF just as you would buy any stock or share through your broker. London-listed gold ETFs include RMAU.L and PHAU.L. The world's biggest is the NYSE-listed GLD. Costs - for example storage - are baked into the price.To buy an ETF, you need an account with a broker, such as Hargreaves Lansdown or Interactive Investor. You deposit money and buy through them.I steer away from ETFs mainly because they are too easy to get shaken out of. When you buy physical gold, to sell can be a bit of an undertaking, so it's less likely to be done on a whim. Owning physical turns you into a long-term investor. It may be that you never sell at all and end up passing the gold on to your heirs.So where do you buy gold from?I've used many bullion dealers over the years. The dealer I like most, and with whom I have an affiliation deal, is the Pure Gold Company. Premiums are low. Quality of service is high. You get to deal with a human being. You can take delivery of your gold or store it online with them in their vaults. They deliver to the UK, US, Canada and Europe. (If you speak to them, tell them I sent you).In theory, there is not a great deal of difference between an ETF and storing your gold online with a bullion dealer. Both are extremely convenient, whether for buying or selling. Both give you exposure to the gold price. But I favour the storing-it-with-a-bullion-dealer route, as, somehow, you are less likely to sell. ETFs make it too easy to sell and so weaken your hands.Where are you going to put your gold?Once you've decided where to buy your gold, the next question is: where to put it? Different people with different circumstances have different solutions.Some people have a safe at home and keep their gold there. Some keep their gold in safety deposit boxes. Others never take delivery at all, and keep it safely stored in a vault with the dealer in sensible places like Zurich, Jersey, London or Singapore.I'm not convinced homes in our “vibrant” British cities are safe, so these are not options I would take, but ... I know one guy that has all his gold stored in a sock in his loft. I know another that has buried it in his garden, and only his close family know the location - he has quite a bit of land. I know another that keeps his gold and silver in plain sight - he uses the bars as doorstops. Nuts you may say, but how about this? He got burgled and the burglars didn't take the bars. They obviously thought they were just doorstops.If - and only if - you have somewhere safe to store it, I'm a great advocate of taking delivery. You get to handle your metal. There are lots of fantastic different coins from around the world to buy - Chinese Pandas, South African Krugerrands, American Eagles, Austrian Philharmonics, Canadian Maples, Australian Kangaroos. The bars are nice too. It's good to handle gold. But I refer you to my above comment about cities today. I've also heard about homes being burgled by people with metal detectors - but I gather this is mostly an Asian-on-Asian crime. For now.What about tax?Competition amongst ETFs and bullion dealers has conspired to drive down prices, much to the benefit of the consumer. But there is one enormous cost that neither of these methods are able to avoid - tax.When you sell, you are incurring a Capital Gains Tax (CGT) event - 20% in the UK for higher rate tax-payers and 10% for lower. That's an unavoidable 10 or 20% erosion of any profit.But there's another method of buying gold (and silver), which, quite legally, avoids this cost altogether. There is a slightly higher premium to spot when you buy, but we are talking about a tiny amount, nothing like 20% CGT. Given the potential savings involved, it's surprising that more UK investors don't buy their gold and silver in this way. The method I'm describing, if you haven't already figured it out, is to buy sovereigns and Britannias.The gold sovereign used to be the pound coin. Imagine that - a pound coin made of solid gold. It was the pound coin from 1816, after the Great Recoinage, until 1932, when the UK finally abandoned its gold standard. Until then, the pound really was “as good as gold”. 22 carat gold to be precise – that's about 92% purity. A sovereign weighs about 7gs, which is around a quarter of an ounce, the same weight as a 2p piece.Such is the devaluation of currency that has taken place over successive generations in the UK, it now takes well over 400 pound coins to buy one of these old pound coins.Despite no longer being on the gold standard, the Royal Mint began producing sovereigns again in 1957 and continues to the present day. A large number of them are actually minted in that well known British heartland, Delhi. (That's because there is a huge market for them in India).Technically these coins are legal tender, so they are exempt from CGT.As sovereigns are so common, the numismatic value is very low. You can pick up 100-plus-year-old Victorian coins at a few percent over spot. You get the history for free. And you can buy them from most dealers, including, of course, the Pure Gold Company. The main exception is the 1937 sovereign struck for Edward VIII. As he abdicated, the coins were never circulated. One sold in 2014 for over half a million quid. That's some premium.Gold Britannias – which are an ounce in weight – only began to be issued in 1987. But they too are considered coins of the realm. Despite the fact that an ounce of gold is £1,800, the face value of a Britannia is £100. Don't ask me how that works. I'm sure there's a reason. But, as coins of the realm, they too are exempt from CGT.The Royal Mint began producing silver Britannias in 1997. They also weigh an ounce. They have a face value of £2 (an ounce of silver is about £16) and are also exempt from CGT.Sovereigns are not the most beautiful coins in the world - Britannias are nicer - but both make for a considerable saving on CGT (assuming you have made a gain when you come to sell - of course, there is no guarantee of that).Thank you very much for reading this report. Good luck with your investments. Remember the adage: “Put 10% of your net worth in gold, and hope it doesn't go up.” If gold is going up, it usually means there are problems elsewhere.Once again my recommended bullion dealer is the Pure Gold Company. Premiums are low, quality of service is high. You can deal with a human being. You can take delivery of your gold or store it online with them in their vaults. They deliver to the UK, US, Canada and Europe, or you can store your gold with them in their vaults.Until next time,Dominic This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.theflyingfrisby.com/subscribe
Ep 197 is loose and this week we have a historic battle of the minds and money in the mad cap tale of William Chaloner.Who was this cocky young criminal? Why did he get under Isaac Newton's wig? And what do your watches come with?The secret ingredient is... The Royal Mint!Get cocktails, poisoning stories and historic true crime tales every week with The Poisoners' Cabinet. Listen to the Podcast on iTunes, Spotify and find us on Acast: https://shows.acast.com/thepoisonerscabinet Join us Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/thepoisonerscabinet Find us on TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@thepoisonerscabinet Follow us on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thepoisonerscabinet/ Find us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ThePoisonersCabinet Sources this week include Thomas Levenson's Newton And The Counterfeiter, Oxford University's Newton & The Mint and Newton Project, Medium, Explore The Archive, The Royal Mint, Coins & History Foundation. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
This week, we discuss Kubecon EU, Nvidia's hyper growth, having 55 direct reports and the Worldwide Container Infrastructure Forecast. Plus, is “hello” a proper slack message? Watch the YouTube Live Recording of Episode (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b-SnxTaHhL4) 459 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b-SnxTaHhL4) Runner-up Titles "Hey. Got a sec? Want to run something by you.” You don't want to scare you coworkers Eating bugs off your coworkers “Hi” has become a trigger word Rehabilitate the “Hi” 55 Direct Reports Everyone worked at one company, and that one company didn't want to do the work for everyone. The YAML hand off market Rundown Is Hello a proper Slack message? 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(https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2024/03/08/business/economy/remote-work-home.html) A new TikTok ban gains steam (https://www.platformer.news/tik-tok-ban-bill-2024-bytedance-biden/?ref=platformer-newsletter) Sam Altman reinstated to OpenAI board after investigation clears him of wrongdoing (https://venturebeat.com/security/sam-altman-reinstated-to-openai-board-after-investigation-clears-him-of-wrongdoing/) More companies getting rid of free tiers: (https://x.com/planetscale/status/1765438197981708684?s=46&t=zgzybiDdIcGuQ_7WuoOX0A) 49% of founders say they're considering quitting their startup this year (https://sifted.eu/articles/founder-mental-health-2024) The WiFi at Google's new Bay View office hasn't been working properly for months: report (https://www.businessinsider.com/googles-swanky-new-bay-view-office-suffers-bad-wifi-2024-3) Moon Mission Could Redefine Computing in Deep Space (https://www.eetimes.com/data-centers-could-soon-break-lunar-ground/) Doctors Are Using the Apple Vision Pro During Surgery (https://gizmodo.com/doctors-are-using-the-apple-vision-pro-during-surgery-1851329884) Apple Buys Canadian AI Startup as It Races to Add Features (https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2024-03-14/apple-aapl-buys-canadian-ai-startup-darwinai-as-part-of-race-to-add-features?utm_medium=email&utm_source=newsletter&utm_term=240314&utm_campaign=author_19842959&sref=9hGJlFio) Python with braces. Because python is awesome, but whitespace is awful. (https://github.com/mathialo/bython) Europe's AI Act demands extensive "logs" of users (https://www.thestack.technology/bias-biometrics-and-black-boxes-europes-ai-act-what-you-need-to-know/) How The Cloud Is A Trap (https://schedule.sxsw.com/2024/events/PP1144808) Amazon Web Services CEO Adam Selipsky says more than 10,000 organizations are using Bedrock (https://www.axios.com/2024/03/12/aws-ceo-ai-bedrock-amazon-anthropic) Measuring Developer Productivity via Humans (https://martinfowler.com/articles/measuring-developer-productivity-humans.html) Snowflake Stock: Melting Faster Than An Ice Cube (https://seekingalpha.com/article/4678674-snowflake-melting-faster-than-an-ice-cube-snow-stock) Games Are Coming to LinkedIn (https://www.pcmag.com/news/games-are-coming-to-linkedin) Dell Says Remote Employees Won't Be Eligible for Promotions: Report (https://gizmodo.com/dell-remote-employees-eligible-promotions-1851347699) European Cloud Group Calls for Regulatory Scrutiny Over Broadcom's VMware Overhaul (https://www.wsj.com/articles/european-cloud-group-calls-for-regulatory-scrutiny-over-broadcoms-vmware-overhaul-28b7c6ed?st=6n4vd93zeqr9d0o&reflink=article_email_share) Analogpunk, or, Tools, Shoes and Misery (https://schedule.sxsw.com/2024/events/PP1145788) Platform Engineering Day Europe 2024 (https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLj6h78yzYM2Me-TpMQFvCphDu_xm71ed_) Redis Adopts Dual Source-Available Licensing (https://redis.com/blog/redis-adopts-dual-source-available-licensing/) Apple Is in Talks to Let Google Gemini Power iPhone AI Features (https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2024-03-18/apple-in-talks-to-license-google-gemini-for-iphone-ios-18-generative-ai-tools) The MacBook Air gets an M3 upgrade (https://www.theverge.com/2024/3/4/24089999/apple-macbook-air-m3-announced-13-15-inch) Walmart sells a Mac (https://www.threads.net/@parkerortolani/post/C4iaGaFuKS8/?xmt=AQGzjqrbQ8qCsg4UUGYIc8LbOh2c9MoMdzn7sXSwOehXkA) Apple Plans AirPods Overhaul With New Low- and High-End Models, USB-C Headphones (https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-10-25/apple-airpods-plans-4th-generation-low-end-3rd-generation-pro-and-usb-c-max) AWS follows Google in announcing unrestricted free data transfers to other cloud providers (https://techcrunch.com/2024/03/05/amazon-follows-google-in-announcing-free-data-transfers-out-of-aws/) Free data transfer out to internet when moving out of AWS | Amazon Web Services (https://aws.amazon.com/blogs/aws/free-data-transfer-out-to-internet-when-moving-out-of-aws/) Buyout Firm Vista Equity Explores Options Including Sale for LogicMonitor (https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2024-03-13/buyout-firm-vista-equity-explores-options-including-sale-for-logicmonitor) Nonsense Airlines Are Coming for Your Carry-Ons (https://www.wsj.com/lifestyle/travel/flights-carry-on-bags-personal-items-3bcd3c2c?st=nx8npa3s7g8tm7f&reflink=article_copyURL_share) Clocks Change (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k4EUTMPuvHo) Costco CFO ‘voice' looks back on 40 years, $1.50 hot dogs and leadership (https://www.cfodive.com/news/costco-cfo-voice-40-years-150-hot-dogs-Richard-Galanti/709622/) Star Wars: Millennium Falcon 50p coin unveiled by Royal Mint (https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-wales-68594916) Delta's CEO says controversial Sky Lounge changes reflect the airline's status as premium brand (https://www.fastcompany.com/91060105/deltas-ceo-controversial-sky-lounge-changes-airlines-status-premium-brand) 3D Printed Full-Size Macintosh - The Brewintosh (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7N9oz4Ylzm4) Formula 1 chief appalled to find team using Excel to manage 20,000 car parts (https://arstechnica.com/cars/2024/03/formula-1-chief-appalled-to-find-team-using-excel-to-manage-20000-car-parts/) Listener Feedback Chris tell us the Owala Water Bottle is on sale. (https://a.co/d/30B4wA1) Conferences Tanzu (Re)defined online (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vDvWDyd98hA), April 3rd, Coté Speaking. Tanzu (Re)defined (https://www.fig-street.com/041124-tanzu-redefined/?utm_source=cote&utm_campaign=devrel&utm_medium=newsletter&utm_content=newsletterUpcoming), April 11th, Coté speaking, Palo Alto. TEQNation (https://conference.teqnation.com), May 22nd, 2024, Utrecht, Coté speaking. NDC Oslo (https://substack.com/redirect/8de3819c-db2b-47c8-bd7a-f0a40103de9e?j=eyJ1IjoiMmQ0byJ9.QKaKsDzwnXK5ipYhX0mLOvRP3vpk_3o2b5dd3FXmAkw), Coté speaking (https://substack.com/redirect/41e821af-36ba-4dbb-993c-20755d5f040a?j=eyJ1IjoiMmQ0byJ9.QKaKsDzwnXK5ipYhX0mLOvRP3vpk_3o2b5dd3FXmAkw), June 12th. DevOpsDays Amsterdam (https://devopsdays.org/events/2024-amsterdam/welcome/), June 19 to 21, 2024, Coté speaking. DevOpsDays Birmingham, August 19–21, 2024 (https://devopsdays.org/events/2024-birmingham-al/welcome/). Open Source Summit North America (https://events.linuxfoundation.org/open-source-summit-north-america/), Seattle April 16-18. Matt's speaking SDT news & hype Join us in Slack (http://www.softwaredefinedtalk.com/slack). Get a SDT Sticker! Send your postal address to stickers@softwaredefinedtalk.com (mailto:stickers@softwaredefinedtalk.com) and we will send you free laptop stickers! Follow us: Twitch (https://www.twitch.tv/sdtpodcast), Twitter (https://twitter.com/softwaredeftalk), Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/softwaredefinedtalk/), Mastodon (https://hachyderm.io/@softwaredefinedtalk), BlueSky (https://bsky.app/profile/softwaredefinedtalk.com), LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/company/software-defined-talk/), TikTok (https://www.tiktok.com/@softwaredefinedtalk), Threads (https://www.threads.net/@softwaredefinedtalk) and YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCi3OJPV6h9tp-hbsGBLGsDQ/featured). Use the code SDT to get $20 off Coté's book, Digital WTF (https://leanpub.com/digitalwtf/c/sdt), so $5 total. Become a sponsor of Software Defined Talk (https://www.softwaredefinedtalk.com/ads)! Recommendations Brandon: The E-Gates Modality Will Now Be Implemented at Cancun Airport - Cancun Airport (https://www.cancuniairport.com/the-e-gates-modality-will-now-be-implemented-at-cancun-airport/) Global Entry better then ever (https://globalfinder-usonline.com/glofinderus/?utm_term=global%20entry&utm_campaign=5C1B-2023-04-07&gad_source=1&gclid=CjwKCAjwte-vBhBFEiwAQSv_xZTL8mD-XjuwoT_Kqr6-YHaCUiyCITM5HugRhsRNLqm_50l3sSIJZxoC-jsQAvD_BwE) Mobile Passport Control (MPC) (https://www.cbp.gov/travel/us-citizens/mobile-passport-control) available in Austin Airport Matt: Duck Duck Go (https://duckduckgo.com) Coté: MacBook Pro (https://www.apple.com/shop/buy-mac/macbook-pro/14-inch-m3-max) Photo Credits Header (https://unsplash.com/s/photos/Hello) Artwork (https://unsplash.com/s/photos/Matrix-math)
In this episode of “How Do You Say That?!” sponsored by britishvoiceover.co.uk, Aubrey Parsons joins Sam and Mark to talk about a timeline tongue twist of a list, a vintage blast from the past, flirting over the garden fence, and a catalogue of audiobooks!Our VO question this week is all about whether producers really are only looking for authentic accents.Get involved! Have you got a Wildcard suggestion that we should try or an idea for the show? Send it to us via Mark or Sam's social media or email it directly to podcast@britishvoiceover.co.ukScript 1In 1972, Odin launched our modern diagnostics business, quickly becoming a world leader in cutting-edge diagnostics, screening and monitoring technologies.1972: Odin introduces the ODI-100 blood chemistry analyser to determine enzyme levels and analyse blood components.1974: Aline II, an improved hepatitis test developed by Odin, allows hospitals and blood banks, for the first time, to supply blood for transfusion the same day it is drawn.Script 2In an industrious little factory town, full of busy bees and eager beavers,one future captain of industry is getting ready for the breakfast of champions.Call her the Cornflake Queen.The Hostess of Toast.The High Priestess of the Pre-Brunch Munch Club.But oh no!What's this?Cupboards bare.Parents bawling.THINGS JUST GOT CEREAL!Who can possibly rescue us from this malodorous mealtime malady?**Listen to all of our podcasts here - you can also watch on YouTube, or say to your smart speaker "Play How Do You Say That?!"About our guest: Aubrey Parsons is a Welsh native raised in the UK. As an audiobook narrator he's sold over 160 thousand audiobooks to date and counting…His voice is described as versatile, warm, and engaging, and he also has experience as a singer, producer and studio engineer. He's worked on projects for major brands such as Roland, Disney, and the BBC, The Royal Mint, Molinare & Dr Who.He's also a character voice and accents specialist. He covers all English regional accents, both Northern and Southern Ireland, and many European accents too. Even Sir Anthony Hopkins described Aubrey as having "a beautiful voice"!Aubrey's Website Aubrey's Facebook pageResources: Click here for the Wildcard Generator and don't forget to think of an action your character can be doing!Mark's demos & contact details: https://linktr.ee/britishvoiceovermarkSam's demos & contact details: https://linktr.ee/samanthaboffin
Paul Brandwood, business development manager for the Royal Mint Experience in Southern Wales, talks with Olivia Living of Insider Travel Report about the Royal Mint's behind-the-scenes tours of coin production for over 80 countries, including unique items like Olympic medals. Brentwood also shares details about the VIP tour, offering exclusive access to the facility's inner workings, including its gold vault. For more information, visit www.royalmint.com/the-royal-mint-experience. If interested, the original video of this podcast can be found on the Insider Travel Report Youtube channel or by searching for the podcast's title on Youtube.
fWotD Episode 2482: Quarter sovereign Welcome to featured Wiki of the Day where we read the summary of the featured Wikipedia article every day.The featured article for Tuesday, 20 February 2024 is Quarter sovereign.The quarter sovereign is a British gold bullion and collectors' coin, issued by the Royal Mint since 2009. The smallest in the sovereign range, it has a face value of 25 pence.In 1853, the Royal Mint produced two patterns for a quarter sovereign for circulation, with one denominated as five shillings. These coins never went into production, due to concerns about their small size and the likely wear in circulation. Gold passed from circulation in the aftermath of the First World War.Beginning in 1979, the Royal Mint began to sell sovereigns to those wishing to own gold coins, by the following year selling four different denominations, ranging from the half sovereign to the five pound gold coin. In 2009, a quarter sovereign was introduced as an extension of this range. The quarter sovereign shares the same design as the larger coins, depicting on the obverse the reigning monarch, Elizabeth II, or since 2022, Charles III. Although there are some one-year designs, the one most often used on the reverse of these issues is Benedetto Pistrucci's depiction of Saint George and the Dragon, which was first used on the sovereign in 1817.This recording reflects the Wikipedia text as of 00:55 UTC on Tuesday, 20 February 2024.For the full current version of the article, see Quarter sovereign on Wikipedia.This podcast uses content from Wikipedia under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License.Visit our archives at wikioftheday.com and subscribe to stay updated on new episodes.Follow us on Mastodon at @wikioftheday@masto.ai.Also check out Curmudgeon's Corner, a current events podcast.Until next time, I'm Justin Standard.
In this episode, Mary-Jane Lintin meets with Jamie Watson, Client Director and Kevin Roberts,Senior Project Manager from Hitachi Solutions Europe. They discuss the incredible work they're doing with the Royal Mint, creating a world's first E-waste Sustainability Programme.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
The Tower of London has been many things through its over 900 years of history. Royal palace, fortress, menagerie, armoury, treasury, Royal Mint, public record office, and now, a tourist attraction. Given the sheer amount of death, torture, and violence associated with the building, ghosts are somewhat inevitable. The Lost Princes, Anne Boleyn, Lady Jane Grey, and Sir Walter Raleigh are among the most notable. It would be impossible to do all the ghosts justice in one episode. So let's investigate some of its best-known phantoms in this week's episode of Fabulous Folklore! Find the images and references on the blog post: https://www.icysedgwick.com/tower-of-london-ghosts/ Get your free guide to home protection the folklore way here: https://www.icysedgwick.com/fab-folklore/ Become a member of the Fabulous Folklore Family for bonus episodes and articles at https://patreon.com/bePatron?u=2380595 Fabulous Folklore Bookshop: https://uk.bookshop.org/shop/fabulous_folklore Enjoyed this episode and want to show your appreciation? Buy Icy a coffee to say 'thanks' at: https://ko-fi.com/icysedgwick Pre-recorded illustrated talks: https://ko-fi.com/icysedgwick/shop Request an episode: https://forms.gle/gqG7xQNLfbMg1mDv7 Get extra snippets of folklore on Instagram at https://instagram.com/icysedgwick 'Like' Fabulous Folklore on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/fabulousfolklore/ Find Icy on BlueSky: https://bsky.app/profile/icysedgwick.bsky.social Tweet Icy at https://twitter.com/IcySedgwick
fWotD Episode 2413: Half sovereign Welcome to featured Wiki of the Day where we read the summary of the featured Wikipedia article every day.The featured article for Wednesday, 13 December 2023 is Half sovereign.The half sovereign is a British gold coin denominated at one-half of a pound sterling. First issued in its present form in 1817, it has been struck by the Royal Mint in most years since 1980 as a collector's and bullion piece.The half sovereign was originally introduced in 1544 (in the reign of Henry VIII) but the issue was discontinued after 1604. In 1817, as part of the Great Recoinage, half sovereigns and sovereigns were reintroduced. Until it was discontinued as a currency coin in 1926, the half sovereign was struck in most years and circulated widely. In addition to being coined in London, it was struck at the colonial mints in Australia and South Africa. Exacting standards made it difficult to strike, and it was considered for elimination in the 1880s despite its popularity.Production of half sovereigns continued until 1926 and, apart from special issues for coronation years, was suspended until 1980. Since then it has been struck for sale by the Royal Mint, although it does not circulate. In addition to the portrait of the reigning monarch, the coin features in most years an image of Saint George and the dragon, designed by Benedetto Pistrucci, first used on the sovereign in 1817 and the half sovereign in 1893.This recording reflects the Wikipedia text as of 14:18 UTC on Wednesday, 13 December 2023.For the full current version of the article, see Half sovereign on Wikipedia.This podcast uses content from Wikipedia under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License.Visit our archives at wikioftheday.com and subscribe to stay updated on new episodes.Follow us on Mastodon at @wikioftheday@masto.ai.Also check out Curmudgeon's Corner, a current events podcast.Until next time, I'm Danielle Neural.
Podcast Notes Fiat money started to predominate during the 20th century. Since President Richard Nixon's decision to suspend US dollar convertibility to gold in 1971, a system of national fiat currencies has been used globally. The US Deficit was 232 billion in 1971 Since 1980 the us debt is 151.01 Trillion Dollars in Debt. We have 4.96 Trillion in assets According to Truth in Accounting Each Tax payer portion of the debt is 952,000 BRICS is a grouping of Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa formed by the 2010 addition of South Africa to the predecessor BRIC.[1][2][3][4] The original acronym "BRIC", or "the BRICs", was coined in 2001 by Goldman Sachs economist Jim O'Neill to describe fast-growing economies that he predicted would collectively dominate the global economy by 2050.[5] The BRICS nations encompass about 27% of the world's land surface and 42% of the global population.[a] Brazil, Russia, India, and China are among the world's ten largest countries by population, area, and GDP (PPP), and the latter three[citation needed] are considered to be current superpowers, or potential emerging superpowers. All five states are members of the G20, with a combined nominal GDP of US$28 trillion (about 27% of the gross world product), a total GDP (PPP) of around US$57 trillion (33% of global GDP PPP), and an estimated US$4.5 trillion in combined foreign reserves (as of 2018).[7][8] Gold in 1971 was 30.00 ounce and in 1980 it rose to $500.00 Gold today is 1887.00 The Royal Mint or Goldcore the jewellers, Spend gold at apps like Tally and Glint Sponsor by: www.tradeacademypro.com Ministry: www.graceproject.info Host: www.drajrbutler.com --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/momentsofgrace/message Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/momentsofgrace/support
Stephen Nase, director of marketing for North America for Visit Wales, talks with Alan Fine of Insider Travel Report about the unprecedented amount of films produced in Wales, including Harry Potter, James Bond, Doctor Who, Sex Education, Game of Thrones: House of Dragons and Welcome to Wrexham. Nase breaks his country into four regions and goes over new distilleries, what's happening at the National Botanic Garden, the Museum of Speed, the Royal Mint and more. With 870 miles of coastlines and many areas declared certified dark skies, Wales is able to showcase wildlife and the cosmos. For more information, visit . www.VisitWales.com. If interested, the original video of this podcast can be found on the Insider Travel Report Youtube channel or by searching for the podcast's title on Youtube.
So, the Tower of London? A nearly 1000 year old landmark and now, a part of the monarchy's real estate holdings but what do you know about it? Today, we talk about the castle's origins, it's creation as a symbol of Norman might by William the Conqueror since then it has gone on to become a Royal Mint, a garrison, a palace, an armory, a raven's nest, a prison and a site of many murders and bloody executions. Join us as we learn about the tower and Krysta adds Henry VIII to her collection of people she despises. Find out who Margaret Pole was and why we love her so much. All this and more in this episode full of history, hauntings, and some true crime (or things that should have been crimes even if they weren't at the time) in this weird and wonderful episode of the Family Plot PodcastThis show is part of the Spreaker Prime Network, if you are interested in advertising on this podcast, contact us at https://www.spreaker.com/show/4670465/advertisement
Peanut Butter and Oreos, Confusion about books, Strawberry Allergies and Old German Impressions? It must be the second instalment of the Quaidathon! Bill from Bill Reads Bad Reviews joins a lovely host to discuss: The Parent Trap (1998). Discussion Points: -Beverages of choice. Bill goes for normal cola; Sean goes for Northern English Botanically Brewed Cola from Fentimans. -Come on man. -The risk of drowning in this film. -Bill and Sean discuss favourite characters, favourite moments, best lines and best expression in the films. -Bill didn't remember anything of this film, except that 'dad-gum lizard scene. -Sean decides not to dive into when Disney stopped making good films because they only have an hour to collab. -OPINION WARNING Bill shocks the world by announcing he is anti-Friends. -Martin is the best character in it, played fantastically by Simon Kunz. -Sean brings some decent trivia for once. -Lindsay Lohan's brilliant dual performance. -The issue of separating identical twins. -Bill appreciated the practical effects in the film. -When Bill says 'tack', he means a 'drawing pin'. *sighs* Americans! -Sean and Bill announce "The Twelve Awful Days of Christmas". -The lax attitude to allergies in the 1990's. -Apologies for the awful German accents Lasse. -William Reads Woeful Write-Ups. -Bill's Southern Drawl. -The Grandfather's teleportation skills. -Bill says 'spuds', Sean's mission is complete. Raised Questions: -Why does this film completely ignore jet-lag? -Are Sean's introductions getting better or do they give you a fright? -Did you know Dennis Quaid had a podcast? -Has Sean bought flat Cola? -Which accent is worse: Bill's English or Sean's American? -What the hell is a duffel? -What's the point with The Isolation Cabin? -How many things did the girls learn at camp? -Is this film too long? -Did you know The Royal Mint mints all the UK's coins? -How rich are the parents? -Was Dennis Quaid hiding in the hallway? -Is it a candy or boiled sweet? -When will Bill cook Sean some steaks? Random Recommendations: -The Great Escape (1963). Disclaimer: Fag is a colloquial term for cigarettes in England. Thanks for Listening! Trailer: FilmFloggers FilmFloggers Review It Yourself now has a Patreon! Choose from TWO memberships: -'Nowt Special' Side Series: This 'Nowt Special' tier gives you Exclusive Access to a (ANOTHER) side-series in which Sean watches older, classic films.... + other benefits. -Rewatch It Yourself: +All the benefits of the 'Nowt Special' tier PLUS -An even-more exclusive series, where Sean takes you through every Zombie film he owns (there's quite a few). Find us here: Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/review_it_yourself21 Twitter: @YourselfReview Instagram: reviewityourselfpodcast2021
“I want to build a church in which people can be themselves”. Delyth Liddell is in conversation with one of the most senior figures in the Anglican Church in Wales. The Right Reverend Gregory Cameron, son of a south Wales steelworker, became the 76th Bishop of St Asaph in 2009. Before his consecration, Gregory Cameron held senior roles in the worldwide Anglican Communion; at the time he was described by the Times newspaper as “arguably the most influential clergyman behind the scenes”. Before moving to St Asaph, he warned the worldwide church not to outlaw homosexuality, for fear of the destruction of their church. He has not been afraid to speak out on issues controversial for the worldwide church. When he's not running a diocese – this year celebrating the 1450th anniversary of his predecessor - Asaph, Gregory Cameron is a best-selling writer and artist, has a long-standing interest in heraldry, noting that the Bishop of St Asaph's coat of arms is “the most boring in Christendom". He's even designed coins for the Royal Mint, and recently created a new flag for the city of St Asaph. In this programme, Bishop Gregory talks about his early years, his role at the Anglican Communion, his firm belief in the inclusion of LGBTQ people in the church, and the importance of recreation.
P&C drink and review That Shiz Slaps by Aslin Beer Company, then discuss the amazing life and career of Sir Isaac Newton. After barely surviving childbirth, and being abandoned by his mother when he was three, Newton avoided his parent's advice to become a farmer and went on to be a student at Trinity College. He was a quiet and introverted student who spent all his time in his studies and work. Newton went home to avoid the plague. That's when the famous story of the apple occurred. The prevailing thought of the day was that heavenly motions and earthly motions were governed by different rules. Newton realized that exactly the same force that caused the apple to fall caused the moon to stay in orbit around the Earth. To work on his theories he invented Calculus! But Newton was not only a genius at math and physics. He was also a theologian, an alchemist, and made great strides in the field of optics. In order to maintain his position in English society, he had to hide his heretical theological views, and it's only recently that people are diving into his strange alchemical theories. Toward the end of his life he supervised the Royal Mint, and was knighted by Queen Anne.
To mark the Coronation of King Charles III our presenter Adam Shaw gets exclusive access to the Royal Mint to witness how new £2 commemorative coins are produced and to see its extensive archives. In this programme, we discuss how different monarchs have affected our money and what the future might hold for the physical cash that we carry in our pockets. To help explore the Crown and our currency, Adam is joined be a panel of experts, Dominic Chorney, an Ancient Coin Specialist at Baldwin's, Catherine Schenk, Professor of Economic and Social History at the University of Oxford and Jennifer Adam, Curator at the Bank of England Museum. Presenter: Adam Shaw Producer: Amber Mehmood Researcher: Jo Krasner Editor: Jess Quayle (First broadcast 3pm, Wednesday 3rd May, 2023)
Hear from two officials at the Royal Mint about how they planned to celebrate the coronation of King Charles III, and the work that went into creating new coinage for the new monarch. Jeff and Larry also delve into numismatic history.
The U.S Federal reserve is expected to raise rates again this week. That would be the 10the straight increase since March of last year. We'll find out what the expected rise will mean for the U.S economy. As the Coronation of King Charles III approaches new coins have started to circulate with his head on them. The BBC have been given exclusive access to the Royal Mint, where the coins are made. And A.I and education learning. The share price of several major education companies has fallen sharply, as the impact of artificial intelligence is being felt in the sector. We hear from the CEO of a language learning app that is thriving from A.I..
Where's last weeks show PFC Irvine? What's the next Mint? Royal Mint Which one? British Royal Mint!
The most valuable crypto stories for Wednesday, March 29, 2023.The Hash" tackles today's hot topics: Binance hid substantial links to China for several years after the crypto exchange claimed to have left the country, according to documents reviewed by the Financial Times. New research shows that North Korean hackers are now using crypto cloud mining for their illicit activities. The U.K. drops its plans for a non-fungible token (NFT) issued by the Royal Mint. Plus, if you're a member of a decentralized autonomous organization (DAO) that is being sued, could you be liable for negligence? U.S. courts are wading into the murky topic.See also:Binance's On-Chain Balance Stands at $64B, Nansen Data ShowsCrypto's Unfulfilled Dreams Get a Tailwind From U.S. Crackdown on Binance, CoinbaseNorth Korea Hackers Likely Exploit Cloud Mining to Launder Stolen Crypto, Research ShowsHacker vs. Hacker: North Koreans Attempt to Phish Euler Exploiter of $200M in Crypto, Experts SayUK NFT Dropped Over Lack of Demand, Finance Minister Hunt SaysUK Treasury Cancels Plans for Government-Backed NFTThe Liability of DAOs and Their Founders Has Been Put to the Test in Court-This episode has been edited by Jonas Huck. The senior producer is Michele Musso and the executive producer is Jared Schwartz. Our theme song is “Neon Beach.”-Join the most important conversation in crypto and Web3 at Consensus 2023, happening April 26-28 in Austin, Texas. Come and immerse yourself in all that Web3, crypto, blockchain and the metaverse have to offer. Use code THEHASH to get 15% off your pass. Visit coindesk.com/consensus.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
I titled an episode last week “Twilight Of The Blue Checks.” Well, today is the sequel, “Rise Of The Blue Checks” cause starting April 15, you'll have to be a blue check to appear on Twitter's For You tab. Also: the feds go after Binance. Disney cuts its entire metaverse unit. And the UK cancels its NFT.Sponsors:Miro.com/podcastNotion.com/rideLinks:Elon Musk says Twitter's For You page will only recommend verified accounts (The Verge)The secret list of Twitter VIPs getting boosted over everyone else (Platformer)Binance and founder Changpeng Zhao violated compliance rules to attract U.S. users, CFTC alleges (CNBC)Disney Eliminates Its Metaverse Division as Part of Company's Layoffs Plan (WSJ)NFT: Plans for Royal Mint produced token dropped (BBC News)Lyft CEO and president to step down, former Amazon exec David Risher named as replacement (CNBC)Amazon just opened up its Sidewalk network for anyone to build connected gadgets on (The Verge)See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Episode: 2380 Isaac Newton's other life as Master of the Royal Mint. Today, Isaac Newton coins money.
A history of British monarchs in coins. With a history stretching over 1,100 years, The Royal Mint has forged a fascinating story through the world of historic coins. As the second oldest mint in the world, and the oldest company in the UK, its history is entwined with the 61 monarchs who have ruled England and Britain over the last 1,200 years. Chris Barker, historian at the Royal Mint Museum takes Dan through some of the rarest coins in the collection from within the vaults, unravelling what the coinage reveals about monarchs from the Norman conquest right through to the 20th century, including the coins created for Edward VIII but were never released in light of his abdication. Produced by Mariana Des ForgesMixed and Mastered by Dougal PatmoreIf you'd like to learn more, we have hundreds of history documentaries, ad-free podcasts and audiobooks at History Hit - subscribe today! To download the History Hit app please go to the Android or Apple store. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.
From the 16th to the 19th centuries, European slave traders forcibly uprooted millions of African people and shipped them across the Atlantic in conditions of great cruelty. Today, on the bottom of the world's oceans lies the lost wrecks of ships that carried enslaved people from Africa to the Americas.Justin Dunnavant is an Assistant Professor, archaeologist and National Geographic Explorer. Justin shares with Dan the incredible project that he is a part of - a group of specialist black divers who are dedicated to finding and documenting some of the thousands of slave ships wrecked in the Atlantic Ocean during the transatlantic slave trade. They also unearth the history of a former Danish slave colony in the Virgin Islands and discuss Justin's research about the African Diaspora and Marcus Garvey's Black Star Line.Hey, Assistant Producer Hannah here! A little caveat for this episode, Dan was on his way to record some exciting things for History Hit with the Royal Mint, so you may hear some rain in the background.Produced by Hannah WardMixed and Mastered by Dougal PatmoreIf you'd like to learn more, we have hundreds of history documentaries, ad-free podcasts and audiobooks at History Hit - subscribe today! To download the History Hit app please go to the Android or Apple store. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.
Some libraries cancel late fees, others get Interpol involved for missing manuscripts. Either way, missing books can become fascinating treasures when they're finally returned. Plus, Hubble has spotted a rare planet in the earliest phase of formation. And the United Kingdom has announced plans to mint its own NFT.Sponsors:Indeed, Get a free $75 credit at Indeed.com/goodnewsNovo, Sign up for a free business checking account and get access to over $5,000 in perks and discounts at novo.co/kottkeLinks:New York City Libraries End Late Fees, and the Treasures Roll In (NY Times)Darwin's missing 'tree of life' notebooks mysteriously returned after 20 years (NBC News) Missing Darwin notebooks returned to Cambridge University Library (Cambridge University) Rare glimpse of giant planet still 'in the womb' yet nine times the mass of Jupiter (The Guardian)Psst! Wanna see an actual Hubble image of a planet forming around a nearby star? (Bad Astronomy, Syfy Wire)Hubble Finds a Planet Forming in an Unconventional Way (NASA)Britain announces plans to mint its own NFT as it looks to 'lead the way' in crypto (CNBC)Rishi Sunak to launch an NFT issued by the Royal Mint to help make UK 'global cryptoasset hub' (Sky News)Rishi Sunak asks Royal Mint to create NFT (The Guardian)HBO Max wants multiple TV spin-offs of Robert Downey Jr.'s Sherlock Holmes movies (A/V Club)Jackson Bird on TwitterSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
How genetically-modified lettuce grown in space could protect astronauts' bones on long voyages. Plus, meet Doug, the false potato stripped of Guinness World Record glory in the eleventh hour. And, a two-carat diamond made out of ranch dressing, the Royal Mint in the UK is going to start recovering gold from the nation's electronic waste, and an important announcement at the end of the show.Sponsors:Indeed, Get a free $75 credit at Indeed.com/goodnewsShopify, Get a 14-day free trial at shopify.com/kottkeLinks:Lettuce Could Protect Astronauts' Bones on Mars Trip (UC Davis)What Happens to the Human Body in Space? (NASA)Is This the World's Largest Potato? (NY Times)Sadly, that huge potato named Doug isn't actually a potato after all (Gizmodo)DNA Test Finds 'World's Largest Potato' Isn't A Potato At All (Food & Wine)Nice try but no potato for New Zealand couple's giant find (AP)Hidden Valley Creates First-Ever Man-Made Diamond Made of Ranch, Giving Super Fans a Stunning 2 Carat Symbol of True Ranch Love (AP)You may now bid on a diamond ring made of ranch dressing (A/V Club)Tue. 03/08 - Diamonds Are the Air's Best Friend (Kottke Ride Home)The Royal Mint to build ‘world first' plant to turn UK's electronic waste into gold (Royal Mint)Britain's Royal Mint to build plant that will extract gold from electronic waste (CNBC)Kottke.OrgJackson Bird on TwitterSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
The state of inflation is at the point where the Fed could raise interest rates at a faster-than-expected speed if that’s what’s needed, according to Jerome Powell, chairman of the Federal Reserve. The cruise industry, initially hit hard at the start of the pandemic, is starting to see the occasional wave of success as bans get lifted. The BBC reports on how electronic waste has become a new resource for the Royal Mint. Keep independent journalism going strong. Give today to support Marketplace Morning Report.
The state of inflation is at the point where the Fed could raise interest rates at a faster-than-expected speed if that’s what’s needed, according to Jerome Powell, chairman of the Federal Reserve. The cruise industry, initially hit hard at the start of the pandemic, is starting to see the occasional wave of success as bans get lifted. The BBC reports on how electronic waste has become a new resource for the Royal Mint. Keep independent journalism going strong. Give today to support Marketplace Morning Report.