one of them semi-serious, semi-not so serious, mostly hopefully interesting types of posts for you, look you see. it's all just one of them random incidents which happens to me like it would happen to anyone else, yet i have a tendency to think a bit too much about it. well, maybe it's that i like to think of things in terms of whether or not any interest would exist in them for anyone else.
earlier this week, as opposed to late next week, i engaged in a transaction in a retailer, with my part of course being the patron. i forget which shop exactly, but as a key part of the transaction i was given change, in coins of money, from the amount i tendered to purchase something or other. one of these coins was a 2p piece.
indeed that is the "heads" side of the coin, displaying a respectful likeness of our monarch, Her Majesty The Queen. for those who dislike the monarchy and this system of Head of State, by the way, i suggest you go live under a Presidency, with very particular emphasis on the Presidency of Jacob Zuma. go right ahead, taste the true waste of money, corruption, instability and ruin you for some reason crave.
our friends in America, by the way, say that we here in England have too many coins. they may be right. whereas they have the nickel, the dime and the quarter (a 50c coin theoretically exists but apparently they are seldom seen), we have the 1p, the 2p, the 5p, the 10p, the 20p, the 50p, the £1 and the £2 coins. the first three probably cost more to produce or if you like mint than their actual face value.
anyway, the above isn't the issue. if, indeed, there is any sort of "issue" here. the thing which caught my attention was that the other side - the "tails" side, flip fans - had a sticker on it, placed there apparently by a monetary loan brokerage firm called The Money Shop.
if i am thinking of the right people, my one and only encounter with The Money Shop was that they used to have some adverts which featured David Dickinson, that orange shaded chap who was at best a second rate and at worst a poor man's version of Rodney Bewes.
my issue or quarrel with this desecration of what is, ostensibly, my 2p coin? well, firstly i would suggest the approach what The Money Shop has taken with this in terms of the advert is, frankly, stupid. to suggest or imply that gold in the shape of that 2p coin would equate to £70 in value is a peculiar and risky interpretation on the margins by which the value of gold fluctuates. the other, perhaps more interesting query is that surely it's illegal to either deface money, or use it as a conduit for advertising?
some research says that the law in this respect is confused and unclear. the closest i could find to an answer was reference to some sort of Coin Act of 1978, which basically answers the question of whether or not defacing money in the UK is illegal with the statement "yes, no, maybe".
it seems that it is indeed illegal to deface or alter coins of money if the intention is to do so for profit or gain. mostly, however, this law relates to punishing those who alter coins so that they may be passed off as a higher value than issue. i don't think any lawmaker considered that someone would place stickers on coins for marketing purposes. people who quite like making Her Majesty The Queen look like Amy Winehouse on £5 notes are probably OK, then, but i am not so sure about this sticker.
this is something i should probably get Spiros to look into. my view, though, would be that it's just a plain dumb marketing exercise, whether it is illegal or not, and it spoils my smart collection of shiny 2p coins.
hopefully this has been of interest to someone, or maybe i should just stop thinking about stuff like this so much.
be excellent to each other!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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