There were six entries

'The Great Recoinage of William III' Maurice

Because of the state of the coinage at that time, being badly worn and clipped, it was decided to rectify the situation by issuing new coinage in the name of William III. To complete the mammoth task, branch mints were opened at Bristol, Chester, Exeter, Norwich and York. The loss to the exchequer was £2,700,000 and to try to recoup this loss the government introduced the window tax, which was finally replaced by the housing tax in 1751.

'Ships on Tokens' Neil

18th Century tokens display a wide variety of sailing ships of the period and earlier. There are 3 decked (1st rate), 2 decked (2nd rate) and single decked (3rd rate) ships of the line. A variety of riggings were displayed, from Medieval single masted square sails to sloops and cutters to 2 and 3 masted and even 4 and 5 masted ships with both square and lateen sails. In fact virtually every type of sail then in use.

'The Washington Quarter' John

John gave a talk on the 'Washington Quarter', which is currently causing a huge amount of interest in coin collecting in America, where one quarter design is being issued for each state over the next ten years. Originally issued in 1932 as a commemorative of the 200th anniversary of Washington's birth, it has continued to the present day.

'What's it Worth' Graham

'As a penniless Bank manager, I could not afford any coins for display. Instead I have had to rely on free handouts from customers. I noticed that the pens and pencils all depicted the same note design as did the item of neck wear along the bottom in bold pattern.

The writing implements all point to the same value note which happily is one of several different values featured on the item purchased from a rack in a small retail outlet.

Should you vote for me and I equal the highest votes, I should gain another tie!'

'Connections' Tim

Tim Hayward provided a display in three parts. Part 1 comprised coins from the famous mint of Hall in the Tyrol. The second part focused on the rebellion against Napolean by Andreas Hofer illustrated by the panorama at Innsbruck and coins struck in the last use of the mint of Hall. The final part comprised an Austrian Olympic Commemorative coin, showing the Winter Olympics, whose ski jump is on the site of the old battlefield of Bergisel.

'The Shape of Things to Come?' John

John's Display showed the trial Euro coins produced for the five day trial in Barcelona during 1999. These were contrasted with our current British coinage, which itself replaced the previous system in 1971. Before that many of the coin values have been replaced.

Traditionally the coinage was based on the Penny, which was based on the Roman denarius when after a treaty of Rome, a European currency replaced the good old British Stater.

All of the presenters gave a five minutes talk on their display.

The winner was Neil who keeps the Michael Broome Memorial Cup for one year.

Well done Neil.