December competition 2012!

[Figleaf]

It certainly was the heaviest prize. I still have monkey arms from carrying it. Now it's your baby.

Got home in one piece in spite of some near misses. Am still full of awe of four (!) salt trucks/snow scrapers on the road between Antwerp and Gent/Gand that managed to create unspeakable havoc, a 10 kilometre traffic jam and a confusion of almost political dimensions out of what was just a minor mess before they came along.

Peter

[bart]

I also want to show my prize: it is not that old as Afrasi's and not that heavy as SpaBreda's, but it still is a very special coin: the Ugandan 5 shilling of 1972 which was withdrawn soon after it came into circulation.

Together came 2 surprises : the Belfast and the Cardiff pound.
I am very, very grateful!

@Figleaf: what a strange idea to cross Belgium when snow has fallen! NEVER DO THAT AGAIN! You are punished with monster traffic jams. Yesterday it didn't snow, but between Brussels and Ghent (where my daughter is studying) we lost about an hour in traffic jams because of accidents: people not driving carefully on slippery highways...

Bart

[Bimat]

I'm actually cursing myself for not answering all the ten questions right and most importantly, not coming fifth in the winners' list.

Bart's prize is awesome too, never heard of it!

Aditya

[Figleaf]

Don't worry, Bimat. There was no way to mail fifth prize. It took three people just to take it out of the car

Peter

[FosseWay]

Just been to get my prize from the post office -- and it was definitely worth staggering through the horizontal blizzard! Received the gems illustrated below from Bimat! 

Something that perplexes me: The Saint Alphonsa coin says it commemorates the centenary of her birth, but gives the dates 1910-2009. Er, what? That's the 99th anniversary -- or am I missing something?

[Bimat]

Good to hear that! Little correction here: The real prize was the first two coins (Monaco and South Africa bimetals)...those Indian coins are from my junk box. I know that they are in not in best condition, blame Indian mints for that. I wanted to add few more coins to the letter but I had very little time to search for the coins and pack them, so added whatever I could find. May be next time!

Aditya

[chrisild]

The Saint Alphonsa coin says it commemorates the centenary of her birth, but gives the dates 1910-2009. Er, what? That's the 99th anniversary -- or am I missing something?

Strange indeed. Alphonsa was canonized (declared to be a saint) in 2008, and the 100th anniversary of her birth was in 2010. So maybe 2009 was a middle of the road approach.

Christian