Victoria

All those coins on blip yesterday prompted me to look in my "desk tidy" at home, where this penny has lurked for ....... years. No idea where it came from.

Interesting facts:

* it is a 1901 coin, the year Victoria died. This year the current queen beat her record for years on the throne.

* she looks left, the current queen looks right. Since Stuart times the monarchs have alternated. Charles - if he gets there - will look left too. Edward VIII wanted to break with tradition as he thought looking left presented his best side. That was where his parting was. Tradition won when he abdicated before any coins were stamped.

* the name Victoria was the Kylie of it's age. William IV was furious with his brother for giving his niece (who no-one anticipated would become queen) such a daft "made up" name, albeit it was four years on from Waterloo. How many Victoria's and Vicky's have been born since 1819 on the back of that naming ?

EXTRA - amazing sunset this afternoon. But it deserves The Fighting Temeraire in the foreground, not the Council's car park and fleet of vehicles !