A technical error at the Royal Mint led to up to 200,000 coins entering circulation without a date for what is thought to be the first time in more than 300 years.

The new 20 pence pieces are now considered to be collectors’ items, with one dealer offering £50 a coin to anyone who finds one among their spare change.

It followed the introduction of new coins bearing a fragmented image of the royal coat of arms on the reverse - or “tails” - side and a new profile of the Queen on the front.

In order to accommodate the new design the date had moved to the “heads” side on 20p pieces.

But one batch of between 50,000 and 200,000 coins was produced with the new back and the old front, meaning that there was no date.

Despite checks, the error went unnoticed until after the coins had already entered circulation.

The London Mint Office, a private company specialising in unusual coins, is offering anyone who finds one £50 - 250 times their legal value - in the hope of selling them to collectors for an even higher price.

Nick Hart, of The London Mint Office, said: “We believe this extremely rare error will certainly get the public looking at the coins in their pockets again and noticing the excellent new designs launched by the Royal Mint last year on our coinage.”

A Royal Mint spokeswoman said: “The fact of the matter is they are still legal tender but if people want to pay more it’s up to them.”

Source. Telegraph UK

Hundreds of Michael Jackson fans descended on London’s Liverpool Street station for a flashmob ‘Moonwalk’ in memory of Michael Jackson.

Fans at the event used Twitter to share photosn and videos of the event, and the flashmob was one of the

The impromptu gathering, which had been organised through Twitter and Facebook, saw several hundred people congregate outside the mainline railway station, some even dressed in masks and sparkly gloves like Michael Jackson.

Dozens of photographers, journalists and police officers kept a watchful eye on the largely good-natured gathering, who danced and sang along to some of Michael Jackson’s biggest hits.

hottest topics of conversation on the microblogging site.

The event kicked off at 6pm, and will be followed by what the organisers have dubbed an “afterparty and celebration of Michael Jackson’s life” at the Lucky Voice karaoke bar in Islington, north London.

The police and Network Rail are thought to have given permission for around 300 people to participate in the flashmob, but many more people seem to have taken part.

The internet has been awash with tributes in the wake of Michael Jackson’s death. Web users have been sharing playlists of their favourite Jackson songs through music-streaming services such as Spotify, while Amazon has reported a surge in sales of Michael Jackson’s albums since his death last night.

Source: Telegraph UK

It was a nice day for an, er, weight(less) wedding.

Erin Finnegan and Noah Fulmor floated, fumbled and tumbled into matrimony in the world’s first ceremony in zero gravity conditions.

The couple paid more than £10,000 to have their wedding in a converted Boeing 727 jet that uses roller coaster-style dives to create ‘weightlessness’

Source. Metro News

An 80-year-old German Racing Granny woman whose handbag was snatched from her bicycle basket by a passing cyclist gave chase on her own bike and recovered her stolen property.

As she pedaled in pursuit of the 41-year-old thief through the western town of Buerstadt, she alerted a driver who stopped the culprit and held him until police arrived.

Source. Metro News

Check out for Bluw products !

If any of you are familiar with the hip hop group Jurassic 5, this is their dj

Numark, posing with some finger drums. Stumbled upon this gem on his

Myspace.

Find Bluw Sky  in Technorati!

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What will you be giving and getting next December? Our intrepid reporter braves the annual gift fair in Harrowgate for a preview of the gadgets and geegaws heading this way, writes Louise East

THERE IS AN OLD JOKE I particularly like which goes something like this: Darth Vader goes up to Luke Skywalker and says, “Luke, I know what you’re getting for Christmas.” Luke, puzzled and a little exasperated, replies, “But how?” and Darth smugly announces: “I’ve felt your presents.” I’ve always liked knowing what gifts people are getting before they do. Moments before friends hand birthday presents to other friends, I make them tell me what’s inside. If I could hack into online wedding registers, I would. So I was very keen on the idea of visiting a Christmas gift fair, even if it was July.

Trade fairs are where the UK and Ireland’s gift shops buy the stuff we will exchange in December. After going to one, I would be the Darth Vader of the festive season on a massive scale. I’d know what all of you are getting for Christmas.

Home and Gift Harrogate is not the UK’s largest gift fair; that title goes to Birmingham’s Spring Fair, which takes place each February. Instead, the Harrogate fair rather sweetly bills itself as “the industry’s favourite annual show” and amongst exhibitors, there genuinely does seem to be a fondness for the fair, a feeling that while it might miss out on the tiara and sash, it would certainly win a Miss Congeniality award.

To the average punter, Home and Gift Harrogate is still bewilderingly, disorientingly vast: over 900 exhibitors offering hundreds of thousands of products. Amongst them, somewhere, is the gift industry’s Holy Grail: the item which grabs the gift-buying imagination and squeezes it until the euro fly like popped corn.

Last year, that gift was Racing Grannies, a set of two wind-up geriatrics with grim jaws and half-moon glasses who race for the edge of the coffee table on tiny plastic zimmer-frames. They’re the brain child of Bluw, a young self-styled “ideas factory” from London who last year sold half a million sets of Racing Grannies in the UK alone. At the Bluw stand, customer relations manager, Australian Linda Corrie talks me through her company’s response to their Racing Grannies success: Fighting Granddads, Racing Nuns and this year’s invention, the Chicken and Egg. One wind-up takes the shape of a comedy chicken, the other an egg in sneakers; this Christmas, families all over Britain and Ireland can decisively settle which came first.

Elsewhere on the Bluw stand, there’s a plastic taxi meter called Dad’s Cab, which will keep track of all those trips to Dundrum Shopping Centre; tea mugs in the shape of Martini glasses - Ceramic Martini Mug ; Margaret Thatcher nutcrackers - Maggie nutcracker (insert nut between her thighs) and an inflatable duck the size of a cow.

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A “Stop Motion Animation” Father’s Day Vid i made for my dad. It is a short poem named To Dad.

Looking for Father’s Day gifts? Find them here at Bluw!