Mizter T wrote:
P.S. An almost totally off topic question - should I avoid using the
pound sterling symbol "?" when posting to usenet? (I note that
Paul's post above has transferred the symbol into a "?" question
mark.)

I think the problem lies at your end. The post in which you wrote
"£250" was sent with (according to the headers):

Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable

It displays correctly on my PC, and so does Paul's reply. But all the
pound signs are rendered as "?" in the post that I'm replying to. In
that one, the headers include:

Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit

So it looks as if you've changed a setting somewhere between those two
posts.

HTH
--
Richard J.
(to e-mail me, swap uk and yon in address)