Neat article, m--thanks for posting it!
sovereign rings Rings made from, or made to look like, gold coins?
‘council-house facelift’ Struck me as not very nice, but having learnt that a council estate more or less equates to our housing projects, I think I got that one.
deeply insulting pikey Don't know if I've heard the word pikey, but I wouldn't have known it was "deeply insulting". I know piker is, though I don't know what it means.