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...and yet I had a BU '57 calm sea a few months back but it flew out of my Shop like it had wings. I think it lasted less than a day. It went to Canada, where someone obviously collects them! And Rob does, of course. And I do, but then I collect everything. I treasure my halfpennies! But for some reason, maybe genetic, the halfpenny boys don't kick up a quarter of the fuss those farthing boys make. Talk about 'inverse proportion'.

This is my first post on this forum. I am interested in the sequence of coin types of the early phase of the Norman Conquest, and one thing that has perplexed me is: what happened, numismatically speaking, during the interregnum between Harold's death and the issue of William's first type (profile left / cross fleury)? It seems virtually inconceivable that William could have issued coinage before he had become the legal monarch with his Coronation on December 25 1066, though it is possible he might have been able to set in motion the preparation of dies once the English had surrendered at Berkhampstead early in December. During the intervening interregnum there must have been a need for coinage, supposing that the bulk of Harold's Pax issue had been used to pay his mercenaries and had thus been exported when they returned home to Denmark and elsewhere. My hypothesis is that the variety of Harold's type without sceptre might have been a posthumous issue, produced during the interregnum: the omission of the sceptre possibly indicating that Harold was no longer king. Does anyone know of any evidence that could confirm, or refute, this hypothesis please?

Great story Matt - Welcome to the forums I too love pennies and before I became a type collector I had a date run of bronze pennies going back to 1889. Actually I still have them, but now it is mostly EF or better Having said that, my 19KN is only Fine so you're better than me already there!, but I do have a weak (hair) strike 19H in GEF and a BU 12H. There are some mega rare varieties, but you will learn in time where to draw the line : for me, the line is (sadly) drawn just below the 1922-with-1927-reverse, but I've got many other rarities such as "Gouby X" and "1903 open 3", which will engage you in time if not already! Looking forward to hearing your adventures in collecting.

I spoke to Danz on the phone and I hadn't heard about it (but will of course include it in the next Check your Change). I'm pleased that I've got one of the 'wrong' ones in the RM package. I had to purchase all 29 of the bloody things so that I can do the pictures. All these problems lately, one could come to the conclusion that the RM are finding it hard to get things right due to the sheer volume of different coins they are churning out of late. Perhaps they should concentrate on providing the public with coins to facilitate low value transactions, rather than simply medallions with face values, sold to line their pockets.