Mr T

That's pretty dodgy - I can understand a shop's reluctance to accept them but surely a bank is obliged to accept legal tender.

For anyone else I believe they're all available online at http://www.baldwin.co.uk/

I would have thought a lot more examples would be extant if they were spent in the Middle East - they would likely have had less need to melt them I would have thought. Melted in America certainly gets put forward a lot but surely there must be record of such payments if they happened? As to why there were struck, probably for the same reason sovereigns continued to be struck after paper money came into use - to have gold in a convenient form I assume. I didn't think they were intended to circulate anyway.

I'm no expert either though if it is fake it does look half reasonable. All the same, the flatness of the top of the King's head and kind of rough surface are warning signs I think.

I'm told that actually we do have taxes/duties for commercial imports (i.e. something you intend to sell) and for private imports valued over $1000 which explains why I and no one I know has experienced this pain. There are discussions about applying the taxes to all imports regardless of value (because then the government gets more money) though I'm not sure it's worth anyone's while to apply it so broadly - hiring more people to look through more stuff for diminishing returns.

Yes the last few things were surprisingly fast. As far as I know there are no import duties or fees in Australia (though I think it's being discussed for items worth over $1000).

It's all good - generally I don't buy from overseas because I don't like the wait more than anything. I've mostly bought books from the UK this year anyway and the were books which were always going to be slightly pricey anyway...

Sorry - not being in the UK I don't come across any old 10p coins - but have you tried going to your bank and asking for bags of 10p coins to look through? I've found it certainly speeds things up and it has the added bonus of giving you some decent statistics if you're so inclined.

I don't want to talk about it!

It sure is - I find ebay Austrlia to be a pretty mediocre place to buy Australian coins, but a decent place to buy world coins, yet every so often there's some quality Australian stuff listed too.

Agreed about the 1900 half crown - if I got one in that condition for that price I'd be pretty happy.

Doesn't seem obviously cleaned to me, but as MancFrank says, it's probably had a clean at some point - it's nearly 200 years old and by the looks of it has spent time in probably a few coin collections.

Hm, seems a little irregular to be struck through another coin. I'm not fully up to speed on the different error types but I think a lamination flaw implies a peel (which is caused by a small air pocket or impurity) while a cold shut is more like two separate sheets of metal not properly sticking together and coming apart quite cleanly.

Do they define an 'indent' as struck-through? Looks like it might a big lamination flaw/cold shut but it also looks broadstruck too.

Hm, I thought it was raised rather than incuse but as I look at the image I can't say for sure what it is now. If it is incuse then I guess it can be explained as oddly specific and accurate damage.

Also, what is diagonal bar between the lighthouse and the shield? There's die clashing going on in front of and behind Victoria's neck, both caused by the folds in Britannia's dress but the diagonal bar seems to match up with empty space on the obverse. See http://www.britnumsoc.org/publications/Digital%20BNJ/pdfs/1982_BNJ_52_21.pdf for anyone interested.

Actually that's probably not terribly conclusive - the last two digits were probably hand stamped and there was probably more than one die produced.

Just realised I didn't post a link. Here it is: http://coins.ha.com/c/search-results.zx?No=0&N=51+793+794+791+1577+792+2088+4294944661+4294943418

Just curious if there are any other British West African collectors out there, how you're going with it and what you're using as a reference. I've chosen only to worry about threepences, sixpences, shillings and two shillings - I have a few but not many: there doesn't always seem to be a lot for sale and it's uncommon to come across anything from between 1920 and 1936. I've been using Remick's book on Commonwealth coins but it says there are perhaps still undiscovered dates out there. David Vice's book is more comprehensive I'm sure but it seems a little more difficult to get a hold of.

Ah thanks - search failed because the word 'sixpence' doesn't appear anywhere in the description... Hard to say anyway - the 7 seems higher than the 7 on 1848/7 overdates (https://www.noble.com.au/auctions/lot/?id=348628&i=2&ret=1 image two or http://www.ebay.com/itm/GREAT-BRITAIN-RARE-QUEEN-VICTORIA-SILVER-SIXPENCE-1848-7-OVERDATE-/201462017575?hash=item2ee8126e27%3Ag%3AyC8AAOSwo6lWO4JG&nma=true&si=gwvOxw5gErliYmxltoHXSob%252ByIo%253D&orig_cvip=true&rt=nc&_trksid=p2047675.l2557 for example).

For anyone that's interested, Heritage is auctioning the David Vice collection at the moment (David Vice wrote an excellent book on the coinage of British West Africa) and it contains a lot of rarities.

Hm, searching the DNW archive returns nothing, hopefully someone else knows for sure.

Oh, do you remember what auction? I remember it being listed as unconfirmed and assumed it hadn't surfaced since it first appeared in 1973.

Do they exist for sure? Anyway, I'll be happy if I get to the end of the year with more gaps filled and a few more books on the shelf.

So, following on from http://www.predecimal.com/forum/topic/9914-4054a-1926-penny-of-highest-rarity/, I've been trying to get my head around the 1922 and 1926 pennies seeing as both Freeman's and Gouby's works have been outdated by somewhat recent discoveries. This what I've come up with from my reading here: 1922 Gouby C+b/Freeman 3+B - the regular circulating 1922 1922 Gouby C+c/Freeman 3+C - the so-called 1927 reverse which is actually different from the 1927 obverse 1922 Gouby C+c/Freeman 3+C proof - supposedly struck for 1924 proof sets for the South African government (http://www.predecimal.com/forum/topic/8353-1922-penny-reverse-of-1927/?p=94427) though I haven't seen any reference to these coins or their purpose/origins in the literature. 1922 Gouby D+c/Freeman 4+C - one of Freeman's updates (http://www.predecimal.com/forum/topic/8353-1922-penny-reverse-of-1927/?p=93996) - anyone know where this was published? A picture was posted at a few days ago too and it appears to have circulated; seems to be the same coin posted at 1926 Gouby C+b/Freeman 3+B - regular circulating 1926 1926 Gouby D+b/Freeman 4+B - regular circulating 1926 1926 Gouby D+d/Freeman 4+C - another one of Freeman's updates (http://www.predecimal.com/forum/topic/8353-1922-penny-reverse-of-1927/?p=93996), about to be auctioned () 1926 Gouby D+?/Freeman 4+? - http://www.predecimal.com/forum/topic/8353-1922-penny-reverse-of-1927/?p=94301 - anyone know when the last sale of this was, or if there are any books/articles that make mention of it? Seems like the F192C mentioned at http://www.predecimal.com/forum/topic/8353-1922-penny-reverse-of-1927/?p=94328 doesn't exist, or did I get lost in that thread? Also, considering the case of the 1922 with the trident dot, Freeman says that the bronze alloy was set in 1923. Is it possible the trident dot coins are tests of the new alloy? Does anyone have one to do a ring test with, or are the different bronze alloys all similar enough that they have the same ring?