Mr T

I don't think so, but I guess that's just how it is. A while ago I made enquiries about viewing Australia's national coin collection, held by the Royal Australian Mint. The public aren't allowed to view it, though apparently dribs and drabs of the interesting stuff are displayed from time to time. Strangely though, Museum Victoria seems to have publicly available photos of its entire coin collection - a fairly comprehensive collection of British Empire coins (including the Sydney Mint and Melbourne Mint collections).

I'd try using a hardwood tooth-pick as well. It might not do any good if it's terribly encrusted but if it's only light then it works reasonably well.

Just curious, where's the best place to read about the history of these patterns?

1871 - Appropriate design for a coin. 2012 - Too cartoony, but less cartoony than the 2005. 2005 - Too cartoony.

Thanks.

There's an electronic version of Michael Gouby's writings?

Is that from a so-called 'basement slabber'?

I've been a few times and it's good. Plenty of dealers looking to do business, though no bar. Compared to other coin shows it's the biggest and the only one where you'll be able to get your mint-marked dollar.

Only half sovereigns and sovereigns (and the two and five pound coins but too only proofs were ever struck).

Another encounter with Downies (not mine): http://www.coincommunity.com/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=162460

Some sort of partial collar error. Not sure about how common it is with British coins but it's reasonably uncommon on Australian coins. Definitely a keeper.

Do you have a picture?

I think it also mentions H and K in KN either being aligned with or between beads.

I've also read somewhere that the Australian pennies struck in India 1916-1918 had the I mintmark applied in London (using an I punch used for Edward VII Maundy twopence).

Thanks! http://books.google.com.au/books?id=h3JHAAAAYAAJ&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false for anyone having trouble finding it.

Is there anything to suggest more than one 1880/70 die was used for the London coins? It's possible that it happened in Melbourne or Sydney as I think they both relied on London sending the fully dated dies in a timely manner, something which didn't always happen. I believe there a few earlier Australian overdate sovereigns though I'm not sure whether they came about due to the late arrival of new dies or for some other reason.

Where does one find a copy of these reports?

I'd say the low to mid thousands of dollars (or pounds), unless off-metal strikes are more popular than I think they are. Is collecting decimals much less popular than collecting predecimals though? It's hard to say as this board is obviously focussed on the predecimal side of things.

I've seen this type of thing advertised before but I don't remember the details (though the example I read about involved specially labelling the first 500 or so struck). I think the mint involved gets on board with PCGS to do this.

Looks like it's had another coin hammered on the reverse or something like that.

I see a search box to the far left of the I don't remember the edit button being available when I first posted but it appears for me now so I don't know.

It's my understanding that the mint workers were very helpful in giving the 1902 proof set a good wipe before they left the mint. I don't know how true this is but I have seen a few 1902 proofs with parallel lines. I've read that too - apparently they didn't care for the idea of matte proofs.

I think the central hole would part of the original blank preparation, rather than a two stage process. Bit I'm happy to be corrected if anyone knows the actual mechanics of holey coin production I'm not too sure myself but I've read somewhere that the hole-punching can happen during blank preparation or during/after striking.

I'm using Chrome and only today has the style sheet been properly served have I been able to log in.

Right after the word piefort stops being used.