Mr T

Interesting - I would never have guessed that. Were any of the early bronze patterns medal orientation?

I wonder why they bothered for such small mintages - could the sale from 50 coins have covered costs even?

And why were the bronze coins in medal orientation from 1860 as well for that matter?

Well spotted.

Unlisted in Davies by the looks of it?

Is that still on TV?

Nice, though I don't suppose there's a third edition in the works.

Oh, and it's paired with both obverse 1 and obverse 2 as well? Is there a picture of it paired with obverse 1?

Nice find - I didn't think there would be any new farthing discoveries at this point, least of all in the Elizabeth II series.

I really need to try and get my hands on some of those earlier mint reports - the mintage figures should be there.

For those who haven't seen, the Royal Mint Museum has digitised some of the older annual reports: https://library.royalmintmuseum.org.uk/archive/royal-mint-annual-reports

Well done. I probably would have caved and bought them but it's good you got them at a good price.

Is the other high grade example die number 17 too?

Like the little tray at the bottom of an old coin phone.

Which bit are you unconvinced about - that they were struck for colonial use or that they were struck for circulation at all? I'm not too familiar with the early threepences but I'm guessing that most surviving examples are Maundy money and they're generally rare because either they were exported or not actually struck (for circulation) but at this point we have no way of knowing either way.

Maybe but Collectors Coins Great Britain says not, and neither does https://en.numista.com/catalogue/pieces4412.html Some of them have mintages listed too which isn't conclusive but it'd suggest at least some of the years were made for circulation.

What are the 1846, 1847, 1849, 1852 and 1853 varieties? I see nothing in Davies or Bull. Also, why are 1847, 1848 and 1852 missing in Davies altogether?

Oh time flies! And yes I suppose even with the ones we do know of, it's lucky that any survived. Ah of course. I don't keep as close a track of the legend errors but even the inverted A in VICTORIA (1862?) is reasonably new I think. Anyway, I suppose there are lots of countries where an 1860 or 1861 penny is just that too - no local interest in Freeman numbers, so there's still hope.

Hm, there might be a way to automatically download it - I'll have to look into it when I have some time.

I only had a brief look but in my notes I had obverses 4 and 5 with the rotated D in F:D: and obverse 6 having the straight D in F:D: (from Dracott's articles I think). I didn't look too closely at which obverse it actually was but the D looks a bit rotated to the right.

It is a shame, though how long has it been since the last new bun penny variety was discovered - a couple of years? I think it was the different alignment of obverse 2 or something like that. I'm not sure when the last discovery before that was. There are probably more discoveries to be made but there can't be that many more to be made.

No worries - I suspect this is quite a recent development (like maybe the last week or two) - I think I saw it on Twitter (which is down right now so I can't check). Previously all I'd been able to find online was https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/browse/r/h/C11038 which I think would require payment.

Oh I see - I remember the unlisted coins in your auction @Nick - I didn't realise the different dates corresponded to different reverse dies too.

No worries. I think a few years ago now eBay started enforcing that all Gothic crowns needed to be sold in slabs (maybe only eBay USA).

Looking back at this, it definitely looks like a new obverse - the bottom bar on the E in DEI is definitely different. What is the difference with the thumb and St Andrew's cross? I can't quite make it out, but it looks like the fingers are diagonal to the trident in one and perpendicular in the other. Is this meant to be all 1911 are type 1 and all 1912H are type 2? Looking at a few pictures on the PCGS website all the coins I looked at (1911, 1912 and 1912H) all seemed to have the normal E (not the long bottom bar).