Mr T

In the 1970s a guy named David Gee produced fake 1902S two and five pound coins (in gold) - I thought this might be an off-metal attempt.

Agreed - probably they didn't want to pay the developers of the new site to bring across the old data.

Although I think he means 1881 as 1880 is P and P*.

I ended up getting a response from Iain Dracott - C1 is C# and J1 is J#, and 1880 has the following die pairings: 15+O, 15+O#, 15# +O, 15#+O#

5mm-6mm difference - I think it probably is a halfpenny planchet.

Too early for Cyprus or Straits Settlements and British Honduras is what I was thinking of when I wrote Guyana, but the British Honduras cent was copper and 29mm - I think there is probably more than 2mm missing there.

That's more likely - maybe Guyana or Cypress? I didn't hunt down a bigger picture but I can't see fishtailing on the letters which is supposed to confirm an undersize planchet I thought.

Not bad.

I'll have to dig out what I have at some point but I've never purchased anything specifically as a matte - have you ever seen an unbroken cardboard set with matte coins in it? My memory may be playing tricks on me but maybe I saw one on ebay years ago. And what does a matte actually look like? I know the uncirculated coins have a brilliant finish and proofs have cameo surfaces with frosted designs.

Yeah the more I think about it, the more I think I've seen not many matte coins for sale - there are some Cook Islands matte coins for sale on ebay now and... I'm not sure. I agree that toning can play tricks.

I can imagine - my Franklin Mint interests are only the Cook Islands and Solomon Islands, and the 1982 and 1983 Solomon Islands coins are rare. Clearly the bubble had burst by 1982 so I can only imagine how tough it must be to find anything from 1984.

This got me thinking - was it just Davies' observation of both types of threepence and sixpence or had only threepence and sixpence production started when the alloy was changed?

Not sure - of the notes I've made for myself the only thing I can make out well enough is those bottom two berries and I think on obverse 13 they should be different sizes, whereas on obverse 11/12 they are the same size.

Not sure about the mattes either - I think there was a Cook Islands matte 50c piece for sale on ebay recently and it was rather expensive.

Well done - are there 1984 proof sets?

I don't disagree, but the comparators did seem more helpful than the subjective neck thickness and nose hookedness. Does anyone have Iain Dracott's details to get some more information?

So 11* is new - probably need a photo to make sense of it but a recut tie ribbon and overlapping berries make it sound a bit easier to diagnose than Freeman obverses 11 and 12. 1877 13+N also looks new though I'm not sure what the comment is getting as the obverse and reverse are both well-known. 1880 15+O* also looks new but based on the comment about all four die pairings, 15*+P* would seem to be the die. Or maybe it's meant to be 1881 where 15+O* was reported by him in 2004. Also I assume O* is Dracott O#. Nothing new in the farthings that I can see.

Hm, I'm still not sure - the extra strand on the helmet tail seems to be present on Holland D* reverse pennies but maybe not on the others. More digging required but it seems like D* is the most common at a glance.

I haven't looked closely to see if there is anything new but it's just a two page summary of new farthing, halfpenny and penny varieties since Freeman.

So in Iain Dracott's article in the November Coin News - I'm assuming that the C1 and J1 reverses he talks about are the C# and J# from his 2004 articles?

The only reverse D image I had handy was at https://headsntails14.wordpress.com/victoria-bronze-reverses/ and it looks like the new obverse has an extra strand on the tail of the helmet? Between the tail and Britannia's head.

Do you have a photo of the whole reverse out of curiosity? Are the two lines the only strange thing about it?

Okay that was my assumption too - the silver coins book doesn't go into the depth of Davies that's for sure. Any looked at a copy of the first edition?

Cyrpus had coins with roughly the same sizes as British silver coins (9 piastres was one shilling) and I read recently that Essequibo and Demerara were the same (one guilder was one shilling). Does anyone know of any other examples like this? I think most of the rest of commonwealth used the pound or some sort of dollar (where the half dollar usually seemed to be equivalent to a florin).

I have nothing to contribute but congratulations on the new find! Must be very satisfying, although filling a gap you didn't know you had doesn't really get you closer the complete set.