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Mr T

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Posts posted by Mr T

  1. Posted

    Besides sovereign rings/necklaces I've only seen someone wear a gold-painted sixpence necklace.

    Too bad about the damage done by attaching the loop as the detail on Britannia at least looks decent enough.

  4. Posted

    Probably depends on the coin, but grade and strike more than anything (well-struck VF minimum, unless it's something really rare).

    Being a completionist, rarity is irrelevant but if it's a coin I'm unlikely to see for sale again soon then I'd prioritise if over another purchase.

    Lustre and eye appeal are of little to no consequence - as long as the coin is of reasonable grade and generally problem-free.

  8. Posted

    I have been around for ages and I have never heard of one for sale anywhere

    By the way the farthings are not as rare as most people think I would imagine between 250 and 100 exist (I have one as well)

    I have one too (ex Michael Freeman).

    Are both your Farthing mules with obverse 2? I believe there are mules with obverse 3? Colin lists it on his site, I've never seen one in hand or pictured. My example is an obverse 2.

    Here it is (very bottom of the page): http://www.colincooke.com/coin_pages/vbh2.html

    The picture isn't very big but the it does appear to be obverse 3 (the hair is wavier).

  11. Posted

    Resurrecting this thread. But does that mean there are 3 obv for the 1911 Coin. I have one with I of BRITT to gap and I of IMP to gap and another with I of BRITT to Gap and I of Imp to Tooth (this one has Hollow Neck, at least if I understanding it correctly). So the "Gouby X" is I of BRITT to tooth? Is that the only criteria?

    I think there are only two but I'm not entirely clear on the matter and would like to know too.

  13. Posted

    For me uncirculated is minimal bag marks etc and no obvious signs of use (i.e. no discolouration from rubbing).

    I think that anything that is poorly struck or has too many bagmarks should be graded as almost uncirculated, even if it is technically uncirculated as uncirculated coins really should look uncirculated in my opinion.

  16. Posted

    Thanks for the pictures Bernie!

    Not to slightly pirate the post, but I still can not figure out why the Royal Mint would make but two 1922/1924 proof sets and then ship them off to Pretoria, nor why other patterns such as at least one each of the gold trial 3d and 6d would go there. Their holdings were evidently truly remarkable, and don't know if any record of them was made or available - hello Rob??

    Not that anyone would necessarily care, but I am slightly inclined to heap some of these on the "hypervarietal" dustbin, although a bit of passing interest and wonder if there might be similar sentiment by others. I believe that the best specimen overall of the 1926 ME that I have seen was that now evidently slabbed by PCGS as MS65RB and was from a illustrated Spink SNC extensive late milled offering about 1999/2000 - I wonder if that was one of these varietals as it was head and shoulders above the "65" coin auctioned by Heritage this last January?

    I think G.P. Dyer wrote an article on some of the silver coins struck in gold in the 1980s - can't remember what publication but maybe it has some information?

    I wouldn't be calling these hyper-varieties myself - I think even specimens of each in VG condition could still be correctly attributed, unlike some of the bun head varieties. Makes the George V pennies a bit more interesting anyway (and they also serve as a reminder of how impossible a complete penny set is).

  17. Posted

    There were two slightly different reverse D die designs. From what I have seen, most 1861 3+D pennies were struck with the one of the two reverse D die designs that have no curved line rising up from the exergual line to the shield. The D Dies without this line tended to give a weaker looking strike. This applies to 1860 pennies also. One of the best 1861 3+D reverse pictures that I have has the curved line, I will try to attach. I will also try to attach a picture of the reverse D without the curved line. Your coin appears to be the type without the curved line.

    Quite by chance I came across this article (the last article - fifth page from the bottom): http://www.britnumsoc.org/publications/Digital%20BNJ/pdfs/2006_BNJ_76_2_7.pdf

    It discusses a few varieties of reverse D.

    • Like 1

  20. Posted

    It doesn't all work exactly as it used to, mainly because the images mostly have to be separately accessed, but the links do seem to work. Haven't checked them all though. Is there any way of saving this for the future, by archiving or downloading?

    There's this: https://www.httrack.com/

    I remember playing with it years ago but I can't remember if it was any good - it still exists seven or eight years later so it can't be too bad anyway,

  22. Posted

    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?

    • Like 3

  25. Posted

    I'm no expert but my understanding is that coins from every batch minted go into the pyx, but they are then thinned out for the trial itself. I assume the results are published but I haven't found any links or libraries that have them available.

    Good luck. I haven't been able to find mintage figures for non-UK coins let alone something like the trial of the Pyx results. Some government library might have them.

    how have these recent poor examples of minting got past this trial?

    Further to what Rob has said, I remember reading that the selection of coins is now entirely automated, so if they're all tested together at the end of the year say, then the discovery would be made too late to do anything. I wouldn't be surprised if the testing it mostly automated too.

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