The sort of "tin of old coins" you really want to find!

[The sort of "tin of old coins" you really want to find!]

Someone sent this to me the other day - it looks like the tin is full of valuable coins. Hardly the usual tin of granny's coins.

[has "Unread Content" changed?]

Sometimes it says there are unread posts if someone has modified a post.

[Spink English Silver Coinage]

 

22 hours ago, azda said:

https://blackwells.co.uk/bookshop/product/English-Gold-Coinage-Volume-II-by-Maurice-Bull-author/9781912667727

Wait there was a first edition?

What is it like compared to The Gold Sovereign?

[British colonial coins with non-lsd denominations]

16 hours ago, Paddy said:

Well I have just acquired this, which fits the criteria nicely. 1928 Cyprus 45 Piastre - same size as the British Crown:

Very nice.

14 hours ago, Sleepy said:

I have taken a slight interest in Cypriot coins, I was born their.

Be careful there are forgeries of these Crowns going around, yours looks ok Paddy see below an example the tell tale appears to be the "ding" on Georges temple.

Is that example yours? I know it's a low mintage coin but surely it's not rare enough to warrant faking - there's hardly a shortage.

[More Pennies]

14 minutes ago, 1949threepence said:

Otherwise, even if legit, there will always be an element of doubt. 

For me there would always be the element of doubt - mintmarks are one of those tiny areas that are prone to die fill.

[New variety of Victorian Penny reverse D]

Well-spotted - is it Freeman D or one of Paul Holland's reverse D variants? I don't think it's Holland D* at least.

[Halfpenny ID check]

On 9/27/2021 at 5:17 AM, Zo Arms said:

One thing that I have found frustrating in the search for varieties of half pennies, is the huge amount of information that is available. 

I have 2 editions of Freeman's work, 1970 and the Rotographic edition 2016. A copy of David Groom's Bronze Varieties. Salzman. The Dracott articles are stored on my phone. A free access to Google. And the wealth of knowledge within the forum. I am aware of Peck, Gouby and Mal Lewendon but don't have their work as yet.

All invaluable but not together as one source.

Stumbled across this a short while ago whilst searching the net. 

A Treatise on Varieties of British Fractional Bronze.

Tom Schumann.

Published by Lulu, to order.

Helpfully they advertise at the bottom of this page. Or they do on my phone.

Ordered a copy a few days ago. Is anyone else aware of it or has a copy?

I wrote that book so my opinion will be biased but I was also frustrated by the number of references I needed on hand, especially for halfpenny varieties. If you go to https://www.commonwealthcoins.net/book/british-fractional-bronze there's a link to a .pdf of the farthing section only if you want to get an idea of what it's like.

Major differences to Freeman are that I consider Victoria obverses 11 and 12 the same (I looked at many photos and it looked like both obverses exhibited similar features, not to mention that some published diagnostics are contradictory) and the George VI varieties get some proper coverage.

Any feedback, please send it my way.

[British colonial coins with non-lsd denominations]

Yeah there were certainly a few different systems in place.

Looks like Canada and Honduras had 50c = one florin and Hong Kong had 50c = a half crown

India, Mauritius and East Africa all had a rupee half way between the florin and half crown so they didn't quite match any denomination.

All the lsd colonies had coins that were almost the same/the same (though Jamaica and Nigeria had some coins were a couple of mm off).

I think Cyprus and Demerara and Essequibo were the only two that weren't lsd that had most coins match British coin sizes more or less.

 

And India probably needed to decimalise more than any country with a system like that.

[The bronze in your pocket 2021 pocket change]

On 9/22/2021 at 12:52 AM, copper123 said:

I thought the USA goverment has made the melting of current USA bronze illegal , its strangely legal to melt USA silver though.

That's what I thought too but nothing to stop the melting in Canada or Mexico I assume. Again, unlikely to be economical any time soon.

[How do you tell a bronzed proof and a copper proof apart.......]

34 minutes ago, Rob said:

Bronzed copper is correct. The flan is copper with a chemically produced bronzed finish.

What is the process for bronzing a copper coin?

[British colonial coins with non-lsd denominations]

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).

[The Iain Dracott halfpenny article]

What are the page numbers of the last article? They're cut off.

[The bronze in your pocket 2021 pocket change]

Although I don't suppose it's illegal to melt British coins outside of Britain? Though it's hardly economical to transport a few kilos to France.

[Back to the future?]

Surely not?

[The bronze in your pocket 2021 pocket change]

I thought that lots of American coin collectors hoarded the pre-1982 pennies for their copper, but I agree, surely not worth it in the long run.

[Halfpenny ID check]

Looks live a reverse D to me as well - the lighthouse matches.

[Forbidden]

I've noticed this error when trying to post a link a few times now.

[The Elusive 2002 Jamaica Proof Set Remains So]

Yeah, some "modern junk" is surprisingly hard to acquire.

[The Elusive 2002 Jamaica Proof Set Remains So]

Rarity.

[Augsburg Thaler 1641 - just because I like it!]

Some of those portraits are quite exagerated!

[The Elusive 2002 Jamaica Proof Set Remains So]

I guess they advertised anywhere they could but I source quite a few "modern junk" coins (Fiji, Cook Islands, Solomon Islands) from central and Eastern Europe for whatever reason.

[NEW UNLISTED VARIETY of 1873 HALF-PENNY]

How long ago was the C# reverse discovered? It was mentioned in 2004 but possibly discovered before then?

[NEW UNLISTED VARIETY of 1873 HALF-PENNY]

I found that post: http://www.predecimal.com/forum/topic/3664-coin-aquisition-of-the-week/?page=502&tab=comments#comment-141727

Looking at it, the rim is slightly recessed - is that not a reliable indicator for reverse C#?

 

[NEW UNLISTED VARIETY of 1873 HALF-PENNY]

On 12/8/2008 at 1:18 PM, Bronze & Copper Collector said:

I recently acquired what is possibly the 5th known specimen of a Half-Penny variety, unlisted in Freeman but acknowledged by Dracott in his Half-Penny study.... An 1873 obverse 8 paired with reverse C#.

What I later discovered amongst some coins that I already had, but passed over because it was not an obverse 8, was another 1873 Half-Penny with reverse C#, but paired with Obverse 7... UNKNOWN & UNLISTED till now.....

See attached scans......

@Bronze & Copper Collector do you have those images handy? I hadn't heard of this until now.

And just confirming that the C# can be spotted by a flat shield rim while the other reverses used in 1873 all have recessed shield rims?

[NEW UNLISTED VARIETY of 1873 HALF-PENNY]

Yep looks like it - the parallel lighthouse sides are there.

Couldn't quite make out the obverse but it's still a rare reverse.