ozjohn

Messy perhaps but the carpet of spent blue flowers are a sight to behold.

Yes a spectacular tree native to Brazil widely planted around the world. I've seen them growing in LA and Spain as well. Grafton, NSW holds a Jacaranda Festival every year in November I'm sure they are grown in South Africa.

Received the 1920 halfcrown graded by PCGS as AU detail cleaned. On examination there is no obvious sign of cleaning and in hand has reasonable luster. IMO the coin seems trouble free.

I agree flatbed scanners tend to make the high points appear to be flatter than they are also the lustre of the coin is not captured. Having said that I find it very hard to get a good image with a camera and as a result mostly use a scanner. Any insights on taking a good coin pictures would be appreciated. I've tried natural lighting and LEDs but the results are variable. I think getting the lighting right is critical for good coin photography.

Just to return to the subject of this post I checked the specs. of post 1860 pennies https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Penny_(British_pre-decimal_coin) According to wikipedia the alloy used for post 1860 pennies was Cu, Sn & Zn in varying quantities but with 95 to 97% Cu. Therefore the content of other metals in pennies was very small making the price of scrap Cu as good guide as to the melt value of pennies.

Bronze contains about 10% tin a much more expensive metal than Copper. About three times I think.

A palm my wife photographed in Brisbane's Mt. Coot-Tha botanic gardens growing in one of the beds. Many palms have dangerous thorns but this one is something else. It's a Salacca palm from Indonesia that bares an edible fruit. Can't say I would be too keen to pick it.

A very good site for silver hallmarks . https://www.925-1000.com/british_marks.html Highly recommended. Site includes date letters for all UK assay offices, maker's marks and world silver marks.

I was looking at the price of sovereigns on a bullion seller's site and noticed they attracted 10% GST and it gave the reason for this. Sovereigns are not pure gold and are not legal tender. The legal tender reason seemed strange to me as sovereigns were minted in Australia until 1932 and as far as I know have never been demonitized. These sovereigns as well as ones minted in the UK, South Africa, Canada and India would have circulated togeather as they would else where as Australian minted sovereigns were not exclusively minted for use here .As it happens pure gold does not attract GST in Australia and maybe the real reason but if sovereigns are still legal tender it seems strange that they attract GST.

One pound or two Australian dollars.

British coins were used exclusively in Australia until 1910 if you ignore proclamation coins in the early days of colonization. They continued to circulate along with Australian silver coins until the 1930s with the 50% silver being redeemed by the B of E at twice face value. The Australian pound was basically the pound sterling until 1932 when Australia devalued and I think to 15/- sterling. Also in 1932 both Australia and the UK abandoned the gold standard which led to the end of the minting of sovereigns by the Australian mints. The UK's last circulating sovereigns were minted in 1925 after a lapse during WW1. The early Sydney mint sovereigns were Australian coins but I think they were forced to comply with the imperial designs by the B of E.

Absolutely. I can remember reading through EBay's listing rules where it's says repros and copies of coins should be marked as such. Something Ebay ignores. In addition I'm not sure if this applies to demonitized coins but isn't it illegal to counterfeit coins?

Thanks Sword. The second example was scanned through its encapsulation which does not enhance a coin's appearance. I forgot to attach the close up of the belt close to the LHS of the date as you can see it is visible on the PGSS photo but absent on the second example I posted. As I said before I sent a scan to Michael Gouby as he had one illustrated in his listings and he concluded it was most probably a reverse B

Here's another 1920 Halfcrown I have obtained over the time. It was graded by National Numismatic Certification as MS 62. Although this TPGer may not have a good reputation I think it is probably close to the mark as MS62. On examination the coin seemed like a Davis reverse B. I checked with Michael Gouby and he agreed it probably was although it's hard to see from the scan. Looking at the coin in hand at the bottom of the belt facing the F. 19 part of the legend there is a complete absence of the raised rim facing this part of the coin.although it still seems to show on the scan but not on a loupe. I think it an effect of the scanning that a vestige of a raised rim can be seen in this area. I don't normally chase varieties but sometimes they find you

I paid GBP 27.00 for the 1920 halfcrown. I've never had a coin graded but I guess it would costa bit for the service. Freight was extra.

I brought this coin recently on Ebay (I have not received it yet). It was described as AU cleaned by PGCS Ref 39537324 and I bid on it not expecting to win it as the bid I placed was low.Any how I won it and as the price was right I have no problem with it. However when I checked the coin out on the PGSS site I could not see where it had been cleaned apart from a few hairlines on the king's neck the coin to me does not show any sign of regular abrasions or IMO other obvious signs of cleaning. On the reverse there is some toning indicating to me if it had been dipped it was some time ago. Any opinions on what made the TPGers think this coin had been cleaned would be appreciated.

Here's my 1849 florin for comparison

Russia seems intent on recovering its territory lost in the collapse of the Soviet Union,, occupation of the Crimea, destablizing Ukraine and the Baltic States the list goes on. When is Western Europe going to wake up to the threat of Russian aggression which is remarkably similar to Germany's actions in the 1930s. Western Europe's defenses have fallen to dangerously low levels were the UK's defense spending has dropped from about 7% GNP in 1960 to 2.5% of GNP in 2020 while the threat from Russia and China increases. The threat of China has diverted US attention from Europe to the Pacific with Trump telling Europe not to depend on US support so much and should increase their defense budgets. Something that seems to have fallen on deaf ears. So far the increasing belligerence from Russia has been ignored to the peril of the West. Whether Russia is just intent in recovering its lost territories or wants to regain these plus Eastern Europe it gained control of in 1945 is hard to say but I notice Poland is worried while Germany seems blissfully ignorant of the potential threat. In the meantime it would be better to prepare for the worst rather than ignore the threat from the East.

My latest acquisition to up grade my original 1817 Bull head halfcrown. The coin looks much better in the hand.

It's a pity this detail never translated into the RM's production. The only thing that approaches this are the proof issues.

Impressive coin very nice. Here ismy proof 1911 halfcrown from my 1911 short set that I have had for a ling time. It has not toned very much and still retains much of its original mint surface. This is not reproduced in the scan I made..

I've always thought the WW1 silver medal had a well struck obverse portrait of the king. I realize it's not a coin but it gives an idea on how a well struck coin should look like. Interestingly several million of these medals were issued and I haven't seen a bad one yet.

You may be right. The 1912 & 1913 are not too bad either. The rot set in with WW1 and did not really improve until the modified effigy. Part of this was probably due to debasing the alloy to 50% Ag in 1920. Nonmortuus , Like youI have managed to obtain 4 1911 halfcrowns over the years in my case 2 proofs and 2 circulation issues. By the way your 1911 halfcrowns are very nice examples. ozjohn

This is my 1911 CGS 75 halfcrown. Again a difficult year as a proof is much easier to find although only 6000 were minted as against nearly 3 million for the circulation issue if my figures are correct. In any case the proof issue number was small compared with the circulation issue number.

To add to the 1912 collection I have a NGC Au 58 halfcrown which has a gouge on the obverse by the A in halfcrown.