Martinminerva

Can you post a picture? Or a link?

Whilst the mint does indeed use heptagonally pre-shaped blanks for striking 20p's and 50p's, for the dodecahedral brass threepences and now the new pounds, they use circular blanks (the external angles are more shallow and can be squeezed ok into the 12 sided collars that are used). Proof of this is both during WW2 when steel was at a premium, the mint used "blunter" cornered collars which lasted longer than the normal sharp cornered ones, leading to slightly smoother angled coins, and also with this 1960 threepence brockage which has been struck proud of its collar and retains its circular shape... It weighs 6.85 grams too, so I am perfectly happy your piece is a legitimate blank. The rough surfaces and edges are no problem either - they are all squeezed out smooth when the annealed blank goes through the press. Other denomination blanks I have are similarly a bit rough and ready!

Agreed! I have been looking in vain for this pairing for years! I only know of four specimens that have been documented.

I have owned two of these. Perhaps R17 is a tad generous?? Nevertheless, still a scarce pairing.

UK Coins yet to be issued in 2022 were due, I believe, to be the BBC 100 years 50p, four Harry Potter franchise 50p's and a reissue of 15 different two pound coins to commemorate 25 years of the denomination. (Any others anyone knows about?) i wonder if the issues will still go ahead, and if so with which portrait? There are precedents for posthumous issues, but wonder if that will still apply?

No, sorry. 5+D. Reverse D easiest identified by the upward slope to the exergue/base line of sea left of shield. Reverse G slopes down there.

No brickbats from me. A propos of not very much... I have no definite opinions or expertise on climate science, but likewise would like the media generally to consider facts over a longer spell of time; and being a Classicist, I can confirm that Europe at least was warmer than today in the Roman period. Viz. commercially viable vineyards as far north as Yorkshire proven by archaeology and southern mainland Italy was malarial proven by skeletal analysis. I believe those more expert than me suggest in that Roman period Europe was at least two further degrees centigrade warmer than now.

Thanks very much Richard and well spotted and well bought, Jerry. At least one other penny person spotted it to push it this high, seeing the estimate Roxbury's had put on it... 😃

No, but what did it make? Can you post a link to the lot ? Cheers.

Aha! Issue solved - but I guess there will be other specimens out there somewhere... Could you post a picture anyway if it is a better than normal open three?

I too am more than a little sceptical! I believe one of the two confirmed, known specimens sold for in the region of £20K so if true, this would be bargain of the millennium! Go on then - did anyone here get it, and more importantly, is it the real McCoy and can we see a picture?! Given Goulbourn have, I believe, taken over Croydon Coin Auctions and are now running them from Chester, surely they would know what a genuine third example could command and indeed would be a real feather in cap for their auction business. I would only be convinced in the veracity of this with a decent picture...! Or has it been doctored, perhaps?

Erwin Schrödinger both was and wasn't a forum member...

I have just listed on eBay a few more pennies including a relatively good Freeman 69 and a very worn, but useful filler, Freeman 76 which members might find interesting... https://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/m.html?item=284552412594&hash=item4240a53db2%3Ag%3Ab44AAOSwRephqPIj&_ssn=1970kit&_sop=10 The F.76 is very seldom seen, and although it is well gone, it genuinely is an example which might fill a gap!! Cheers!

I have finally got round to relisting it, along with a few other scarce Freeman and Gouby varieties. The list can be seen on this link: https://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/m.html?_nkw=&_armrs=1&_ipg=&_from=&_ssn=1970kit&_sop=10 Cheers!

April - or May - fool!! 😝

Incidentally, what is the best known specimen of the 1877 narrow date? And anyone got a picture?! 😄 None of the 14 (or 13, given that very worn, very suspect one at specimen 11 which for me has the first 7 too high and too tilted to match the definite ones...) on Richard's website would get above fine, for me. And if a fair one is going for anything between 4.5 and 7K, what price a VF or even EF one?? By the way, did anyone here get that one off eBay from the States recently and could post a better picture?

Someone offered to buy it now for £50 which I accepted. The F69 is still loitering at home - might put it on again later this spring...

Correct!

What's the point? They won't do anything that interferes with their profits. I know what you mean, but... I have successfully reported items before for other wrongdoing reasons and eBay have removed them. If sufficient numbers report, eBay can and do suspend sellers breaking their rules. The seller might get the message if a lot if items are removed, they cannot get away with what is essentially fraud. Whilst I guess the seller didn't twig that his picture was of a 1903 open 3 penny and so worth a bit, had PWA bought it, he would have received an item not as listed - the pictures form part of the listing and this is why eBay have the rule about it. I see this seller also has, for example, a picture of a lustrous Unc 1904 penny (or actually allegedly two of them!) when I am sure any buyer would receive one in far lower grade! It just annoys me that lazy sellers, or worse still deliberately misleading ones, can get by because of apathy either on the part of eBay or by much more knowledgable potential buyers... Rant over! 😊

Totally against eBay rules! He should be reported to eBay, but I can no longer see a suitable category for reporting this... If anyone knows what options to use to report the items, plural, he sells, with his small print that these are not actual pictures, please do so and tell us here how to do likewise!

Agreed. The interstices of numerals and letters on dies did have a habit of breaking away leaving thicker and filled digits/letters on the finished coins throughout the bronze series. As well as numerous filled 2's that Rob mentions for example, there is also the "double barred" 5 on a 1915 penny that springs to mind...

Definitely a modern pressure cast copy. Avoid it like the plague! Weight is no guarantee - the alloy used is pretty much the same density as silver and so the weight is likely to be in the "right" vicinity...

In Peter Davies' British Silver Coins book, he declares that all 1898 Victorian sixpences have the date in larger figures than all the other veiled head years. Indeed, until now all those I had ever come across had the larger figures, though I do vaguely remember reading somewhere that at long last a specimen with small figures had turned up (anyone remember where that was?) Well, another one has turned up - please see the images. Interestingly, as well as the smaller digits, the 1 of the date is over a bead, rather than a space as is usual on the larger figured specimens. Worth recording?

Novelty item - date skilfully removed by tooling post mint. I have an identical example!

In the notes I've left myself I have reverse G has lighthouse with two windows and one rock between lighthouse and shield, reverse I has lighthouse with no windows Not true! Reverse I lighthouse also has two windows as picture above shows, albeit masonry is a bit heavier (and akin to reverse F as Zo Arms says above).