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Robert

One sided blank planchet

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I'm going through an attic and have found thousands of coins, mostly half crowns (about 3,000) but I have also found lots of other interesting items. The first one that intrigues me is a George V halfpenny with the kings head but the other side is completely blank and has obviously never been struck. I'm not quite sure how it could have happened as I presumed both sides were struck at the same time. Any one have any info?

Robert 

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Welcome to the forum Robert. 

I know a collector who has a few half pennies with one side unstruck, they're not too common but can be found. The majority of these however are just from someone grinding down one side until it's flat, if you can post a couple of pictures we'll be able to let you know if it's genuine of not. Try to get a couple of close ups too, normally you can see the tell tale marks if it is post mint damage.

 

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Thank you.

To me it looks unstruck and there certainly don't appear to be any filing marks. Having trouble uploading photos but will work it out during the course of the evening.

Robert

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If it helps at all, take a screenshot of the picture on your computer and paste it into paint, then just crop the image down and save as a jpeg. That normally helps to reduce the size so it can be posted.

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I would say it's been done by someone after striking. The rims are curled up both sides (as it is on the obverse) before striking but there is no rim present on the blank side.

It's not uncommon, and was probably a shove halfpenny. Have a look here.

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OK, thank you, you know what you re looking at , i obviously don't. I seem to remember playing the game as a boy. I suppose if it is ground smooth it makes a better playing piece.

I've picked a very small selection of some of the other coins. I'm pretty sure the george iii coin i gold as it i the only one in a protective wallet!, and there is a token which seems to be a tribute to george iv  as well. I also seem to have a few hunderd 1967 pennies in mint/uncirculated condition.

 

Robert

 

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20 minutes ago, Robert said:

OK, thank you, you know what you re looking at , i obviously don't. I seem to remember playing the game as a boy. I suppose if it is ground smooth it makes a better playing piece.

I've picked a very small selection of some of the other coins. I'm pretty sure the george iii coin i gold as it i the only one in a protective wallet!, and there is a token which seems to be a tribute to george iv  as well. I also seem to have a few hunderd 1967 pennies in mint/uncirculated condition.

Robert

No problem, I like to think I know what I'm looking at but as you might have just seen in another post the eyes can deceive :D. Someone else can probably chip in just to confirm, though I'm fairly confident about it. I'm afraid I can't help much with the others that you've posted but give it a while, someone will come along I'm sure..

Edited by Nordle11

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Hi Robert and welcome.

Not my thing sorry but the 1967 pennies were the last pre decimal and there are millions of them so unfortunately not really worth anything.

Be lucky.

Pete.

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Weigh the halfpenny please. I believe it should be just under 5.7 gm (maybe 5.5 or so with some wear) and not much less; less would mean likely smoothing down of the reverse with metal loss.

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Hi Vicky,

My scales are only accurate to the gram, but appears to be nearer 6 than 5 by the addition of further weight.

Robert

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Unifaces from the mint are usually made with properly prepared blank reverse dies. i.e there is a rim of sorts, even if no design. Trials from unfinished dies may also be made, but tend to be in lead or similar soft material as the die has not been hardened at this point.

A perfectly flat surface on the blank side is much easier to obtain by rubbing down than replicating some vestige of a rim which you would expect as whether uniface or double sided it always has to be struck in a collar to prevent spreading, and so you would expect to see flow into the gap between collar and blank die (which would never be practical to use if a perfect fit without any tolerance).

 

Edited by Rob
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4 hours ago, Rob said:

Unifaces from the mint are usually made with properly prepared blank reverse dies. i.e there is a rim of sorts, even if no design. Trials from unfinished dies may also be made, but tend to be in lead or similar soft material as the die has not been hardened at this point.

A perfectly flat surface on the blank side is much easier to obtain by rubbing down than replicating some vestige of a rim which you would expect as whether uniface or double sided it always has to be struck in a collar to prevent spreading, and so you would expect to see flow into the gap between collar and blank die (which would never be practical to use if a perfect fit without any tolerance).

 

To illustrate Rob's comment, this is a 1949 Uniface and you can clearly see the rim on the blank side.

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Guest George v penny uniface pat

Hi iv inherited this coin from my nan bless her, she passed away last year, this coin is twice the size of a half penny, same size as penny, is it possible it's one of the 1933 pattern coins with only a few known examples ? Any info or knowledge would be much appreciated ,

 

cheers 

dmenace 

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The 1933 Lavrillier patterns have a different portrait from the normal (you can see one in the Collections area on Colin Cooke's website). What you show above isn't even the standard 1933 obverse - it's pre-1927, probably pre-1922. It's just a penny that's been sliced in two.

There is only one uniface 1933 by the way, and it's accounted for.

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11 minutes ago, Peckris said:

The 1933 Lavrillier patterns have a different portrait from the normal (you can see one in the Collections area on Colin Cooke's website). What you show above isn't even the standard 1933 obverse - it's pre-1927, probably pre-1922. It's just a penny that's been sliced in two.

There is only one uniface 1933 by the way, and it's accounted for.

There is one obverse and one reverse uniface.

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19 minutes ago, Rob said:

There is one obverse and one reverse uniface.

Well yes - but obviously I was talking about the obverse one! (His clearly wouldn't be the reverse one... :lol: )

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