1957 1/2d 7 to gap

[Gary D 76]

This batered example arrived today. Freeman and Spink don't mention it, not even CCGB so it must count as unlisted

Edited July 24, 2006 by Gary D

[Rob 3,002]

This battered example arrived today. Freeman and Spink don't mention it, not even CCGB so it must count as unlisted

There are 4 sub-varieties of 1957 calm sea 1/2ds as follows.

Pointed 7 to bead - scarce

Pointed 7 slightly left of bead -very rare

Pointed 7 over space - rare

Blunt 7 to bead - very scarce

There was a thread on this on Colin Cooke's website a while back.

[Gary D 76]

Thanks Rob, I found the Colin Cooke thread. There's me thinking " that's another gap in the collection filled" and two more open. Looking at the coin closely it looks to be the very rare 7 to left of bead as it doesn't truly appear to be 7 to gap. It is definitely blunt but not to bead. I still go for left of bead. I've attached another picture so please give me your opinions.

[Bronze & Copper Collector 401]

I'm not sure if I have attrributed these correctly, but one sure looks blunter than the other....

I think I have types 1, 2 and 4

see attached scans......

opinions????

I'll list them in separate posts as the names and attributions are not apparent....

I've edited the images with the type so that you can see which I think is which.....

Edited July 27, 2006 by Bronze & Copper Collector

[Gary D 76]

That looks about right to me.

[Rob 3,002]

I've only got pointed 7 to tooth and slightly left of tooth

[AardHawk 73]

Sorry to revive this topic. I keep meaning to reply to this post, but time moves on and I find other things to do. Anyway, none of the varieties mentioned in this thread are unknown. All of them have been recorded by David Sealy in his Coin varieties column in Coins and Medals and Coins in the late sixties and early Seventies and also by others in Coin Monthly during the same period. One of David Sealy's readers, Mr V.R.Court reported to him (Coins Jan 1970) that he had sorted through 240,000 halfpennies 'culled over a period of a year (July 1968-July 1969)' and found some 350 1957 flat sea halfpennies out of c.13,646 1957 halfpennies which comprised of the following date varieties and numbers.

(i) Pointed 7, pointing to a bead, 98.

(ii) Pointed 7, pointing to right of a bead, 22.

(iii) Pointed 7, pointing to left of a bead, 110.

(iv) Pointed 7, pointing to centre of a space, 39.

(v) Blunt 7, pointing to a bead, 11.

(vi) Blunt 7, pointing to right of a bead, 10.

(vii) Blunt 7, pointing to left of a bead, 60.

The conclusion drawn, bearing in mind the total mintage of 1957 halfpennies (39,672,000) was that 1322 dies were used for the total reverse minteage and that 35 dies were responsible for the flat sea mintage (c.30,000 coins per reverse die). In other words some 10 reverse dies were used to produce the type (i) and 2 for the type (ii) etc.

These figures do seem to fairly represent the rarities of these coins.

I think it should be pointed out that the four varieties previously attributed were all reported by David Sealy and his readers in some of his earlier columns and in the 1970 Coins annual.

Sorry should be 1,365 not 1,322. Don't know where that came from.

[scottishmoney 18]

Great, good going, now you are going to make me dig out the bags of these buggers and have me looking for the varieties of the date

[AardHawk 73]

Great, good going, now you are going to make me dig out the bags of these buggers and have me looking for the varieties of the date

Sorry about that. I can confirm type (ii) having recently unearthed it myself. Happy hunting.

[Peter 615]

I bought loads of Coin mags off Ebay about 18 months ago covering 1967 to the early 80's.

I'm still piling through them putting post its on relevant articles.

There were a lot of good articles on varieties etc. which today are still not appreciated.

It is also interesting to see how some coins have soared in value...but with many static...

I still subscribe to Coin News BUT in many respects it doesn't come close.

[AardHawk 73]

The old coin mags are a wonderful resource. The early editions were being published only a couple of years after Peck and before Freeman. You can see where a lot of his info came from. When you consider that a years magazines are available on ebay for £5 plus £5 pp, I do wonder why more people dont snap them up. Prehaps they just dont know whats in them.