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First, welcome! I've been interested by coins my whole life - there would be an "International" party at the local uni and many of the students would give away coins from their home countries. I have lots of things in my db that I put "gift" into the list for the price! Many of those coins are in my collection to this day. I got serious about 2 years ago and I've got a thing for shillings. That can be ... interesting ... as an American but I've got coins from 1663 to 1970 and am enjoying filling the blanks. I hope you have fun here as I've found this place brilliant.

Since finding this place I've very much appreciated the wisdom and knowledge on display here. I'm hoping that in due course that I might be able to contribute some of my own! I started collecting in the last years of pre-decimal coinage, and with my dad put together a collection which gave us a lot of pleasure. I like to think that most of the good ones I found when I slipped behind the scenes at the Post Office where my mum used to work a couple of days a week; truthfully most of them probably came via my dad's Civil Service colleagues and friends! But I do vividly remember finding my 1950 threepence, completing the date run - not at all easy towards the end. We moved on to stamps, which was also fun but I never loved them in quite the same way. Following the demonization of our historic coinage our collection spent almost 50 years hidden away, but when I officially retired (kind of) I began to think about reinvigorating it. There were some easy quick wins, such as filling date sequences we hadn't really been committed to (or perhaps were raided by me when my pocket money was proving inadequate 😧). Our pre-1920 silver collection was particularly threadbare, and I was lucky to acquire examples of many of the types while the silver price was still reasonably sensible. But for me nothing in the coin world beats rummaging through boxes and bowls of coins. Although sometimes it's quickly clear that I'm not going to find much, I'm often surprised at some of the coins that dealers are ready to throw into their bargain bins. Enhancing the collection has also proved to be a fine way of remembering my dad (d.1997) in a very meaningful way. The collection definitely remains "ours".

Congratulations on finding a good one! Even if it was accidental.

Interestingly nobody gave an opinion on this coin. Is no news good news?

In a way I suppose its kind of compliment but maybe also a tad rude to suggest I'm being dishonest with these discoveries. If you are not putting in the legwork it doesn't mean other's aren't. With all due respect I invite you to invest a bit more time in looking for what you want. And maybe you will have some luck.

There is no way I could cook up this story, its too elaborate, its hard work paying off in the form of luck.

And to show you how poor the original photos were here is the same coin imaged with a DLSR with a macro lense and natural light + flash.

Sellers images of the complete coin, note you can just see the LCW and my imaginery crossbar.

So I wont comment on the other thread now @jelida here is what lead me to beleive the coin was BP1860Jb (Gouby D+d; Freeman 2+D) – V over inverted A in VICTORIA from the sellers images. I received the coin and annoyingly the crossbar is not visible only a faint line from one low angle using a loupe, so its not BP1860Jb. To my surprise😂 LCW is visible under Britannias foot, I know you couldnt make it up. If I hadnt of mistaken the V over inverted A and didnt purchase the coin £5.40 I now wouldnt own a BP1860M3 LCW below Britannia’s foot.

Without @secret santa and his site I would not have found what I have simple as that. This single resource of information has proven to be highly useful its all I use if I'm honest. I have the Freeman book but I dont use it. Richard's site is far easier to use as its all in digital. I use it all day everyday! I owe you a pint Richard. I would happily make a donation given how much Im using it. @jelida If you are that interested you can see my real name on Richards site, im not hiding anything for me its an honour to have my name next to rarities such as the F90 on there. As I have said above I have worked bloody hard for that.

Understand the drive and motivation when a rare coin is discovered for nothing. It makes me search longer and more intensively after each find.

Hit the nail on the head.

Him 😊I really appreciate that thanks! As I say above you get out what you put in.

The reality is the coins are out there to be found, how intensively are you prepared to search for them? Ofcourse a little bit of luck and chance is involved. But I have worked bloody hard to find what I have.

I started this thread and while waiting for the coin to arrive I found the other thread on the subject and thought it was appropriate to comment. 🤣 delear? I'm a complete beginner collector and have not purchased a collection. I'm searching for varities 11hrs+/ day 7 days a week. Even if I sold what I have so far including the higher value coins I'm proably on much less than min wage for the time I have invested. When is the next coin fair Jerry you will attend and I will happily come and meet you and bring my coins aswell. Not sure how you can confuse me as a pro given all the mistakes I have made and questions, and its not as if Im selling any of the coins I'm finding... Hear this; the harder I work the luckier I become and hard work beats talent. I'm not having a quick glance at a few dealers websites Im searching the world Jerry 24/7 and sometimes more than 11hrs a day.

Looks like it might well be LCW below foot. If so, well done, and what a stroke of luck (again) for you, especially as you thought it was something else completely - these are seldom seen, especially and ironically in lower grades. Took me years to find one!! Do you do the lottery?? 😄

And yet another mistake its not a variety it is a die pairing.

It's really not obvious from those poor images but is clearly visible. I will wait before uploading my images to see if anyone can spot the type.

I’m afraid not, but I’m really not an expert on these penny varieties. I am interested though and will go through my own old collection of bun head pennies at some time just in case.

If I didn't mistake the V as having a crossbar I wouldnt of purchased the coin and in turn wouldnt have the variety I now do. Very lucky on this one.

Can you spot what the coin actually is?

Thanks for posting the image. I agree that there’s nothing there, but see where you thought it a was.

Here are the listing images, Almost impossible to see from these images, but can you spot the variety? The coin is not actually missing the top left section of rim, the software when removing the background did this.

So I received the coin, I regret to say its not what I thought. Here is the sellers image; It really did look there is a crossbar in the V. When in hand there is nothing but a faint partial anomaly line when viewed from certain angles. All is not lost though because it turns out the coins is a different type......... Which is unquestionable and rare. Quite lucky really I am. See if you can spot the type when I upload my images, pretty clear however in the sellers images as you will see the actual type is hidden quite well. I mistaked the coin for the same die pairing as the 1860 Jb (V over inverted A) I have alot to learn. Given the V over inverted A is a "novelty" type maybe the one I have found is a better find. Images to follow.