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It would get an EF from me. I wouldn't pay to get it slabbed either, but I fully respect your right to do so and understand why you might want to. Anyway - where to next, Mick, once you've completed your 1899 and 1951 sets? Keep buying whatever takes your fancy, or are you going to focus on something more specific?

Think you're being wise there My priorities cascade, depending on what's available; - Date run (An example of each year) - Varieties on individual years (purposeful design changes) - Errors (brockages/broadstrikes etc) - Widely recognised varieties (dot flaws/overstrikes - accidental design changes) - Lesser known varieties (like the 1862 'VIGTORIA' - accidental design changes) I think I've counted all the teeth on a penny only twice, that's about my limit

Yes, although I'm limiting myself to Freeman types only, otherwise it could just go on forever. Ultimately, collecting the series has to have a natural limit (for me anyway), and I'm not a border tooth counter, or letter to gap kind of collector. Kudos to those who are, I greatly admire their dedication. But I reach my personal gold standard with varieties where differences can be seen with the naked eye, even if only just, or maybe with one lens of the loupe, such as spotting the L C or "I" C WYON on the obverse of an early bun

Ain't that the truth lol. Then along comes Terry/Richard/Prax with a new variety of 1862 which we then need to add to the seemingly perpetual list

I bought this 1950 specimen for just 25p at a jumble sale in the 1990's. It is UNC, just a shame about the carbon staining. Illustrating that it's swings and roundabouts when collecting coins. Some you get as real bargains, and others you pay a lot for.

i.e. You mean your ballsack is waffer-thin (sic).My wallet is on life support at the moment and currently in receipt of benefits from a kind Sudanese gentleman - absolutely skint.

I have never considered myself as much of a collector, over the years I have toyed with the idea of collecting something but then thought what is the point, whatever it was it would sit in a cupboard gathering dust and being forgotten about. Coins for me are a little different, I am not collecting them so that I can show them off, its purely for my own pleasure. I enjoy a Sunday afternoon with a cup of tea and no one bothering me with my modest collection in front of me. I will pick one at random and give it a good hard looking at under a loupe. I like the way the light shine across the surface and shows of the toning or I may notice something that I missed previously. I guess what I am saying is that its something just for me and no one else and I don't have to try and convince anyone otherwise. I do get a satisfaction from buying them and looking for ones that I don't already have and of course who does not love an upgrade This forum also plays a big part in the process, I think without it I would have probably gone off the boil.

Well, it's not a penny but a halfpenny MS64