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Well, I have to eat humble pie here! I had an email from Semra today, saying she'd responded to my email yesterday, but reiterated a position that was grateful and appreciative in the meantime. I checked my 'junk' folder and sure enough there was an email dated yesterday lunchtime. Sincere apologies Semra...thank-you for your extremely civil email!

In fairness to LCA, all auction houses make mistakes in their descriptions. I have emailed both DNW and Heritage in the past pointing out mistakes. I have also received emails from them acknowledging the error and thanking me.

H Vegas, welcome to the forum and here is my only bi-metallic

Well done for telling them and I am pleased that they have integrity and removed the lot. Surely you didn't really expect a "thank you" from them? My confidence in LCA have been shaken by the way they closed CGS and by the reduced quality of their auction descriptions. At least they are like the last banana in the fruit bowl; not all bad.

It's now been withdrawn! A brief email would've been nice, Semra? At the very least it will have saved the cataloguer, photographer, and general LC machine, from a mildly embarrassing return, surely?

As a collector of currency issues pennies only, here's why I shy away from proofs. There are far too many scarce years and types within the penny series that can keep one so busy for a lifetime that the presence of proofs is best seen as a nuisance. Further unlike Silver and Gold, Copper and Bronze coins react pretty much with anything and lose their mint state. So to find something that has beaten the odds to survive in good nick is something I (personally) find fascinating. Consequently the tendency is to go for the currency issue because out of many thousands a handful have survived in decent grade as opposed to the 3 or 4 proofs made for the same year that are all probably still fine and dandy after spending time in a safe somewhere. This is possibly why proofs of some years are less expensive than the corresponding currency issues (think 1950, 1951, 1953 etc). I recently came across an 1895 2mm proof that sold for lot less than an 1895 2mm currency version in unc. Further most penny collectors are obsessed with varieties, one of every type is better than the sharpest or shiniest and this obsession feeds into the next generation automatically or the minute one unwittingly obtain a scarce variety. The joys of Penny collecting .....

I recently received an 1841 circulation penny with colon that I acquired during the last Spink auction. I think that this is the best looking 1841 circulation penny (with or without colon) that I've seen.