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An interesting excerpt regarding the 1882 no H penny: When studying the Victorian bronze series it is essential to work rigidly to the principle that no new variety is acceptable unless it is entirely beyond question. Details in the designs of this series cannot be satisfactorily studied from worn coins, though, unfortunately, this is attempted by some collectors. The fact that only two really fine, undoubted examples of this penny have turned up during the nine years since this catalogue was first published is ample evidence of the scarcity of these pieces. Any worn pieces, seemingly without H, can now be re-examined in a much more favourable light. Craig tells us (The Mint, p. 335) that 'the Mint stopped work on 1 February 1882 for ten months'—for reconstruction. During this period the coining of bronze was undertaken by Heaton and it is extremely unlikely that the Mint would be in a position to strike any bronze during the January preceding this upheaval. This leaves December as the period during which these pennies without H were almost certainly struck —doubtless a small issue to tide over

On WorldofCoins, Malcolm Johnson has come up with the answer: "HME - HORDERN, MASON & EDWARDS Cincinnati began as a small machine shop in the downtown area of the city of the same name in Ohio, USA, in the mid 1860s. After World War II it took over the Birmingham (UK) press manufacturers Hordern, Mason & Edwards, of Vesey Street, Birmingham, (HME) who had been approached by the Royal Mint in the early 1960s to prepare a specialist modern coining press suitable for the quantities of UK coins needed when the country changed over to a decimal system; the Mint estimated that 150 additional presses alone would be needed. HME designed the Coinmaster, a forged steel press with a novel rotary feed plate, which was subsequently sold to many mints the world over. In 1969 the parent company name changed to Cincinnati Milacron, reflecting the rapid development of plastics and injection moulding in the company’s markets; the name was changed again to Milacron Inc in 1998" Thanks Mal

Absolutely!!!!!!! I used to have to multiply and divide £ s d when at primary school- we were using base 20, 12, 6, 4, and 2 every day. Ask any kid to do that now. Seven out of four people can't do fractions....

Hi Bagerap, Have a look at the Fitzqilliam Museum Collection http://data.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk/id/object/159289 The HME was a company in Wakefield HME Minting Ltd. Nice find I do not know how rare it is.

In the days when mental arithmetic was part of daily life, the changeover wasn't that difficult. A florin was still a tenth of a pound, 120+ years after it was first introduced and the continued use of existing 'silver' coins made things quite easy. With the old penny demonetised, there wasn't even the need to use your 2.4 times table. For small change, all you needed was an approximation to know you were in the right ballpark - an ability which people appear to be sadly lacking today, cf. D Abbott MP.

It's in British Numismatic Journal, 1967, p196-8 and is on a web as a PDF - it was a list of new varieties that Peck would presumably have added in a 3rd addition of his book, if he'd had time to update it. But unfortunately he died the next year. Also is 1882 penny no H, and other interesting ones. Put "Peck BNJ 1967" into Google and scroll down to "....miscellanea - British Numismatic Society"

Appears like old polishing and retoning.

Plus the 1908.