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Yes, that is the same coin and the previous seller, well done. Definitely obv 9. Jerry

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Very-Nice-Victoria-Bun-Head-1879-Penny-my-ref-71-/223650940409 Good luck if you intend to bid.

From memory (radio college was 50 odd years ago) ground wave propagation is limited and most HF long distance communication relies on sky wave (radio waves travel along the surface and off into the sky). As the earth cools at sunset the boundary layers move and it's possible to "bounce" the sky wave off the layers in ever increasing distances of bounce. HF works well with this phenomenon because of wavelength and density of layers. MF has not enough power to bounce more than a couple of times but in sunspot activity this can change. The same goes for VHF which normally passes straight through the layers with no bounce. It's an age related thing that these facts, possibly well garbled, pop in consciousness every so often.

Might be worth asking the seller for better pictures Mike?

This reminds me of my time in submarines some 40-50 years ago when from time to time we would have difficulty in clearing our 'check reports' (during non-covert ops these were mandatory signals we had to transmit during fixed time-slots to confirm to MOD at Northwood that we hadn't sunk). The South China Sea, North Atlantic and Southern Arctic were (if I remember correctly) particularly difficult areas and more often than not we could only clear the signal via say, Cape Town or some other equally distant station. This was quite remarkable if you consider that frequently we would transmit these signals while submerged at periscope depth with the radio mast only a few feet above the surface. I seem to remember references made to 'sky wave' effect. I was just a simple navigator and while I was quite used to using the equipment, the science behind radio communications was all very mysterious to me; somewhat of a 'black art'. Those were the days! Frank

Obv 9 by looking at the nostril alone. The lines need the coin to hand to be sure of.