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And me as well. If this was priced as GVF, I would be a buyer for sure even though I don't generally go for the Younghead crowns & have made do with a cleaned AU 1847 only - which I would trade in a heartbeat. These are frequently not struck as well as we might like; I have elsewhere commented on the issue with incomplete strike and the problems of such large flans. The marks across the cheek and neck take it down IMO to the EF status but remind me of those found on Morgan dollars that were stored in bags with a thousand companions for many years and suffered such. The actual wear is not so bad, and of course magnified by the enlarged format.

I'd say it's one of those that many sellers would go NEF and many prospective buyers GVF (as far as I can tell without seeing it in hand). There's a little bit of wear, although not much, in the hair and at the top of the reverse. I'd agree that the contact marks are fairly insignificant & not enough to downgrade it.

To be honest, I never noticed it until you said.

I thought it was taken in your shed.

I think that this variety was disproportionately collected from the day it was minted, in much the same way as say a Kew 50p of which there will never be many circulated examples. The LCW below the foot is quite a distinctive variety of what was already a novel new coin issue, and if spotted would likely have been put aside by those that could afford to. The vast majority of those that continued in circulation would have become indistinguishable from other varieties of the date long before the popularisation of coin collecting facilitated by easy access to literature such as the Seaby catalogue from the mid twentieth century. Jerry

I agree with you on the rarity, as in fifteen years of looking on Ebay I have only seen two , as to recognising it on worn coins , the rev. D and E can be hard to determine but the rev. E has the P in PENNY to the gap , on the D its to the tooth. But without the signature showing its not really very collectable.

Yes, Mike, totally see where you are coming from! Any other members have ideas and theories to add to Mike's selective removal idea and my pseudo-pattern conjecture? Also, I wonder if Freeman's rarity of R15 is accurate - seems rarer than that? Wonder if Richard has records of numbers known as part of his rare pennies website? Perhaps there should be a forum competition for who can post a picture of the WORST but still positively identifiable F.14 😋😋

Recently there was something on ebay that I wanted and didn't want, and now I've won it. And I didn't really want to! In fact I'll have 2 the same now. Even experienced ebayers can still get carried away sometimes.