Leaderboard

I really don't get the aggravating philosophy of having a starting bid less than the minimum bid. It IMHO does NOT generate bidding frenzies or increase of actual buying interest.

There are several reasons that the auctioneer will start below the lower estimate - There is no reserve. The reserve is lower than the bottom estimate. He thinks the estimate/reserve is too high and he wants to move on quickly. He's going to bounce bids "off the wall" to get interest going. (He's allowed to do this in a limited way up to the reserve by law) He's trying it on as previously suggested but this is rare and self defeating. I could never understand the secrecy about reserves. As a porter I was only allowed to say that it wouldn't be higher than the lower estimate. Don't forget the estimate is usually based on guesswork and a wee bit of research. The reserve is totally down to the customer and the auctioneer can only recommend a figure. A lot of customers usually have an inflated idea of the worth of an object. A lot of estimates are a bit like basing who is going to win a football match by reference to teams from 10 years ago. 🤣

There's 14 known on Richard's rarest pennies site, which makes it about level with the 1877 F90, narrow date, but somewhat better state of preservation. link

Maybe the sellers could mention what the actual reserve is, before the auction finishes.