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I haven't given a second thought for Covid for quite a while now. However, my understanding is that we might never reach herd immunity for the disease. The vaccinations greatly reduce the symptoms of the covid but are not able to prevent many people from catching it due to variants. It will probably linger in the background as a mild inconvenience for a long time. I am more worried about catching flu. Did he actually test positive for Covid?

I think possibly that my rarest coin is an 1887 6d identified as one type among very many patterns that exist for that year (and none have more than subtle differences): As you can see, the first 8 is struck over another 8; however the feature that first drew my attention to it (and why I bought it) is the big gap between the second 8 and the 7. The inner circles of the 8 point directly to a space, but on the normal example they are to the left of a bead. The tail of the 7 points exactly to a bead, rather than to the left of it.

I think mine would be the 1861 Penny , I over N in ONE, I only ever found two for verification . and the B over R's 1861 and 1862 half pennies

Every hammered coin is in fact unique... Hence, the strike, wear and eye appeal are even more significant than type rarity for the hammered series IMHO.

In terms of the extant known population I would say my 1863 die No 3 under date penny is the rarest.

My rarest coin is a 1922 penny obverse 4+ reverse C - unrecorded and the only specimen I've ever seen come to market. I have a photo of what appears to be a BU specimen of the same die pairing but I can't find any confirmation of its existence.

I find all these fascinating, so thanks for your replies. Each of us has something that obviously means something to us individually, and that's a wonderful thing.

I think the 'rarest' coin I have isn't all that rare (6 examples now known). I feel it's very hard to be certain about 'rarities' in respect of currency coins with so many detector finds nowadays. One coin I have was a new type discovery in 1995, but since publication and listing in Spink a further 13 have turned up, so it didn't stay unique for long! Patterns and trial pieces might be a bit easier to be certain, especially if it's clear how many have gone to museums and the like. The rarest 'thing' I have is probably a small Royalist medallion from the 1640s, of which I'm only aware of one other example apart from the British Museum's and which Medallic Illustrations classes as 'Very rare'. But the likelihood there are others, in personal collections (or in museums, poorly or incorrectly identified), has to be pretty high, given these were mass produced items (albeit not in huge numbers when you compare to how many - what are now considered as rare - coins were struck). Similar to Sword, an example in above average condition (or for me, with decent provenance) is now more attractive to me than simple rarity. I have parted with many rarities, because in the end I didn't find them pleasing and valued being able to buy something commoner, but that I would enjoy owning, more.

For me, rarity could refer to the total number of pieces available, condition rarity, or "rare" eye appeal such as excellent toning. I personally prefer collecting the later two categories. A relatively common coin in rare UNC grade is more exciting to me than a very low grade coin with only a few examples known. I am not a serious enough collector to have anything particularly valuable but do have a few pieces which think would be hard to upgrade.