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You should drink those quickly, they're all out of date.

An historical query: As posted elsewhere I recently acquired a 1739 Crown. When I showed it to a friend, who also collects, he immediately said that the 1739 coins were made from silver from the Combe Martin silver mines, which is fairly local to me here. I have done a little research online and have found no mention of this. There is plenty about the Combe Martin silver being used for coins during the Civil War 1647-1648. Anyone know any more or have any reference they can point me to? A picture of the coin to make it more interesting:

Over the Christmas break, with nothing better to do, I did a bit more research. ESC confirms that the roses in angles silver of this period use silver from "The West of England". Researching silver mines in the West, there are not too many options, and of these many were not operating in the 18th century. Only two areas seem to be working: Combe Martin and Cornwall. Cornwall's main focus was on tin and copper, though some silver was produced almost as a by-product. So it does seem that the bulk, if not all the silver in this 1739 Crown would have come from Combe Martin. A nice little addendum to a pleasing coin.

It could be either, depending on whether they inserted the wrong letter initially, or reinforced just a small section of a blocked letter using a punch big enough to cover the defective area. You also have to consider the ability to sink a correction deep enough on the die if it had been hardened previously and the degree to which it had been softened in order to sink the new punch. The truth is, we don't know the circumstances and can only speculate. There is however, strong circumstantial evidence on occasion to suggest insufficient depth of strike for the correction or change of date. The above may well be a case of this, but equally could be a repair to the upright of the B, as in this instance the use of E, F, I or L would all broadly follow the shape of the B.

Once again many thanks for everyone's help I bought a collection of mixed bronze Farthings and Halfpennies, including one halfpenny for 1860, two for 1861 and several 1862's, these were the cast offs the auctioneer lumped together On looking at Secret Santa's Halfpenny Site I found an 1862 Halfpenny F over B in Britt. I started at 1861 and found what I think is the same thing On checking the 1860 I found it was a 1+A, but remembered I had two in better condition so on whim I had another look at them and on closer inspection. I wondered (just based on Britannia's hair) if one of them might be 1+A and the other a 1+A# Best Regards

I have now got hold of one of these, in pretty presentable condition too, and can confirm the high final 6 and a date spacing of perhaps 10.75 beads (definitely narrower than Gouby BP1866Aa.) Interestingly too, this one has a dirty big die crack through the ship - maybe that's why the die was discarded soon on and not many specimens escaped?