Leaderboard

Well Done again! If I was you I would buy a national lottery ticket, about the same odds!

That's an amazing stroke of luck to find an Freeman 90 unattributed. I've been collecting for twenty years and have made some fantastic finds , but have never seen an F90 for sale any where other than in a specialist auction . I have though had the luck back in January to find an 1897 F148 in AU condition after searching all that time. Examples turn up but normally in poor condition . My example is pictured below. But good luck with your quest to find an example of all Victoria pennies as some are thought to be unique , such as the F19 1861 2+F

For me the new posts are at the top, below any ‘sticky’ posts so it must be possible. Or you can always click ‘unread posts’ top right. Jerry

I have added the F90 to my website - let me know if you would like a personal attribution.

Ah ! So prompted by Paddy I delved back into a box of duplicates, high grades & oddities that are to good to part with, I wasn't sure if I had any variations of the 1887 Shilling, I don't have the young head, only the second portrait.....none in the duplicate box...aha I did find another 1872 this one has the Die No 29....Memo: this was kept as at some point you could be assed to move the coins to create a space so Die No 29 will slot in with the other 1872.....!?!? it also has a deformed N in Britanniar .... ....Yes a Rabbit Hole...but its a ocd world I seem to be living in.... 😟

What the heck, Im just going to share it ! So pleased it's the reverse which is in better condition. I know on these rarities grade is kind of irrelevant but what is your opinion please? Thanks

I am delighted to share with you my most recent discovery ! I still cant believe it. I search to the point I literally become so sick and tired and just as I'm about to have a break as I cant take no more....... I find something like this, then the motivation is completely replenished. £16 with postage.... I feel a bit bad if im honest, I wouldnt call the seller a dealer but looking at the inventory not sure how they missed this one. I have only included part image of the coin as I would like to let the dust settle, I dont want the UK seller to get wind of it. In time I will share the complete coin.

Thanks for that. I just checked and it seems that the posts are now showing new posts first. I must have clicked something I shouldn't have. Thank you.

Did you order via: https://coinpublications.com/product/the-bronze-coinage-of-great-britain-freeman/ If so, it'll be reasonably fast. I have a few in Germany that I use to fulfil international orders, as postage is much cheaper from here. The UK warehouse has 2 or 3 left at the moment and I just ordered a small re-print yesterday, so with any luck no one will notice the gap.

You mention dealers listing the coin in error, in my spreadsheet I have this image which I made which may help you id the type in poor condition and or poor photos in the sellers listing

Congrats. That's a great win. I have similarly been spending hours over several years looking for some varieties, such as high tide 1897 penny. With those, even some attributed (in TPG slabs) are incorrect, let alone dozens of dealers who list it as such, erroneously. With so many bad listings of it, I feel even less likely to find an actual one unattributed. But I keep looking, in madness, haha. I may break down and buy a correctly identified one, even with the markup. I feel aside from maybe 1902, most of the rarer tide variants will just be too tough to acquire, otherwise, esp where I am located.

I also was thinking of starting simple, with mild warm, soapy water, too, then advancing from there. I am waiting for it to come in the mail, but will try to remember to update here. I am excited to revive this beauty. For anyone curious, link to see pictures of both sides, due picture limitation here https://www.pcgs.com/cert/50443898

I paid $115 incl BP, tax and shipping, so I feel I got it pretty cheap, at least for over here. It has some wear and marks, but overall fairly good condition. It definitely felt worth the gamble to restore it. I think it scared off most bidders, which I was fine with. I am also surprised the grading company did not demand restoration fees, as sometimes I have heard they do.

I would like to try find one example of every known variety. In 3 months I have found two of the rarer coins in the list, I have accepted I may have to purchase a few attributed types but the more I find the more I'm obliged to continue with this challenge. Its unlikely but lets say I did compile a collection of all the known varieties for the bun head penny series. Do people auction complete collections? I plan to invest in books. Does anyone have any books for sale please which may be of use to me.

Using a bain-marie and a thermometer. The temperature fluctuated between 85 and 95°C.

Incidentally, when you did your initial experiment - 100 minutes at 90C - how did you achieve this temperature control?

This experiment was with 5% sesquicarbonate at room temperature for 6 hours. The green spots have gone but the coin looks stripped and cleaned. I'm going to try 2% at room temperature with a shorter contact time.

I would use WD40. Give it a good soaking and it will just lift away.

Olive oil classically treats verdigris, without damaging the rest of the coin, so maybe it will soften and loosen the tape glue, agian without doing any real harm. On the other hand, if the tape has been stuck on for a while, it is possible that it has already damaged the surface, and removal will simply show this up. You pays your money and .......

Don’t be afraid of acetone, it would be my first port of call unless the adhesive is water soluble. Acetone won’t alter the coin in any way. Jerry

I see no reason not to start with just warm soapy water. Most sticky labels use water based glue. If that does not work, my next try would be alcohol - rubbing alcohol I believe it is called in the US, surgical spirit in the UK. Only if both those failed would I move on to Acetone.

I simply cannot believe that a) someone submitted that for grading with sticky tape attached and b) that a grading company actually slabbed it along with the tape and graded it as ‘details!’ I personally wouldn’t be afraid at all of giving that a clean with as much acetone as is needed. Apply it with a Q-tip. You may have yourself a bargain there!

Another trial.

Hello 🙂 thank you for letting me join the forum. I've been reading through the various posts for the last few weeks. I have recently inherited a number of coins; some of which have been fairly well looked after, some of which are in old, damp albums and some of which are rattling around in boxes and tins. I hope you won't mind me posting a few on here every now and again as I start to sort through them all 😊. At first glance it looks like some of them might be worth a little bit and others are worth nothing more than the enjoyment of looking at them and learning about them. A lot of the ones in albums have gone green! Hopefully there's a photo attached of the better of the storage containers. The coins in these containers are in little velvety trays. Hopefully this all posts correctly! Thank you 🙂.

found in my box amongst the other unidentified hammered silver coins... yet to be identified...!?! is its possible that this could be .... Medieval Crusader Coin Bronze Denier or Follis... issued by Tancred of Antioch 1101-1112....?

Ever since Michael Freeman gave a degree of "validation" to this sort of flaw by recording the 1897 Dot as F147, more and more examples have been found. The following is an excerpt from the page on Dot pennies on my rarest pennies site. https://rarestpennies.wordpress.com/scarce-dot-pennies/ There are many examples of pennies with small raised circular “dots” on either the obverse or reverse, now thought to be caused by a rust spot on a working die which eventually is removed by successive strikes leaving an incuse area which produces the raised flaw when creating the coin (see my article in Coin News June 2022 quoting Paul Holland's investigations into the cause).

Some small coins that I've been checking this afternoon 🙂 we have an 1817 sixpence, an 1843 fourpence, a 1912 threepence and an 1876 third farthing. I think they're all pretty decent grade wise; the photos are okay but not amazing 😅.