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And a 1875 'cannonball' from an online dealer, £11 plus £2.50 postage.

Time to show some recent acquisitions, I have had a couple of bargains in the last couple of weeks. Firstly a nice 1898 'last 8 bisects' from the last Midland coin fair, unrecognised and £35.

bought this a while back because of the slightly smaller looking 5, had a look again a few weeks later and noted the R in Victoria has been replaced by a B, you can see the the tail of the R but the letter is clearly a B

And I had looked at this specimen at £50 in a dealers tray at the Midland Coin Fair many times over the last year or two, but left it thinking it was an F763 (I have several); but when it dropped to £17.50 I thought it worth a punt. On closer examination I think it is an F8B, on the basis of the relationship between last colon and cape, and the position of the 'dimple' left by the worn rose. What do you think? Jerry

one of the newly discovered 1889 'missing serifs', £6 on Ebay. I have looked at many 1889's, seems scarce. Now I just need an upgrade.... Jerry

Would that eclipse on the middle bead also be a tell tale, it’s a well-protected bead for ID, and is also on both coins? Or is this present on other dies?

Spot on - that tiny remnant of the Order of the Garter at the bottom right of the bust confirms it.

Cup of gold photos taken at Brisbane Roma St Gardens today. I was just passing the plant and thought you may be interested to see it in situ. As you can see it has a large yellow flower growing on a rampant vine. I think it flowers late winter/ early spring.

That’s not B reverse , it’s unrecorded.

Afternoon, Got this one for sale. If anyone interested, make me an offer on DM. Cheers.

Hope you enjoy this one, I had to smile when I found it a couple of months ago. Just look at that eyebrow ! It now resides with the rest of my George III Half Pennies Very Best Regards Richard

My first coin purchase was a George II 1757 Halfpenny bought on a Saturday morning for 50p from an antique stall set up in what was then our local reference library ... unfortunately there are no official 1757 Halfpennies . I still have it and a quite a few other contemporary counterfeits or contemporary forgeries from albums. You might have seen the following for sale on ebay It is a George III Halfpenny dated I think 1775 (its very difficult to read) struck over a Palmers Stagecoach token which would date to around 1797 SCARCE George III Evasion Half Penny Overstruck on Palmers Mail Coach Token | eBay Very Best Regards Richard

I would say this is a contemporary counterfeit rather than a modern fake. Still fairly collectable, but not to the tune of $575! The seller, who makes themself out to be a bit of a coin expert, probably should have made that clear in the description.

A 1911 proof coin I have. In hand it looks good but the photo I took shows evidence of much cleaning. Just goes to show how you can be deceived. The coin didn't cost a lot that probably reflects its condition. Caveat Emptor.

I think they could possibly be different punches. The top one has a bit of a double chin, but the bottom not. The eyelids look a bit different, the mouth a bit deeper on the top one and nostril more hooked on the bottom one, but whether it's down to depth of strike, I'm not sure.

An over-letter would not account for the sharp gap between the round bottom bulb of the "B" and the vestigial leg of the R, whereas a scratch and metal displacement would. All other proven B over R's or R over B's on other Victorian denominations show no such gap as metal flow on the die when corrections are made maintains smoothness. I'm not saying it's categorically not, but we need a much clearer picture to be certain either way. This is the best I can do with the original supplied image - I'm sure I can see a scratch...

A easy contemp fake worth about $100.00

I started to sort out my Victorian - Edwardian Halfpennies at the weekend. I say started because it took ages to pull together all the best examples. I'll need to go through them again and try to sort out them out properly identifying the correct die pairs Anyway here is (I think !) an 1861 Halfpenny where the 2nd 1 has been struck over another 1 (but no 8 over Very Best Regards Richard +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

That is amazingly helpful - I had no idea there were so many different 1877's. It is a very worn coin (so please don't laugh when you see the photo) and worn coins can be quite misleading (I have an 1875 where the "5" looks like a small 5 like a half penny - but a look under the microscope and it is just wear) . For the 1877 you can just see the top of the 2nd "7" and sadly no its lost its teeth I've just taken this photo with a iphone but if you wanted more detail (not that there is much !) I can get an image from my microscope Great to see what you think Very Best Regards Richard P.S. I did find a small date 1862 yesterday (again very worn but clearly the smaller size) I may try to go through my other 1877's today (most of which are in much better condition) and probably 1873. I've moved the 1862 into my main tray so it doesn't get lost !

On the other hand, £1 is a fair price for a reasonable repro.