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wybrit

Unidentified Variety
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Posts posted by wybrit

  1. About a year ago a 'finest known' 1844 was on ebay for £5000 buy it now, I think it was slabbed at ms65 but I do not recall it selling, if it did I am sure it would have been an offer outside ebay.

    If it was MS65, it was not one of the two major American grading companies that slabbed it.

    PCGS only has one - AU55BN

    NGC has 4: one each at XF40, AU58BN, MS62BN and MS63BN

  2. I would say the answer to the question is "it is inevitable." The Chinese and greater east Asian cultures excel at continuous process improvement, and coin forgery (and slab forgery, for that matter) will only get better - especially when the government there does little or nothing about it.

    The recent rash and subsequent prolifertion of fake copper Victorian halfpennies with scarce and rare dates (all with the exact same worn reverse) should be a warning to everyone.

    Hi Wybrit

    Have you a link for the counterfeiting?

    Thanks

    Hi Peter, no, unfortunately. The coins in question were sold on ebay first by UK sellers as copies (at least they didn't mislead). Pretty soon they migrated over to other sellers, including in the US, many times ignorantly portrayed as real. I have not seen any offered in a while, but the dates that have been faked are 1848, 1851 and, of course, 1860. All of them were obvious fakes, luckily.

  3. There are some real bad apples in coin collecting, but there are also a lot of upstanding coin sellers. I would trust many of the contributors over on the CU forum to sell me a good coin - and they have. The same thing applies to the mainstream dealers on your side of the pond - I have found many a coin from many different places in the UK, both via internet sales and in person.

  4. I would say the answer to the question is "it is inevitable." The Chinese and greater east Asian cultures excel at continuous process improvement, and coin forgery (and slab forgery, for that matter) will only get better - especially when the government there does little or nothing about it.

    The recent rash and subsequent prolifertion of fake copper Victorian halfpennies with scarce and rare dates (all with the exact same worn reverse) should be a warning to everyone.

  5. The Obverse on your halfpenny is not Obverse 10, but Obverse 11 and it is paired with an early version of Reverse J. Freeman did not identify this pairing, but it was been identified by Iain Dracott in his articles in Coin Monthly a few years ago. Note that the hair line overlaps the forehead, which it does not on Obverse 10 and the nose is hooked. Reverse J first appeared in 1874 and was later modified slightly with changes to the visor and eye on britannia. Hope this is of some help

    Thanks for your comments. I've looked at my Obv 11 1875 halfpenny and the 1874H in this posting and I'm not convinced that the 1874 is Obv 11. The features of the '74H and '74 are so close but the 1875 is different. Perhaps you can take the pictures and draw where you see the distinctions.

  6. Just 1 quick question on the REV of the 1st picture. Why is the rim silver, has it been filed? The 2nd picture REV also looks the same but the 3rd has the copper look on the rim. Is it the scan or does it look like that?

    The first coin is slabbed (NGC), so the rim is partially encased.

  7. I recently purchased an 1874 (no H) halfpenny and, comparing it to my 1874H halfpenny (Freeman 10+J), see exactly the same obverse and virtually the same reverse. There is absolutely no sign of H removal on the coin, even under 30X microscope. The 1874 obverse can not be 7, does not appear to be 8 (which is similar to 4) and is different from 9. Please review and comment.

    1874 Halfpenny, 10 + J?

    Halfpenny_1874_10J_Obv.JPGHalfpenny_1874_10J_Rev.JPG

  8. Another fake 1860 copper halfpenny

    This guy has the audacity to say "This Victorian halfpenny is one of the coins from a collection which I recently purchased from the estate of a coin collector and head of a Numismatic Society. It is not suprising therefore that this collection is in perfect condition. This is an uncirculated coin which has passed from collector to collector spanning its lifetime. It probably came straight from the mint int (sic) a Numismatic Society Collection."

    Well, this fake certainly never circulated, I suppose.

    Unbelievable.

  9. 1860 Copper Halfpenny, probably a fake if you compare it to the picture on Colin Cooke's site.

    Here is the link to the one on the CC site:

    1860 copper halfpenny

    I don't think there is any doubt it's a fake. Worn coin, clear date like it was added yesterday (as it probably was) in numerals that look thicker than normal. Looking at the hair detail, much lustre presumably refers to the quality polishing that has most likely occured.

    I have no doubt it's a fake now.

    Compare it to this 1848 Halfpenny for sale by the same seller. The reverses are effectively identical, meaning it was created by the same "die."

    Almost looks like the same coin but for the date. The seller has a 100 percent ebay feedback rating!

    I know a lot of "copies" of both these dates (as well as 1851) have been up for sale on ebay in the last 1-2 years. It was only a matter of time before they would be offered up as real pieces.

  10. 1860 Copper Halfpenny, probably a fake if you compare it to the picture on Colin Cooke's site.

    Here is the link to the one on the CC site:

    1860 copper halfpenny

    I don't think there is any doubt it's a fake. Worn coin, clear date like it was added yesterday (as it probably was) in numerals that look thicker than normal. Looking at the hair detail, much lustre presumably refers to the quality polishing that has most likely occured.

    I have no doubt it's a fake now.

    Compare it to this 1848 Halfpenny for sale by the same seller. The reverses are effectively identical, meaning it was created by the same "die."

  11. Hi folks, long time no post. There's a teacher here in the US looking for a large quantity of the new design 20p (not necessarily the mule piece). Is there anyone selling decimal pieces in bulk that I can refer him to?

    Thanks!

    The hard bit would be getting all post 2008. If you just wanted 20p peices a trip to a UK bank would get you all that you could want, the problem is though they would be mixed, unless you could find some bags ready to be issued. How many is this guy looking for? You should be able to pick them up for face value plus postage to the States.

    The teacher just got back to me and said he needed 100 pieces of the new design.

  12. Interesting late comments about the 1860 penny. The more I have studied this, the more I lean towards it being genuine. It's a shame that the pictures aren't better, as that will cost the seller some revenue IMO. According to a poster over at CU, the seller has been contacted by several people, and better pictures have been sent out to all who have requested them. I'm not a penny collector anymore, haing sold most of my Vicky material, but I if was, I just might consider bidding after all (not advice, just my opinion).

  13. Quite recently a fake 1905 shilling was well documented on here, and now another quite high grade '05 is up for sale on e bay. It can be seen here

    I'd like to make a bid for it, but do any of you folks think it might be a fake ? I can't see any obvious problems with it, but I might be missing something. As the date is notorious for fakes, I'd strongly welcome your opinion.

    The pictures aren't the best, but I don't see any telltale signs of fakery. Only by having the coin in hand will one know for certain.

  14. I'd be more apt to pass judgment if the coin didn't look somewhat like this one (from CC):

    186059gvfnef1350.jpg

    Two conclusions :

    1. That incomplete 6 is a known flaw on 1860/59 pennies

    2. The person responsible saw the CC coin and 'doctored' another date to look similar

    Like everyone who has posted here, I am not convinced that this is a genuine article and would not entertain a bid.

    That said, I have yet to see anyone definitively prove to me that this piece is not what it says it is. I can see things in the pictures that I want to see (ie tampering). Or it might just be a poor picture of a real piece. All of the conclusions thus far are merely speculative. I don't think this is as "cut and dry" as that 1905 shilling was.

    Real items do pop up in this fashion from time to time. Earlier this year I took a gamble and bought a raw 1871 halfpenny on ebay, bad washed-out picture and all, for a price that was "too good to be true." It turned out to be genuine, uncleaned and mint state (probably gEF by Brit standards).

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