King Kenny

I certainly had a set of Whitman albums for my pennies back in the 1970's. They were very handy and I only stopped using them when I bought a proper coin cabinet. I think you could buy them in W H Smiths ( a famous stationers in the UK).

I have just looked at these marks under a strong light using a loupe. They seem to be surface marks as there is no is no indication of any scratching etc. Just another mystery.

It is nice to know about these differences and fun to find one, but I don't have the urge to own them. Standard coins and recognised varieties are more to my level of collecting British copper and bronze coins, but I acknowledge your expertise in this field.

Thanks Jerry. That makes a lot of sense. I have not studied die cracks much, a lot to learn.

I have just got this 1879 penny and I noticed a connecting spar on the O of ONE. I first thought it was a die crack, but it seems too wide for that. Any ideas?

Never thought of that. Goodness, it's a complicated business.

I don't want to know if I lost it!

It suddenly occurred to me the other day I had put a bid in for a nice looking penny on eBay. I had to put the bid in early as I had a long drive when it was due to mature. By the time I got home the auction was over. Now here is my conundrum. I could check with the web site to see if I had been successful or not. But if I did I might have failed in my bid and had lost the coin. However, if I don’t check it out I could still hold the winning bid, but I won’t know until I looked at the listing. Therefor, I might have won that coin, or not, until I find out one way or the other. I( I have lost the bid then I would be disappointed, so am I in a better position by not looking? Unless I have won it.

Thanks Avocet. That makes it a lot easier.

No, not at all. It's all my fault.

https://headsntails14.wordpress.com/ Ah. I got the name wrong, didn't I !

Thanks. I did look at the Pennywise site before, but I never thought I would encounter any of the varieties mentioned and did not look too closely at my coins. It will take me a long time to digest all this information. The Pennywise site is very interesting and highlights so much information throughout all the years. I would go with the Ba, but what do I know? Well, more than yesterday.

Here is a better image og the date. I can now see that the second number 8 is different from the first.

Wow. I had no idea. Thank you both, that is very interesting. I looked it up in the Freemans book and thought it was an F149 1 + B. I have only just stared to investigate all of the variants and I have a lot to learn. That's OK because that is what it is all about.

When I started working in 1974 I could afford to buy a few pennies from one of the mail order coin dealers. In those days you did not get a nice colour photograph of the coin you wished to buy, but rather just a brief description on a typed list. I bought this penny for a few pounds. I was a little disappointed when it arrived because of the black spots on an otherwise good looking coin. I was, and still am puzzled as to what caused these marks. The uniform pattern looks like marks left from a pierced metal tray