Rob

In that case I was thinking of something else going to Japan.

I remember that. I made a point of not bidding. I should have gone for the Nicholson coin, but I vaguely recall that went to Japan in Stone's LCA sale. Might be wrong though.

I think it is safe to say I couldn't live with that. It's like virtually every other rarity when it comes to regular currency coins. Once the variety is documented, a handful appear in reasonably quick time.

I just get a message saying this page is reserved for future use.

Eeee. That's a bargain. Cheaper than the £1-£6 they were selling for in Cuff (1854)

Vat is payable on the total cost of the imported package, i.e cost of item plus postage as well. I presume that makes up the difference, as £1.50-1.60 x 5 is £7.50-£8 which could be about right for a package depending on the service used. The exchange rate used will depend on the prevailing rate on the day, which might be the post office's own for currency, or could be the financial market's rate, or could be the buy or sell rate for someone else. It's not going to be a million miles away, so not really an issue. There is a cheaper solution to these clearance fees which is to book the import VAT at the point of purchase using an integrated ordering system, just as ebay adds a tax charge onto sales to certain US states. Once that's done, there is no hassle with having to clear a parcel manually. As a business, it's far preferential to have a system which eliminates human involvement wherever possible because the cost of putting bums on seats is significant.

They were producing DEI GRATIA obverses for all the silver in 1695. Probably just a case of someone forgetting the denomination they were engraving. A date of 1695 could mean as late as March, in which case you were only 5 months prior to the start of the recoinage. The decision to do this was made in 1695, so were they making dies in advance of the new mints opening as soon as the law was passed? Again, just forgetting what you were making.

£450

Collecting a specific series,date run, or anything that the coin in question ticked a box and I would be unlikely to find another would mean I wouldn't sell it, though might sell separately to a different person than the whole collection was consigned to when sold. This only really affects collections that are specialist in nature, because a generalist collection could always find an alternative to fill the gap.

I think the main problem they had in 1859 was flan lamination when using bronze blanks, with several varieties of 1859 decimal patterns suffering from this. The 1/20th shilling P1981 (F686) is only known with a laminating flan according to Freeman. My own example is laminated as expected and so is the F689 in my possession, albeit with a known corpus of 1. The list is not exhaustive, as I have seen others with this problem too. Whether this is down to alloy ratios, force used in striking, blank preparation or flan thickness, or a combination of all these things is uncertain, but lamination was certainly an issue on the thinner flans. The thicker flans such as the P2000 (F706A) or P2002 (F710) do not appear to suffer from this problem.

So how many die pairs for the 1860/59? If only the one, I doubt it is possible to infer much at all as you have no means of comparing possible variables.

Assuming a constant survival rate for all dies used, is there a percentage difference between ww and plain truncations when it comes to how well struck up the breast is on the reverse? The no initials master obverses will have been made to replace worn out ww below, hence the no initials (WW died in 1851), so any difference in the reliefs could be down to the engraver? After all, the breastplate does correspond to the highest point on the hair strands. The planarity of the fields might also come into the equation.

Have you tried matching with an image on Wildwinds?

I'd go for water damage too. Interesting that you collect 2ps. Based on the numbers I have sold over time, these are probably the least collected circulating decimal denomination. Why? They are the largest 'coppers' and size usually means more popular, though it's also fair to say that everything is dwarfed by 50ps and £2s which are the only decimals that have really caught the public imagination.

Dies are not necessarily swapped as pairs. Usually only the worn out/defective die will be replaced. That's how die links give the chronological sequence.

That's bizarre. Priceless.

I think it probably demonstrates how irregularly items held in museum storage are actually accessed. If things aren't on display they are out of sight and out of mind. i.e saved from rather than for the public.

Sorry, my mistake. 101A is 1880. I took it to be obverse 10 and didn't notice the date from the previous page. It looks like obv 10 to me as Freeman says the linear circle goes all the way under the bust whereas 9 doesn't in the picture, but then the tie is bent whereas the picture in Freeman shows 10 to be straight, so the tie would be in keeping with obv.9. Therefore, F97A? Maybe someone else can elaborate.

Penny F101A, Halfpenny, no proof listed in Freeman, though they do exist as I have Nicholson's Farthing F539

Yes, I'd go S1511 too. Ticks all the boxes - Annulet before EDWARD DEI GRA REX ANGL (no French title), Barred A in GLORIA, saltire stops. I think I can make out a lis in the central panel. The shape will be as on the shield, bottom right quarter bottom lis, rather than have looped side fleurs. A bit like a cactus. On the top image the initial cross is at 10 o'clock, then reads EXALTABITVR IN GLORIA. The top image makes it look horribly cleaned. These aren't rare, so go for a better one if it looks too rubbed.

No idea, but given he wrote it there's a good chance. I presume they were distributed via the RM.

Probably one of three London second reign pennies in lot 141, but the lot not illustrated.

Agreed. I picked up a few kgs of scrap Vicky pennies a week ago and the person I bought from was expecting to get about £3/kg for them. 10p either way won't affect the fundamentals.

Examples? Are they recently dug or from old collections?