Rob

That looks like a small flaw rather than an underlying character.

On the face of it, this might have some merit because 1839 proof sets were being produced long after 1839, so 1839 penny obverse dies were certainly available.

You shouldn't be too surprised that coin forum members value little round lumps of metal, nor that they are the reason for the members being on here in the first place. Most forums are populated with members that have an interest in the relevant subject. You are wrong to suggest that the majority are far right of centre. There might be a majority that are more right than left, but the overwhelming majority are close to the centre. Most of us without any political affiliations take a pick and mix approach as we are able to recognise that both sides bring something to the argument. Adherents to a cause don't have that option available.

Well remembered. I don't recall reading that one.

That's the one that someone started on Winter Hill. It's only a couple miles from the top down into Bolton from Rivington and Belmont, so presumably the smoke rolled down the hill in the absence of any wind. It's going to be an ecological disaster this year. The wildlife was already having a hard time of it, and now what few things did manage to raise offspring probably went up in flames. Certainly the grouse chicks will all be gone as they will only a week or so old at the moment. Skylarks, lapwings and curlews are all likely to lose their chicks. The bilberry bushes had no fruit this year, or maybe only the odd berry. Definitely not a year of plenty.

I'm surprised you don't have one already. Maybe a different department? It's worth asking the question.

Who's your employer? Father Christmas? You'll struggle getting that one funded out of petty cash. If the business needed one it probably would have bought one already, or at least have a 3rd party facility elsewhere it can draw on.

Having gone to the effort of looking up the prices in Spink for a Fine and VF Pontefract, you don't then list a VF example at a third of the fine price. Any auction house would give a better return than that, unless of course you know it isn't the real deal, in which place eBay is the best place to go to marry up the deceitful with the ignorant.

The 7 would have been entered separately and therefore isn't necessarily aligned correctly, plus the years 1853 to 1857 saw a large number of dies made (1856 excluded). The small protrusion at the base is good for a 7, as is the top right corner and possibly the inside of the bottom loop of the 8. The 8 has a straight, slightly ascending line at the top which would be commensurate with a filled 7, recut to an 8. Filling and recutting dies also risks damaging the edges of the previous profile because if you have a previously hardened die then it will be brittle and so easily chipped where the relief changes. It could be that all of the protrusions are chips caused by reinforcing the 8 and not from an earlier dated die. The die has the initials on the truncation which suggests a production date no later than 1858. For this reason, it is likely the underlying digit is not a 9, though can't definitely exclude a 9 sunk in error. The existence of 8 over 7, 6, 3 and 2 tells us that they were using up all the recoverable dies prior to the introduction of the bronze issues. The best way to establish the details is probably to put it into an electron microscope and produce an image such as those in Marsh where it is possible to do some limited depth profiling.

I'm going for a 7.

I turned it on at the end just before Columbia scored.

Can we not bin this thread? Or better still, there must be some govt departments across the world that would be interested in shutting down things like this. People producing fake documents should hardly be encouraged or given exposure.

Just turned on to see England are their usual incoherent selves. Columbians are playing football and shooting for goal while we can't string a couple of passes together.

If these differences were security related then they would need to be applied to all dies and not just one, so clearly would need to be present at every stage leading to the finished die, i.e they should even be on the dinner plate size master design used in conjunction with a reducing machine. To make a die takes time and therefore costs money. That they should rework a die to extend its life should not be surprising. It has always been done. You also have to consider that partially dated dies were produced in batches, with the last digit or two entered by hand prior to 1882. The fact that you destroy the coins removing the various layers surely means you are gaining an insight into the integrity of the flan, not the die which has its design imparted on striking, with every bit of wear removing the evidence.

The problem to me is one of ambiguity. Anything less than mint state has effectively had the surfaces interfered with, whether it be wear, or mechanical adjustment, so one has to be a little circumspect when trying to assign a feature to something specific. A corrected letter is one thing that is likely to be reasonably clear in just about any grade, but any design modification as opposed to the legend needs to be much clearer to make a claim. i.e. you need to work with something close to as struck in order to eliminate post-mint damage.

I wasn't aware people were reticent to post these. If it is unambiguous, then very little goes unreported. If it is a maybe, then further research is required.

Wildwinds?

Oh err. I'm not sure what this says about Essex man if these are deemed attractive.

Spink don't do COAs. This gives a good idea of how much material is actually sold to the masses by the RM, Westminster and LMO etc. The general public gets excited by COAs, but how many nerds would ask for one?

It is because you will reduce the surfaces by a roughly equal amount. so if you remove say 0.25mm of metal from the surface, the diameter will reduce by 0.5mm, the thickness will reduce by a similar amount and the removal of 0.25mm from both bevelled sides to a character will result in a thin spidery character just as above. You also see the rim has thinned due to attack from three sides. Another thing I have seen on occasion is a 'moat' around detail which I have put down to metal flow causing stress cracks at the microscopic level allowing the ingress of reagent resulting in a greater amount of corrosion at these points.

It is corroded by whatever method. Dissolving the surfaces in an acidic solution will retain the detail, but this becomes progressively thinner as the corrosion will dissolve the detail perpendicular to the surface at any point, i.e. from the side of lettering too, thus narrowing the character. This has been discussed several times previously.

The fire is about 3 miles north of Glossop. Good news, the wind has shifted round a bit to the north. Now we have clear skies and the large cloud of crap can be seen heading towards the posher areas of south Manchester.

That isn't a Parsons ticket, rather the end buyer of lot 879 (don't have the buyer's name). 1528 will be a stock number looking at the colour of the ink and that on the other side of the ticket.

After a clear morning, the smoke is back again. Can't see Swinton, which is less than 2 miles away.

It's clear today. The wind has changed direction.