Gary D

I've had the book for a couple of weeks now and it gets the big thumbs-up from me. Great book Dave, I would recommend to everyone. Gary

I'm a bit leary about the accuracy of slabs. A few years back I snapped up a lovely red 1912H penny for a few dollars because it was wrongly accredited. I also recently returned a proof crown that was again incorrectly accredited. USA slabbing companies are rubbish at non US coins.

Hi Chris, still got mine I assume you aren't interested.

Looking at the rear it looks to me as though it could be a button.

You need to check the thickness against a normal penney, also the weight as someone may have just erased the reverse.

That's interesting. I checked mine out, only got 2 and they are both wide rim reverse. Something I did notice was that the observe side the rims are much thicker than the 1953, 1955 and 1956. I wonder if there is a narrow 1955 obverse. Must keep and eye out.

Re credit card advice, I do exactly that and on the one occassion I needed it by being tucked up by a seller I got £150 back from paypal but the creditcard company wasn't interested.

The main source appears to be the Martini sets but it now appears that they also got into the Heinz and Royal Mint sets as well, possibly in smaller numbers Gary

I see Michael Goulby has one in the Royal Mint set Gary, It does not appear that Michael has an actual Royal Mint set with the NEW PENCE version for sale as he notes that "This is shown as an example ONLY of what the set with the error 2 pence coin looks like." I was merely pointing out that it is also known to exist in the royal Mint issue, althought surely for a suitable financial inducement Michael could be persuaded to part with that set.

I see Michael Goulby has one in the Royal Mint set

Now Freeman give a different explanation, and I quote "During the war, tin became extremely scarce because of the Japanese occupatin of Malaya, and the percentage of that metal in the bronze coinage was reduced from 3 to 0.5. Bronze of reduced tin content tones to a pinkish shade, and, in order to maintain the usual appearance of bronze coin, the pennies of 1944-46 were treated with 'hypo'" Gary

Just a normal 20p for 2008 and 2009. New design commonly known as a lions arse.

Although Freeman doesn't specify I assume the figure quoted is for the number minted of this type. Also assuming that this type was not identified until the early 1970s, that's 60 years of circulation. I know that even back in the mid to late 60s when I started collecting from change the occassional vicky pence and more often eddie penny turned up in the change, it was probably less than one in a hundred so out of the 12000 max there can't be too may put away. So no more than a few tens of F-169 in existance is quite possible.

The primary question with ANY of these "rare" varieties is not how many were minted, but rather, how many survived in an identifiable condition, so as to be of desirability to a collector....... Sometimes, the only numbers that we can base any calculations of rarity upon are the number of specimens that are known, and not estimated mintages..... Not talking from personal knowledge I get the impression that this coin and perhaps the F192A were quite late discoveries, as they seem to only turn up in vary circulated condition only. Freeman 2006 quotes them both in fine only. This would allow the vast majority of them being lost/melted before they were dicovered.

I suspect Michael Goulby has 1 and the British Musium plus mine so we are up to the 6 now, must be some more out there. Gary, i don't suppose you have a spare 1908 164A tucked away somewhere

This arrived a couple of days ago, fills a gap in my collection nicely. Any opinions to how rare they really are. Freemam quotes R9 2000-7000 minted but Michael Goulby quotes "appox 6 known" I suspect the true lays somewhere between the two. Perhaps I should conduct a poll. I known at least two forum members have one so I suspect 6 is a bit of an under estimation.

I'm a little surprise that given the number minted there are no varieties especially as they managed 4 halfpenny varieties for that year

14kg of scrap bronze must have a value

That's been machined I'm affraid, not an error.

Hi Mark, Welcome to the love affair with half crowns - don't resist! If you've managed to get eveything from Edward VII in UNC them you're either very lucky or very rich, or both. A genuinely BU circulation 1911 is proving the Holy Grail at the moment. Plenty of them out there almost make it, but so far none has come up to scratch (or non-scratch). Plenty of 1911 proofs (which I have) too, but no really top notch circulation issues. I have seen a couple of near BU 1905s recently, but they came with a price to match. Fine if you're on a premiership footballer's salary, but I guess the average premiership player isn't up to appreciating coins. G My run of Half Crowns is coming along nicely as well. I collect 1900-1970 and I'm trying to put together a set of Davies types, recently found a 2310 in Proof that's 1953 1+A listed as 'to be confirmed'. Just five short for the set now.

1926 saw the introduction of the modified effigy farthing, 1926 did not see both old and modified as with the penny.

Both types are available, in the mint sets at least. Not sure about general circulation, even if sarce it would definitly not be rare

Is there I would be very interested in knowing how. Regarding the seller on ebay, he keeps putting it up and the first time I saw his auction I emailed him and pointed out his error, no pun intended.... obviously just trying to catch the unwary. Here is a picture of my currency edge error.

No. there is a 50-50 chance of which way up the write appears. There are two edge error types. 1/ Proof, the writing is out of order. 2/ Currency piece, out of position and words skipped.

Yes and no. There was no mintage the next year 1947 but how many 1946 were there minted in 1947.....