1949threepence

Pity about the brassoed one, David. That would have been quite a decent specimen, otherwise. Superb one. I'm envious.

There's a half decent 1875H to be seen here Freeman 85 8 + J R11 Given the extreme rarity of these pennies, it's actually well worth bidding on. I'm sorry to say that I can't make out any meaningful detail on Scott's picture.

I've been looking at the edge of all £2 coins that have passed through my hands for the last 2 or 3 weeks, and there are indeed examples in both camps, but with a preponderance of lettering the correct way round, with the obverse up. Maybe 3:1 That would not suggest total randomness. I'll keep looking. I take that back. After a few more weeks of looking, I've come to the conclusion that it is random. Also, I got a Scottish flag Commonwealth Games £2 coin today, from a friend. Just need the Northern Ireland one now.

Useful link, that first one! Unfortunately the second one is only of interest to hammered enthusiasts. Although it says "hammered coins", it does in fact list most or all UK coin fairs. Take a look.

No, but then I've not been to Guernsey. Sometimes Channel Island or Isle of Man coins find their way onto the mainland, and turn up in your change. So nothing particularly unusual. Unless you think there is something different about it from other Guernsey pound coins.

You'll soon find out then. I think it's a blodge of something above another blodge of something, giving the appearance of a "1". There's some more muck between the "3" & "6". But until you get coin in hand, who knows for certain.

I can see a situation in which you could potentially be bidding against yourself, unless you did as they advised, and cancelled your postal/e mail bid on the day if you were attending in person.

Thought I'd include two which I've posted elsewhere on the forum:- list of UK coin dealers diary of UK coinfairs

The dates thing enrages me. I really cannot see the logic of starting in the middle (month) then going to the smallest (days) then ending with the biggest (year). Totally and utterly illogical. I once heard an American claim "it's because we say 'May 12th". Come again? It's just as common to say "12th of May"!! I agree, but ever noticed that the dates on newspapers is always in that style: ie: July 23, 2010, as opposed to 23rd July 2010.

Gold is gold, however it is dressed up

Totally agree. Ridiculous idea, and a waste of gold.

Absolutely fascinating story, Kris. Thank you very much indeed for that. Considering that all those coins will have effectively been frozen as far as wear is concerned, since 9 April 1945, there is an amazing amount of wear on the 1922, and especially the 1920 sixpences, after just 23 and 25 years respectively. Same as between now and 1985 for us today. I've noticed people on this forum say what a dearth of pre 1930 circulating silver there was back in the 1960's. The condition of those two,in the mid 40's, explains why.

Hiya mate ~ welcome to the forum. You'll find a list of dealers here I've found one in Bedford:- Eagle Coins 50 De Parys Avenue, Bedford, Bedfordshire, MK40 2TP That was very helpful 1949. I'm looking for a pizza shop in Munich please That might be a bit beyond me, Dave. I don't even know where most of them are in this town ~ although I could have told you where all of them were in my home town of Chelmsford. If you're buying, mine's a Hawaaian. Cheers

Hiya mate ~ welcome to the forum. You'll find a list of dealers here I've found one in Bedford:- Eagle Coins 50 De Parys Avenue, Bedford, Bedfordshire, MK40 2TP

Interesting, but tragic story. Can you post some scans or are they all in grotty "as dug" condition? Indeed. How did they come into your possession, Fubar, if you don't mind saying ?

I remember it like it were yesterday... It was a great time for schoolboys like me to ferret through their loose change, but raities didn't crop up every 5 minutes - in fact most people that checked their change found sweet Fanny Adams, but there was always the chance. Perhaps the most interesting thing I found was an 1872 florin, but purely for its interest value, the only recognisable thing about it was the date! By 15 February 1971 there were very, very few Victorian pennies left in circulation, most having been withdrawn during the sixties as underweight. Nonetheless with the possibility of having no less than 5 monarch's faces on the coins in your pocket, currency was infinitely more interesting than today. I suppose by that time the vast majority were reduced to little more than flat discs.

I may be wrong, but I'm sure I once saw a "check your change" small paperback booklet from about 1968, at one of the the Midland Coin fairs, and it referred to "Modified Head". Although I suppose that was designed for the wider public.

Yes, I wish I'd been born 25 or 30 years before 1978. I would have been regularly visiting banks and exchanging pound notes for 240 pennies to sort through. What a dream People who were around as youngsters in that era, are so lucky to have been part of it. Incidentally, I have read other coin articles from the time, and have noticed the way they say 1926 modified head, not modified effigy, which is the way they are referred to now. Modified head actually sounds less pretentious. Presumably that was how they were generally referred to when articles such as that were written.

You do get 4 pieces in there, so it isn't as bad as might first appear. Does anyone know how many were made and who the designer was? Well I've tried to find out, but drawn a total blank. There is one report from the Royal Mint itself, which refers to the initial test design in 1994, but gives no designer name. The only names we are given are those of Rushin & Maklouf for the reverse and obverse of the eventual circulation issues in 1997, and Rank-Broadley for the 1998 obverse. The link is here Unfortunately all the other links on the issue, appear to have cloned the Royal Mint report to some degree or other, so the name of the trial coins designer is unknown. Maybe a Royal Mint employee. Hopefully somebody will have access to this obscure information. Can't find my set at the moment but I have an image of the four stages Well I tell you what, put "TWO POUNDS" in place of "ROYAL MINT TRIAL", and that wouldn't have been a bad design for the coin. Looks concise, neat and attractive.

Hi Palves, You can find a list of national UK dealers here Unfortunately, I can't find anything for Sheffield or Bristol. It's often the case that coin shops are in the smaller towns, or seaside resorts, rather than the big cities ~ the exceptions being London, Birmingham,Manchester & Glasgow.

You do get 4 pieces in there, so it isn't as bad as might first appear. Does anyone know how many were made and who the designer was? Well I've tried to find out, but drawn a total blank. There is one report from the Royal Mint itself, which refers to the initial test design in 1994, but gives no designer name. The only names we are given are those of Rushin & Maklouf for the reverse and obverse of the eventual circulation issues in 1997, and Rank-Broadley for the 1998 obverse. The link is here Unfortunately all the other links on the issue, appear to have cloned the Royal Mint report to some degree or other, so the name of the trial coins designer is unknown. Maybe a Royal Mint employee. Hopefully somebody will have access to this obscure information.

There was a set issued by the Royal Mint when the bi metal £2 first came about,showing stages of the minting process, the final coin has 'Trial' on it, they were originally made to test vending machines, probably a set been broken apart to be sold, the set usually sells at around £20/30, where as the blanks fetch more as an 'error' Quite right. I've got a set and it has a sailing ship on the reverse and the queen's head on the obverse. It was dated 1994 and showed four stages of the production process for the £2 coin. interesting! never heard of these, but quick ebay search found this £2 trial piece , I'd quite like one, but not at that price Thanks for the info, chaps. I'd never heard of this before.

Agreed. Although £1000 would have been a reasonable starting point, it isn't going to attract too many bidders, who would normally get on the bandwagon in the hope of netting a bargain. Maybe he should have started at £100 ~ £0.99 would surely have been ridiculous in this case.

Anybody ever come across anything like this :before. A blank disc, apparently a £2 coin

Ah, I get you now. I wasn't quite sure what you meant at first. I didn't think you could have meant the simple descriptions supplied by coin dealers with the coins they sell (eg: "1951 penny in EF, very rare", type of thing) Here is a good idea of the type of things that you can get. The ludicrously large (~48mm dia.) ticket on the left is for the smallest hammered halfpenny ever produced and is with a ticket from the Marshall collection. The smaller round one is by R C Lockett and has details on the reverse referencing the source of the coin which was the Longbottom sale in 1934; whilst the third is a hand made ticket by H Webb whose collection was mostly sold in 1894-5, though a few pieces were retained by the family and eventually dispersed around WW2. This was one of the latter and was acquired by Lockett, but subsequently added to by the purchaser who noted the Lockett lot number on the reverse. Tracing the history of individual coins is fascinating. Absolutely couldn't agree more, Rob. Looking at those glimpses into coin collecting history was totally fascinating. The addition of such a ticket with a coin purchase would be a major added bonus for me ~ the older the better. I can see exactly where Tom is coming from on this subject.