davidrj

Well it's kept me out of mischief this week whilst it has been too wet to play in the garden, and I have honed my imaging skills I'm not too sure myself over all of Michael's date widths, some are very minor, but one could argue that they do represent different dies, even though there was no intent for a design change. We probably need a hierarchy of varieties DELIBERATE: Actual changes to the design, the Peck, Freeman, Gouby Die descriptions (this would include the large and small dates in 1874-7 and 1879, plus the varieties in 1895, 1897 and 1911 and the recessed ears 1915-6, etc) INCIDENTAL: Repairs and repunches (I'd include the "minor" date spacings here, but also the N over Z and overdates) ACCIDENTAL: Missing serifs, F for E, filled letters etc; Flaws:- O'NE, bird's foot etc Not too sure where one puts things like the 1903 with an open 3, we have no way of knowing whether there was a deliberate attempt to change the font, or just someone picked up a 3 punch that was intended for some foreign issue I've been scanning my accumulation for fun, but some of these "varieties" are attracting real money, so someone loves them! David

Today's find, a much nicer 1880 penny with 8 over 8 in date (Gouby BP 1880 Af) I've now trawled through the first 20 years of my bun penny junk box, 1881 onwards to follow. Makes me wonder how many of these alleged rare varieties are just things that have gone unnoticed in many collections. David

Nothing wrong with the scanner, this is our brains having difficulty interpreting an image at this magnification, here's the original scan Now if you really want incuse, try this poor 1880 penny with odd corrosion David

maybe it's because the eye assumes that light comes from above (the sun). The reflections on the lower edge of the numerals must then be below the surface of the coin. If you look at it assuming the light source is from below, it suddenly makes sense. Perception is a funny thing! Looked fine on my desktop machine, but now relooking at it on my laptop, I get the incuse effect, however it goes normal if i turn the laptop upside down! so I buy your sunshine explanation

is it this one? flexicat

Continuing my high resolution scans of bun pennies in my junk box Opinions on this one please Freeman F73 - similar to Gouby BP 1874 Nj with the sloping 1, but the 7 is broken and I think there is evidence of a 4 over 4 David

Chris, I think you may need to contact these folk Badware David

I've had to remove overwrite the security settings on Firefox to get in tonight, think I may install Google Chrome and see what happens David

That's why collecting is fun! David

Started high res scanning all my bun pennies I think this may be an unrecorded variety, Freeman 13 with the N of ONE over another N definitely different to Freeman 10 with N over Z Nb this also has a renterered R in REG on the obverse David

Quite! This highlights te problem we all have when dealing with ranges we are unfamiliar with. I find the Krause catalogues infuriating at times when they list something as "small date" with no comparative illustration, sometimes there are just duplicate entries for the same date with different values and no explanation David

1926ME penny redefined! modified head

What has always puzzled me is why the Mint didn't make anything of the diamond jubilee - after all they did the golden in 1887, but not a peep for the diamond. I have three of these - two 1897 for the Jubilee, and an 1896 which appears to be a advertising token for Remington Typewriters I think both types are common, the 1897 the commoner one (apologies for poor scans)

I've started to play this game too! But back when we were looking for bun & KN pennies we also went to the bank asking for a 5/- bag of copper, how much is a bag of £2 coins at the High St bank? That's cheating. You have to wait and see what the fates direct your way, oh and make a note of what the transaction was. Most of mine have come from the pub, ahem... I wasn't thinking of actually trying that, just curious. £2 coins seem so scarce in circulation, I was just wondering whether retailers actually order them, and if so, in what quantity, or are they issued mixed in with pound coins? only thing I use cash for these days is buying a packet of fags, newspaper, cup of coffee etc

I've started to play this game too! But back when we were looking for bun & KN pennies we also went to the bank asking for a 5/- bag of copper, how much is a bag of £2 coins at the High St bank?

Thanks Huss, that looks a really useful article David

That's very clever!

I think we all see want we want to see at times. Here's one that fooled me - a reentered "O" in ONE in a 1903 penny Ebay picture on left No doubt here it's the same coin - another 99p dream shattered David

This was listed on Ebay as a "tail only" penny The Obverse had obviously been machined out, but Britannia looked a little odd, so I decided to have a punt at £2.50 Poor Brittania has been stripped, no wonder Queen Victoria left the stage, obviously "not amused" Any one else got interesting altered coins to share here? David

Agreed - they're nothing like Wonder if it's a lurker of this forum, and read this thread? I think that is distinctly possible. Probably safer not to post anything unusual until you have the coin in hand. Mind you many non-numismatic Ebay sellers often do not understand we are interested in a specific coin, and use stock/library pictures. I've been caught this way, but not on anything of value. Nothing enough for me to get too upset bar an explanatory email to the seller.

Possibly true! If only our coins could talk I actually like the holed one, it's got character I have the same dichotomy between my two narrow date 1879s, one cleaned, one holed. Suppose in 50 yrs time whoever owns them; the cleaned ones will have retoned, but the others will be forever holy

Pity about the brassoed one, David. That would have been quite a decent specimen, otherwise. This was a $20 coin from US Ebay, just listed as 1875 penny and it does have the scarce obverse variety of reentered legend The other two came from circulation many years ago, still have bad feelings towards the guy who decided to drive a nail through a good penny! me too!

Here are my three all with major faults - a worn flat b very heavily brassoed c damn great hole

looks like 1 to me very odd

But it's just a big sculpture, albeit in gold Not a real coin in my view, unless you can go into a shop and spend it Just think how many real coins you could buy with that sort of money