davidrj

Quite! This is the point missed by the grade chasers A circulated old coin has seen a lot of history I suppose that makes me an old romantic rather than an astute investor; but what the heck, I collect coins for fun

Thanks, that explains why there is no mention by Gouby

Interesting, but tragic story. Can you post some scans or are they all in grotty "as dug" condition?

These two must have taken hours of intricate work with a jewellers saw; why? ?apprentice pieces fake milling

Thanks, never bothered to get a later edition so hadn't realised they had been junked

I'm re-reading my 1966 version of Freeman's The Victorian Bronze Penny. He mentions veiled head pennies with milled edges:- 1896 5 out of 4943 1897 4 out of 4297 1898 1 out of 2971 1899 19 out of 5688 1900 15 out of 6901 1901 16 out of 4533 my 1970 edition of his The Bronze Coinage of Great Britain mentions just 1896 F144 R18 1899 F151 R18 1899 F152 R18 1901 F155 R18 Is there anything in his later additions? No mention to my recollection in either of Gouby's books I have a couple that are almost certainly fake - I'll dig them out and see if I can get a photograph Anyone here know the story behind these? did the coins get sold? were they all dismissed as altered?

I was there too!, buying 5/- blue bags of copper from the banks. my limited resources had major competition, both from dealers and Michael Freeman - by 1964 he had removed 18,363 bun pennies from circulation.

Yes it looked odd to me when I spotted it, convinced myself that it was normal and it was the capsule that made it look different. Be interested to see a scan when you get it. As far as I am aware no-one has reported any obverse die variations for the veiled heads, but i know there are in other denominations

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the bi metal £2 first came about,showing stages of the minting process, the final coin has 'Trial' on it, they were originally made to test vending machines, probably a set been broken apart to be sold, the set usually sells at around £20/30, where as the blanks fetch more as an 'error'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

Way out of my price range!, intereting that there were only two bids

The 1860s in worn condition are nigh on impossible to correctly identify from poor photos, I've just won this one 1869 RB no idea which one, it will probably be Freeman 6, but then I've only gambled £4.86 plus postage

I think the 1860 may be Freeman 1 (Gouby BP1860D) , Beaded border with sea not crossing linear circle, no rock to left of lighthouse, thumb touches St George's cross. Not sure I would have shelled out that much without a better photo Don't think the 1861 caused any excitement

Just found this via Google design you own coins Do you think they could do a narrow 3 1863 penny for me?

to Offa's standard? 240 pence to 1lb Sterling silver at £12 per oz, 1d would be approx 80p

from Wikipedia:- Finnish businesses and banks have employed a method known as "Swedish rounding" when tallying sums. Due in large part to the inefficiency of producing and accepting the 1 cent and 2 cent coins, Finland has opted to remove these coins from general circulation in order to offset the cost involved in accepting them. While individual prices are still shown and summed up with € 0.01 precision, the total sum is then rounded to the nearest € 0.05 when paying with cash. Sums ending in € 0.01, € 0.02, € 0.06 and € 0.07 are rounded down to the nearest 5 cents; sums ending in € 0.03, € 0.04, € 0.08 and € 0.09 are rounded up to the nearest 5 cents. The 1 cent and 2 cent coins are legal tender and are still minted for collector sets as required by the EMU agreement. ************* So maybe the 1p's days are numbered. I agree with Peckris the penny has a far longer history than the pound, maybe we should rename the pound as a "New Penny" as the French did with the franc, don't tell UKIP though

All my 1p,2p & 5p go in the charity box on the sideboard, every little helps for lots of worthy causes

I still have my copy of Freeman's "Victorian Bronze Penny",and find the figures for the number of actual coins he had examined of each variety fascinating; somehow more relevant than "rarity ratings". I also have the first edition of his later volume. The descriptions and photos in Michael Gouby's books are much easier to use in my opinion, his new specialized edition is superb David

link that works Honduras 4 real

Good to see a seller saying his picture is better than the coin! Honduras 4 real

and here's me thinking it was the rarer narrow date variety

Has to be my open 3 1903 penny for 49p

That's the one. I always thought the colour of KN pennies was due to a lower tin content, George VI Aussie pennies go a similar colour Leaving small change in you jeans pockets when it goes through the washing machine often produces intersting results, I assume soap powder is fairly alkaline

Thanks all for the advice, having just reached the magic age where Her Majesty pays me to stay at home (although still working two days per week) I fancy a new project for days when it's too wet/cold to garden Don't want to host anything public yet, but a hotlink/HTML type application appeals. Lots of photography to do first

Most US coins have astronomic mintages, so minor varieties add interest and something for collectors to search out My view is if you can't spot a difference on a VF coin it's a minor variety