copper123

totally normal - many coins of this era have similar faults

melt IMHO sorry

they could have borrowed an obverse die from the royal mint birmingham to london was not a long way

could have been because they wanted a good strike on the reverse - it was well known that the problems with striking pennies started in edwards reign because of the large amounts of metal the design of the obverse used. Do realise as these were trial pieces they could have been produced well after 1902 , in otherwords the date don't mean anything

Obverse looks badly struck on purpose , or the die is deliberately weak - I havent a clue why. Neither coin has suffered wear

the coin does not show any signs of circulation - if it had been in fine grade and produced 150 odd years ago it would have edge knocks,scratches wear and other things fron circulation - this alone should have bells ringing that somethings wrong when it does not

where are the proper lines on the shield? Obvious fake. lighthouse and ship are all wrong too as is victorias hair - should not fool anyone really

theres a Gs over finishing on ebay tonight in a few minutes should give a clue as to what mines worth

Grade can never be improved - what can improve a coin is eye appeal This is a coin with eye appeal now

this is now looking a bit like an ad for verdicare .lol

I feel I have gone as far as I can with cleaning the obverse and am pretty happy with it now -I will put on a pic of the reverse in a week or two I still feel it needs a bit more work

only when you find them in a 50p rummage box scott

Somebody must be buying those kew gardens ans undated 20p coins and the latest craze the edinburgh £1 coins , ok they prob aint chavs but they certainly aint coin collectors either.

I often think proof sets should come with instructions and not be sold to chavs

Coin has had 5 or six treatments now and is looking a lot better - I will post pics of the obverse and reverse on in early feb so you lot can see the change in the coin

So the instruction "Not to be sold on ebay" should be stamped on the coins - it would be clear enough them ,LOL

Have they nothing better to do? penny collectors

If the goverment are so keen to give these out for free then claim them back , why did they not do the same thing with the trial brass 3d pieces in 1937 ?

"Found one in the street" word has got around fast they are worthless hasn't it! Just another coin to chuck into the street and watch the cars run over it

aye aye , who you lookin at soft lad?

some strange people about

I beg to differ - there will be more publicity into the run up of the march issue - I would expect them to hit £20-£25 by the summer - then i think might be the best time to sell

THATS NICE!

Funny enough when newspapers get a bee under their bonnet about a certain tv programe or anything else they often end up having the oposite effect to the one they wanted . I remember when mrs browns boys came on the bbc the mail ranted and raved , dont watch this programme it vile and horrible week in week out, for months . Result - mrs browns boys is the most watched comedy programe on bbc not forgeting the xmas specials) and gets voted the best ever sitcom . I supose there is no such thing as bad publicity