JLS

I concur - particularly like the custom large card boxes they ship multiple purchases in. The last one I got had a huge photo of a German New Guinea coin - almost more beautiful than what was inside !

Weight is 4.56 grams, which seems a bit heavy for a fake farthing in my experience. But the lips do look a bit "fishy" so I'm questioning it myself.

Yes - you're right. I'm still something of a novice with these varieties - didn't notice the displacement of the legend on mine. On my coin, it does look like a 3 over 7 to me in hand. At least I think I can see the top left serif of the 7 on the top left of the 3 of the date.

I've replied to your other thread in the World Coins Forum, but in case anyone's watching this, this coin is an "Angel Penny" (Engelspfennig) of Strasbourg, c. 1300; Bonhoff 1750.

This coin is an Engelspfennig of the Bishopric of Strasbourg, circa 1300. It's listed in "German Coins" by Bonhoff as number 1750.

Obverse.

Hello all. I picked up this farthing recently. It looks like an unambiguous 3/7 overdate on the last numeral, with the same reverse die as Colin Cooke #364 (look at the open topped B in BRITANNIA). However, the obverse die has a stop after Rex, unlike Colin Cooke's example. Is this die pairing known ? Any information would be much appreciated - I've looked through recent auction results without any success.

There are indeed fingerprints and fingerprints. I have a pattern 100 francs in silver from Monaco (1950), graded MS65 by NGC. It has a minor fingerprint on the reverse which doesn't really affect eye appeal; giving it a top grade in a slab seems fair. The bun penny I'm talking about had a subdued finger print on Victoria's face which was clear enough that you could probably use it in a criminal investigation; you had to hold it to the light in order to see the portrait properly at all. I think a coin like that would be better off toned brown than "fully lustrous" with such ugly contact marks. But the grading company didn't care. Regarding the MS65 criteria...all that PCGS says is "Above average strike with minor marks or hairlines, mostly out of focal areas". I think a fingerprint is treated as a minor handling mark...irrespective of the actual effect on the eye appeal of the coin.

There honestly is. I know collectors stateside who will pay hundreds of dollars for common date George V coins slabbed at MS65 or above, when they only book £20 in Spinks in BU. I think most of these people collect the numbers on the slab rather than the actual coin because a lot of these "MS65" coins have serious issues e.g. dipped, artificial toning and are really not gem specimens compared to what you could pick up at a UK coin fair. I've even seen a "MS65" bun penny with a noticeable finger print on Victoria's face ! People get pretty defensive though when you point it out, there's a lot of faith in the slabbing companies to pick up cleaning etc. despite the fact that both PCGS and NGC run cleaning ahem...conservation companies themselves. I don't mind TPGs too much, as they're really valuable in fields where there is a lot of forgery going on - it would be difficult to collect rare early 20th century Chinese coins without them, for example. But you know there's something going wrong when coins with mintages in the millions, and thousands of pristine examples available to collectors are going for top dollar.

Yeah - I doubt there are two "BRITAN-IA" dies out there somewhere...although I guess you can never know with the poor quality of the copper coinage at the time. Thank you for the thorough analysis. I'm very happy to have picked up the 1694 without paying much for it.

Here you go - just can't resize pictures on my phone.

https://imgur.com/a/pRH1zi7 Here's my suspect 1699 BRITAN IA halfpenny - was very dubious to me before due to the wear but it does seem to have a "flaw on the right hand sight of the upright of the T" so let me know what you think !

That's interesting to know. I wonder if there is a decent one in a museum collection other than the BM...there are trays and trays of 17th century halfpennies in the Ashmolean.

While we're on this topic, do either of you possess the elusive 1699 halfpenny with the BRITANIA legend error ? I have an extremely worn 1699 halfpenny with no trace of the second N, but I'm a bit dubious because Britannia's head isn't in great shape either. It would be interesting to compare location of the dots in the legend. The only supposed example I can find online is at https://collections.museumvictoria.com.au/items/52753 and this appears to be a misattribution.

https://www.dnw.co.uk/auction-archive/special-collections/lot.php?specialcollection_id=790&lot_id=321787 This is the example sold at DNW recently, ex George Bates. Surprised it didn't sell for more with that portrait ! Would personally grade better than VF-...

That looks like an exact die match ! Now I see that all of the reverse As are unbarred...not clear from my terrible example. Do you think this is just a later die state of coin 052 in the Basil Nicholson collection ? (http://www.colincooke.com/collections/nicholson_part1.html) The legend looks pretty much identical but the 4 of the date has a partial bar. If so this is indeed an extremely rare coin...Peck knew of two, so we're looking at 5+ examples now ?

I picked this coin up for a pound or two the other weekend and noticed afterwards that the reverse legend appears to have A/I in BRITANNIA. The 4 of the date is also unbarred despite being very bold. Caveat is that the coin's in poor condition. What do you think ? Photographs: https://imgur.com/a/WAxBjXA

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Uncirculated-1887-Great-Britain-Shilling-Silver-Foreign-Coin/362530682379? Sold a while back, but what's going on here ? It's not even a good example, look at all the rim damage on the reverse.

This coin is almost certainly genuine. I have a few of this issue and they pretty much always look like this, although you occasionally see them with a nice gold tone. Eastern Polish/Belorussian soil is very acidic, so uncleaned examples from soil often have ugly patina which is better lost IMO. As per mrbadexample they were minted in the millions and can be bought wholesale for a few quid each.

Looking at the bidding the first bid as well as a later one were from accounts with 0 or 1 feedback...perhaps not just a dodgy coin.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/RARE-1847-PLAIN-EDGE-VICTORIA-GOTHIC-CROWN-SOLID-SILVER-COIN-MY-GRADE-EF/123634333144 Bidding at £2,160... The seller is previously of "I want a house for my £1 coin" fame. My feeling is that the edge photo is insufficiently clear (could be ex-mount ?). What do you all think ?

Weight 2.8 grams and listing now taken down - honest seller !

According to the seller this is ex-Spinks. I've asked for a weight. Fingers crossed...

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/1843-Victoria-Copper-Farthing-EF-Exceptionally-Fine-Verdigris-on-Obverse/392220527741 Exceptionally fine verdigris actually is mainly on the reverse of this one...

I picked up this George III halfpenny today - pretty sure it is an official issue as correct weight and reverse looks normal. Something definitely is up with the V of GEORGIVS though...looks like it is over a rotated V pointed towards the S ? Or is this just a die flaw ? Pictures: https://imgur.com/a/soHejrw