Mr T

No love for 20th century half sovereigns I guess?

Any that aren't listed in Davies?

Nice design. Didn't realise just how much craft went into unofficial stuff like this before I saw this thread.

Do reverse A/no B.P. 1904 half sovereigns exist? I haven't seen one but haven't been to track many images of 1904 half sovereigns to check. Marsh says that they do but he said that reverse B/B.P. 1904P half sovereigns exist and I've looked at a few and I think they probably don't (and it is listed as unverified in the local Australian catalogue).

What does the book say about wreath crowns?

They're both 156 denticles - Davies makes the note that the length of the denticles varies from year to year as well.

I think the R in BRITT is slightly rotated on obverse 12. But halfpenny obverses 11 and 12 are probably the worst to try and differentiate.

I think the book I remember considered only comparatively modern events - my history isn't great but a small number of British soldiers may have snuck into Sweden at some point in World War II (or maybe it was Norway)?

Is there a better way to pick these than the flat/curved-base letters? https://www.drakesterling.com/catalog/product/view/id/128122/s/1893-half-crown-2/category/54/ looks like a reverse A. https://onlinecoin.club/Coins/Country/United_Kingdom/Halfcrown_1893/ looks like a reverse B, as does https://collections.museumvictoria.com.au/items/70926 At a glance they look roughly the same, denticle alignment-wise - I didn't count but will if there's no other obvious distinguishing difference.

I remember a book being written in 2012 or so that said all but three countries (or something like that) had been invaded in some way or other by the British - I don't remember them all but I think Mongolia was one and one of the land-locked ones in South America too. Anyway, Jerome Remick's book, while out of print, I think probably covers all the Commonwealth countries, territories and settlements etc.

Got a link to the original story?

Possibly a report for a previous or following year has the other 5,000?

5,500 sounds more believable (coin collecting was very popular at that time so 500 wouldn't have been enough) - what year annual report are you looking at?

I remember a few years ago a friend of a friend saying they found a double-headed coin in change - a magician's coin or whatever I'm sure - but they said they spent it. They only mentioned it to me because they knew I was a collector.

Thanks all - I think Davies says the design is a slightly different says but I think the denticle count being the same is telling.

Does anyone have an image of one? It's the 1 of 1921 to a gap and is the rarer type. I want to count the denticles on the reverse (it's 189 on reverse C) but the only high-resolution images I can find are of 3C coins.

Ebay changed the rules at some point to only allow numerical grading for coin in slabs (might have been in America only when I read about it).

Where did you hear about it?

I don't remember exactly - might have been in the book The Gold Sovereign?

I would pay good money for a decent reference on Franklin Mint issues but as time goes on that seems less and less likely.

I don't collect Papua New Guinean stuff myself so haven't come acquired any of its Franklin Mint struck coins, but it wouldn't surprise me. Further on the Cook Islands coins though, the 1977 10t and 50t pieces seem quite plentiful on ebay. Also, I'm told that at least towards the end, the Franklin Mint stuff was made to order i.e. you'd register your interest then when the interest period had closed sets were produced. No idea what sort of contract they had with the governments but it could well have been that the governments ended up with the surplus/cancelled/unpaid for coins, and with nothing better to do with them they just circulated them.

I am also a little suspicious about whether any of the Franklin Mint coins ended up in circulation. A number of years ago I purchased some bulk lots of Cook Islands coins (not sure where the seller got them but they were in big enough quantities, and they had lots of other bulk foreign stuff, that I assumed they were rejects from a bank or a rolling company or some charity). There were lots of standard coins but also a handful of 1977-1981 Franklin Mint coins in there as well. It's a shame no one has put together a good reference book on the matter. I haven't seen a 1995 proof 100 kina either, though I don't collect much Papua New Guinean stuff (just the occasional coin that appears in change).

They were modified dates? That was my guess too.

The 1982 and 1983 are very rare (200 or fewer sets of each type produced in those years?); the others are obtainable though in increasing rarity I think. An ebay seller told me that when the price of silver got high, unsold (I think) sets (probably all Franklin Mint sets) were broken down and the silver coins sold off, which probably explains the glut of Coins of All Nations sets with mixed years you see on ebay.

Seller's premium I can understand but buyer's premium...