Mr T

Strand Coins by any chance? I believe that's who's selling it via this site.

Just saw this coin listed recently and thought it was quite interesting: http://www.invaluable.com/auction-lot/great-britain-penny-reverse-struck-on-an-1888-jam-183-c-589418d964 Odd that two dies of completely different diameter would have been used in such a way.

Didn't realise they'd moved into auctions - last time I looked it was a catalogue/wiki as the name suggests but I guess it's only natural they've branched out.

They look the remnants of the letters BP which are the designer's initials (Benedetto Pistrucci).

Does the text say DIED? It looks a privately issued commemorative medal for the death of George IV.

I remember seeing a video on Youtube - they used some chemical and a small electric current.

I would say UNC.

That's pretty dodgy - I can understand a shop's reluctance to accept them but surely a bank is obliged to accept legal tender.

For anyone else I believe they're all available online at http://www.baldwin.co.uk/

I would have thought a lot more examples would be extant if they were spent in the Middle East - they would likely have had less need to melt them I would have thought. Melted in America certainly gets put forward a lot but surely there must be record of such payments if they happened? As to why there were struck, probably for the same reason sovereigns continued to be struck after paper money came into use - to have gold in a convenient form I assume. I didn't think they were intended to circulate anyway.

I'm no expert either though if it is fake it does look half reasonable. All the same, the flatness of the top of the King's head and kind of rough surface are warning signs I think.

I'm told that actually we do have taxes/duties for commercial imports (i.e. something you intend to sell) and for private imports valued over $1000 which explains why I and no one I know has experienced this pain. There are discussions about applying the taxes to all imports regardless of value (because then the government gets more money) though I'm not sure it's worth anyone's while to apply it so broadly - hiring more people to look through more stuff for diminishing returns.

Yes the last few things were surprisingly fast. As far as I know there are no import duties or fees in Australia (though I think it's being discussed for items worth over $1000).

It's all good - generally I don't buy from overseas because I don't like the wait more than anything. I've mostly bought books from the UK this year anyway and the were books which were always going to be slightly pricey anyway...

Sorry - not being in the UK I don't come across any old 10p coins - but have you tried going to your bank and asking for bags of 10p coins to look through? I've found it certainly speeds things up and it has the added bonus of giving you some decent statistics if you're so inclined.

I don't want to talk about it!

It sure is - I find ebay Austrlia to be a pretty mediocre place to buy Australian coins, but a decent place to buy world coins, yet every so often there's some quality Australian stuff listed too.

Agreed about the 1900 half crown - if I got one in that condition for that price I'd be pretty happy.

Doesn't seem obviously cleaned to me, but as MancFrank says, it's probably had a clean at some point - it's nearly 200 years old and by the looks of it has spent time in probably a few coin collections.

Hm, seems a little irregular to be struck through another coin. I'm not fully up to speed on the different error types but I think a lamination flaw implies a peel (which is caused by a small air pocket or impurity) while a cold shut is more like two separate sheets of metal not properly sticking together and coming apart quite cleanly.

Do they define an 'indent' as struck-through? Looks like it might a big lamination flaw/cold shut but it also looks broadstruck too.

Hm, I thought it was raised rather than incuse but as I look at the image I can't say for sure what it is now. If it is incuse then I guess it can be explained as oddly specific and accurate damage.

Also, what is diagonal bar between the lighthouse and the shield? There's die clashing going on in front of and behind Victoria's neck, both caused by the folds in Britannia's dress but the diagonal bar seems to match up with empty space on the obverse. See http://www.britnumsoc.org/publications/Digital%20BNJ/pdfs/1982_BNJ_52_21.pdf for anyone interested.

Actually that's probably not terribly conclusive - the last two digits were probably hand stamped and there was probably more than one die produced.

Just realised I didn't post a link. Here it is: http://coins.ha.com/c/search-results.zx?No=0&N=51+793+794+791+1577+792+2088+4294944661+4294943418