Mr T

Too true. The mints generally make the even modern rarities in enough numbers to satisfy their markets. I think the real potential is in the unintentional coins/mistakes like the undated 20p but even then they need to be reasonably rare to start with.

Or at least I would add images if I could do more than two at a time or actually edit my post...

Yes, doesn't Commonwealth stuff get any love? Any, some nice pictures courtesy of Museum Victora: http://museumvictoria.com.au/collections/itemimages/512/119/512119_large.jpg http://museumvictoria.com.au/collections/itemimages/512/117/512117_large.jpg http://museumvictoria.com.au/collections/itemimages/511/508/511508_large.jpg http://museumvictoria.com.au/collections/itemimages/511/506/511506_large.jpg http://museumvictoria.com.au/collections/itemimages/512/143/512143_large.jpg http://museumvictoria.com.au/collections/itemimages/512/141/512141_large.jpg

Just curious if there are any other British West African collectors out there, how you're going with it and what you're using as a reference. I've chosen only to worry about threepences, sixpences, shillings and two shillings - I have a few but not many: there doesn't always seem to be a lot for sale and it's uncommon to come across anything from between 1920 and 1936. I've been using Remick's book on Commonwealth coins but it says there are perhaps still undiscovered dates out there. David Vice's book is more comprehensive I'm sure but it seems a little more difficult to get a hold of.

I suppose the war medals had a different enough reverse design to not cause many issues, and the portrait at least seems a little smaller than that used on currency. As a little aside, someone took advantage of this in Australia a few decades ago and had some uninscribed British war medals engraved with the names of some noteworthy Australian soldiers: they sold them at auction but ended up in quite a bit of trouble when they were found out.

The sizes of the designs probably contributed too: As for why it took so long to fix, well it wasn't for lack of trying, but I guess the Royal Mint was pretty busy with other things too - they had to step up production during World War I and they were making a lot more than just British coins too.

I'm not sure that it was struck on a Hong Kong 10c planchet: according to http://en.numista.com/catalogue/pieces1574.html they're round not dodecagonal. I'm inclined to think it's just been coated in a silver metal though I'm not sure how to non-destructively prove it.

So besides Freeman and V.R. Court there aren't any other penny surveys of interest? Mr T let's start our own Excellent idea.

Actually as I think about this, I wonder if third-party grades can pick up on this. I assume the weight might be a bit off but if it looks alright...

Already got them but I'm quite interested in the raw numbers leading to the rarity ratings.

Off the top of my head I think it is bigger than a sovereign.

Madras struck coins are supposed to have an incuse S on the Queen's neck-line which I don't see. Without the S it would be from Bombay or Calcutta. The catalogue I'm using (by Stevens and Weir) says it's worth 2000 something (pounds I assume) in VF but your coin is Fine I would say, so maybe 1000 pounds.

So besides Freeman and V.R. Court there aren't any other penny surveys of interest?

Ha! The centre of those coins would be somewhat difficult to replicate I think.

Do you have bigger, clearer photos?

Ah thanks. Too bad that information didn't make it into his later publications - I always thought number surviving was an inferior metric to frequency. Yes okay - I see some more have since been discovered now.

Where can Freeman's survey results be found? I think what you've said about die production is correct - the mint would likely have wanted to test die N in a more substantial way than the handful of proofs of the previous year: evidently the new reverse N die was paired an older obverse 11 die (assuming one pair) for this small test run. Whether it was a trial or production run is a bit hazy - it seems likely that it was a trial of sorts but the end result was perfectly acceptable coins that could be released into circulation? Why let that work go to waste? Was the H added to each die individually? As for estimates - Freeman found no London pennies in As for estimates, Freeman found no 11+N coin As for estimates, Freeman found no 11+N coins from 433 1882-dated pennies; InforaPenny found none in 65 1882-dated pennies - we can estimate an upper bound on the number of 11+N coins: they can occur at most once every 499 1882-dated coins which equates to 0.2% of 7,526,400 or ~15,000 coins. Also, what is the story with the 1881 9+M? I see there is a question mark after it in Freeman.

While I agree on the case of the open 3, the narrow date 1877 is a distinct reverse isn't it?

Looks like British stuff only. Annoying - I was hoping for some sort of annual production documents but I guess not.

Yeah picking a genuine error can really get difficult. Does the smaller clamp mark bulge the rim too?

What browser are you using? Firefox Hm, I see the same thing in Firefox too. @sound: I think line 63 of global.css needs to be changed from #JNCTopLogo{} to #JNCTopLogo{clear:both;}

Is there somewhere online that I can see how many of what coin the Royal Mint has produced in recent years? I'd expect this sort of thing in an annual report but I couldn't see any of that sort of information in them. I'm more interested in the work they've done for other countries but I assume if I can find the mintages for Britain the other mintages should be nearby.

Nice overview. What browser are you using?

Hard to say, but I'm inclined to say damaged after striking. If the planchet was damaged before striking, wouldn't the rim not be bulged as it was struck in a collar?

Just saw on another forum the suggestion that holding a running electric toothbrush against the slab will cause the coin to rotate.