shagreen

The key difference is Sir Bertram MacKennals' crowned effigy used for the colonial coinage was in lower relief that the truncated crownless design used for UK coinage. Much easier to achieve the metal flow required to minimise (not eliminate) ghosting during striking

So the wax cast is the negative image of the coin but the photographic negative reveals as the normal coin with the additional wax also shown in relief as its remains are now on the coin, I have learnt something! I like this web site

I wonder about the wax too as I see it on some of my better 19thC pieces again small blobs and the odd line. I thought it was from the fact we are talking pre incandescent lighting and candles were the go. How did collectors examine a coin at night back then??

I have been studying these for a while and prefer to call them with and without teeth than open and closed mouths My survey of toothed vs toothless horses in the 1893 proof crown reveals 10 with teeth 18 without teeth I strongly suspect a different matrix is involved as there are other subtle differences between the two types and yes the above confirms the toothless horse carried through other years

Frankly, my summary of the list is the overall quality of their offerings is middling and I think slightly down on what they have offered in previous lists. I suspect they used to "set aside" a few quality peices for inclusion in these lists to create more interest, now I think top material is sold directly to established / favoured clients or put to auction

For the Great Britain lots Large gold in particular and any gold pieces graded 65 and higher did very well. Also the crowns in these grades made serious prices but any gold /silver in lesser grades was marginal at best. And yes Australian coins were really off the boil investors have lost confidence in that market and a lot of material is coming up locally without the exchange rate risks.

I do like that design its less cluttered than the crown with its full garter chain , here is one with a bit of colour

Here are some pics of an 1853 proof half crown a little later in production than your beautiful 1850 sadly nothing like the quality of the 1839 https://www.dropbox.com/sc/t3cfor5fq83lxut/AAC9S2VPoqB0HgdYYG-Fryita https://www.dropbox.com/sc/npz8t9ndeb3evoq/AADD3y7VsuR8U-GAnKMpYYYla I dont think NGC will have the expertise to tell the difference for your 1850 half crown and they dont guarantee their grading certification between proof and business strikes in this area of numismatics

Here is a proof half crown from my collection for reference https://www.dropbox.com/sc/6diww245j07tymc/AABWLUuPteYuxJUV4ZLhX4Yya Rev https://www.dropbox.com/sc/d479r4p7ar47d4v/AABOj_MaseiJEo_8tWTrxpeya great discussion here by all contributors

Excellent DaveG38, is this your own research? very interesting to me at least. Do you know of any other minor variations in predecimal 20thC proofs? I have heard of the 1935 jubillee crown reverse having some variations but cant locate the reference.

This is a fairly typical delamination flaw in the planchet resulting from metal defects. Gases and contaminants within the metal can result in delamination during the rolling out of the cast 925 silver bars. These layers can appear straight away after striking or gradually. As its a mint related impediment I wouldnt grade it down as severely as post strike damage

not as extreme as shown here but they are different - the pictures were taken in different sessions and the only way to really compare colour directly would be to photograph them together all at the same lighting angle. I wouldn't judge colour by any pics only in the hand these pics are good for die marker analysis

Its getting late here in Australia so this is it for now I will send the 1853 pics later. Here are the 1839 pennies - they fit in one sending again all medal and the cased one came from the put together set as per farthing and halfpenny

1839 halfpenny reverses

Here are the 1839 halfpennies all in medal alignment obverses first - I had to use different lighting for the overdate to show it up -provenances are built into in the file identifiers

reverse 1839 proof farthings

This is a good project and please be patient as its a labor of love compressing all of these down - they are 1MB files; I will start with the 1839 farthing - 3 different types the cased example is from a put together set purchase 2011 the slabbed PF66 coin align was bought from Heritage the final is as per the file identifier. Obverse first, the reverse in next mailing. Can someone concur that the sov dies were possibly used to strike these coins???

the last halfpenny pair now this is Cu! .It appears to struck from the same dies as the one I am currently assigning bronzing to

Hi Rob yes they must have been struck to order, can you possible give me a reference or better still a link to the circular re the Cu/Bronze? So off topic a bit; for the 1853 bronzed versus copper pieces kindly have a look at these three halfpenny obverses. I think 2 are Cu and one is bronzed I have included 2 pics of each using different lighting in a vain attempt to give a better feel for their colour. The bronzing can introduce a micro pitting in parts what do you think? The last coin obverse has to load separately - see next

Thanks Peckris, if proofs were double struck then the obvious candidate is the early obv die example here labelled cased proof -it appears to have been multiple struck or perhaps the die sinker was having a bad day!. They were all purchased as proofs with provenance built into the file identifiers used here. I expect some of these were struck to order much later than 1853 does anyone know if all those different obverse dies were available at the same time? My guess is once a new obverse was approved the older ones were no longer used.

Here are the all important obverse 1853 groat pics what was going on at the Mint with 3d dies? and again thanks in advance for your comments any knowledge shared is much appreciated . All these coins are in medal alignment

thanks for the interest these groats are fascinating. The groat labelled cased proof is the same die pairing as that in the recent EPN sale at Heritage were it was called a proof and yes the damaged numerals are an issue for a proof strike. The obverses are also very interesting with what might be a later 3d die used for one of the coins - kindly check the hair over ear and the hair detail in general at left near the rim. I expect the rim and edges are the best marker for proof versus business strikes . I will send obverses next sorry about the compression

final one

next one

I have attached cropped reverse pics of 3 different britannia groats can anyone assist with proof verses currency strikes? have to add pics one at a time unfortunately