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Will do thanks Paddy, although think that can only be done once they have been listed, currently scheduled for later this evening.

I have decided to chance a dozen ‘bun head’ pennies from my collection on ebay; all but one will be on open auction starting between 8 and 9 p.m. this evening. I wanted to describe them myself as there are a few unusual ones, including 2 which are now in MG’s updated pages and one from Hiram Brown’s collection, and I wasn’t sure that an auction house would do them justice. Also, I’m thinking that with lack of BP then I may still get a decent price…….now hoping it’s a decision I won’t regret…………be an interesting exercise if nothing else!! It may be an opportunity for some members to add to their collections.

Hi Mike, There is also a first edition of Bramah (rarely seen) with a different coloured binder. I believe it has exactly the same contents as the one usually seen, with blue binder, apart from a missing flysheet saying first published in 1929. I would personally be happy to see a re-print of Bramah, even though it would surely devalue my own copy!

A bit more information around those 1843DFF figures Mike. My 5 year study of all ebay listings was between Sept 2007 and Sept 2012. There were 15 DFF's out of 130 listings of 1843's. I think it likely that this is a fairly accurate reflection of true (minted) proportions, as I do not believe that many people were collecting Bramah variations at that time. For example, see Richard's comments where he got one by luck! The coin I have just sold you was the best example from those 15 on ebay during that period. If I were to repeat the study now (which I will NOT be doing) then there is no way that you would see the same proportion of DFF's as there were approx. 10 to 15 years ago. More collectors have been looking for Bramah varieties since then, and most are now tucked away in collections. This is reflected by the fact that you have unsuccessfully searched high and low for one yourself for over a year. The same could be said for the 1844 DFF's, seen on both the 'Plain Tail' 4's and the 'Tails Up' 4's. I have done a breakdown of all the 1844's seen in the same 5 year period, and this is shown in the table below. Note that there were 60 examples of 1844 DFF's, highlighted in Yellow, so about 1 in 5 of 1844's had this 'feature' during my 5 year study. However, you have only seen 2 in the time you have been building your own collection of this series. Hope the table makes sense, and is clear enough to read; the first split is based on being able to see the numeral 4's clearly enough to determine type. Also note that the 'Tails Up' style of numeral 4 is clearly much more difficult than Plain 4, although there is a higher proportion of DFF's on 'Tails Up' numeral 4 type!! It's not really an F of course!!

Pleased to have been able to help Mike, just one more bit of the jigsaw to go! Happy hunting.

Caveat emptor Really getting into the swing of this now!!

Well spotted Pete. I saw that piece on Heritage and would have liked to have bought, but still at least twice what I would have paid......even for the rarer GRATI.A variety. Same Obverse Italic 5 die as paired with the very difficult Plain Trident + Italic 5.

Glad your efforts helped you to improve your collection Mike, thanks again.

Thanks for this Mike, also your pictures. Had a quick look through ebay and seems to me that most were the 'lustred' type rather than 'mint darkened', so not sure why Peck and Alexander should think the opposite! My coin is still way darker than the mint darkened ones though, perhaps someone has painted it lol 😁. It stuck out like a sore thumb amongst all the others of that era.

Just going through a large pile of old pennies, with a view to scrap, and came across this one. I'm not good on post-Victorian pennies but thought it a little strange. It's almost black, similar to colour of Edward Farthings, although less black around rim (as if worn off) as can be seen. I gave it a gentle wash in distilled water and dried with tissue paper, but none of black colour came off as far as I could see. The bag of coins was given to me by an old school friend who had them since the early 70's; I'm sure that he wouldn't have done anything to this coin to make it black as he would have had no interest. I know that there is an 1946 type sold as 'artificially darkened by the mint' but this seems a lot darker to me. Any thoughts please

Arthur is 85 years old. He's played golf every day since his retirement 20 years ago. One day, he arrives home looking downcast. "That's it...." he tells his wife, "I'm giving up golf. My eyesight has got so bad.” "Oh no!" she replied. Arthur then tells her, "Once I've hit the ball, I can't see where it went!" His wife sympathises. As they sit down, she has a suggestion: "Why don't you take my brother with you and give it one more try." "That's no good...." sighs Arthur, "George is 92. He can't help." "He may be 92...." says the wife, "but his eyesight is perfect." So the next day, Arthur heads off to the golf course with his brother-in-law. He tees up, takes an almighty swing and squints down the fairway. He turns to the brother-in-law. "Did you see the ball?" "Of course I did!", says the brother-in-law. "I have perfect eyesight." "And where did it go?" asks Arthur. “I Can't remember...”.😝

Maybe a nice little earner for you Richard!!

Hi Richard, I bought one of Hiram's group lots, mainly because it had an F38. I didn't buy the lot with a view to keeping the F38, but have finished up keeping two other lots from the same group. One I think is an 1860 Gouby V variation, and the other is an 1874Le date width, but now with the H colliding with the linear circle.

Thanks Blake, glad to help, I like numbers! Some of these rarer varieties will not be so easy to find on ebay now as it was 10 to 15 years ago. I'm sure they will have become disproportionately tucked away in collections as more people became aware they existed. Same could be said, for example, of the 1858 large roses. Would be interesting to do another 5 year study now........but I'm not offering!!🤪

Glad to help Mike. I don't think there is yet same level of interest in sub varieties on the Copper Victorian pennies. If it had been a Bronze 1897 dot, 1875 Canon Ball, or even an 1870 Y dot then it's always a different matter.................one day!!

Well spotted Mike. A variety discussed before on the forum, and Italic 5 is much rarer than the Plain 5 on the 1853PT. Please see count from my 5 year ebay study. Hope it makes sense! Penny Acquisition of the week - British Coin Related Discussions & Enquiries - British Coin Forum - Predecimal.com 1853 Penny Analysis (Count) OT OT OT PT PT PT Year Can't See Trident Closer DEF: DEF_: Can't see colon Style A Style C Not sure of 5 Totals (Peck 1503) 1 26 14 290 26 0 6 0 362 2 44 9 310 30 4 11 2 410 3 41 12 316 20 1 8 4 402 4 32 15 381 20 2 8 1 459 5 54 11 421 29 2 17 2 536 Totals 197 61 1718 125 9 50 9 2169 % CAN See Trident 3.09% 87.12% 6.34% 0.46% 2.54% 0.46% Same seller re-lists (same pictures) I have tried to exclude from statistics by 'eye' scanning pictures in subsequent weeks. However, figures will include coins re-listed in Year 1 with different pictures from a subsequent seller e.g. Peck 1503 Year 1 is given as 14, but I can see two of these coins have been subsequently listed by different sellers (so actually 12 coins). I have taken this approach to be consistent across all boxes in the spreadsheet as I cannot possibly examine hundreds of coins in detail for their unique markings

I was also thinking from the lack of virus perspective Mike........may also be able to watch some live cricket without the fake crowd cheering!!

That last one's particularly interesting Mike, hadn't seen that information before. Think I would rather be in Australia or new Zealand at the moment though, also weather been bl___dy awful here today in sunny Bournemouth.....only managed to get to post box round the corner!

Yes Mike, that was my best one, and from my own collection, so was quite painful. Now that I have carefully checked my records I see that I have actually bought 5 F77's, and none of them were advertised as F77's.....including one in a group LCA lot. The one pictured below is quite interesting because on Gouby Page 64 he only has a single type of date width for this variety, BP 1874Fe, but this low grade example is clearly narrower. This coin was 50p!

I know someone who's got a nice one Mike! I have found 4 on ebay in the past 15 years.

I'm actually quite fond of it Richard. I think It has a certain appeal, being the last time that reverse is ever seen. It has also been kind to me over the years in that the profit on the 6 lower grade pieces I have sold has more than paid for the uncirculated example I pictured earlier. Now that we are talking about 1879's I think the same is also true of the F96, last time we see that obverse, although (unlike the F79) usually really difficult to spot that one.

One day we may have to list (sell) them too.....if we are still around to do it!

Agree, was watching it too. I see that Richard has already put it on his rarestpennies site.......he's 'on the ball'.

Thanks Mike, need to be careful not to confuse with the large numeral overdate, seen paired with the Large Rose reverse. That's a different die again, and the one where the numeral '9' discussions have happened. I am sure Bramah missed that type. See close up below.