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Mike, I wasn't far away from you back on 11th August 1999. I was at the castle on the head at St. Mawes. It was a beautiful clear day on 10th August so a pity it clouded over on the 11th, but it was nevertheless quite an experience.....especially listening to the birds rushing back up the estuary to roost in the middle of the day! As far as 12th August 2026 is concerned, if you are not shooting grouse, then I would suggest Palma Majorca (or nearby) may be a better option than Iceland. It will be a total eclipse, albeit not for very long, and you can have a G&T whilst watching early evening before dinner......very civilised. The 2nd August 2027 (my wedding anniversary) could be even better in Southern Spain. Easy flights to Malaga and I reckon there's no better place to be than the Parador at Ronda, brilliant place with excellent views...……. not on the central eclipse line but still just over a minute of totality.

The border teeth die clashes do sometimes appear in some unusual places. I have found the one pictured below on two 1860 F16 pieces in exactly the same location. I have used the gradual transparency technique in the second set of pictures to demonstrate the clash.

Was discussed on Page 81 of 'More Pennies' Mike. Terry has one just the same; Rob seemed to think part of an H. Think your memory starting to fail you...….welcome to the club lol

Sorry to hear of your experience Mike. If you are looking for an F114 upgrade then may be worth trying to find one with the added feature of the protrusion from the H as per below.

…………….but did you notice that my last 3 sentences have either begun with 'so' or 'well'?

Well, on closer inspection there are actually two reverse die cracks at the rim, the one Mike noticed after the O of ONE, and an even more obvious one to the right of the date. Well spotted Mike!

So er yeh, may have to do that! 😁

Did cross my mind to keep it Mike, but think I need to start being a bit more ruthless with spares. I have an F73 which is about on a par with this, but also has a repaired 7...….so thinking will probably hang on to that one instead.,

My gut feel is that Pete's correct though.... Having said that, I think that 15 or so years ago there were quite a lot of 1858 Bramah 26a's Missing Serifs around, but I'm sure one doesn''t see so many nowadays....probably because Bramah has been discussed on forums such as this since then and people became more away of the variety and collected them....now tucked away in collections. I have a spare of the Bramah book if anyone is interested, quite a nice copy...….but they don't come cheap, quite collectable in themselves! PM me if interested.

I could conceivably do some stats on this, because I have images of all Victorian Copper Pennies listed on ebay for a 5 year period, and before the Large Rose and F/B were known about by hardly any collectors. Problem is that there's well over 3000 images to check through, breaking down first into ww and no ww and then lower levels. I was leaving 1858 to nearer the end of this project.

Here are the pictures of that 1874 Mike. It is an attractive coin, and the fields do look unusually smooth. The rims on both sides seem to be constantly around 0.8mm according to my microscope......which I think is probably normal. I believe that quite a few Heaton coins are considered to be specimens, struck from polished blanks to give a better strike to show off the detail. Any thoughts from other members on this coin please...…………….not sure I will keep it if considered just an F73, not an F74?

Thanks Richard. I use a very old version of Arcsoft Photosudio; there are probably better tools out there nowadays. I zoom in to a point where I am confident I can accurately draw around the bit I wish to highlight, then fill that bit with whatever colour I want to use. It's then just a case of making sure that the letters, in this case the B and F/B from the same coin, were taken at same magnification. Then use the 'fill colour' option to alter the transparency and drop aligned picture on top of the other, rotating the odd degree if necessary to make match as per actual coin. Hope that makes sense and helps.

It's a good fit, particularly when one considers the location of the B of BRITANNIAR and the inverted die. An easier mistake to make than for example the R over A in VICTORIA in the Bronze series, which we saw at LCA at the weekend...……..anyone know who bought that by the way....never seen that one before?

Nice one Terry, was watching that!🙈

When my 3 boys were all teenagers they used to start most of their sentences with 'so'...…….but that was the end of the sentence too!

To my knowledge there are 4 different die pairings found for 1845; the type with the die crack to the left of the neck is by far the most common of the 4. I have also heard it referenced as the 'broken 5' variety; the date also has the numeral 1 re-struck. Another feature of this variety is the clear repair to the first letter I in VICTORIA.

Congratulations Richard....can't say I'm too surprised!!

Remember feeling like this on a Friday!? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xlrm6FWLMPI

Thanks Richard, I have to say that when I first saw it on the DNW auction it did look a bit unusual to me, but I couldn't really put my finger on it and thought that (as usual) I may be imagining what I wanted to see. Anyway, coupled with the F38 (which clearly loads of people did see) I decided to bid and got it for my maximum of £650. Will take some pictures of this 1874 once arrives and see if those shed some light as to F73 or F74.

….I expect I know who did though!!

Afraid not Mike, I start to think (fear) my wife is looking over my shoulders talking about her next holiday when I get to those dizzy heights.....even if she's out shopping buying some 'useful' clothes for herself!

Thanks Mike, and well done with your two purchases earlier today. Apart from the 1847 I would have liked to improve my 1858 F/B but it seems someone else spotted those in Lot 615. Punters are really sharp nowadays. 😏

very clear reverse face on that one John

Can I ask why you think this may be an F74, rather than standard F73 please Mike? Looking at Richard's englishpennies site I also struggle to see what makes the pictured example (i.e. the LCA Sept 2013 piece) a proof F74 rather than normal F73.