Colin G.

I bought them mainly to add to my collection but there will be a few duplicates, once they are sorted, I will drop you a PM

I agree entirely with Damian, the dark lustre on these means that any loss of lustre is seen as wear, which is often not the case. And I also agree with Peck regarding his grading although I would probably swap 2 and 3, although 3 does have some marks/scrapes. Regards the original post, good pictures are essential for these but I agree that it will be in the GVF ball park

Many happy returns!!

Firstly what were you doing browsing for Chas I farthings I have just acquired a nice little collection of these, which I have got to sort through. Comparatively these can be reasonably cheap when compared to the currency issues. Trying to find a decent currency issue for this period however is a challenge, whereas these are all specially prepared patterns so tend to be nicely struck. Plenty of varieties. I have to admit compared to other prices out there they are starting to look more appealing. This one appears to be BMC407 which appears to be the most common of the patterns, with the exception of BMC 492 which Peck believed to be a medalet rather than a pattern.

This is quite common on the farthings of the period, with the groove not always being full depth, and also in some cases varying in depth around the edge of the coin.

Bernie, it is quite easy with some free software called Gimp, it also allows you to transition the overlay so you can watch it blend in. I would be happy to do some for you if you don't want to have a go yourself

A bit late to post on this one, the 1717 is a collectable date, so you wont have lost money at that price for the pair.

Many happy returns!!!

In the words my daughter at the age of 4, 'Hello friends, I am here!' Never the modest one and always melodramatic, she has turned out to be a balanced, well mannered and sensible member of society. Who would have thought that? Sorry Stuart, don't do take away pizzas. Coffee is another matter. Nor me - not one of them does my favourite: Seafood pizza. Yet when I phoned Pizza Hut to challenge them on this, they told me they did do them in their restaurants! Pfffft. And while we're at it: who the hell was it decided pineapple would be something to use as a topping? No one Italian I'd wager….. I love pineapple as a pizza topping

Rob there are definitely restrikes that have been graded, so it must be crossed wires somewhere.

On my phone, but it definitely looks like the 4 berries to me. It is a weird variety, because it is not a new design, but a berry that has been recut in a slightly different position. Surprises me that Peck included this one as a portrait type. There will be a die crack through the 7 in the date and a flaw (set of cracks) behind the bust. It is a nice example

I have to admit not an area I have yet focused on too much, so I can't be much help at the moment, I have loads of information but yet to even start collating it all.

Many happy returns to you both!!

Great result, think you would struggle to find better....sadly went out of my range

It is the side with Britannia (Reverse) which would have beaded borders on a mule. The Obverse shown has toothed borders, and is the later portrait commonly known as Obverse 3.

Awkward to tell from that image, it is the 6 in relation to the other digits that determines the type. On your example the end of the tail of the 6 is not very clear, to determine position, although the size of the loop would indicate it likely to be the Large 6 This is another variety that is still uncertain, the large 6 is not as obvious as other larger digits, and may well be the result of a recut digit making aspects of the digit look slightly enlarged.

Me too, very nice...in my watch list!!

I have not yet examined a clear enough example to be confident regarding the underlying letter. I can see what Peck is mentioning, but other images I have do not show this feature so it may just be this image. I can see why gets referred to as G/O, although it could just be a con-incidental flaw caused by a flake of metal breaking away from the die. Colin Cooke was convinced enough to refer to it as a G/O, so I will continue to classify it as such until I get to handle an example that allows me to study in more detail.

Rob I know the farthings are unrelated, but there are a mix of Reverse types on the 1860 copper farthings. An example is found with what I class as Reverse type B which was used from 1843-1859, the proofs of 1853 also conform to this type, yet examples of the 1860 copper farthing exist with Reverse A which was used for currency pieces between 1838 and 1845, and also the 1839 and 1841? proof examples. Why would they use two distinct Reverse types, one of which had not been utilised since 1845? For such a small number of pieces, this implies they were not all struck at the same time.

I have just overlaid the images and gradually adjusted the opacity, whilst there is the weakness in the hair, other aspects of the design do not lose detail. The line to the second fillet could well be present on the right hand piece just not visible in the photo. There is no real difference in the flaws/clash which I would have expected if one was cast from a similar piece, I would have expected the copy to have a slightly shallower clash and marginal difference in dimension. I can understand the scepticism due to the cleaned appearance which I suppose is the ideal way to hide a counterfeit copper coin tone. I will see if I can video the transition and upload a link.

I agree, I am just saying that there is inevitably a financial benefit to a slabbed coin being finest known, even if it is a CGS finest known of only a handful of slabbed examples. I was just using it as an example of how a conflict could be perceived to exist.

Worth noting that there is a slightly misaligned tooth above the R in Victoria, even on the one with the thicker teeth this would seem to be the case, so it may just be planchet thickness or grease causing the tooth anomaly

Paulus that is one area where I agree there is a perceived conflict. If your coin and their coin achieve similar grade, they have a financial incentive for theirs to take the spot as finest known. I am in no way suggesting this would happen, but it is a perception that clearly exists

That's what I use, great piece of kit!!!

There appear to be two die combinations for the farthings, with different Reverse designs. I have not yet looked through all the library images I have, to confirm or check ratios, however I am fairly confident from the images that there are two clear Reverse types.