jelida

My F1, F6 and F7 obverses all have the slight gap in the beads below the garter. All the letter alignments are as normal, and the B to head gap seems OK to me. I suspect that it is the standard obverse C. Jerry

Interesting, but are you sure there isn’t a join between the beads and the rim in the first image? It’s amazing what a skilled craftsman can do with a lathe - but I hope I’m wrong. If genuine that would be a great price, though I am surprised that obverse and reverse dies were interchangeable. Jerry

I notice that the James 1 sovereign appears to be struck from the same dies as the Elizabeth 1 crown preceding it. A rarity indeed ! 😉 Jerry

‘Sigh’. I see nothing in the comments on this thread so far that compare with a clever propaganda/political cartoon which might as you say lift the spirit in a time of war. And certainly nothing I have found humorous . But maybe that’s just me, I find it all terribly sad. With respect to the wonderfully funny “Germans” sketch in Fawlty Towers, the joke is actually in the misdirected actions, verbal and physical, of Basil himself, and a poke at the anti- German attitudes still held by many thirty years after the cessation of actual hostilities . Not really applicable to the current situation. Anyhow, I don’t feel a need to joke about this situation. Obviously it is up to others to act as they wish. Jerry

I agree. Maybe attempts at domestic political point-scoring and ‘humour’ were tolerable when the topic was commenced, but over the last ten days it just seems in poor taste. Do we have no empathy? Jerry

The problem is that there is no sure way to differentiate between an inverted V and die fill of the crossbar of the ‘A’. We often see impaired bars to the letters E, F for example and accept them for what they are, but if the same happens to the bar of the ‘A’ we see it as an overstrike. There is no way of knowing, excepting that perhaps in a very high grade coin a microscope might show an undeniably formed edge where the bar should be. Otherwise it’s wishful thinking. I know, I do it too. Jerry

I hope you live on a hill. J

At least two reasonably discrete true varieties have turned up since the 2* obverse, both overstrikes, the F33 ‘N over inverted N’ that I described on this forum, and the F15 ‘R over A in Victoria’. New varieties still seem to turn up every few years and I am sure more will be found though progressively fewer in this intensely studied series. But you do certainly have to watch out for mistakes in EBay listings, they are not infrequent though usually obvious. Jerry

Close-up of the flaw. Both have the sturdy '5'. Any different die flaws out there? Jerry

They are both from the same dies, with a flaw from the rim into the lower ship rigging.

Here are mine.

“It looks very iffy” I’m afraid I would agree. This series is rife with forgeries, I think they were pressure cast, and poor mould fill could give this appearance. Also the absent tooth above the T of BRITT. Yes, what is the weight? Jerry

Yes, I sent Finch a link to the Chinese one, he replied promptly thanking me for my help. And not for the first time, I should add. Jerry

They are much cheaper direct from China. https://www.aliexpress.com/item/33037661091.html?spm=a2g0o.productlist.0.0.74f4359e6fBpvU&algo_pvid=51167541-c1e6-4da6-95ee-01fb214ad011&algo_exp_id=51167541-c1e6-4da6-95ee-01fb214ad011-47&pdp_ext_f={"sku_id"%3A"67398536291"}&pdp_pi=-1%3B1.18%3B-1%3B-1%40salePrice%3BGBP%3Bsearch-mainSearch Jerry

I have had a reply from Chris Finch, it was apparently ‘squeezed in late doors’ and he will make sure it is properly examined. I hope this means it will be excluded. I don’t know who deals with their copper and bronze, but it is certainly worrying that the expertise seems lacking. The Hiram Brown auctions were an example in this respect, with great rarities un-described in bulk lots. Jerry

I agree with all the comments above, and have emailed Chris Finch at DNW expressing our concerns. Jerry

You’re confusing me now too, Pete! But the EBay link you give above seems to me to be D of DEI to a tooth, and a thick rim which is right for the common variety. The cropped image you first gave does show the D to a gap, and the rim does seem thick too, though it is difficult to compare on a partial coin image. Jerry

This would be true if the letter punch were held truly vertically, but not if the strike was made at a slight angle. Many of the overstruck letters and digits we see are partial. Jerry

I have actually said much the same previously on this forum - many of this “variety “ look a lot like a die flaw - but I have subsequently also seen a number that appear quite crisp and very acceptable as an overstrike, this is one, and I am now reasonably happy that it is a true variety. It is definitely more than a serif issue. Jerry

Just been looking at the die letter halfpennies in LCA archives, the best ‘C’ is CGS45 so about VF, and has the same weakness of Britannia and lower shield, as does a CGS35. The A’s and B’s seem much crisper. The CGS 45 went for £2000 plus juice in 2013. I have no idea of the top grade out there. But value is not an issue for me, I very rarely dispose of anything. Jerry

A worn die is not the same as a worn coin, and I do agree the reverse die had lost detail, a bit like some ‘F’ reverses in the penny series. I pondered this previously, why the need to mark the engraved face of the die to monitor longevity, when the die could be marked elsewhere in greater detail ; they would have to have counted the number of actual coins struck per studied die either way. And the die marked coins seem to have been too few to be practically monitored for ‘in circulation’ studies. Could partially worn regular dies be lettered or numbered to in some way monitor a later stage of their lives, or to be brought back into use? Perhaps with such a tiny mark the die would not even need annealing. Is there evidence out there? Jerry

My 1861 B over R in BRITT, 7 + G

a HALP halfpenny, 7 + G from Ebay

A decent 1871.

Here are a few of my recent halfpenny acquisitions, firstly the 1862 Die letter C previously mentioned.