jelida

I think the whole point is that he took all the bronze at face value from circulation, and I have also read this was accumulated through a Scottish bus company; these would have been common coins for them to handle given the average fare was only a few pence. Freeman himself did the sorting into dates/varieties and prepared the statistics (actual numbers in his possession are given in the early penny book). He at one time held over 60,000 pennies, a personal investment of some £250 and I suspect that the bus company was perfectly happy to help with the research at no cost to themselves. He clearly took the halfpennies and farthings too as within five years of his initial work he was ready to publish the authoritative bronze volume. Jerry

I’ll let you know when it arrives. Jerry

Not EBay, but surely this auction is a load of total bollox…..😁 https://www.numisbids.com/n.php?p=lot&sid=7558&lot=499 Jerry

This is the best one I could find, again from the USA. If you look at EBay ‘sold’ 1940 pennies, there’s definitely been a flurry of ‘narrow date’ sales! I found one well circulated example on EBay UK, and four or five from the USA. At a very rough estimate, 1 to 2% of pennies of the date available when Terry made his post. Thanks Terry for making us aware of the type, I suspect rare rather than extremely rare in high grade but always nice to have something new to look for. Jerry

I think this is the same site, on detectornet. http://www.ukdetectornet.co.uk/H3 Booklet - RP Jan 27th 2018.pdf Jerry

Happy New Year, Everybody! From the Temple Bar in Ewyas Harold, having just spent a pleasant few minutes rousing the populace with a few rounds of the church bells. 😑😁😈 Jerry

It’s remarkable that this penny crept through a week on EBay, it closed at £26.21 and arrived today. Five bidders, yet I assume it went unrecognised except by me. Advertised by its vendor - an establishes dealer- as mm rose, it is in fact eglantine/ eglantine over acorn and the same reverse die (and probably obverse) as the Comber specimen. The obverse die has moved in the strike, but it is in pretty good condition, indeed better than the vendors photo after removal of soil and encrustation. An extremely rare coin……unless you know otherwise? https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/116003103643 Jerry

May all your coiny wishes come true! Jerry

I had messaged him as well, and have just received a nice reply from ‘Tim’ stating that he now agrees that the coin is not a mule and will alter the description. Appears that he based his id on the mis-described Heritage coin. Jerry

It appears to have been cast in a strip mould, in the same fashion as Potin coins, though I do not recognise it as a British Potin, so if genuine probably Continental Iron Age. More likely a high tin bronze, which can be quite silvery, than gold or silver. Jerry

Guy bought the unc lustrous 1882 no H F112 penny for upper 30’s K a couple of years back. Very keen penny collector. I have had some lovely purchases from his auctions, including an EF 1827 penny at good prices. Really decent bloke, often at the MCF. Jerry

I have examples of 1860 pennies with a 6/6 strike. As Rob says, manual entry of the last two date digits may well be a factor as well as repair of a clogged die. Gouby illustrates examples. Interesting, and worthy of note but not especially unusual to find same letter or digit overstrikes, unlike wrong letter or digit overstrikes which are true varieties. Jerry

He’s at it again, relisting this known altered date penny. This really has become criminal, needs reporting, he is a disgrace. https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/256308345192?hash=item3bad2af968:g:HJoAAOSwAnRlRNOy&amdata=enc%3AAQAIAAAA4Kf6XofPsYAEGjRxP2AxzzbtN%2Ft5ctqy4m973qozTrioluaijEBPg0V30X%2FajPIb46ok1nlNXio5TUw1Krb%2BbISJV9bBOed2yAPYnIrtPM2zpqtBSIjpzloMncR0%2F8itcbdxLMeQzg8Hz3IglEofgEPuzovd5UVZUIpzEY4WWLnm9X9%2FYsFX%2By3n3GHUM3FUSzyKqWVR4dp1ntYA5wjzMe4gv4PCLzIbzOnVqhPbLAolz%2BjI0Q90nE%2Bk0X2bbTaMjgkHAoeWDZR%2Bp1xnsOaUfZWgHGjkHFnVMLBcagpm8gjh|tkp%3ABk9SR_TZipf-Yg

Here, finally, are my friends photos of his acorn penny, an Ebay purchase several years ago at less than £100! The same dies, I think, as my Comber example. Jerry

I would say there are enough points of similarity despite the lack of a colon after ‘mm’. Jerry

One sold at LCA a few years ago, and I have subsequently bought one at the MCF and one on EBay. They are certainly very scarce. Jerry

I will have to get my mate to take photos of the acorn, I’m not sure about the dies matching so it’s worth a look. Jerry

Yes.

It’s clearly a nice thought, that the Queen might have held the coin - but would all 7200 coins have been used in the Maundy service? I have no idea. I do have a mate who also has an acorn mm, at less than a ton on EBay several years ago, so they are about. It is perhaps notable that both acorns and eglantine mm coins I have seen are nicely struck and of full flan, perhaps a little more care went in to their striking. Rare coins anyway. There is an eglantine in the upcoming St James’s auction. Jerry

You will find both in the St James’s auction of Comber III, lots 503 and 504. Both coins are now in my collection of Lizzie pennies, accompanied by a rather nice eglantine from EBay at £50 earlier this year. https://cdn.sanity.io/files/f3pcy24e/production/c199e15e78890aba1f6e583438b2b5fa6a740d20.pdf Jerry

Yes, I have read that also, mintmark acorn. BCW elaborates on page 10, ‘On the 2nd April 1574 the Queen issued an unusual order for just 10 pounds of pennies, to be kept by the Warden ‘ to our use’. ‘ and also states that ‘these rare coins , which were produced just before the acorn coins were pyxed, are the first specially minted Maundy coins. They continued to be produced during the following four years when the eglantine mark was in use, but only in sufficient numbers for the Maundy ceremony’. Jerry

This is very true; if for die longevity studies why use the same marker more than once? If such studies were ‘in house’, then just collect and count/weigh the output from the die in question before release into circulation. If for studies of coinage in circulation, how would you ever reliably track them with such a small output ? You would have to search through massive numbers of circulating pennies if the ratio of extant coins is a true reflection of mintage. Perhaps for dispersal studies, eg town x is given only ‘A’ halfpennies, and a month later is revisited to determine the proportion of marked 1862 halfpennies left? All very strange. But there must be a logical explanation. Jerry

Thanks Paul, I have applied to join a couple and will take a look. It might cure my EBay addiction😯 Jerry