DrLarry

On the topic of half pennies I have an 1860 half penny in which the C appears to have been over stamped on a G there is a removed section which corresponds to the shape and form of the G and a large piece of metal remains riding on to pf the C of VICTORIA . Do you think there is a chance that a C over a G exists out there somewhere ? It seems often the case that we miss these somewhat until we become aware of them, for example it was not until the new edition of the freeman book came out that I discovered the three stages of removal of the B over R in BRITT in the 1862 half penny, one which eventually leads to a flaw which runs all the way from the tail of the R o the back of the bun . My camera is not working too well on my phone so it is more difficult for me to take pictures.

relatively speaking how rare is the round lighthouse type of 1861 without the LCW. It is just I have an awful lot of them but rarely have I come across it, 2 I think out of the maybe 100-150 I must have. Why is it that we assume that the LCW is the "touched up version of the round lighthouse type? In my collection of 1861 I find that I have maybe 8 LCW's REV's. The lettering on the reverse with the LCW seems to be larger and the inner circle is further away from the teeth on a couple of non LCW's rounded Highthouse the 1 is overstamped on a much smaller number with the serif well into the inner circle.

I saw one the other day in in an 1806 penny ...but then again I am mad as a hatter

am not sure if they have also stopped using the £1 coin. If like me you get to the shops and find yourself consistently without a £1 coin or 1Euro for the #trolley I would keep that one in your car or wallet/purse and you won't be able to spend it and will not have the frustrating search . It will then be worth a lot more than £1

that's is a much more sensible approach Paddy

Yes I also struggle with them I seem to have pages and pages of 61's and so many have legend errors or overprints but also I cannot for the life of me get my head around the 61 and the 62 half penny dies ... I seem to have three main types of 1861 ..one with the pointy lighthouse..the "pointy Mclighthouse" type. The round lighthouse Non pointy McLighthouse with the LCW, The Non pointy without the LCW (not sure) and then this strange character that has a very different lighthouse a nicer "not quite so pointy with nice glass on the light Mc lighthouse" (which I think is rare) there seems to be a 62 with the same Type ...oh and I forgot the door I cannot remember but we were discussing the 62 and there seemed to be one that was without a rock on the left of the lighthouse I had two or three of them so they cannot be rare . Mostly with pointy Mclighthouses

OK thanks Will..let's just assume it is an error then and should read COVENTRY TOKEN as Rob says unless there is one that just reads COVENTRY. Many thanks for your help. SO we are searching now for the COVENTRY only edge

we would lose a lot of historical detail of part of the old cities if these tokens had not been made. True they mostly deal with Public buildings but I am sure the records on these were often lost. I like the way they have the OLD FREE SCHOOL front on the 279 and then the New Front in the next one

yes I just wondered if there was a later version (i recall someone mentioning aa 1990's reprint) if it had been picked up on as I say there are some typos similarly listed in the corrections

were they issued in a corroded state ?

I just happened to notice in the correction that another one had been listed as Coventry and should have read "Coventry Token" so thought perhaps the same may have happened to the 297 listed without the Token

the edge reads Coventry Token

really in all honesty I cannot see why I would bother to collect coins, when tokens are so beautiful ...I nearly did not even begin to collect them then I realised the fantastic artwork on many of them and was hooked

The edge on this one reads "Coventry Token" listed in DH as either plain or "Coventry"

here we are two Kempsons ...these size restrictions can be very annoying

OK great thanks I will put up a picture of the token in a bit ...thanks for the help my DH is old

could anyone help me verify Warwickshire 297 Free School old front taken down in 1794 ...dalton and Hammer list it as edge COVENTRY whereas others are listed as COVENTRY TOKEN edge is this an error in the book I have quite an old edition the reprinted 1967 edition ...I guess it is an error but would like to check

ok thanks for that I thought that might be the case which might be used and presumably they have a baseline composition for all coins in the collections they have

LOL no worries I have 8 kilos of 1960's pennies I am sifting through and taking pictures of to verify my work they will be useful once I have them but there is no hurry...the more you have the better. If you are in a detecting club ask around for me they always have loads.... but I think are often a little hesitant to let go of them in case it might be a rare one....I am quite interested in them after they have been "dipped" in that strange chemical that gets used LOL

Thanks ...no I have nothing to send them myself I was just intrigued to know why and what might be done. Method I suppose more than result. Yes it amuses me at times and once I even bought one of these "decimal error" coins which I think as just the result of a clever piece of laser cutting.

Thank you Paddy for the pennies they have proved invaluable ..

I suppose you could use X ray fluorescence but gain I suppose it would depend on the "potential" value of the coin ...but I assume you would then have to pay for the services ?

yes , I suppose by authorising the process to give up the right to have the coin returned. The same would happen if you sent a coin to trading standards who presumably also have some method to verify a coin. On some occasions Ebay have asked me to take a coin to trading standards when I have questioned its authenticity

I am intrigued when I hear members ask or suggest that a coin "should be sent to the royal mint for authentication" ...of course they would have all that was needed to verify the trueness of a coin , but what is it they have that any other collector might not have? Presumably they are not likely to want to spend any time or effort to authenticate a coin considering the replies recently on a point of clear information (how many of X coin were minted in X year) How difficult is it to have this information on a computer? But I am keen to know what they would do , weigh it, measure it, glance at it, I am sure they are not likely to send it away for scientific analysis. I suppose they might just have a spectrometer but if I recall when using one of these it would not come cheap. So considering they will only be doing the exact same thing any one of us could do sitting in the rectory or in your spare room.....why bother to send it? What I find difficult to accept is the statement of authority seems a little disproportionate if only minor expenditure of time and money is their duty. What else could they be doing to authenticate? any ideas ?

well done sorry to nanny you LOL I just didn't want you to get tripped up.