Martinminerva

Oh lord, it's her again. And no amount of mentioning "the misses" will disguise the fact. Quite a house in Leeds she lives in... One of her earlier 1933's was found inside a clock, I seem to remember, and now one up her chimney... 😉 Wonder where the next one will be discovered... Any guesses?!

That is a shame . Although if you were going to enter the counterfeit business as a chinese die maker I think the Contemporary Georgian counterfeits would be the best place to start. I have a lot of them and recently have been shocked at some of the prices they fetch in the US ...it is a big part of their history You should be on safer ground listing them as non-regal or contemporary copies - there are loads of that sort of listing all the time. "Fake" is probably a word to avoid... Mind you, in 200 years' time, wonder if there will be a good market for today's Chinese copies and replicas? Maybe "Chimney sweep of Leeds" (see above!) should just hang on for a couple of centuries! 😁

It is 8+J. Reverse K has Britannia's left leg distinctly descending into her lap and the date digits much lower. J has the two legs parallel (as above), and digits higher.

Here we go again... "New" seller in Leeds, but same old guff... https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/385421080558?hash=item59bce2f7ee:g:SCwAAOSwhtxj7Tf7

Wonderful digging around! Well found! These make very interesting reading and I will add to my library!

This is one of those catalogue errors (like 1854 half sovereigns?) that has persisted through the years - I guess it was originally catalogued either in error or assumption, and then subsequent cataloguers have just "borrowed" the information. Goodness knows how they arrived at rarities and values ("based on realised prices at auction" or similar when a specimen had never actually been recorded!!). It was in the old ESC, EMC and Seaby catalogues, and I think even in some of the Spinks when they took over publication, though now corrected there and by Bull. A genuine mule would be an impossibility as the arcs and the date are on the same obverse side, though I grant that a 33 arc die might just have been prepared and then discarded, and so it is just conceivable effectively a "pattern" or two might just exist, though the absence of a recorded example these last 130-odd years would suggest not. Happy to be proved wrong, though! Here's a shot of some blurb from the Coincraft catalogue of 2002. The Dickinson referred to is "Victorian Godless and Gothic Florins", SCMB 1978/1980 (Seaby Coin and Medal Bulletin) but I don't have a copy of those. Does any member have, and can they post screenshots? Ironic then that they kept it in their catalogue for many years afterwards!

More from Blakeyboy's favourite seller... https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/234888374858?hash=item36b0702a4a:g:wtsAAOSw~ZNj4fCP Who would have thought that verdigris would be such a selling point?! 😉

Thanks very much. Do any other members have any specimens of 7+C# to add to the census?

Definitely an 8+C# (I was the underbidder!) The best diagnostic is the position of the leaves of the wreath relative to the colon after DG. On obverse 7, the two front leaves are higher and almost touch the colon. I now have records of 18 existing. Much rarer is the 7+C# of which I believe only 5 are known.

If anyone is still interested in a 1937 2+B proof penny, this part set I have listed on ebay contains one: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/285129613598 It isn't B.Unc, sadly, having had some handling, contact marks and I suspect circulation, but I am sure it is an impaired proof as it still has enough of the mirror finish when angled into the light. It was in my collection until I managed to get hold of a better one! So, I thought I'd throw it in with the part set...

Nayim. Or rather, Mohamed Alí Amar, known as Nayim, a Spanish retired professional footballer who played as a central midfielder. He scored a last-minute goal for Real Zaragoza in the 1995 UEFA Cup Winners' Cup Final against Arsenal, with a 40-yard lob. So, he could lob Seaman from 40 yards! 😄

And the number two was Master Mate, not Master Bates !! I think that's how the urban myths originated - the guy who voiced the cartoon did quite a nasal tone for Pugwash and so Master Mate on occasion did sound a bit dodgy! From there it was just a matter of time for the myth to spread and grow. All good fun, though!

Suspect it is a slight Spink confusion for un-barred A's in Britanniar, which is sometimes erroneously referred to in the literature as inverted V's. It is just die wear or die fill, and happens a lot in the Georgian and Victorian copper farthing series. See, for example, http://www.farthingshalfpennyerrors.com/george-iv-farthing-1822-un-barred-a-in-britannia-obverse-1-raised-midribs/

I have just put on eBay a reasonable grade 1858 large rose (large date, sadly!!) penny, which members might be interested in, along with a few other lower grade scarcities and date width varieties. The link to the listings is : https://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/m.html?item=285024221493&_ssn=1970kit&_sop=10 Hope they might perhaps be of use to members... Cheers!

I have just put on eBay a reasonable grade 1858 large rose (large date, sadly!!) penny, which members might be interested in, along with a few other lower grade scarcities and date width varieties. The link to the listings is : https://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/m.html?item=285024221493&_ssn=1970kit&_sop=10 Hope they might perhaps be of use to members... Cheers!

Is there a picture anywhere of it that someone can post? Not on Colin Cooke website now, of course, but was it and did anyone get a grab? Or was it in their catalogue??

Graded as about fine, i would say overgraded, but still very decent for this type Can someone post a picture? Or a link?

... and frequently overgraded and overpriced. And as for customer service...

No - and I can't find it on the sold listings either... But did anyone see this one: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/314097954463?hash=item4921b26e9f:g:FFcAAOSw7i1i7RbK&amdata=enc%3AAQAHAAAAkCjOj0nfqgBy96ChO7y%2BWthhXtiqSN5F37KQeP9iUd0n8ncrv9o9AKZ0QdJQgpzuaA0MuUT2pDTxaN2%2FXiHXfzCGGJ%2BL1aYqpjgQL9NijDpww%2FIix2rAJ3ldU7pj1MJGIDxDbMXZ93G0vp%2Fym7PtEE2ZbcYrtpXSVJT1ayMRn0KV%2B0lqImc5FIlPb8IDoQ5DfA%3D%3D|tkp%3ABk9SR6CfqoL3YA

Can you post a picture or a link so we can see...

Your main crop would suggest that it is still pretty much 11 beads width as halfway through each digit goes halfway through the respective bead below. If it were 10.5 beads then the halfway point of the final 6 would be between beads not over a bead - some slight clockwise rotation of the final 6 also seems to add to the illusion. But I do agree that the final 6 is a bit higher than usual, though of no real significance - the 1860's are full of both slipped and raised final digits as dies were churned out with limited consistency...

Can you post a picture? Or a link?

Whilst the mint does indeed use heptagonally pre-shaped blanks for striking 20p's and 50p's, for the dodecahedral brass threepences and now the new pounds, they use circular blanks (the external angles are more shallow and can be squeezed ok into the 12 sided collars that are used). Proof of this is both during WW2 when steel was at a premium, the mint used "blunter" cornered collars which lasted longer than the normal sharp cornered ones, leading to slightly smoother angled coins, and also with this 1960 threepence brockage which has been struck proud of its collar and retains its circular shape... It weighs 6.85 grams too, so I am perfectly happy your piece is a legitimate blank. The rough surfaces and edges are no problem either - they are all squeezed out smooth when the annealed blank goes through the press. Other denomination blanks I have are similarly a bit rough and ready!

Agreed! I have been looking in vain for this pairing for years! I only know of four specimens that have been documented.

I have owned two of these. Perhaps R17 is a tad generous?? Nevertheless, still a scarce pairing.