Question about 1868 and 1869 British Penny

[tracyaw]

After checking my rotographic books I noticed that 1868 has a lower mintage than 1869, so why is the 1869  much rarer than the 1868?

[alfnail]

It is believed that coins are often struck using dies from a previous year, but without altering the date. Similar to your 1869/1868 example, in the Victorian Copper Penny series the 1849 is clearly much rarer than an 1848 but the documented figures are 268K and 161K respectively. The best example is the 1852 Royal Mint Parliamentary return of 236K but no one has ever seen an 1852, so presumably those bear a date of 1851.

[RLC35]

2 hours ago, tracyaw said:

After checking my rotographic books I noticed that 1868 has a lower mintage than 1869, so why is the 1869  much rarer than the 1868?

Alfnail is correct...

"It is believed that coins are often struck using dies from a previous year, but without altering the date. Similar to your 1869/1868 example"

In Michael Gouby's Study "The British Bronze Coinage, 4th Ed." He states that the actual coinage of 1869 Pennies is more likely around 430,080, since the 1868 Pennies were continued to be minted into the 1869 year. The 1869 mintage reported by the Royal Mint is 2,580,480......

[tracyaw]

Ah, thank you both for your explanations.

[copper123]

Also coins as a collectable item tend to be valued by collectors on their scarcity .

Few coins from the 19th century deserve to be valued on their mintages alone  for instance you would be lucky to get £5 for an 1860 bronze farthing (there are several varieties as well which should make the coin more valueable as most collectors will want them all).

But if you have an 1863 farthing in EF you have a coin worth around £100