The rarest coin you own?

[Kipster]

I've not been on these boards long but it's very clear that there are some very serious collectors that post on here.

I don't own anything which could be classed as 'rare', but have a few 'scarce' coins, with probably the scarcest a toned uncirculated 1851 Rev A Halfpenny.

So I was wondering what is the rarest coin in your collection? And out of curiosity, would you ever part with it?

 

[Flash]

I did own an Ides of March, Brutus Denarius for a while. Totally genuine with provenance but now long sold.

Edited May 25, 2023 by Flash

[Rob]

Rarest will be anything unique, or the only piece available to collectors. As long as I am still accumulating, I could part with any of them as long as they are not a Hobson's Choice piece to tick a box. Further refinement could be the one which has appeared in the market least often if you had to make one rarer than the rest.

[Menger]

I had a crack at the 1924 gold 3d in the recent Sincona auction (lot 1931). This was rated R7. Sadly it got away; but I do own another 3d, different date, nearly as rare - in nickel. I would never ever sell it! (Though I might be tempted to swap it for the gold one … ). 

Edited May 25, 2023 by Menger

[mick1271]

I normally just go for an example which I am happy with , rather than top grade .So I have quite a few scarce /rare ones but they are not in the sort of condition that would go for decent money . I wouldn't part with anything unless I've got a decent upgrade of it either .

Saying that ,the collection has gotten away from me (attempted date runs of every denomonation of milled ). I should probably sell off large parts and settle for better quality of just Pennies (incl variants) and shillings .

[Sword]

For me, rarity could refer to the total number of pieces available, condition rarity, or "rare" eye appeal such as excellent toning. I personally prefer collecting the later two categories. A relatively common coin in rare UNC grade is more exciting to me than a very low grade coin with only a few examples known.

I am not a serious enough collector to have anything particularly valuable but do have a few pieces which think would be hard to upgrade.

[blakeyboy]

That's a tricky one - where do you draw the line as regards varieties?

I have some pennies that are not listed as 'varieties' yet, but more may exist, but for the moment, there are but one example.

Are these  'desirable' rare coins? Not yet, they're not.

I found a 1862 'B' halfpenny in a tin of crap coins a few years ago. That was rare and fun!

[TomGoodheart]

I think the 'rarest' coin I have isn't all that rare (6 examples now known).

I feel it's very hard to be certain about 'rarities' in respect of currency coins with so many detector finds nowadays. One coin I have was a new type discovery in 1995, but since publication and listing in Spink a further 13 have turned up, so it didn't stay unique for long!

Patterns and trial pieces might be a bit easier to be certain, especially if it's clear how many have gone to museums and the like. 

The rarest 'thing' I have is probably a small Royalist medallion from the 1640s, of which I'm only aware of one other example apart from the British Museum's and which Medallic Illustrations classes as 'Very rare'. But the likelihood there are others, in personal collections (or in museums, poorly or incorrectly identified), has to be pretty high, given these were mass produced items (albeit not in huge numbers when you compare to how many - what are now considered as rare - coins were struck).

Similar to Sword, an example in above average condition (or for me, with decent provenance) is now more attractive to me than simple rarity. I have parted with many rarities, because in the end I didn't find them pleasing and valued being able to buy something commoner, but that I would enjoy owning, more.

[Kipster]

I find all these fascinating, so thanks for your replies. 
Each of us has something that obviously means something to us individually, and that's a wonderful thing.

[secret santa]

My rarest coin is a 1922 penny obverse 4+ reverse C - unrecorded and the only specimen I've ever seen come to market. I have a photo of what appears to be a BU specimen of the same die pairing but I can't find any confirmation of its existence.

[1949threepence]

In terms of the extant known population I would say my 1863 die No 3 under date penny is the rarest.  

[Sword]

Every hammered coin is in fact unique...

Hence, the strike, wear and eye appeal are even more significant than type rarity for the hammered series IMHO.

[Peckris 2]

I think possibly that my rarest coin is an 1887 6d identified as one type among very many patterns that exist for that year (and none have more than subtle differences):

As you can see, the first 8 is struck over another 8; however the feature that first drew my attention to it (and why I bought it) is the big gap between the second 8 and the 7. The inner circles of the 8 point directly to a space, but on the normal example they are to the left of a bead. The tail of the 7 points exactly to a bead, rather than to the left of it.

[Rob]

A quick back of the fag packet census gives approx. 4 dozen unique or only available examples, excluding striking errors which by definition are a one off. They nearly all tick specific boxes, so wouldn't be sold

Edited May 26, 2023 by Rob

[secret santa]

11 hours ago, DrLarry said:

I think mine would be the 1861 Penny , I over N   in ONE

Have you posted any photos of this ?

[TomGoodheart]

A thread elsewhere (regarding an Edward I groat) reminded me how relative the term 'rare' can be. For collectors of Kew Gardens 50ps it's apparently where there are 'only' 210,000. For me, it's more down to 'how long will I have to wait until an example of this becomes available for me to buy?'. 

Surely, anything more than one dealer has listed right now can hardly be that rare, can it? Whereas if it's likely to take me a few months to track down an example it's likely to be scarce. And if I can only find one or two examples in museums and no record of one coming up for sale in the last few years, then I would consider that to be somewhat rare.

Which doesn't necessarily mean desirable to me. If the only available examples are barely recognisable slugs, I'm only really going to be interested if the slug I can buy is better than the example in say, the Hunterian, because... I want things that look nice. Guess I'm shallow!

[Menger]

14 hours ago, TomGoodheart said:

 

A thread elsewhere (regarding an Edward I groat) reminded me how relative the term 'rare' can be.

 

Yes. Rarity (of supply) is only relevant relative to demand.  My daughter’s art work is rare … 

Also relevant is the relevant cohort of the supply - Maundy money for any given year may scarce but supply is available for every single year so nobody cares. 

[jelida]

22 minutes ago, DrLarry said:

Yes I think so in the past Jerry purchased from me one and sent it away to get verified.  I think I have 2 others although one I'm not so certain about .  

That will be the F33 ‘N over inverted N’,  you have it in your Freeman re-print Richard and it is in the Gouby update too. Other than the photo of a worn second that Larry has previously shown,  I haven’t seen another despite several years passing and it does seem to remain very rare indeed. Still in my collection of course.

As regards the ‘rarest’ coin in my penny collection I have several that are still in the ‘single figures known’ category from the Rarest Pennies database, with the above F33 and an F15 BRTTT perhaps the rarest. In my hammered collection I do have two of the four known 1558 dated mm lis Elizabeth Ist pennies, one being the Comber example.

Jerry

[secret santa]

That makes sense now. Thanks for the pics.

[VickySilver]

Ah, a few might be reluctant to post.

[VickySilver]

I know about a set that might qualify which would be the 1922/1924 Satin Specimen Set. I have always wondered if the mintage is really 2, and why or how did the Pretoria Mint get hold of these two sets...

[Rob]

If you collect patterns as well as currency then virtually all these will be rare, and additionally it is difficult not to be spoilt for choice when it comes to unique coins. e.g. 12 years ago when I wrote my article on the Weyl patterns, I did so because I appeared to have around 15% of the total corpus, all of which seemed to be unique. i.e. nobody else was likely to be in a position to do the research given the dispersal of the 40+ items in Glens in 1993. I've whittled it down to around 10 pieces now, all of which are unique, but none can claim to be the rarest per se. Same goes for the half a dozen unique Saxon or Norman in the collection.

Close behind comes the list of 'only piece available' items, which are effectively unique, but strictly speaking, more common. I don't think it's a general reluctance to post, rather an impossible thing to assign. I'm not the only person collect patterns.

[VickySilver]

Indeed. The currency are possibly the hardest when rare, the "ordinary" proofs, and finally the patterns IMHO. So relatively perhaps patterns are rather less & this is something some of us have taken advantage of over the years.

[Mr T]

On 5/27/2023 at 8:12 AM, Peckris 2 said:

I think possibly that my rarest coin is an 1887 6d identified as one type among very many patterns that exist for that year (and none have more than subtle differences):

As you can see, the first 8 is struck over another 8; however the feature that first drew my attention to it (and why I bought it) is the big gap between the second 8 and the 7. The inner circles of the 8 point directly to a space, but on the normal example they are to the left of a bead. The tail of the 7 points exactly to a bead, rather than to the left of it.

Do you have pictures of the coin in its entirety?

[Peckris 2]

 

As you can see, the rest of the reverse is standard - pretty much what you'd expect. It was the date that drew my attention to it when I first saw it on sale (by a dealer who was just selling it as a bog standard 1887 JH).