Commonwealth half penny.

[Gaz T]

Has anyone come across the half penny having six strings to the harp. 
I believe it should only have five, the strings are also very thick possibly a double strike but looking at the rest of the harp I’m not so sure. 

[Gaz T]

[absence of uniformity]

Marked by the red lines are areas of the sheild and harp that appear to be doubled.

Is this the cause of an apparent 6th string I'm not sure maybe?

[Coinery]

Hey, Gaz,

I did take a look at my own example but, even under the loupe this morning, I couldn’t confirm the number of strings on mine, due to strike weakness.

There is this post…

  …where Rob’s and Jelida’s examples show 5 strings. I did notice however that Coys’ Penny, shown in the same thread, displays a harp with six strings. I can’t imagine that the 1d harp punch hasn’t at some point been shared across the denominations?

[Coinery]

Having said that, the strings are likely added separately from the harp punch itself, so anything is possible I guess?  

[Gaz T]

I believe the slight double strike is definitely a possibility, 

I’m sure the penny should have seven strings, so six strings on the penny is an odd one. 

 I suppose when cutting the die on something so small is quite easy to make the mistake, like you say coinery anything is possible. 
I have had a good search but can’t find any half’s with the six strings so hopefully another one will come along 👍

Thanks for the input guys. 

[Gaz T]

Not my coin. 
This one has quite a bit of doubling to the harp and shield but sill only the five strings, so possibly as coinery says maybe the strings were added after the shield, really difficult on a coin so small though. 

[Rob]

Stuart. For your own sanity, stay calm. Jackson - Kent spent 10 years analysing the string numbers on W3 coin harps only to conclude at the end of it that there was no significance.

Personally, it makes more sense for the stops to be personal privy marks as an engraver id, as there are a number of types used, but thick string or thin string in varying quantities is never going to fly given die degradation. Stops however, are rarely confused.