1862 R over R (in Victoria) 1862 uk penny ?

[john brannen]

Hello,

Last week I went on The Beginners section in relation to a possible R over R (in Victoria) 1862 uk penny.

Secret Santa very kindly replied to my enquiry stating that the R anomoly was in fact, a die repair and not 'a variety'.

As a new coin enthusiast can anyone kindly help me with confirming what this should be called....?

Thankyou for any help.

John B 

 

[Paddy]

Hi John,

Welcome to the forum!

The varieties and micro-varieties of pennies are a hot topic here, and there is often hot debate as to which is which. It is not really my area of collecting, but as I understand it, a "Variety" is when there has been a change in the design or layout of the dies.
What you have might be called a "micro-variety" where an existing die has been repaired by re-entering damaged or misplaced letters or numbers. During the Victorian era this happened a great deal, so there are hundreds, if not thousands, of examples around. They are collected by the enthusiasts, but generally do not warrant a separate mention in the books. (With exceptions!)
There are also "die faults" where cracks or dents in the dies result in anomalies. These are also not really varieties (though some have been listed as such in the past) but are still collected by some.

Varieties generally have assigned rarity levels and so prices. Micro-varieties and die faults are much more difficult to value as it depends on finding a collector who wants them.

 

[secret santa]

I've added a page on these to my rare penny site

https://rarestpennies.wordpress.com/filled-dies/

[john brannen]

Thankyou Secret Santa + Paddy very much for your generous responses -they were both very helpful.

 I bought this Victorian coin simply because it is an absolutely stunning and loved it so much, I just want to look at it all the time. 

It will be with me (probably) forever....

But how should I best describe this flaw -should it be called a die repair, an R over R or something else entirely ?

Your thoughts on this would be intersting....

Thankyou.

 

[Paddy]

The second half of the description would be "R over R in Victoria" (not a die flaw).

The first half would be the base variety, which someone here would be happy to tell you, but we need to see the whole of both sides. It is most likely F39, but it could be something scarcer.

This website (created and maintained by Secret Santa): https://headsntails14.wordpress.com/victoria-varieties/ would help if you want to identify for yourself.

[Peckris 2]

On 11/3/2026 at 3:12 PM, john brannen said:

But how should I best describe this flaw -should it be called a die repair, an R over R or something else entirely ?

Your thoughts on this would be intersting....

Thankyou.

 

R over R could most likely be a repair, i.e. the letter being repunched into the die due to wear/infill or similar. However, there are cases where the die was wrong to start with, is repunched, and quite possibly these might be classed as varieties. For example, there are some 1882 pennies where the first 1 in the date (done by Heatons of Birmingham remember, not by the Mint) is slanted ("retrograde") and was repunched before striking - this is regarded as a variety though possibly not  collected by many.