Confirmed listed Varieties

[freewheels]

Hi I'm a newbie actually an expat living in California who took his british coin collection (and hobby) with him.

Question is, where can I find the most comprehensive list of confirmed british coin varieties from the period 1662 to 1967 on this web site or on another site?

[Rob]

Hi I'm a newbie actually an expat living in California who took his british coin collection (and hobby) with him.

Question is, where can I find the most comprehensive list of confirmed british coin varieties from the period 1662 to 1967 on this web site or on another site?

I don't think there is one. Collectors who specialise in varieties tend to generate their own lists because there is no comprehensive varieties reference. At the end of the day all references are going to be incomplete due to ongoing discoveries & taken to its logical conclusion a varieties site would have to list every die combination of every coin type known because some references are sufficiently detailed. The time/cost of doing this would make it a labour of love because no one would pay for the service. Couple this with the fact that most people can only afford to collect a couple of denominations in great detail because acquisition costs are prohibitive, so most will buy books relevant to their chosen types and hence it is easy to see why it is not available.

[freewheels]

Hi I'm a newbie actually an expat living in California who took his british coin collection (and hobby) with him.

Question is, where can I find the most comprehensive list of confirmed british coin varieties from the period 1662 to 1967 on this web site or on another site?

I don't think there is one. Collectors who specialise in varieties tend to generate their own lists because there is no comprehensive varieties reference. At the end of the day all references are going to be incomplete due to ongoing discoveries & taken to its logical conclusion a varieties site would have to list every die combination of every coin type known because some references are sufficiently detailed. The time/cost of doing this would make it a labour of love because no one would pay for the service. Couple this with the fact that most people can only afford to collect a couple of denominations in great detail because acquisition costs are prohibitive, so most will buy books relevant to their chosen types and hence it is easy to see why it is not available.

Wow what a flood of responses!

In light of Rob's comments I'd like to ask a few questions of the forum about a few varieties that I have in my collection.

!739 small garter star shilling: does that always have irregular obverse lettering w/ A of Gratia spilling onto the King's lapel? Also on my example no stop and closer spacing between DEI and GRATIA, is this usual?

1663 Crown w/ extra hair curl, is this common?

1846 1/2 crown 8 struck over 6, is this common.

I am of the opinion that the modern varieties I own are are of little value, i.e. 1945 double struck 9 penny(VF), 1946 one dot penny (GVF), 1957 calm sea red and brown unc with pointed 7 to tooth.

Anyway hope these questions provoke some discussion on the forum.

[Hussulo]

Wow what a flood of responses!

In light of Rob's comments I'd like to ask a few questions of the forum about a few varieties that I have in my collection.

!739 small garter star shilling: does that always have irregular obverse lettering w/ A of Gratia spilling onto the King's lapel? Also on my example no stop and closer spacing between DEI and GRATIA, is this usual?

1663 Crown w/ extra hair curl, is this common?

1846 1/2 crown 8 struck over 6, is this common.

I am of the opinion that the modern varieties I own are are of little value, i.e. 1945 double struck 9 penny(VF), 1946 one dot penny (GVF), 1957 calm sea red and brown unc with pointed 7 to tooth.

Anyway hope these questions provoke some discussion on the forum.

I think Rob more or less covered the original question. It would be a great feat to have a site or book with many of the varieties, but practicaly very hard.

There are few publications especially on bronze coinage like "The Bronze Coinage of Great Britain" by Michael J. Freeman, and Michael Gouby's "The Bronze Penny", which spring to mind.

I think many variety collectors only stick to one type of coin, metal or one denomination.

I don't collect varieties, but I do now that 1846 1/2 crown 8 struck over 6 is quite rare. Chris's Collectors Coins GB 2008 lists it as £500 in fine.

Do you have any pictures you could share?

Regards,

Hus

Edited August 13, 2008 by Hussulo

[Rob]

Wow what a flood of responses!

In light of Rob's comments I'd like to ask a few questions of the forum about a few varieties that I have in my collection.

!739 small garter star shilling: does that always have irregular obverse lettering w/ A of Gratia spilling onto the King's lapel? Also on my example no stop and closer spacing between DEI and GRATIA, is this usual?

1663 Crown w/ extra hair curl, is this common?

1846 1/2 crown 8 struck over 6, is this common.

I am of the opinion that the modern varieties I own are are of little value, i.e. 1945 double struck 9 penny(VF), 1946 one dot penny (GVF), 1957 calm sea red and brown unc with pointed 7 to tooth.

Anyway hope these questions provoke some discussion on the forum.

1739/7 appears to always have the A partly covering the bust, but I don't know if it only occurs with the small garter rev on a straight 1739. The 1739/7s that I have seen have all had stops in the correct places so it may be that the absence of a stop or stops is due to a filled die. If there is even a hint of a stop then it would suggest they are the same die (and at the same time would put a chronological sequence to die use). Please post an image of the shilling if possible as it is a distinctive obverse die which should be easy to tie into known examples.

Re the 1663 crown - I haven't a clue.

The 1848/6 halfcrown isn't common, but I don't have a feel for absolute rarity. Not a lot have been listed in auctions, but that is not necessarily an indication of rarity if nobody is selling the coin as such and it is not picked up by the cataloguer.

Most modern varieties are unlikely to be very valuable in the foreseeable future because of the potential number of pieces available.

To go back to your initial enquiry, an indication of the mammoth task a complete listing of all known varieties would entail is given by the lists I have compiled. I collect shillings and halfpennies by relatively major variety (legend variations, bust variety and die combinations of these etc. but not whether there is a flaw in the field or a double cut letter for example) and have made lists of these with about 2200 halfpennies and 1500 shillings. Another list I have has about 1350 halfcrown varieties with even the double florin having about 30 including the Huth patterns etc. None of these lists will be complete as unlisted varieties are always coming to light - e.g. I have acquired two unlisted legend varieties this past month. Extend that list of denominations to include pennies (many thousands given the 1000 year striking period), farthings, groats, halfgroats, sixpences, hammered gold, milled gold, decimals etc and you can see why it hasn't been done.

Edited August 14, 2008 by Rob