1664 Crown - Which One is 'Normal'?

[Ron]

I have just acquired a couple of Charles II crowns, both dated 1664 - Spink ref: 3555.

I just happened to notice that the edges are different. I shall try to explain :-

If I hold each coin obverse uppermost and turn them so that the edges are pointing towards me, on one I see the word 'ET' immediately below the bust. On the other one, I see the word TVTAMEN, but it is inverted. Just to clarify - the entire edge lettering on one is inverted and the other isn't.

Is that normal? Did the manufacturing process allow for the edges to be either way up?

I notice in Spink ref: 3357, there is an inverted edge variety for 1668. Is this a similar thing?

[Chris Perkins]

Just like with modern £1 coins, the edges can be either way up with the lettering starting at any position. It just depends which way round the collars were when the coin was struck.

For the 1668 inverted 'error' a section of the collar (I believe they were mostly 3 parts, perhaps more) was around the wrong way so that part of the legend would have been upside down and the whole thing would have made no sense.