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UPIN, Nice 3 Pence. I like the toning, also a nice strike.

That looks like blue toning at 9 o'clock, not verdigris.

Know its not in a holder. I just cannot get my photo's to show the best out the coin. Below are the original photo's from the listing which look much better I think.

Get your golf clubs ready Here is my latest addition to the collection quite like this for the price I paid not the best but will do for the moment. Will leave the final verdict with those that know better than me. Looks far better in hand than my pictures depict.

Just a comment on your excellent post ......... Any investment company that offers a "promised return" is lying through their teeth. It simply isn't possible unless they are illegally manipulating the market or involved in a Madoff type scheme. The best they can do is to demonstrate a range of possible returns based on previous performance but with the caveat that this is not an indicator of future returns. As we used to say .... if it sounds too good to be true then it probably is.

Frankly, that's just a bad case of 'An idiot and their money are soon parted'. An annual return of 16% means a coin would have to appreciate by at least 40% on typical hammer prices in the first year just to cover costs. 20% commission to buy at auction, the investment company's annual charge - say 4%, plus the 16% promised return. They might have assumed that they would purchase privately at typical hammer prices, but the material simply isn't available to buy. A fundamental part of investments is liquidity, which has never been a feature of coins. When something can be off the market for a hundred years, who is going to invest in it? When a coin changes hands too frequently it usually raises the question as to what is wrong with it. Although coins are clearly an asset, liquidity issues mean they can only ever be peripheral investments. In September the BBC is going to have 'investment coins' as the target for one of its 'Rip-off Britain' programmes. GeoffT is on it giving a collector's viewpoint. I was asked to give a dealer's view, but declined on the grounds that the programme title did not offer the possibility of a balanced argument. Whilst I felt that there were undoubtedly companies pushing material of questionable investment quality, the most important issue was that of caveat emptor, which in today's nanny state mentality is increasingly legislated to irrelevance. It never ceases to amaze me that people will spend thousands on something they know nothing about, yet would insist on taking a potential new car for a drive, or would ensure that the new carpet or curtains matched the existing decor. People need to be held more accountable for their own actions rather than going down the no-win, no-fee route, which absolves the consumer of any responsibility.

There is only 1 Irish 1938 penny in private hands. The only other example is held by the National Museum of Ireland, so in effect, the other coin is unique in terms of its availability. Of course, rarity alone is not an indication of value - demand is the most important factor ! For background info on the 1938 Irish penny, see https://oldcurrencyexchange.com/2014/08/21/rare-coins-the-1938-irish-penny/

Rarity by itself doesn't necessarily translate into high prices. We all know about the fame of the 1933 penny and they do go for astronomic sums given that there are just 6 or so in existence. By comparison, I and a couple of others on here have one of the only 5 available examples of the 1695 DEI GRATIA halfpenny, so in theory fewer than the 1933 penny, yet the price for one of these will likely be a few hundred pounds. It ain't fair.