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This post suggests that they were collected in change. But no one can believe that it is possible to find 700 that way... Rob's post really says it all.

I questioned it simply on the basis of numbers. Whether 100K or 200K struck is immaterial. To have 700 of them is a ridiculously high number unless you have had access to a known pile of them. Based on Wiki, which can't be accepted as gospel but should be of the correct order of magnitude, a total of 136m 2008 20p pieces were struck and the cumulative total of 20ps to that date was 3.248bn. 100K or 200K is only 0.07% or 0.14% of the total struck in 2008 and 0.003% or 0.006% of the total number of 20ps struck up to 2008. Based on a random distribution, to acquire 700 would necessitate looking at 22,736,000 coins based on an average of 1 in 32480, or half these numbers if 200K were made. Nobody has that much time on their hands, nor would I say access to sufficient material in the normal course of events to find that many. I'm sure they were released into a specific area or two as part of a mint consignment, which could skew the distribution curve, but it is not realistic to find the numbers quoted just from a random search of your change. How many people would see even a couple thousand 20p pieces in their change over a 7 or 8 year period let alone more than 10 million. To buy 700 off eBay or similar would cost too much, so ................ the whole thing just doesn't add up unless you were able to buy a mint bag of 20ps and they just happened to have a large number of no date coins. Or you can get them from alibaba.

Can anyone recommend any books for varieties of milled silver please. Maybe the groom one or similar i havent got any ?. Not really interested in anything before 1860. Thanks. Pete. _____________________________________________________________________________________________ Posted the above an hour ago and should of spent the time reading old threads first as the question has been asked before

Absolutely, this type of research is very painstaking, not to mention time consuming. Useful for others. Thanks a lot, Ian. Your efforts are appreciated. You're anything but that, Richard, and may I say thanks again for the - was it 7? - e mails you sent containing those penny variant articles. Incredibly valuable stuff. I sent them on to Dec LAN . Hope that's OK. Apologies for the odd spelling. Predictive text prevented the proper construction of the name .