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Some mule eye candy

Many patterns could be described as fantasy pieces, with designs that tend to be more intricate with finer detail, which is not helpful when it comes to striking a 100K coins from a die pair. Currency coinage production requires a simplified design that won't clog up. It's much easier to let sleeping dogs lie and say each to their own, coz you sure as hell won't come to any agreement.

Wouldn't those be better categorized as Fantasy pieces....

That's what I think and is why the 1927 is uniformly sharper. The 1930 has much weaker detail e.g. the drapery folds and the border teeth.

Yes, but they were never from die pairs that had both circulated. Taylor did a few restrikes using one current die, e.g the 1807 proof halfpenny reverse, but the other one of the pair was modified to provide a 'variety'. In the case of the 1807 proof 1/2d obverse die it was the broken jewel 1806 1/2d die last used for the KH35 bronzed proof halfpenny P1365. Other types are known to be modified.

It is difficult or even impossible to prove whether a die pairing was intentional or not. In my opinion coins such as BB/TB, TB/BB and 1862 2 & 3+G are not truly mules as they were possibly struck deliberately. A true mule in my mind is something like the 1966 Jersey obverse with British penny reverse.

I'm late to this thread, but here's a bit more info about my own job and background. I did Maths and Sciences for A-levels but then did a Law degree. I really enjoyed the study of Law, but didn't think that working in the legal profession would interest me enough (although at that time, virtually all the interesting work was in London and I didn't want to live in London). So I graduated from Cambridge and took a job as a cashier in a betting shop 😀 This rekindled my love of probability and statistics, and I then took a job training as a Chartered Accountant with one of the big firms, in Bristol. Again, the study was interesting but I left as soon as I qualified, and got out into the business world. I have spent the last 20+ years in a variety of companies and roles, but always as a forward-looking analytical problem-solver. These days I am an interim and have been in and out of work rather than having a secure and stable job. But I solve commercial business problems with data, logic, algebra and creativity 😄 I have retired from several non-work lives too. I used to represent GB at Orienteering at under 21 level, used to be a national standard athlete on the track and the road until my body gave up aged 37, and am probably retired from being a comic performance poet (although I was brought out of a 4-year slumber earlier this year when I was booked for a music festival. Toyah was in one tent, I was in the other!). I won the UK Allstars Poetry Slam in 2012 which was the biggest event of its kind in the UK in terms of a paying audience. This is what I used to do...