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[Adopts tone of voice of the railway bore you dread sitting next to you...] Ah well you see, it's quite easy to tell. I can see from the riffle squod mark that the bullet was made in the North Croydon Works of the Machine Arms Co and they only made them with that particular riffle squod up to 17th August 1914 and the entire consignment apart from one case was used before November 1914 in the Belgian trenches on the Western Front - the one case was used in 1915 but only at Gallipoli so if I was a betting man I'd feel my money was safe in saying that is a 1914 bullet. As I was saying to my friend Roger only last Tuesday - and there's no-one knows more than Roger about riffle... [cont p.94]

Right, here it is then:-

And Freeman may have taken his comments from Peck who rates 1935 pennies "artificially toned as issued" as Extremely Common and 1935 "untoned" as Very Rare.

Sold

Ebay does not have anyone with coin knowledge working with them. Up until a few years ago there was a committee checking fake coins and I was in contact with one of its members. There came a change of ownership or management at ebay and the committee was scrapped.

Can't be a die letter B, I'm afraid... The lighthouse is the wrong type: all letter B's occur with the thinner, more cylindrical lighthouse and have the letters LCW above the 8 and 6 of the date. Not sure of the Freeman reverse die type/code offhand, but I'm sue some helpful person could post it.

😉 All this talk of varieties reminds me of a recent conversation with the wife of my work-colleague, who lives round the corner. One night she came round to my house and invited me out for a drink in the local pub. Her husband was out of town and I assumed she just wanted a bit of a chat. During our first drink, she was telling me about a small raised ‘dot’ that she thought I might like to investigate, and kept mentioning the letter G. Given the conversation, I naturally assumed that she must be talking about a Farthing, and it must be some sort of ‘G spot’ variety. I hadn’t realised that she was a fellow numismatist, but she reminded me that she also had a couple of delightfully toned thruppeny bits. She assured me that that her G spot variety was very pleasing for the grade and told me that she was currently keeping it in a tight pocket near the top of her thighs. She also said that the variety was best viewed after a light rub. Now I know the forum’s views on cleaning coins, but she said that it had seen plenty of circulation and further rubbing would, if anything, enhance the eye appeal. We agreed to adjourn to my place for a close visual inspection of the variety, and she suggested low light and closed conditions. I carefully opened the tight pocket and, following clear instructions, proceeded to administer the light rubbing. I found this was best done in a gentle circular motion, followed by more vigorous strokes (clear guidance from her did help). I tried to take some photographs of the variety to post on the forum, but despite a great deal of digital manipulation, they all seem to have come out a bit blurry and damp. Not worth sharing… And so, while she is adamant (indeed very vocal) that the variety exists, I am unable to confirm it, as it was impossible to remove the G spot from its snug pocket. Perhaps it’s a bit like Schrodinger’s cat (or perhaps more aptly, Schrodinger’s pussy). In any event, she says that she has another couple of specimens that she will hold in the same pocket, and will let me know when her husband is next out of town, as that seems to be the best time for her to squeeze me in. I told her that I was nothing if not a keen and thorough researcher, and would therefore be delighted to probe further. Just doing my predecimal duty… 😉😋