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Upgraded my EF 1878 penny to a more decent specimen

Well I've now managed to obtain a really nice F176, again from John Jerrams (Topcarp2). Thanks for the heads up Jerry. Really pleased with this acquisition as the 176 is clearly very scare, even in low grade. So to get one like this is excellent. I'd say it's aUNC/GEF, with decent hair detail, although as so often with this era, the breast plate is somewhat deficient. Britannia's head well struck up, however. Tiny circular metal flaw on the King's head. Managed to knock him down from £320 to £280 best offer, which, given the condition, is a very reasonable price, with free postage and exclusive of any auction buyer fee. I must say, he does a good sell, and his write up's are always a pleasure to read.

Pete put me on to this - he should have bought it himself as it was too cheap really; i am extremely grateful. This to go with Mike's F176 posted earlier which also came from John. Not as serious as you lot when it comes to pennies, but this is a reign I really like.

Richard I use Adobe Photoshop which has quite a lot to it. GIMP is a free alternative if you search that. The key tools within the software are the circular marquee (for cutting out circular milled coins) or the pen tool (jagged romans or hammered). YouTube videos run through the basics of layers and using those tools to 'cut out' something. I'll give you a bit more info after you've had a look and if you have any questions. There are a few other things like drop shadows and messing about with different fonts that I might do for some coins or if I'm going to move them on, will attach a couple of examples below. It's all a bit vain ! But useful to have in some form as a 'consistent' point of reference.

Apologies if this has already been posted, but e bay seller "The Coin King" has written an article about the increasing number of fakes being offered on e bay, including how they typically manifest, what to look for and where they might originate. Worth a read. link

Some interesting perspectives on the bronze coinage of Queen Victoria from 1860 to 1894, written in 1907 by Fleet Surgeon A E Weightman, RN. Although why he refers to Leonard Charles Wyon as Leonard Courtney Wyon, I've no idea - mistake, or did he know something we don't? link to pages

Hi, I’m Bryan and a brand new member on the forum. I have recently taken an interest in numismatics and having started collecting some modern British coins, I have also decided to start a pre-decimal coin collection. Actually, the word collection is not quite correct as it implies plural. I have ONE 1951 Festival of Britain Crown thus far... I did say I was brand new! I am interested in all types of coin, especially British. I have little knowledge and I hope to gain as much learning as I can from the forum and am looking forward to chatting to you at some point along the way!

Recently I came across a penny a Freeman 67, which is a rare type (6+H) that looked like it had been struck to a specimen standard. I could not find any reference of this type struck to either proof or specimen standard. Has anyone else come across one they would have thought was too good for a circulation strike?

Fair enough. I wasn't really criticising, just lamenting the need for some better information.

Very nice Mike. 🙂

I haven't picked up any new pennies for quite a while, but this 1926 ME was a slight upgrade and cheap, so I bought it:

Meant to post this a few days ago. It's my F160 now freed from its MS64 slab, photographed and suitably cropped. It's much the scarcer of the two 1905 types and I've been trying to get a decent one for some time.