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You know me by now - I love bargain job lots! I picked up an album at an auction last week - mostly full of junk pre-decimal British coinage. (I bought mainly because the album was a good quality one, suitable for displaying better coins at market.) As well as reasonable 1953 and 1950 pennies in there (unspotted) was this 1860 in fairly decent condition. If I am reading @secret santa's website correctly this is F10, Obverse 2 reverse D, but actually the reverse is D* (with the heavy rockline above the LCW) and also has the sea not reaching the border to the left of the lighthouse. All in all a pleasing upgrade to my F10 with bonuses. Oh and it also shows the repaired A in Victoria...

I don't like those Russian dolls...so full of themselves

The problem with established provenances is that they are lost with considerably more ease than they are found. A person's labour of love proving a provenance is instantly negated by the auction house cataloguer failing to record it in the sale catalogue. Any slab label will only provide one previous owner at best, which again negates all the good work done. Keeping the details on a coin ticket will only work as long as the ticket remains with the coin. Auction houses and TPGs are a bit hit and miss in keeping info with the coin. The point about leaving the wax is that any lost blobs from the impression then become part of the coin's relief detail, with the missing wax forming an identifiable feature in the auction catalogue. i.e it does matter that all of it stays.