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Don't you start - it's bad enough 'er indoors going on and on.........

Recently I acquired a unique 1696 sixpence from an auction house in UK. The coin is a 1696 sixpence (First Bust, early Harp variety), but the coin is significantly double struck. The coin is graded by ngc as MINT ERROR MS 65 DOUBLE STRUCK. I have seen double striking in 17th early milled coin, but very few of those error coins can survive in a real uncirculated condition. What is more, the degree of the double struck is significant. I am not sure if I can consider my coin as a new variety of 1696 sixpence, but this coin is definitely unique. Here is the photo of my coin (the first taken by auction house, the second and the last by myself).

A bit more information around those 1843DFF figures Mike. My 5 year study of all ebay listings was between Sept 2007 and Sept 2012. There were 15 DFF's out of 130 listings of 1843's. I think it likely that this is a fairly accurate reflection of true (minted) proportions, as I do not believe that many people were collecting Bramah variations at that time. For example, see Richard's comments where he got one by luck! The coin I have just sold you was the best example from those 15 on ebay during that period. If I were to repeat the study now (which I will NOT be doing) then there is no way that you would see the same proportion of DFF's as there were approx. 10 to 15 years ago. More collectors have been looking for Bramah varieties since then, and most are now tucked away in collections. This is reflected by the fact that you have unsuccessfully searched high and low for one yourself for over a year. The same could be said for the 1844 DFF's, seen on both the 'Plain Tail' 4's and the 'Tails Up' 4's. I have done a breakdown of all the 1844's seen in the same 5 year period, and this is shown in the table below. Note that there were 60 examples of 1844 DFF's, highlighted in Yellow, so about 1 in 5 of 1844's had this 'feature' during my 5 year study. However, you have only seen 2 in the time you have been building your own collection of this series. Hope the table makes sense, and is clear enough to read; the first split is based on being able to see the numeral 4's clearly enough to determine type. Also note that the 'Tails Up' style of numeral 4 is clearly much more difficult than Plain 4, although there is a higher proportion of DFF's on 'Tails Up' numeral 4 type!! It's not really an F of course!!

If anyone wants to look up an old Spink Numismatic circular, you can get a copy of any one (or part of one) you want for a small fee, from the Fitzwilliam Museum library. That's where I got my 1895 scan about the small date 1857 last year. The link to the Spink circulars list, which start on page 101 is here Just e mail this address and ask for the one you want. They'll let you know the nominal charge:-> licensing@fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk As far as Spink themselves, you'd get more sense from the cat. @Mr T - you might find the above useful info.

1889 shilling 2+C and 1898 sixpence 2+B.

SNC's final issue staggered out at the start of 2014, and it had been getting more infrequent in the couple of years before that. It used to be 6 a year (and every month long ago). The bloke in charge unfortunately had a serious car accident at the time which was the final blow. It's not on Spink's website.

I have now counted and the the unrecorded reverse has approximately 20 more beads than the contemporary reverses.

Don't know the answer, hopefully 1887jubilee will. The 7 to bead indicates either a slightly different size of reverse or a different number of border beads (I haven't counted), but there are also a number of design differences in the crown (picture attached).

A more obscure one that I see regularly wrong in print is the difference between "loth" and "loathe". Loth is unwilling, loathe is to hate but I have often seen "I am loathe to take that course...", even in books and respectable publications.

thats kinda what i was thinking when i opened the thread. ive just looked at the london coins auction archive and the roman1 proof they sold last year looks like dies 2a. thanks for all the replies. ski Dear me boys you do get yourselves into a twist, I am sure you only post these 1887 problems just to get all my hard won research out of me. At my current survey 33.85% are 1/A ( using Davies) 61.54% are 2/B 4.62% are 1/B There are proof "Roman" 2/A found in the silver only proof sets There are also "Roman" proofs 1/A not sure whether these were also in the silver proof sets or were in the later production of the 797 main sets There are also a lot of proof like coins and specimen coins. Regretably there are also several other distinctive die varieties but more of that if I ever get to print.