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Totally agree , it might explan why 1860 bronze farthings are relatively common , they were the dies the mint had the least problem with so could release them into circulation straight away

Yes. It's weird, the actual mintage is only small (19m) compared to 1969, but I guess people put the 1969s aside but not the 1970. Your average Joe would have wanted the first year I guess, and mintage figures were only relevant to collectors.

A lot of that - the tonnage data - is way over my head! However, do consider all the circumstantial evidence: I read somewhere (sorry, I don't have the source) that the changeover to bronze was originally to have happened in 1858, but there were so many problems with the thinner dies that it was pushed back. This makes sense if you then take into account all the very many varieties of 1858 penny - that they decided to use up existing dies resulting in several overdates. At greater leisure they produced dies for 1859 (very few varieties), which then got pressed into service again in 1860 when 30k pennies were needed in a hurry. If the changeover didn't happen until late in 1860, that would reinforce the 'low mintage' rationale. Meanwhile, if they didn't experience the same problems with the two smaller denominations, they would have gone ahead with minting those bronzes. The 1860 copper halfpenny and farthing - much rarer - could indeed have been mementoes not intended for circulation.

Yes - the same auction lot that had a few UNC 1981 10p's also had a handful of UNC 1970 50p's. Luckily there was little competition for them in the 90s.

The farthings 1860 copper , less than ten are known point to a strictly limited mintage , they could have been sold as keepsakes of the old curency in 1860 , that would account for their good condition as well. It also does not make sense that so many pennies were produced compared to farthings and halfpennies , I doubt after all this time anyone really knows , unless there is something found in the royal mint archives I am pretty sure we will all never know for sure

I think that has to be the case. I said earlier that an unrecorded but very small number of 1860 copper halfpennies and farthings were produced, but using an actual 1860 die. The natural assumption being that they really were produced as a genuine "last hurrah" for the coins. Maybe the same was intended for the pennies, but an urgent local demand intervened, and instead of making a new die for 1860, they hurriedly alter an almost clapped out 1859 die for a short run job. After that, the notion of producing a fresh 1860 die purely for the pennies, probably got kicked into the long grass as the momentum for the new coins took hold later in the year. Total speculation on my part, but it does fit what happened.

I was playing Scrabble and had just 4 letters left - O V N R Sadly, this means nothing to me.