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For anyone who is interested in Victorian Young Head penny sub-varieties. Yesterday I managed to acquire an upgraded example for my 1857OT Gouby Style B (Narrow Date). I knew this sub-variety was very difficult to locate, so I decided to update my ‘5 year’ statistics (all ebay YH listings). Some may recall I shared these on the forum about 6 months ago when there was a discussion about different numeral 7 fonts, and the rarity of the ‘long 7’ type of font in particular. A close up of Gouby Style B is pictured below, together with the revised stats from my ‘5 year’ study period. On this date style the numerals 5 and 7 are very close, and both exhibit repairs which can be seen under the microscope, but not so clear on the poor reference example on Gouby’s website. The stats show that I found only 15 examples of this particular date style, making it far rarer than the ‘long 7’ Gouby Style E. For comparison, during the same period I found 76 x 1856OT’s, 59 x 1853PT’s and 50 x 1844DFF’s. Now I need to just move on 20 years and find a few more narrow date pennies!!

The designs of the coronation coins: https://www.royalmint.com/shop/monarch/charles-iii/coronation/ A crowned portrait of the king is unexpected but rather nice. I like the reverse designs too (except for that of the crown which looks poor). All in all, a good effort from the RM I think.

Not done any exact analysis, but purely from observation, and ball park estimate, I'd say that even in the last 2 or 3 years, prices have increased at all levels of the market. For example, what was £180 in 2020, is now about £240. Quite ordinary, or not desperately uncommon pennies are now routinely being offered at £200 plus. Although there are still bargains to be had. One exact price I did notice was when looking at the change in prices for 1839 proof pennies last night, on Noonans site. I noticed that over the years three separate complete 1839 proof sets had been offered (with the Una and the Lion £5 piece included). In 2004, one went for £16,000. A year or two later, another went for £23,000. Then in 2011, yet another went for £60,000. But at the Noble auction last July - in the Verene Collection of proofs - just the Una and the Lion £5 coin itself went for £421,000 (converted from Australian dollar exchange rate). That is a staggering increase which is way beyond inflation. How long will this continue? Maybe - very probably in fact - coins are seen as a safe haven in these economically turbulent times. Especially rare gold maybe.

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Why is the sovereign made of copper???

Bruce - indeed - that's a very, very nice example of the rare Bramah 15 intermediate colon. Neat capture.

Do you have good pictures of obverses 11 and 12 illustrating the differences ?

.....until someone ignores the book and finds one with a different pairing.... Indeed! Dracott in his November 2021 update now records 11 plus J# (or J1 as he now calls it). From his research and my own records, I have details of the following die pairs for 1875 (not including 1875H): 11 + J#, 11 + J2, 12 + J#, 12 + J2, 12 + L (rare) and 13 + J2 (very rare). As far as I know these last two are not yet recorded with any other "mule" pairing of 11 or 12, but again one day someone might find one! Plus there is also Mal Lewenden's 13# + L of which two are now known. But these have to be pretty much unc. to be sure as shown above...

Yes that is what I did. However, thanks to John I filled in enormous date runs of 20th C. Minor silvers in decent grade at reasonable cost. There were a couple of denomination date combos that never did work and still have 3-4 1908 shillings that weren’t up to it as examples. But he did notify me of some very rare patterns which sold at sensible prices that would not be possible to replace nowadays and for these also I have been grateful. And for some reason (chance?) he would occasionally find the odd exceptional piece similar to the OP that would have me wondering at the source and oddly not particularly favoured in his catalogue descriptions or priced higher than other lesser pieces.

I was looking in my coin cabinet and noticed this 1920 halfcrown I had forgotten about. While not trying to compete with Vicky Silver's example it is still a reasonable example with the tip of the King's ear well struck and the lions faces on the reverse although there is some weakness at the top of the shield. I think some people are attracted to te1920 issues.,including myself as it represents a major change in UK coins. The marks on the reverse are not scratches but dirt.

NGC get plenty wrong ,some more so than others. The coin label has now been changed and the coin not mine ,imagine getting this back 😂

I cannot fathom why a counterfeit should be so desirable? It has a little bit of kudos from being in W. Wilkinson’s collection, but not £550 quid’s worth of kudos? I’m stunned! The nice Elizabeth coins are absolutely flying at the moment…no rhyme nor reason to it, simply crazy! Maybe it only takes just one person with unlimited funds to suddenly get excited about Tudor coins for a couple of years, buying all the nice bits…this could potentially skew the market for years to come? I can’t think of any other explanation for such a significant spike in prices?

I am amazed that a contemporary counterfeit is worth so much. What's the reason? I really regret not getting a decent E1 shilling (or even an E1 sixpence) years ago when the prices were not so crazy. It's outside my price range now unfortunately.

If I can remember correctly, this coin came from the late John Welsh who some may remember. Always funny getting coins from him as a good number had enthusiastic grades or preservation (LOL) but on the other hand coins such as this or a number of patterns he managed to get for me were also had. I am not absolutely positive and perhaps some know more but I think he got hold of a couple of the ex-Pretoria mint collection coins [somehow]....

The gold 4 set £5. £2, £1 and half sovereign 1937 proof set seems to have risen quite substantially in price over the last few years - as far as I can tell anyway. Quite a popular purchase.

Sixpence

A few cheap additions, mainly bought for the toning over the grade.

If you went to a restaurant and got refused entry, you wouldn't go back a second time. So why use Facebook if it is policed by a robot you can't discuss problems with? The internet is littered with 'Scunthorpe' problems and analogues thereof.

Please not! I prefer to rely on RI (real intelligence) and my human nuance - if I like the look of a coin and want to buy it, I will buy it. If not, I won't. I do not need to be "told" what grade a British coin is by a (frequently) American TPG, and even less so by some future computer algorithm. Or was this post created by ChatGPT? 😏

On the basis that every dog has its day, choose anything relatively unpopular. Silver threepences, maundy, halfpennies, farthings or anything small. Larger things are always popular because they are easier for people with bad eyesight to see. Two that are unlikely to become popular are quarter guineas and double florins (milled only) given there are only 3 and 13 varieties to complete a collection respectively.

It’s the clegs that are a pain around here, the brown winged ones. They get me several times a week. Most die. Jerry