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Bawbees are notorious for having circulated deep into the 18th century by which time they were barely identifiable - so this rather decent 1679 example is an exception to the beater bawbee rule.

I don’t like using proprietary products because I don’t know what’s in them, and I believe VerdiCare is difficult to obtain in the UK anyway. After some research on what the British Museum used to use to treat bronze disease and verdigris on large objects, like cannon, I tried the technique for myself on this battered 1799 half-penny. For anyone interested, the treatment was 100 minutes at 90°C in a 2% w/w solution of sodium sesquicarbonate in chlorine-free water. Followed by a rinse in chlorine-free water to remove the chemical and then a rinse in acetone to remove the water. The heat is needed as the reaction is impossibly slow at room temperature.

It's definitely a London coin, but not class 1 or Henry II because the N and D are ligated (joined together). If memory serves me right that feature first occurred on class IVa, which was issued under Richard I, but the lettering style isn't right for that. My guess would be class V or VI (so John or Henry III) and judging by the position of the O of ON probably a moneyer with five letters in his name. A bit more research could probably tie the class and maybe even the moneyer down a bit. Edit: you beat me to it Ukstu; I was glancing through my copies of Mass and Slevin for inspiration, but we seem to broadly agree on class 5 or 6.

Obviously this bawbee from King William III from 1697 circulated as a halfpenny deep into the 18th century given it's wear pattern

Not the best example but an unusual pairing. Withers 411 Bradford Workhouse counterstamp on a Samuel Fereday Bilston token.

The verdigris may not show very well in the photo. Below is another "before" photo under different light. Work is in progress on coins with more obvious/stubborn verdigris. I will report back!

cheers Stuart 👍

many thanks for looking into this, the previous owner was a long time ago before I would have got it circa 1990's so Its great to finally have these looked and corrected, as all that I now have identified live in a page with others and I retain all of the information with the coins...albeit parts of coins .... very well done and much appreciated 🙏

Bit later in my opinion H. Its giving Class 5c - 6a vibes based on the lettering style and what i can see of the beard strokes. The S as well with the little tails & lack of pellet in the middle of it.

This seller needs to decide if this is 'no H' or die 11. Or just a plain old 1882 with an unbarred H. Lol. https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/168180267318?mkevt=1&mkpid=0&emsid=e11021.m164380.l178264&mkcid=7&ch=osgood&euid=889a2ac81f444ef88a0f7c3bcfce70c8&bu=43203014853&ut=RU&exe=0&ext=0&osub=-1~1&crd=20260223054114&segname=11021&recoId=168180267318&recoPos=1

Another well loved bawbee but from King Charles II and dated 1678. And another beater bawbee, this from 1677.

OK - in the Phaidon series by Elizabeth Hallam as editor I find I also have "Chronicles of the Wars of the Roses" which covers Richard II in 1377 to Richard III in 1485. By Publisher Heinemann and collated by Anne Savage there is a great translation of "the Anglo Saxon Chronicles", which covers from the end of the Roman occupation to Henry II. I find this particularly useful as many TV documentaries quote the Anglo Saxon Chronicles in snippets, so it is good to be able to see them in full translation. (The chronicles were written by a series of monks over hundreds of years in old English, and were usually recorded withing only a few years of the actual events, so reasonably contemporaneous.)

Windows is covered above, but on Mac OS X the free bundled Preview will resize an image and let you know the file size in Kb.

It's a farthing. You are probably being misled by the size which is only a bit bigger than decimal pennies today. Victorian copper pennies were huge!

If anyone is still after this let me know i have a digital copy you can have. Stu.

Yes your spot on Paddy, although what about this one 😂

Something is wrong here I think. There shouldn't be any 1838 pennies? Are you perhaps looking at a halfpenny instead? Both farthings and halfpennies for 1838 exist. (The changeover from Copper to Bronze means the copper halfpenny is larger than the corresponding bronze halfpenny, so an easy mistake to make.) Check the dimensions and weight of your coin.

Definitely two different coins, a slightly higher 9, but not from what I see the wide date with the high 9

Believe me, it was the same in the 90s after Spink took over, but some collectors still referred to it as 'Seaby'!

Hi, yes - it's the JH replacement (second) type.

Definitely different coins. A complaint is certainly in order, and negative feedback. I would point out to the vendor that the coin is still legally yours, and that it has unique features that make it identifiable in the future. However sadly legal action , even should the opportunity arise, would likely be prohibitively expensive. No harm in publicising the vendor if you don’t get redress. Jerry

James I Half Groat ..... ive been keeping away from the hammered pennies as Its tiring and needs a break for awhile.. I have others already identified of and fairly confidant that its ... weight 1 grm James I, Half Groat , Second Coinage 1621 - 1623 m.m. Thistle any comments welcome....🫡

Trying to correctly ID this coin to its subclass. So far I've got Randvlf at ilchester mint class 3. I can't decide if its IM 3 or IM 4. The Initial mark is cut through. The limbs look less pointy than IM 3 and more rounded i think but not 100 % sure. I know there is two types of IM 4 one is Horizontal the other Vertical according to Rod Blunts website. I think i can rule 3bc out as ENR is not ligated. Any ideas ? Thanks. Stu

Sifting through my bits and bobs and came across this one. Not listed in any books that i can find so one to mark down. Maybe a complete example will turn up one day who knows. Its a 1a4 obverse with the Seriffed X and a 1a3 reverse with a nice square E. Hvnfrei at York mint.

The other thing you have to consider is that what's left of the H has been artificially rubbed away on a worn penny in modern times, then the whole coin distressed in order to hide what was done.

Starting off, I owe you all a big Thank You...I came here 1 year ago and was recovering from a stroke... my reading and speaking has got better and my chaos has improved as well.... to a degree. Ive attached some photos of what's been paged and has put some order in place.... if the worse happen I'd hate to think what would have happen to these coins... The hammered coins (pennies) still cause problems for me and still there others to follow.... Sorry! 😟 once again a huge Thank You one and all for the support and clarification when assisting my queries, I wouldn't have been able to have got this far without it. Kind Regards "H"

To be fair, the chaos doesn't ever seem to subside. Sometimes you need to part ways with it for a while to regain the will to try and overcome it.

there was cupro nickel proofs in,1875, 1877, its such a shame the state of it and punched through, but what a find if it is, even in that state🤩

I think people get a bit worked up over the question of cleaning as the topic is somewhat nuanced. Every coin in circulation showing signs of wear has effectively been cleaned because the act of circulation ensures that contact is made with other surfaces which rub against each other. i.e. nothing different to taking a the use of chemical cloth to a coin and rubbing. That just speeds up the process. The only thing that is offensive in the eyes of most collectors is a case of a polished coin, with or without the use of chemical substances. Personally I love toning for the fact it gives added confidence that the surfaces have not been messed about with, but even that has a few caveats because silver dip will leave a residue on the coin which over time will give the piece in question a typically pinkish hue. Any coin in someone's pocket will end up from friction with lots of faint parallel lines, because they were there. Without polishing chemically, I defy anyone to see the difference between pocket rub and a soft cloth, though clearly it would be possible in the case of demonetised coins to use your loaf and conclude that not being in circulation any more, the only option left is deliberate. In the case of the Morgan above, if the surfaces aren't reflective, probably not other than 'cleaning' from circulation, because there is clearly wear to the high points.

What year is it, 187?. I imagine it's been plated by someone, possibly the same person that put a hole in it. The pics aren't that clear though. There were cu-ni proofs for some 1860/70s dates, so that's a possibility and perhaps the hole was made by someone who thought it was odd and wanted to see if it was like that all the way through. Need better pics and accurate weight to provide further clues.

Gotta love the large pennies from early in the reign of Victoria:

A new unlisted unofficial farthing variety which landed today. I believe it relates to the famous gun makers Holland & Holland but I'm yet to research properly. Thoughts and comments welcome