Peckris 2

Strange. To my eyes the treated coin is DARKER.

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.

They're unquestionably different. The rare coin you bought has noticeably more wear, which you can see clearly on Britannia's robes.

Three questions: 1. where do you get sodium sesquicarbonate from? 2. Presumably filtered water (Brita) counts as chlorine-free? 3. dabbing with a soft towel would do instead of acetone to remove water?

OMG, I didn't know that. When did it stop being Spink?

It's possible they were hoarded for silver value, but if that was the only reason you'd expect the majority to be George V 1911-1919. I don't know when your grandad was getting these, but certainly in the 1920s (when silver hoarders were rife) actual coin collectors didn't rate George V (or even Edward VII) as collectable, as they were 'too modern'. There seems to be a strong element of that here. ( <--- irony : "Coin Hoarder" )

Dr Larry of 'lions and lambs' fame?

I can't make much sense of what I can see. However it looks fascinating, good luck finding out more about it!

do you have pictures of the other side?

Oh yes, I see it. That's a classic die crack/flaw.

First, the As : do be aware that the legend on farthings is very small so the serifs on - e.g. - a letter A will tend to join together after very little wear. This is quite normal. As for the NIA line, I'm not seeing it - can you post a larger reverse picture please?

Americans love the 'evasions' so would possibly snap up the 1775? As for the 1773, it's worth keeping - I've never seen anything that size before, so even if a fake it's got great novelty value! The 1882H is nice enough to keep though only worth a few £.

1882 were nearly all minted by Heatons and therefore carry the H - a few were minted in London (just to test the new electronic presses?) and are very rare. I'm baffled by the George III coins though - pennies weren't minted until 1797, "cartwheel" type. There's no 1773 or 1775 pennies, but there were halfpennies which are noticeably smaller than bun pennies unlike your 1773. The 1775 looks very wrong and is probably an 'evasion' type, i.e. a contemporary forgery produced in the US. The 1773 "penny" looks more like a genuine halfpenny should apart from the size , but is also probably wrong - REX is wider spaced than on a genuine example.

It's just that the "penny" goes back such a long way - from the denarius (the d of £sd), through the stater, and through medieval times to the present day. It's still the basic curreny unit below 'pound', but the 1p piece is a poor descendant.