Rob

I googled his name and address during lockdown and it came up with the standard solicitor's advert in the Gazette(?) asking for anyone with a claim on the estate to contact them. I think the period runs for a month or three. That covers their backsides and after that there is no obligation to pursue a claim. I wasn't in regular contact, and just found out by chance.

When I was young it was a proper noun. None of this lower case nonsense.

Peter died on the 23rd July 2019

I think you have to put it into context for bronze pennies. Take a collector of pennies in 1894 as an example. You are still in the period of the bun head, so the design is essentially the same as in 1860. The value of an 1860 penny would be little more than a few pence even in 1894, so it is unlikely any of the major collections would have an example. A comparison would be a modern day major collection that had a 1988 to 2023 penny date run in it! Nobody would give a damn. You have to wait until the publication of things like Peck to provide the documentary background for what is essentially a date run collection with a few varieties for certain dates. A few acknowledged rarities with a healthy following will also help as it generates interest from people with deeper pockets. A collection has to be practically complete as per a reference and in high grade (or one of the highest available in the case of rarities) to become a recognised major collection. Historical major collections were type collections with a good smattering of 'best knowns'. It is therefore unlikely that many bronze pennies will have a pre-Peck provenance, and I would suggest that any proofs probably came from either Montagu's extensive milled collection sold through Spink in 1890 (and significantly, documented), or Saward (1910).

Here you go. A penny, albeit silver and hammered, but a decent provenance. Six quid in Cuff. J D Cuff 1041, Sotheby 8/6/1854 E Wigan, collection bought Rollin & Feuardent 1872 H Webb 309, Sotheby 9/7/1894 H Clark 155, Sotheby 23/5/1898 A A Banes 57, Sotheby 30/10/1922 E H Wheeler 342, Sotheby 12/3/1930 C Corbally Browne 409, Sotheby 25/3/1935 W L Raynes 473, Glendining 15/2/1950 Spink 6, lot 589, 10/10/1979 R D Shuttlewood 301, Spink 15/3/2001 C Comber

Welcome to the forum. I have no idea as I've not seen one, but can't see it being a barred U. Maybe an A over an inverted A (or two)? I can't see it reading GRVTIV or BRITVNNIVR, as that would make the 6 o'clock news.

Posted on a war thread. Brilliant! This year I bought a Russian advent calendar. Every time you open a window an oligarch falls out

Not much has changed in the past 10 months thousand years. They still have total contempt for anything not from Moscow/St. Petersburg and who doesn't believe in the complete superiority of that genetically inbred clique. Svitlana (our guest) had a message a couple days before Christmas from her sister bemoaning the Russians were hitting Kherson with phosporus (probably thermite), had closed down power and water, and that shelling had increased approx. 10-fold in the run-up to Christmas. From her brother - he had been rotated out of the grinder just in time for Christmas, but still the Russians throw live meat into the mix. Maybe a 1/4 million deaths in an attempt to satisfy the paranoid ego of a demented dwarf. It's incredibly sad. On several occasions it has been said by Russians that the whole world is against them. This map suggests the world is more informative than the Russian Ministry of Disinformation.

It's where he lived

I think the dividing line between collectable and not in restrikes or non-circulating issues are whether original dies were used. Modern ones could be made in China or wherever and cast copies are just that, but Taylor for example actually had the Soho dies, some of which were unfinished when he acquired them in the sale following closure in 1848. We are talking about things that weren't intended for circulation or to deceive, that were struck in small numbers and are part of numismatic history. At no point have they been put forward misleadingly as legal tender. The research has been done and the market has decided that they are collectable. One day, someone will plough through and document the current Chinese output and they too will have their enthusiasts. Probably just a reminder that there is no right or wrong way to collect, rather a reasonable or not price to pay for something.

You set out your collecting criteria and buy whatever ticks the boxes, irrespective of whether there's 1 or millions of them. I've got a couple dozen things which are either unique or the only one available, but also coins of which billions were struck, such as a clad steel penny to tick the eponymous box. The vast majority are somewhere in the middle, but all have equal status within the collection as value or rarity aren't defining parameters.

Just picked this up in a lot. Quite a decent effort, but cast and the weight (2.25g)/excessive thickness a bit of a giveaway. Interestingly, it came with a hand-made paper ticket giving the description and on the other side, 'Windsor 15-8-56', so clearly this one has been around for quite a while. Whether bought in Windsor, or from someone called Windsor I'm not sure, but it's the sort of place that you would associate with souvenir shops stocking such items.

This is going to end in tears. So much for the CSTO. It looks like it's a Kazakhstan short of a full half dozen whatever the official position. Watch the video posted by Karl Bildt. It's clearly the reason for the Kazakh tanks moving north, and they aren't going to support Russia. https://twitter.com/carlbildt/status/1601900702862811136?ref_src=twsrc^google|twcamp^serp|twgr^tweet

Prescient and well worth listening to. https://twitter.com/Nturfknbsn/status/1599865377164779521

The Lauer factory was flattened by the RAF and as far as I'm aware the records lost

Russians who want their snow cleared quickly this winter can just write "no to war" in it.

She was not amused on many occasions. The 12 jubilee head pattern halfcrowns dated 1884 bear testament to that. That bust took 3 years to be acceptable, only to be superseded 6 years later. I don't think she liked it from the beginning, as the 1888 and 1890 pattern crowns were the first incarnation of the eventually adopted veiled head bust.

Peck was definitely not mainstream literature for the masses. At the time the second edition was printed, you were looking at around a fiver for a book. The same price as Seaby's were asking for a gFine Elizabeth I milled 3d or an EF Chas.II 2d. Colin Cooke once said to me that many of his customers didn't have reference books, and a good number didn't even have a copy of Spink/Seaby. The reluctance to 'waste' money on useful books is an age old problem. If you rely on CMV or whatever, coverage of varieties is a bit varied, with some pennies and milled coinage listed, but Civil War coins and hammered coins are not. Charles I Oxford halfcrowns for example are listed as from £350 Fine and £975 VF. That's it, one line to cover all varieties for everything. 100 years ago, Morrieson listed 102 varieties of Oxford halfcrowns in his BNJ article and that number is now larger. The same applies for all hammered coinage. Before I refocused the collection in 2008 I had a list of over 2200 halfpenny varieties documented or observed and over 1500 shillings, but that is hardly mainstream interest level. At that level, any discussion rapidly leads to the eyes glazing over and the shutters coming down. I suppose these days it is the internet that has become the equal to the written word and made the information available to a wider audience as it is searchable.

Same applies. Still a recent phenomenon. A fraction of a mm difference in character size or spacing isn't an in your face thing that people who only want an example or two of a type are likely to notice. Variety collection is almost exclusively driven by literature, not from a desire to do the basic research. Nerds in every field have always been the exception to the masses, but until pen is put to paper, their research is shared only by a few interested people that bounce ideas off each other. They are the only people likely to have a big enough database of examples.

Supply and demand. He has one available and none of you need one. It's a niche product. 10 years ago there was virtually no mention or discussion of wide and narrow dates, and I would suggest that demand is determined by the number of specialists rather than the average collector. If the general references used by the masses don't include these as varieties, then people are not aware.

Doesn't look like it. 8/6 is quite obvious.

Although there are examples of clashed dies in all reigns for milled coinage, the numbers really seem to increase in the Victorian era (possibly due to a large increase in production). But somewhat intriguingly, they drop off significantly in the 1880s. In fact, I can't remember seeing more than the occasional piece from the last 120 years or more. I wonder if this is connected to the refurbishment of the mint in 1882? At that point, the old Soho equipment installed in 1815 was replaced. So 30 years down the line, perhaps the mechanism for introducing the blank became temperamental? It would be useful to know when Boulton stopped making coin presses, as this may have had implications for repairs and replacement parts. Quality example whatever.

thanks

Losing the will to live here. For 1860, J & JA are given as sign on cape and JB as sign on cape away from edge. It's obviously not very important as it isn't illustrated, but please could someone give me a clue what the difference looks like given all are supposedly the same obverse D. Next question - what is special about the four repairs to Jd, Je, Jh and Jk which caused Gouby to list them? These are just a few examples amongst many of legend repairs, so what sets them apart? e.g. this thing here has repairs to CIDBRITRF&D, with the first T of BRITT partially filled, and the number of F10s produced dictates there will be many examples of repairs, to the extent that it's questionable whether they are worth recording as varieties for the general collector unless doing an in-depth die study. Ta.