Rob

The 1967 off-metals are probably the mint workers having a bit of fun as this coincided with the closure of the mint at Tower Hill and its relocation to Llantrisant. There are quite a few of them about. The 1868 cupro-nickel proofs were intentional as all denominations otherwise struck in bronze are known and it coincided with the introduction of cupro-nickel coins for Jamaica. Copper and bronze don't perform well in humid tropical conditions, so they switched to cupro-nickel for this reason. The same applied to a number of British possessions with similar climates. For example, here is a third farthing struck in cupro-nickel from the same period.

Ah, good. Thanks.

Possibly not noted before. Coincraft lists both A's unbarred but doesn't mention stops at all, so it would come under this reference (WMHD-065). I don't know whether Nicholson 049 had a stop or not and now the images are no longer available, so can't say. The die is different to both my unbarred A's obverses. Baldwins 47 lot 357 definitely has a stop.

If you could ever find one. They were made to be worn, and were, with pride. The likelihood of someone having one just to set aside as a collectible is not great.

Cleaning medallions doesn't affect the desirability as much as coins. They were things to be displayed, so the odd rub is only to be expected. Uncleaned original surfaces on a 2 or 300 year old medallion are somewhat rare and highly desirable. Medallion or medal collectors tend be less picky IMO.

But if it was just the bottom leg of the E missing, then you would fork out 400. People ask 'silly prices', whatever that means, because there are people willing to pay extra for something abnormal. Every dog has its day. You used to be able to pick up an 1839 proof set for £10-15. Today you might have to pay £180K because the market has lapped them up. Take the 1 off the front and reduce it some more and we will be approaching a realistic price based on rarity/desirability.

With a flower as the mark you only have Tower mint 1631 or Briot's first milled as the options because the Exeter rose marked sixpences are all dated 1644, and no other Provincial mint sixpences have this mark. I would be tempted to go with Briot 1st issue also given the style of bust, but the punctuation on the obverse is wrong and there is no rev. flower as the mark. A regular Tower mint issue would fit the legends but not the general style of the collar which seems more akin to those of the last Bristol/A/B mint style, nor the reverse square top shield which only appears as the date above from 1625 to 1630 before reappearing in group E sixpences with the correct cross ends. Rose marked patterns do occur for shillings, so a sixpence pattern is not out of the question.

'Finest known' is marketing hype based on a selective database. All the TPGs have finest knowns, but they are from mutually exclusive databases unless a coin has been crossed. Therefore, finest known usually falls flat on its face when you take all known examples into consideration. This is merely the numismatic version of lies, damned lies and statistics. Do your own homework.

lot 84, bought by Brown for £2/16/-. No further explanation. It was in a lot of two with the plume over Bell shilling on P4.T6

The original statement was actually reflecting the presence on the list of sellers of an old favourite, but could be interpreted in the way you did too. Either way it's a depressing sign of the times.

One dependable seller there - for all the wrong reasons.

£40 postage in the context of an £11K purchase is cheap. It isn't the postage that's stupid, rather the item for sale. If I ship an item valued at over £250 abroad, the PO no longer insure it. It has to go by Parcelforce as a parcel, and the cost of that is about £50 minimum, with some rates as much as £150 or so if the value is higher. People tend to automatically dismiss postage as a trivial amount, but the last few years have seen significant changes in the system. And if on eBay you also have to add on their fee and that of Paypal. Anything under £3ish and you are short changing yourself.

Just wondering out loud if the dots are the remains of a guide line to show where the legend should be given they run at a consistent level near the letter bases. A line could be scribed or it could be a series of light dots punched in with either subsequently polished out when work was complete.

Broken 3 punch? The missing bit added later?

Spink number is correct for the regular type, and the estimate is in the right ballpark too for this. Have to assume that somebody looked at the groats and took them all to be tentative issue pieces, despite S2258 having the word 'regular' in its description.

Nope. Tentative has two bands to the crown, this has three.

If they are too shiny then they have probably been cleaned. Natural lustre uncirculated coins are only ever likely to have brilliant fields and even that isn't always the case.

Both copies. People often 'find' these on sites when detecting, particularly those who sell on ebay. You might ask your partner if she is telling porkies about where she found them.

Anyone with a medal reference? Ta.

Looks ok to me, just not a very nice example with the crack and a weak portrait doesn't help. It's scarce, but not rare. Just because they are round does not mean they are iffy, in fact all the indicators point to some coins of this period being cut out similar to a pastry cutter in the form of a metal tube as you find numerous examples with no wear but a wavy flan, suggesting they have been forced from a tube using a rod. I'm assuming this is a detector find as an Ethelred Second Hand penny is not the first thing you would find around the house unless dug, in which case the best advice is to pick up a copy of Spink's coins of England or English Hammered Coinage c.600-1272 by J J North (this type being in volume 1). At a few pounds for a previous edition of the first, or 10-15 for the second on anything bar the final edition, it makes identification easy. Much easier than wasting a day trawling the internet for matching images.

No, Huth pattern. I've got one struck in iron as well.

Depends who wants 2700 for it. It is too much and doesn't look right to me. Have a look on Alibaba for 1934 crowns. I don't like the darkness under writing - What?

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Looks like a copy to me. The detail isn't sharp enough. The grade is also not very good, which considering they didn't circulate in the real world at the time, or at least only a very few did should raise eyebrows. Does it have a milled edge? Doesn't show if it has, A proper one will cost you money, but it will also have resell value. A copy might cost hundreds instead of thousands, but a dealer will give you a couple quid for it, and that only to obtain an example to compare. Buy a decent one from a reputable dealer, not ebay or Alibaba

Go to the Midland tomorrow. I'll have some with me.