Rob

Has the reverse die initially been inserted into the press 90 degrees out and then repositioned? i.e. is there any other legend that is displaced by the same angle or is it just this letter and therefore likely to be an engraving error?

That's because it is currently touring the UK and being held hostage by a supporter of Matilda.

Yes, I've got a couple of Beirut Victorian gold pieces, 1887 £2 & £5. The most obvious indicator being the off centre die axis, though a deficit of 4 milling lines on the £5 also helps together with missing finer detail. The gold purity is rumoured to be 0.89-0.895, but I haven't had this checked.

There is no 'complete' volume of mints and moneyers. what you have to do is buy the relevant specialist volumes for a particular issue or series and make your own list if you want a full one. It is however, still going to be out of date, though incrementally a little better than the one you made a decade ago, and the one ten years before that. Half of all Saxon/Norman (and for the most part the Plantagenet) coins come from the five main mints of London, York, Lincoln, Winchester and Canterbury. However, there are still rarities withing these mints as a result of fire/plague etc or mint closure and relocation on account of invasion.

The first quarter of the shield has notable differences in the shapes of the angle voids to the St. George's cross. It all looks a bit bulky and clunky to me.

Have a good one.

and the reverse. Look at the loop of the P and the amount of internal space is minimal on yours.

Looks iffy to me. Compared with mine the letters are far too thick even allowing for the high points worn nearly flat.

If you want detailed info then you have to accumulate a large number of papers/books, each covering a short period in time. Books tend to be written about a reign or a type, so a suitable example of one publication for the period you are interested in would be D F Allen's book on the Tealby coinage published in 1951. Won't come cheap though. If you look through the intro sections in Spink it lists the useful references for that particular period. The lists aren't exhaustive, but are a good start.

Could the 8 be over a misplaced 1? i.e. started the date too far to the right. I would have thought it was a bit late for such things as I think the mint were only adding the last two digits by hand at this point, but it looks a bit regular for a flaw and it is difficult to see how an 8 punch could give this appearance.

You have punched letters or numbers into the die. This produces an inherent weakness at the junction with untouched metal because you have effectively disrupted the stable lattice structure. This will allow accelerated flaw development or chemical attack along the stress lines. You often see thin line flaws along the bases or tops of punched in characters.

It looks like the 8 might have been punched to high originally, and then re-punched lower, to make it in alignment with the other characters..... Go with that

They are from different dies, so any coincidental agreement between the flaws is just that. The unclear one might be a 6 too given the trace of top loop, but I'm not totally convinced given the lack of LHS for a 6. The initial reaction was an underlying 7, but the angle is very badly aligned if this is the case. Again, not convincing.

The Frome hoard of 52000 Roman was kept intact, though I suspect there will be displays carved out of the total holding. The recent Buckingham find too. Sometimes they are kept in one place, sometimes they are shared around. The only consistent thing is that they are/will be kept away from the public and collectors. A lot of museums don't have anyone to look after the coins, they just fester in a shoebox or three. Blackburn museum is a good case. The Hart bequest in 1945 gave them some really choice and/or rare coins including Montagu's Petition Crown, but the collection languishes. In fact there isn't even a sylloge of it to put down on paper what is present in the collection. The idea that they are kept for the nation is a little disingenuous as there isn't sufficient spare manpower within the various museums to provide an overseer if a member of the public wants to have a look. There isn't even sufficient numbers to answer emails. When I wrote the article on the Weyl patterns, only the BM responded to an enquiry regarding any examples in their possession. Don't expect any answers unless you use Freedon of Information.

I think that happens more often than you realise. 'Sell a similar item' requires quite a few changes usually. It is also a good template for something completely different as you then don't have to keep typing in the same general blurb ad nauseum. Changes can be forgotten and the error missed.

Bet you they try to keep the hoard intact. It's bound to be considered treasure, so it may be that there will be no new material available. If they can keep 52000 Romans together, despite the condition, then the likelihood of them dispersing this lot is remote. William I PAXS pennies from the Beaworth hoard which changed the type overnight from rarest to commonest. Probably accounts for 95% of all known coins and as such the hoard list is a good proxy for absolute rarity of all dies. The Northumbrian Viking hoard at Cuerdale was later still in 1840. There will almost certainly be other examples

If they are washers then you should only expect prices around melt unless obviously worth something as a rarity and only a handful of dealers would want it. Trust me when I say the world is full of coins in this condition, which by extension means they are difficult to shift as a collectable. I am offered kilos of this type of material every month. Much goes in the pot.

When I've listed 1913 varieties (including all 4) in the past nobody gave a damn with no bids even starting at a quid. Now, assuming they aren't in decent grade I just throw them into bulk lots or the pot for melting.

Any foreign shipments get hammered now since they set the insurance limit at £250. Take out separate cover?

This is on a par with the Indian gentleman, who incidently is still sending his daily email.

If it had been Zimbabwean dollars it would have made sense (and a bargain to boot), but I'm struggling to think of what nationality pound they are referring to.

Has it been cleaned? The light bouncing off the detail looks a bit reflective for my liking. If it has been cleaned then it could well have left a residue that has picked up the fingerprint.

Graham Dyer wrote a number of articles in the BNJ during the 1980s and 90s.

Not so easy to mix and match styles as I understand. I agree a list is adequate, but the tail mustn't wag the dog. Returns from coins far outweigh those from catalogues simply on volume. Catalogues are offered pretty much as an at cost service given the amount of work required for something that sells for a quid or two in many cases. I'll never get rich selling catalogues, so I have no inclination to illustrate them all. The reason they had an auction house banner was that it looked better than a blank page. If you click on the logo it will give the same description as I had previously with contents, number of lots, plates etc.

Thanks. I'm glad someone's looked at it. It went live last Tues/Wed. Blame it all on nos. 1 & 4 as they did the donkey work. It is still a complete mystery to me. Need to reimage most of it and ensure that I only add things with a decent pic. We are still waiting for a ring light for the camera. And I'm going to try to have a permanent setup for pictures. A lot of the cheap stuff won't get listed as there's only so much patience in today's buyer and given the rapidity with which you get people clicking on and off sites it may not be productive to have a lot of cheap items without images. If you find any problems, please let me know.