Rob

Google Chrome did an update last night. Maybe that's the issue. Mine's a bit sluggish this morning.

According to Krause, Gambia did 5 0.925Ag 20 Dalasis silver proofs that year on various subjects (World Cup, Queen Mother, Endanged Wildlife, Mungo Park and Olympics 1996, but no other denominations for Mungo Park.

Things do genuinely go missing as opposed to joining 'The Collection of a Postman'. My parcel of stycas to Paris three years ago which ended up in Tahiti, and a couple of lots from a Heritage sale in June 2006 that did a 7 month tour of the world's postal service before returning to Dallas, both spring to mind. Very few properly tracked items go awol, and then I presume it's mostly down to being put in the wrong sack, or quite legitimately, the auto reader/sorter can't decipher the address label correctly.

Quite possibly. Venues are a mess at the moment. The regular bookings of pre-Covid are essentially cancelled and people are starting from scratch. Wakefield happened last month for the first time since lockdown in ................Huddersfield. No Wakefield in Huddersfield or Wakefield next month due to a prior booking - probably a Christmas party even if it is the end of November. Wakefield is back in Huddersfield for January and February with a possibility that Wakefield will be in Wakefield at the end of March, though sticking with Huddersfield given the better room lighting would be preferable. Simple.

Bloody good job they don't smoke then.

Which basically means that without being able to view because Kent is a long way to go and they no longer go to Wakefield, that bids will be few and far between from me. I'm not sure where it will be held, so will have to wait for the catalogue to arrive in order to find out. That doesn't look very good from the surfaces perspective. I've never seen a solid raised narrow rim before as they usually have some tooth detail. It would be good to see if the edge is milled as it should be

I'm going to say dye polishing lines - trying to remove the colour seen inside the crown.

Looks undergraded at aEF. Mine is better, and was previously in a 66 slab ex Terner. Apologies for the faulty auto-focus.

There are a lot of people out there who refuse to accept that these are modern copies. A few days ago I was asked by someone who wanted me to authenticate some American 1940s cent rarity. I recommended he use PCGS or NGC as I knew nothing about US coinage and US coinage was their bread and butter. He said he wanted a professional to do this as he had no confidence in them. He had paid his subs to both companies and submitted a load of coins as he had all the rarities - 1933 penny, 1954 penny...... and they hadn't authenticated a single one. So he reiterated he wanted a professional appraisal. I suggested he use PCGS or NGC as US coinage was their bread and butter. I could go on...........

Buy two or three, mix and match the trays to suit your requirements, and move the surplus on.

Or this 1697B halfcrown has both large and small rust spots on the obverse.

And this 1762 quarter guinea has a few on the obverse too

The only real option if the coin is genuine is a rusted obverse die. It is somewhat comforting to see there are no spots on the reverse which you would expect to see if it was a cast copy, as casting bubbles would almost certainly be on both sides. Rust spots can be big or small. Here are a couple of coins from rusted dies. A Henry VII angel with a heavily rusted obverse.

Could be the same situation as with the dump halfpenny no obverse stops, where I suspect that a guide stop was lightly tapped in, but was never completely entered, leaving you with just a pimple that could easily be filled. To be a genuine 'no stops' I wouldn't want to see a trace of anything, even in high grade, and as a result I think the jury is still out as to whether it really exists.

Philip Hunt, whose collection of halfcrowns was purchased in part by Colin Adams in 2000 (who regretted in hindsight not buying the lot), with the remainder dispersed through Studio Coins (Stephen Mitchell). White tickets written with a black felt tip pen. I don't know if any other sizes were used, but one is 33mm and the other 39mm. The reverse is blank.

I remember being at the Baldwin's sale when he bought the P1236. He was sat in the middle, front row and I was by the window with Mick Martin behind. When he bid twice what we both thought was reasonable, we looked at each other and thought 'who is this geezer?' We both said at the time, we aren't going there. Rare coin though and the first time either of us had seen one.

Not sure about that. He only had 14 1797 pieces whereas Colin had 44 lots. With the gold penny you are at the mercy of when one appears.

I was pleasantly surprised at some of the prices today. I bought 3 lots today all for me - the W3 Y sixpence, which means the ex-Slaney coin will be returning to Manchester after nearly 2 decades on holiday in East Anglia. Also bought the 1821 6d and finally, the 1837 threehalfpence, which wasn't on my list, but it would have been rude not to bid at that price.

That's a fairly serious mismatch of tickets and raises questions. Obviously they are completely unrelated to the coins, but the prices of the ticket items is not insignificant and certainly considerably higher than the coins seen. The half pound is a four figure coin. The halfcrown pictured is a three figure coin. The shilling is a regular Tower issue (not Aberystwyth), and as such a hundred or more in value depending on the condition of the reverse compared to an Oxford 6d that books at £250 in Fine and £800 in VF. Is there any indication on the other side of the tickets to say where they came from? Nobody with a bit of knowledge would match these tickets with these coins. Were the other 3 correct? Could you put up pictures of both sides please of all the tickets.

Some of those prices were simply bonkers. I had a shortlist of 5 pieces. The gilt 2d (lot 11) cost someone nearly 8500 all in!! The KH11 I was willing to go 2000-2500, but 5K hammer? A couple of the gilt Moore pieces used to be mine (lots 157 & 160), but I sold them in 2009 because I couldn't live with them. Today they sold for 1200 & 1900 hammer, and I know which one is the nicer of the two. The Godless patterns all went for 6-13K! I think I'm losing the plot.

Many thanks.

Looks like it is missing the last page with James II onwards - the last two images are duplicated.

That will be the Weyl patterns. As I wrote in the article about 10 years ago, I think they are mostly unique with the exception of the aluminium pieces documented in the Murdoch sale. There was also an 1887 (unspecified metal) penny listed in the bronze and copper section of the Cholmley sale in 1902 which I found after publication. This sale took place less than a month before Murdoch died, and it may or may not be the same as the one that was sold in the latter's sale. Whatever, it debunks the theory that the Weyl patterns were struck especially for Murdoch, as it is inconceivable he would have disposed of something produced uniquely for him whilst keeping the rest. Freeman also omits those struck in tin.

The Soho produced bronzed coinage was typically consistently coloured. Taylor's restrikes showed much more variation in the quality of the bronzing. That is what I was showing earlier with the P1161 with mottled toning, which was one of his earliest attempts made before the dies had the rust polished off the surfaces. The Moore patterns are a separate issue, but given they were produced at various times over a 26 year period, you would expect some variation for the different die states in the same metal. Moore's bronzing appears to be a bit darker than Taylor's, albeit from a limited sample size. Given Moore's affidavit to the effect that a specific number of coins were struck in specific metals on specific days in September and December 1886, it should be possible to identify the copper and bronzed pieces purely from those with Peck's obverse B. The coronetted head P2135 is only known in copper. Again, that should aid differentiation if you had them side by side. You also have to consider whether the surfaces seen are a result of storage conditions. I can think of a few patterns with slightly impaired surfaces, which is why I said you can't take what I said as definitive. FWIW, my P2106 has a couple of tiny light blotches, but is certainly not copper as the majority of the surface is better, being evenly toned.

Both Taylor and Moore were producing bronzed pieces up to the mid-1880s. The process has to be the same as for medals, or for that matter, mint toned farthings and pennies. The colour differences will probably be down to the list of solution ingredients.