Rob

Many characters are composites of small straight and curved punches, so reversing a 4 is easy.

Couldn't afford to bid on anything before lot 100 in case I got carried away and won something for a few K leaving me bereft of funds. Charles I Boar's head mark is not the easiest to find. The largest BH population is the W/SA 6d reverse 1 with nine; two of which are in the BM, one in the ANS and another two which are highly undesirable leaving 4 to choose from, but I've already got a tower both sides sixpence. There is a B-6 shilling in the BM, but I've never seen another and in any case I need a B obverse shilling for the bird mark, leaving just the two halfcrowns above to choose from. Hobson's Choice really given I don't know where the Ryan coin is.

A bit of a bloodbath at times in the Brian Dawson halfcrown sale with the three nice Shrewsburys all making 16K hammer. With the cheapest hammering at 5K and the other two 6K, they weren't exactly a bargain. The ex Bridgewater House galloping horse Exeter hammered at £40K, but the currency 1645 galloping horse only made 24K hammer, despite being unique. Lot 52 was a surprise at 4600 hammer against an estimate of 1000-1200 and lot 60, a 1645 Oxford with reversed 4 in the date an even bigger surprise at 4800 hammer against an estimate of 500-700. The nice Worcester C13 hammered at 17K and the 'Cannonball' made 13K. Somebody lost the plot on the CHST below at 8500 and the beautiful pattern on the cover, lot 119, hammered at 34K. The ever so nice Chas.II second coinage lot 125 made 30K hammer and in the milled section the 1726 made 9500. On the plus side, I did get the one I wanted and could afford - the W/SA Boar's Head reverse I-40, ex Walters (1932) 529, Lockett 4226 & Asherson 114. Despite some obverse graffiti and a few scratches, it is still the higher grade of the two known, the other being Morrieson 564 and Ryan 1316.

A few hundred pounds and you can cover most bases.

Henry VII coins use trefoils, saltires and rosettes for stops where these are applied. You need more literature.

It was experimental. The testoons also show a wide range of dies. A testoon reverse was also paired with a groat obv.

The other greyhound reverse die is the Motcomb coin (below) with the im at 9 o'clock. As far as I am aware, both these two are unique for the reverse die. At the time of the Montagu sale my coin was considered unique, but a handful have appeared since then, including those in SCBI 23. The above was considered rare enough to be illustrated in Montagu (wax on rev) and although subsequent coins have come to light, GH groats in either pure or muled form are still extremely rare.

Guaranteed to be a lot of dies. Potter & Winstanley note 16 obverse dies for no mark, lis and Greyhound's Head, but give up when it comes to Cross Crosslet. For what it is worth, they list 7 dies each for no mark and Lis, plus another 2 for Greyhound's Head. Crosslet is much more common. As far as the reverses go, you can reasonably expect a minimum of twice the number of obverse dies. Greyhound's Head being the rarest and hence the simplest case, the sylloge has an example of dies 15/16 (nearly identical) plus 3 GH reverses from 2 dies including muled marks. Add to that my GH rev. (below) plus another not in the Ashmolean gives a total of 4 GH rev. dies I know for certain. You are unlikely to be looking at more than another one or two reverses, if they do indeed exist. A back of the fag packet calculation assuming 1:2 obv:rev gives a total of 50 or so rare mark dies for both sides, plus a guesstimate of say 100 crosslets would give a total of 150ish tentative dies for all marks. If someone wants to do the survey, then we can plumb in the numbers and obtain a more precise estimate of the number of dies.

Not 115 individual dies, but coins. Some dies are shared, and no, I'm not going to work out the exact number. In any case I know the list is not exhaustive.

Not strictly mine, but an octagonal marked Potosi 4R that I sold a few years ago and recently bought back in. Rare coin.

Plenty of dies exist for the tentative issue, and a shedload more for the 3 band crown. The height of the bust varies. There are 27 tentatives in SCBI 23 (Henry VII coins in the Ashmolean), and a total of 115 profile groats of both types.

Looking for a Guatemala, Chile and the two Spanish mints.

and the reverse

Lima 8 Reales

I've got one of those too. Maybe not 45000, but probably 10000 in a 6' high pile of boxes.

I expect at least one die would have been made for each denomination for the coming year. After all, it is only the reverse that's new. After that, it is just a question of testing it.

Well done Sherlock.

What figures were used at the time to compile inflation? January sales clear the decks for the new year's stock - when restocking you would think it a good time to introduce the latest models/designs which are things that normally command a premium. i.e. is the upturn in inflation in March/April a function of business cycles based on the above with lower than average prices being replaced by higher than average prices? I can't see the inflation being related to the tax year for many items.

It is E/R in terms of relief. The R is much lower relief.

Of which probably the best example is the 1817 GEOE shilling. There isn't a person on the planet who would replace the correct R with an E.

I'm sure it would generate interest, and wouldn't be difficult to compile, but the cost of a print run means you would be in danger of spending a lot of money and sitting on the books for a long time. It wouldn't be like CCGB where you have a flimsy paperback, which presumably has quite a low unit cost, but rather a hardback printed on better quality paper with its attendant costs. There wouldn't be any point in producing something printed on loo roll because it wouldn't need to be updated very often. You would be looking at a RRP somewhere between 50 & 100 which most would refuse to pay. There is also the terms of reference to consider. Do you include proofs for non-public set years? I also thought about producing a concordance book. Super boring, but fundamentally useful, to the extent that it ought to be a staple for anyone doing research. The cost is a major stumbling block for the simple reason that most people want the info, but are rarely willing to pay for it. Consequently nobody can be a***d to do the spadework other than for personal use. There are plenty of books already in existence. Do I get asked for them? Nope.

Presumably the 5 was entered and subsequently corrected with an 8.

There is no general reference, and more unrecorded pieces appear all the time. Most people with an interest in patterns will generate their own reference lists from the usual books, supplemented with observations from auction catalogues. Despite the desire and expectation of a 'complete' reference volume, there is insufficient interest to produce a comprehensive list. i.e. you can write the book, but relatively few collectors will be willing to pay for it - a request for 'Is it recorded?' or 'What is it?' is a regular question on this or any other forum.

I don't think it is hypocrisy so much as a free for all. Rule #1. Party politics takes precedence over running the country. Rule #2. You have a parliament that disagrees with the decision of the referendum and will do anything to stop it being implemented. Rule #3. Just as the country was divided across race, class, gender or whatever, so is Parliament. You have two main parties that are pretty much split down the middle when it comes to the official party line. Without coherent party plans there are 640ish individual plans. Occasionally two MPs coalesce around a certain point when they inadvertently discover their ideas are similar, but by and large the entire corpus of MPs acts as individuals. TM clearly decided that she was going to negotiate her idea of Brexit without taking into consideration the people she assembled around her, let alone the other 600+ alternative views of Parliament, nor the 30-odd million visions of the voting public. That's why the agreed document p'd off so many. It's crap with us having to pay heavily for the privilege of being told what to do without a say, but then again, so would be the appeal of rejoining the EU at great cost or leaving at different costs if zero planning has been done - which I wouldn't put beyond them. A modicum of planning, if it has been done, could get us away safely. Hope springs eternal. There will be be a solution to this - there always is, but I wouldn't like to hazard a guess where it will come from given Westminster is sort of not in control of anything. My starter for 10 would be to remove the problem at its source - blow up the HoC so that the country can function again. 60+ million heads are better than the defective communal brain cell running the country at present. Maybe our best hope lies in a modern day Guy Fawkes.