1949threepence

Same here Ian. High grade 1856 OT pennies seem distinctly rarer than high grade 1843, 1849, 1860/59 currency, and 1839 & 1853 proofs. Even at low to middle grades they are hardly ever seen. I did notice an a/UNC specimen on offer from Dave Craddock a year or two back (for about £1600 I think), but hadn't read until the e mail had been in the in box for a day, and on enquiry, it was, as expected, gone. All the more frustrating, looking at your chart above (for which many thanks by the way), where is can be seen that they formed over a third of the 1856 total.

It depends which year and date type. But either way, I think Ian @alfnail would be far better placed to answer your question than me.

Thanks Richard.

Thanks chaps, small date it is.

That was my immediate thought too. But 1856 small dates invariably seem to sort of symmetrically lean into each other. This one doesn't - although might be an optical illusion.

1856 - large date or small date? I can't quite place it either way. Thanks in advance

Nor me until a few minutes ago. It is very widely available. But the hardback version now seems to be as rare as Hen's teeth. Abe books had one, but it's now sold.

I think the blue one shown above is the paperback version, which is also readily available on Amazon. I too have the hardback, bought in 2009, and not for sale

The cynic in me still thinks it's a deliberate plant to draw people in. Did you ever give feedback?

I just did an Amazon product review, and got this in reply. I mean, are they truly having a larf, or what?

I don't think I ever posted it on here, Ian. Maybe discounting it as an "average" coin. But here it is, along with the old e bay purchase record. Was very, very lucky with this as I just happened to be in my e mail in box when Dave's e mail came through, so clicked on it immediately. Was calling him 3 or 4 minutes later. Makes up for the several previous times when I've missed out as I've not realised until a day later that he'd sent one.

Probably so. No doubt someone will buy it.

Talking about large rose pennies, I just saw this large rose, large date specimen on offer by Cooper's Coins for £675 (link). That seems to be slightly on the expensive side. I got mine in April 2021 (also off e bay) and marginally better, for £155. Don't think they're desperately rare. Although you don't see that many on offer

Hi Bob, I remember we discussed Carole Towler once before. Whilst casually looking through some old Coin Monthly magazines, I spotted an article about her in the February 1969 edition, which includes two photos of her - one with her husband. Thought you might possibly be interested. She looks about 30ish there, so she'd no doubt be in her 80's now. Anyway here is the article, with separate close ups of the the pics:-

For Monday..........(with apologies for the F word. I would have said buzz off or clear off)

Received it today. Would grade about fine. I was slightly concerned that it might be a large rose, large date specimen, as so many times the two (large and small date) are confused. But I needn't have worried. It's the real deal. The bulbous end of the date 5 top bar is slightly worn, but still there under magnification. Plus the other indicators are in place, such as the die crack through the 5, some die clash marks off Britannia's right arm, and the colon being closer to the F of DEF. Apologies for picture size disparity. I had this sorted, but the solution no longer works, unfortunately.

Not sure of that, but from what Dave said, the police aren't experiencing much success when it comes to catching such criminals, so it pays to be properly insured, if you possibly can be. I don't know how you can avoid robberies outside coin fairs, unless there is a police presence. But they're far they appear more concerned with "offensive" comments on twitter, then with tackling violent crime. At any rate that's the perception.

Actually I had a good old chat with Dave when I called him. Obviously he was involved in a robbery in January, and he was telling me that another dealer, Malcolm Ellis, was robbed of his gold stock amounting to about a quarter of a million pounds. Appalling.

I've ordered it. Was in my e mails when Dave's list arrived this time, instead of hours behind and finding what I wanted had already gone.

Thanks Jon & Pete - the coin was sold by Baldwin of St James on 27th October 2020 for £130k - lot No 1047 - link. So does this mean that Baldwins have acquired it again recently? Obviously the hand held pic above is not an official catalogue pic.

Very interesting. What a little gem of a book to stumble across. Some of the coins have decreased massively in real terms. For example the 1950 florin advertised on there for £6.50 in UNC and worth only £7.00 in UNC today (both prices absolute terms) The 1934 Crown has kept up more, but still doesn't match inflation. Conversely many coins have increased by orders of magnitude in real terms since then.

Thanks. There are also distinct patterns of wear apparent in dies 3 & 4 (not die 2 as the known specimens are in a better state of preservation). On the die 3 examples, the reverse fields show a common pattern of wear, extending down to affect the ship and lighthouse, and on the die 4 examples, the word "ONE" on the reverse shows consistent signs of wearing away.

Great, thanks.

It'll be interesting to see what the provenance back to 1871 actually is. Hopefully we'll find out when Baldwin's list it.