davidrj

1927 to 1936 reverse has the shorter thumb (as does the "1927" 1922) Long thumb, almost touching St george's cross is the norm for 1911 to 1926 David

Possibly Japanese silver, can you give me the weight, and I'll have a go Is this one coin or two? Bigger pictures would help David Can't find anything for certain in Kraus, their illustrations and yours show too little datail Could be something like these Suggest you try the British Museum or ask the folks at Oriental Coin Database

Nice bog head! Wonder whether cargo was bullion or coin

I'm confused too (nothing unusual there) The text refers to the limited edition proof, but this looks like a standard circulation £2 to me and PCGS would have added a P to the label surely? David

Possibly Japanese silver, can you give me the weight, and I'll have a go Is this one coin or two? Bigger pictures would help David

1894 penny David

Gouby lists the phenomenon for 1879, 1883, 1884, 1885 & 1886 Here's mine can't believe this is a die flaw, more likely metal flow similar to "ghosting" Anyone else got an example?

Handy Roman date converter David

Good picture here

?? Dracott, not heard of this reference before David

Interesting that Michael Gouby makes no attempt to catalogue date spacing prior to 1866 1866 seems to be the worst David

I would grade the pennies as "CLEAR DATE" which is an adequate description, I can't see a date on the florin, so I'd grade that as "SCRAP" David

The narrow dates in 1874, 1875, 1876, 1877, & 1879 are different dies to the normal wide dates of the same years. The most noticable difference being the narrow dates have a thinner lighthouse Date spacing appears to be variable over most of the bun (and the veiled head) series, and in general is random with respect to dies You need to get hold of a copy Michael Gouby's book for details of known combinations. Date spacing is regarded as insignificant by most collectors, but it's quite good fun to try and get the range for each date even with cheap very worn examples. For example I have 4 different 1871s (they are all crap though) David

Bet it never gets as big as the British thread. Just a thought True, probably Scott and I mainly David

If you search ebay for "magic" under coins, you'll find several £2 double head 10p double head all illegal mutilations of current coins David

Wow! Those guys are good! "Islamic-style magic coin from Malay Peninsula, probably first made in the 1950s and first reported in 1969. Front: Old man in long robe, holding walking stick (with sword-blade shape shaft), facing left, standing on ground; chair (?) behind man; Arabic inscription: Raj Kubsyugh. Back: Cannon with four wheels on ground; mountains in background and rock in foreground; Arabic inscription Raj 'Asr. Cribb, #263a: Described specimen was presented in the S.Semans collection, 47 mm in diameter." This interwebby thing is really useful at times! David

Not what I normally buy, but the design intrigued me £5 on Ebay, from a guy who normally sells Rumanian coins and stamps - he listed it as "unknown coin" 45mm cast brass, 30gm. edge plain This has been polished recently so scans poor Side 1 appears to show a 4 wheeled cannon defending a pass between two mountain ranges. Side 2 has this bizzare figure - ?a winged or cloaked ram, with a sword and an empty chair throne Script looks odd - probably gibberish Anyone got any ideas?? ?Modern fantasy ? temple coin ? tourist piece? David

I also posted this on another forum. Apparently the script is Malay Arabic, and the coin is possibly a "magic coin" produced in the 1950's now wading through Asian Coin Database to see if I can narrow it down David

I think it was about 12 months ago Peter, 1st time i heard about it was when the ebay seller alfnail was selling one on ebay, it was less than Fine grade and sold for 540 quid i believe. I think that there's more known than the 7 Michael Gouby has now noted. The guy who own this one in the 1st post has noted himself 7 already in various auctions, then there's his, plus the one davidrj found and the one i have so that's 10 so far.Maybe John Stephenson has one, maybe it's time to dig out those old 1863s and take a looksy Earlier than that Dave, Not mentioned by either Peck (1970) or Freeman (1985), but Gouby illustrates one in his 1986 book, rating it as R7 (Exremely rare) with a price of £40 in Fine, also listed by Satin as his No.46 (2003)

There's a bizzare one listed here david

Oh dear! I stand my belief that it's not a coin if I can't use it to buy a bottle of milk from the local shop David

I too have a load of crap duplicates that i've accumulated over the years, but have always been nervous about selling on Ebay, Is it better to list everything indvividually or make them into small lots that fit into standard postage rates? maybe a job for winter, when I can't get into the garden David

Both toning and corrosion are chemical reactions, but stress and crystal size will affect reactivity see Stress Corrosion "Stress corrosion cracking (SCC) is the unexpected sudden failure of normally ductile metals subjected to a tensile stress in a corrosive environment, especially at elevated temperature in the case of metals. SCC is highly chemically specific in that certain alloys are likely to undergo SCC only when exposed to a small number of chemical environments. The chemical environment that causes SCC for a given alloy is often one which is only mildly corrosive to the metal otherwise. Hence, metal parts with severe SCC can appear bright and shiny, while being filled with microscopic cracks." David

Interesting question! Possibly an/oily greasy deposit laid down on the coin when new, subsequent wiping deposit off could leave residue between the legend and the rim but allow the rest of the surface to oxidise. Many years later a collector gives it a good wash in soap and water Then again this could be total bullsh*t! Weird things happen to coins, I have this penny where part of the legend has become incuse. raised areas of a coin must suffer different pressures during the minting process than the field does, so I suspect there will be variations in the crystal size of the coin's alloy - under the right circumstances, such as long immersion in water, this could subtley alter the rate of chemical reactions. Any metallurgists lurking? David