JOHN

Thanks for the replies. Once I knew to search for Queen Mary coins I was able to confirm that it is a groat by comparing weight and size to many others online. Read a huge amount of history also and learned that Mary was the ruler that started the shift to better silver coinage but it was Elisabeth that pulled the silver based coins[25% silver] and replaced them with purer silver [.925]. One website stated that some of Mary's early coins were produced from remaining inventories of billon [25% silver] and shifted to good silver when the crap material ran out. The history is just amazing. I wish this coin could talk.Here is a link to some interesting reading and some pretty good pictures that I found while researching this coin. http://www.kenelks.co.uk/coins/tudor/tudor.htm Thanks again, John.

And the other side.

It is very thin, 24 - 25 mm diameter and weighs 1.9 grams. It appears to be silver. It has been bent, is cracked and has a chip missing. And the final question? Is it worth anything?

Yes Digger,I think it is about $2 Canadian per British pound so that should be fair.

John, Thank you very much for your valuable information What grading would you put on this mate? cheers Hi Digger,I will quote from the Charlton Standard grading guide for the Victoria Portrait. "F-12 The braid, along with the top knot design have lost sharpness. Braiding has begun to run together. The two twists of the top knot are merging. The central leaves of the laurel wreath show wear. VG-8 No design in braid around ear. G-4 The braid, laurel wreath, top knot and facial features are worn through. Basically what is left of the portrait design is a silhouette." I am not a coin grader even when they are in my hand so you will have to do your own assesment based on the above info. Hope this helps, John.

Hi Digger, That is a Canadian coin from the Province of New Brunswick. It had a mintage of 1,000,000 with two varieties, a short 6 or a tall 6. Yours appears to be the short 6 variety. The value is the same in lower grades though. G-4 ;$4 VG-8 ;$7 F-12 ; $10

Hi John, should have kept my source. I took the info from a Canadian coin site just over 3 years ago when I was looking into the likely planchet used for my nickle 3d.

It looks like a plated 3d as the Canadian planchet is a lot thiner, see my avatar. This nickel 3d which is part of my own collection has been confirmed by the Royal Mint to be an off-metal strike made from pure nickel. It weighs 4.52 grams and has a thickness of 1.5mm so is possibly a Peck 2371* although Peck considered his to be unique. As Peck's private collection was dispersed many years ago I have been unable to find the whereabouts of his example for comparison. Although it remains to be proven, a likely candidate for the flan used to produce this 3d was the Canadian 5 cent produced from 1942 initially in brass. The reason brass was initially used was because the Ottawa mint was not able to handle the high pressures needed to mint nickel until the1946 5 cent appeared. Another fact that leads me to believe this coin may likely be a trial piece for the Canadian 5c is that at this time the dies used by that mint were produced here in the United Kingdom and a pair of old 3d dies would ideally present themselves for modification for producing trial pieces. Sorry Gary, Your info about the Canadian nickle is wrong. Here is a word for word quote fron the 2010 Charlton Standard Catalogue of Canadian coins. "UNCROWNED PORTRAIT, BEAVER DESIGN, 12-SIDED, TOMBAC, 1942 Nickle is an important component of stainless steel and other alloys needed for producing war materials, so WW II put a great strain upon Canada's nickel producers. By 1942 it was decided that nickel would have to be suspended as a coinage material for the duration of the war and experiments were initiated to find a substitute metal for the 5 cent piece. This led to the adoption of a 12 sided coin made of tombac, a kind of brass. The idea had come from the British 3-penny piece first issued in 1937. The tombac 5-cent was given its shape so that when tarnished it would still not be confused with 1-cent pieces." Also our 1922-42 5-cent pieces were 100% nickel so the presses were not the issue. But the 12-sided design in nickel was dropped in 1963 and the round design adopted again because of longer die life. Before you ask,What is tombac? It is .88 copper, .12 zinc.

I used a cheap usb microscope at about 40x magnification to get these pictures. A bit of a warning, don't do this to your own prized coins folks. I thought that I had a nice coin in at least fine condition but now I find that I have a travel weary scratched up, ready for the junk heap cull.

Hi Rob, You have good eyes, I thought that was dirt or a circulation mark after the R. After looking at 10x magnification, I would have to say that you are right, they are just barely there though. As far as die axis; I believe it is called medal alignment . the R in REG lines up with the D in DEI on the other side. Thanks for your input,John.

Hi Bob, Happy New Years! Thanks for the quick answer. I would guess that it is real then. I searched the internet and could not find any with no colons which made me wonder if it was fake. Thanks again, John.

Here is the other side.

Here is something interesting to start the new year, an 1854 OT,No colons. Is it a new variety or is it a fake? The coin weighs 18.7 grams and is 34 mm across. It looks right but .......NO COLONS ! I'm not familiar with this era of British pennies so any help would be appreciated. I hope the picture loads. Thanks, John.

Hi Digger, This coin is .800 silver with .0362 oz of actual silver weight. There were 8,968,000 minted. The value ranges from .50 in fine to $9.00 in unc. Hope this helps,John.

Hi All, Happy New Years! This is my first post and I can help a bit with this one. It is a 5 MAZUNAS with a mintage of 720,000. In fine condition it's cat value is $4.00 us dollars.Cat #; Y#16.1 My catalog is a 2004 edition so the value could be off a bit. Cheers, John.