Paddy

I think a snuff box is unlikely. A screw fit is too likely to clog up and too fiddly to open for a regular snuff taker. A tape measure is a good call, in which case it may be very difficult to take apart.

This is indirectly related to coins, but any advice welcome. I have been using a Pentax DSLR with a standard 50mm lens and Macro rings mounted on a small tripod for my coin photography, and have achieved acceptable results. Now the Pentax body has given up the ghost. It was a bit erratic for a while, but now comes up completely dead. (I have tried checking and recharging the batteries to no avail.) As I see it, I have two options: 1. Replace the Pentax body. A new one would cost around £900. A second hand one on Ebay may be cheaper, but then reliability might be dodgy? 2. I can switch over to using my mobile phone. I can buy a mount to fix the phone to the tripod cheaply, and I can sort out the lighting, but would the results be good enough? Has anyone there had experience of doing it this way and can comment? (My phone is a Motorola Android.) Cheers

Thanks @Jacqui for the edge pictures. With the knurling on the edges I would think this one will unscrew, the ridges offering the extra grip necessary to make the twist. If/when you get it open, you may be able to see the other sides of the shillings. PS - if you find you can't get it to unscrew, try a little 3in1 oil in the joins.

Nice curiosity! What size is it? Difficult to see what denomination of Queen Anne coin has been used. I think we would need to see pics of the edge and hinge (if any) to guess how to open it. It may just be a push fit that has become too tight, or there may have been a catch on the opposite edge to the ring. I have also seen things where the ring mount itself can be pulled or twisted to unlock the box. Some tobacco boxes just required squeezing in a particular direction. Could be almost anything!

That one has been ended by the seller last night. I wonder if in reaction to a tip off that it is a fake or because some mug bought it?

I cannot say definitely that is the case, but it certainly seems a possibility. I suppose the other way would be if parts of the die were fragile and broke off around the nascent crack, but I don't think the metal used in the dies was usually that brittle.

Could be they drilled a small hole in the die to limit the crack. It is a well known technique to drill a small hole at the end of a crack as it reduces the stress at the tip and so makes it less likely the crack will propagate further.

I just tried Google's image search for the first time, and here are the results: "This is a medieval "Bull and Horseman" type silver Jital coin, likely from the Kabul Shahi or Saffarid dynasties dating between 850-1000 AD. The coin features a recumbent zebu bull on one side and a horseman holding a lance on the other. These coins were commonly used in regions corresponding to modern-day Afghanistan, Pakistan, and northern India." ... and some of the visual matches:

Wrong thread!

Amongst the copper and bronze I am sorting through, as mentioned in another thread, is this one little silver piece. Any thoughts? About 15mm diameter at the longest, 1.5mm thick and weighs 3.1g.

Agreed! I used to spend time and effort trying to debunk this rubbish, particularly when I was dealing part time, but now I have given up. A fool and his money is soon parted.

The OP has not been back since his query, and I suspect he won't be as he did not get the glowing response he sought!

Definitely the one on the left. As well as @Coinery's comments, the detail on the reverse is far nicer.

I know - I am fairly thick skinned, so I can live with their abuse when they do that! The background of the seller - the quantity and quality of their feedback and the fact that others on here have bought successfully from them in the past suggested that maybe they were genuinely unaware of the issue.

Just for the hell of it I messaged the seller yesterday evening to point out it was a replica (being polite!) and I see this morning that it has been taken down.

I am also not much into gold coinage, so I can add no expertise. I would say the RPD does not look so obvious to me, but others may have another view. Repairs and adjustments to the dies were very common in smaller denomination Victorian coins, so it doesn't seem unlikely on the Sovereigns.

... and it turns out the lines were some kind of glue/varnish residue. Same coin after an acetone bath:

OK - thanks, no problem!

The other pick up today was this 1874 Penny. I think it is 8+G making it F77, but feel free to correct me if I am wrong. The lines in the fields, particularly on the reverse, are confusing. My original thought was die-clash, but I can' make out which parts of the design they could represent. The coin is currently taking an Acetone bath to make sure it is not some glue residue!

I think the 1927 florin (and also threepence?) are a target as these dates are not available in circulation coinage. For the date-run collectors they are appealing once the usual dates have been acquired. The 1927 proof Half crown would be far less appealing as the date can be ticked off with a circulation issue, even though the design is totally different.

I am here to eat humble pie! Having considered this coin for a while I finally got round to doing some direct comparison work, and have to conclude the doubters were right and it is not a recessed ear. Here is a comparison picture: On the left is my "normal" 1915. In the centre is my existing 1915 "recessed ear" complete with the indicative broken tooth. On the right is the one I hoped was a better "recessed ear", but side by side it clearly isn't. I had put too much faith in the depth of the trench to the left of the ear, whereas the fineness of the top of the ear and the absence of the rib in the centre of the ear seem to be better indicators when the broken tooth is absent.

Yes, I would go with repro too. The over-detailed eyebrows and moustache just don't seem to occur on genuine coins, even proofs.

Sadly passed in 2002: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stanley_Unwin_(comedian)

ESC mentions a variety with no stop after HIB, but not one with ne stops at all on the reverse.

Seems fine this morning. Thanks for your efforts @Chris Perkins