Varietalis

Just reading this old thread and thought I'd like to put in my two penneth.. or indeed three penneth worth. There are, in my opinion, three varieties of the 1940 penny: 1) single exergue line which (as a general rule) has the 4 in the date pointing to a gap 2) double exergue line which has the 4 in the date pointing to a gap 3) double exergue line which has the 4 in the date pointing to the left of but also crucially overlapping a tooth

Does anyone have much experience of sending coins to the US for grading by NGC? I was thinking of sending off a few coins but then started to look into the customs and exercise regulations and OMG does it look complicated! It seems to revolve around OPR (outward processing relief) which is a convoluted method for avoiding paying import duty on your items once they're returned to you in the UK (after all they originated from the UK in the first place). If anyone does have experience of using NGC then I'd love to know if it is really necessary, or at least advisable, to actually do all the OPR paperwork.

Okay, so I've now had email replies from both Kruggerland Ltd and NGC. Kruggerland can indeed act as an agent for sending coins to NGC but their handling fees would, in my opinion, only make it worth while if you were looking to send bullion or similar very high value coins. NGC basically said they dispatch the coins with very low-key descriptions and values so as not to attract took much attention from the tax man. In short then I won't bother with the OPR paperwork as the relatively low value bronze coins I'll be sending won't warrant the hassle. I'll also keep each consignment quite small. However, if anyone out there is looking for an insomnia cure, or indeed wants to send a high value consignment to NGC, then it might be worth having a read through this: http://customs.hmrc.gov.uk/channelsPortalWebApp/channelsPortalWebApp.portal?_nfpb=true&_pageLabel=pageImport_InfoGuides&propertyType=document&id=HMCE_CL_000225

Wow, thanks for the tip. I'll email them this week.

as in, 'better the devil you know'

The current London Coins catalogue has just under 3500 lots. I estimate that CGS slab around 1000 coins a month. So in any 3 month period they are processing 3500 auction lots and around 3000 coins for grading. Added to that there's all the coin fairs they attend. Does anyone know how many people actually work at London Coins/CGS on a day to day basis? I think it is 4 but I could very well be mistaken. I've had one or two issues with them myself and know how frustrating it can be when things don't go entirely smoothly, but it's not hard to see why these blips occur. There's an obvious flip-side to this argument however which is that a business as obviously successful as London Coins/CGS should have the money to invest in the necessary systems, training, staff, infra-structure etc. that would make these occasional issues a thing of the past.

I've always found her very helpful. Like most middle-aged men I have a very large grumpy streak running through me so I sympathise with her having to deal with people like me day in day out.

I was up at the British Museum just yesterday to see to the Pompeii exhibition they've got on. Even though I arrived there massively early and had nothing to do I couldn't be bothered to go into the shop even for a quick look around. I had a lager in the pub two doors down instead.

Hi all, please have a look at the photobucket link (assuming it works!). The coin, which is obviously a 1940 double exergue line penny, has an unusual raised feature that tracks along the underside of the third wave (above the 4 in the date) before bridging down to the top of the exergue line. Broken die? grease on flan? I've not come across anything like it before, has anyone else? http://i1364.photobucket.com/albums/r731/George_VI_and_Elizabeth_II_coins/1940pennywithunusualfeatureonexergue_zpsba85d9a2.jpg

Thanks for your insights. I agree that a die flaw seems the most likely cause as a raised area on the coin would tend to suggest metal missing from the die. This only makes me wonder why I've not seen or heard about any other examples. One possibility is that the die flaw occurred, presumably due to metal fatigue, at the end of the die's life. Therefore there may only have been a very limited number of coins minted with this flaw before the die was then retired. Even so, varieties are recorded that only have a couple or three specimens known so you'd think that, if it were a die flaw, there ought to be at least one or two others out there.