secret santa

It's a pity that the catalogue doesn't contain a narrative description of Philip Richardson and his collection.

Have you posted details of these in the past ?

Sadly, I don't own it - I got the pictures from the Spink sale.

Just to tease you:

This same person also advertised a (non) 1862 8 over 6 and another spurious dot coin recently - avoid him like the plague.

Yes, that's why they don't want to list Medusa. I've now pointed out to them that it's not really a pattern - there are only circulated specimens in existence, whereas genuine patterns tend to survive in near FDC condition.

Over a year ago I wrote to Spink suggesting some additional varieties to include in the Penny sections of their "Coins of England" annual catalogues. I listed the following types with pictures of the interesting features: 1847 Medusa, 1858 large rose, 1860 ONF, 1862 3 plumes, 1862 VIGTORIA, 1862 B over R, 1863 open 3 and 1909 F169. I felt that they were all worthy of mention with associated values as they exist in collectable numbers, and offered advice from my records on recent prices paid for these types. I thought that Medusa would be a certainty. Today I received a reply saying that they would include only the 1858 large rose and the 1862 VIGTORIA, despite already including 1863 over 1 (a much less obvious type) and 1903 open 3. Rather disappointing.

Mine has got the same as Ian's.

Great stuff, Ian !

Looks like it - over to Ian to confirm !

Right, I'll update my descriptions.

I also bought a coin in this auction - an 1859 small date with what Ian Fall calls a "narrow" 9. It's taller with a larger and oval loop. I've been looking for one of these for a while so I think they must be scarce. Ian's comparison:

I seem to remember that years ago some weather forecaster said that there was an over 80% probability that tomorrow's weather in the UK would be the same as today's. How things change !

At the time of buying the coin, Barker, of Hull, said he was “over the moon” when he discovered how unique it was. So, how unique is it ? Rather unique ? Quite unique ? Very unique ? A trifle unique ? I'm afraid that the word "unique" is going the way of "literally" and "amazing" - i.e. becoming meaningless.

I would expect a specimen strike to be much, much sharper than this.

Very rare 1881H F103 sold on Ebay today for £1420 - a reasonable price for a genuine rarity with fewer than 10 examples on my website.

Ditto for me - I agree that the die crack looks to be a definitive identifier for the obverse. I'll look a little more at the reverse.

Just checked my 1856 OT - detached clover is there but NOT the misaligned colon after DEF.

Great work as always, Ian.

A cursory examination reveals a die crack on the obverse from the C of VICTORIA to the rim and, on the reverse, the colon after DEF is misaligned.

I wait with bated breath (saves me looking !)

I've added a little more to the Victoria bronze obverse page on this. https://pennyvarieties.wordpress.com/victoria-bronze-part-2-1861/

Me too.

Thank you for your kind comments but the halfpenny site is very much an afterthought, something to do in Lockdown. Pennies are my main (only) interest.

F39