secret santa

Last year I bought a couple of mixed lots of pennies (ex-Hiram Brown) in DNW's auctions. On first glance, there were lots of middle to high grade common varieties that made me wonder why Hiram had accumulated them but, on further examination, many of them had little quirks that made them interesting and, obviously to Hiram, collectable. Only yesterday I noticed that a nice 1863 penny had a small die clash near her head which looks rather like an extra tuft of hair (see below). If other Forum members bought similar mixed lots, there may be interesting quirks among your coins.

Yes, Michael just mailed me to say that the 2 previous sales had realised £80 and nearly £90 !!!! You got a bargain.

Well done Mike; Michael himself also bid for it as he has no copies left for himself !

On obverse C1 the 6th to 11th beads below the bust touch the bust whereas on C they do not.

What auction was that ?

I agree about the F77 - very hard to get lustrous examples, likewise F20/25, but my records show that F14 grows more plentiful with lustre all the time (at least 18 to date).

I've added a page to my rarest penny site called "Scarce Pennies" and included a few such as the 1863 open 3, F79, F98, F164A etc each with a single example. I'm interested to hear other suggested inclusions.

Brilliant - thanks Paddy - job done.

Any suggestions for a cheap and safe method to convert PDF files to JPeg ?

Yes, it's Ceri Davies' coin - it's a shame he doesn't share his collection.

I think it's Ceri's ? I'll use the James Workman example to avoid any issues of misuse.

Anyone got a photo of a lustrous one please ?

I've got a bit of time on my hands at the moment so I might create a page - it's simple to remove it from the menu if I find that it's common.

I've maintained a record of rare penny sales for about 15 years but never included F79 - going back through similar records as Mike has, I find about 16 examples, of which some may be duplicates. It's an unspectacular die pairing and has never attracted any attention.

I have a feeling that there only around a dozen penny collectors on the Forum so we may not get a very representative selection ?

Although neither drawing is particularly accurate - the 5 with the pointed top should be noticeably fatter, and the 5 with the bulb top should have the curved part closer to the top bar - unless he was working from completely different versions ?

Interesting but this diagram is a little confusing as it doesn't correspond to his descriptions of the date numeral 5 on page 2 which agree with my own findings: the tops of the 5s are in direct contrast to my findings for dates from 1856-59. large date small date

A must-have for penny collectors. Michael's Victoria edition has superseded the early pennies but it covers Edward VII to Elizabeth II. https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Rare-coin-book-The-British-bronze-penny-1860-1970-by-Michael-Gouby/363269173178?hash=item549487afba:g:XFYAAOSwRFtgDGIm

Thanks Mike.

I bought this as an 8 over 3 but it's the type that Michael argues is 8 over 2.

Not resolved - watch this space.

Thanks for the pics, Jerry. I've taken a second look through auction archives and I've now recorded 16 examples, most of which are a decent grade, so it looks as though it may only be scarce rather than rare but almost certainly less common than Freeman's R13 would suggest.

I see that LCA have an 1875 F79 penny in their next auction, described as very rare. I have gone back through their auction archives and, indeed, there are not many examples. My own archive compilation has only 11 in total. Can it really be that rare ? Perhaps collectors could share their specimens and I'll decide whether to add it to the rare penny site.

I don't know - I think it was Terry that mentioned it on here a while ago and I've been looking out for one. Maybe someone else can shed more light ?