secret santa

*And is now for sale again in the Baldwins Hong Kong auction on 25 June (lot 752) !

18.00 now - what on earth can be going on in Spink ? How can we take them seriously any more ?

Now 17.30 - what a total shambles !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

the 1952 penny didn't sell at £80 grand...............................................

Pete, sorry I hadn't realised that there were 2 1909 dots in the Workman sale - the other one was sold by Baldwins on 20 March, lot 118 for £248.

Today's auction is still not open and highly likely not to, I'd imagine.

Pete, I don't think that it's the Workman specimen; definitely the Crocker one but your point is well made. It appears to me that the collecting of pennies by Freeman (and Peck) variety is dying on its feet. My own collection will soon be worthless....................

No, the website says it now starts on the 17th.

Lo and behold - it's been postponed; bit like Brexit - maybe we'll never see it !

An interesting excerpt regarding the 1882 no H penny: When studying the Victorian bronze series it is essential to work rigidly to the principle that no new variety is acceptable unless it is entirely beyond question. Details in the designs of this series cannot be satisfactorily studied from worn coins, though, unfortunately, this is attempted by some collectors. The fact that only two really fine, undoubted examples of this penny have turned up during the nine years since this catalogue was first published is ample evidence of the scarcity of these pieces. Any worn pieces, seemingly without H, can now be re-examined in a much more favourable light. Craig tells us (The Mint, p. 335) that 'the Mint stopped work on 1 February 1882 for ten months'—for reconstruction. During this period the coining of bronze was undertaken by Heaton and it is extremely unlikely that the Mint would be in a position to strike any bronze during the January preceding this upheaval. This leaves December as the period during which these pennies without H were almost certainly struck —doubtless a small issue to tide over

Well, it starts today and still no access.

Thanks Mike

I've just looked at BNJ 1967 and there's no page 196-8 unless I'm doing it wrong - are you sure it's 1967 ?

Freeman did miss some genuine goodies......................

There was a previous e-auction that never appeared and was never heard of again.

Starts tomorrow and still not there..............

The original picture posted for this item was a pair of spectacles and not an 1854 penny !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I got mine from Michael Gouby in 2001 for £125. Seems quite a bargain now.

The lovely one at DNW sold at £2728 a while ago.

Do you know if one can view/bid from a desktop PC ?

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/A-1854-British-One-Penny-Coin/113771080190?hash=item1a7d48e9fe:g:AGQAAOSwJJZc9ZMb Should have gone to SpecSavers - oops, they did !

I've tried to look at these auctions before with no success - another un-user-friendly cock-up.

I still have some difficulty distinguishing between 1858 large and small date pennies. Even all the examples on Michael's Gouby website ( http://www.michael-coins.co.uk/cp_1858.htm) don't make it absolutely clear. He only mentions the small date once as CP1858E and gives no guidance other than Smaller numerals '5 & 8's'. It appears from his pictures that the key distinguishing feature of the smaller date seems to be that the bottom of the 5 is left of the larger bead on the smaller date (see picture from his website below) but pretty much directly over the larger bead on the larger date. The actual date numerals themselves seem to me to vary in size and distance apart throughout the range of varieties. However, I have also seen what appear to be small date specimens with the 5 over the left side of the large bead - see below. Can anyone offer me a foolproof way of distinguishing between the large and small date ? Also, I have previously assumed that all 1858 overdates are the large date variety, but is this true ? My 1858 over 6 looks like a small date to me.

Yes, Ian, I think that the font differences are infinitely more interesting than the different widths. In my own collection, whenever I obtained a better specimen of a particular variety, I would sometimes find a small difference in the date positions and use it as an excuse to keep both specimens ! It's the hoarder in me !!!

Excellent. Thanks Ian for corroborating, and adding to, my observations with empirical evidence. Really useful.