secret santa

Not to my knowledge. As I (and Michael Gouby) say, it's only found on proofs F2-5.

A different kind of Trial is the trial 12-sided £1 coin that was produced for coin-in-the-slot machine manufacturers to design changes in preparation for the new £1 coin. These trial £1 coins (clearly marked Trial) fetch about £100 at auction.

Thanks Richard

Gary, if it's OK with you I'll add this coin to my rarest penny site as it's only the 6th specimen I've seen. Do you remember the exact date of purchase ?

I can't speak as a seller but as a buyer, I think that DNW are the current leaders - their website and pictures are excellent, they conduct business on the internet and so command a larger audience, and their delivery service is as good as any. I'd imagine they pay their vendors promptly but have no experience. They answer emails promptly and responsively.

Does anyone else think like me that those morons who flew the drones over Gatwick should be locked away for life ?

Take a look at my Penny Varieties site below for decent pictures of the various obverse and reverse designs. And, as John says, colon positions can vary enormously.

Presumably you take the 2 photos within seconds of each other in similar conditions so the colour variation is puzzling.

A website is such a great resource to work with; I can update it at will and make the simplest or most complex of changes without having to print out pages etc.

This 8 over 6 variety is one of the harder ones to spot - there is only a little of the 6 visible usually. The wide 2 is also a clue as all the examples I've seen are from this die with the wide 2.

Thanks Terry, I've added it to the rare penny site as example 15.

Should this be in "More Pennies" rather than "Free for All" ???

It looks to me like a Gouby G with central fishtail.

"unreserched" is the term he actually uses - from a new verb meaning "I'm trying it on". He's one of the luckiest variety spotters that I've ever come across - I wonder how many times he's won the lottery ?

Vote of no confidence tonight. I suspect that the Tories are about to vote themselves out of power for the rest of my life.

Absolutely - a referendum should be a binary question, i.e. either option A or option B

In order to be truly democratic there should be a people's vote on whether to have a second referendum.😈

I am currently going through the traumatic process of upgrading my desktop PC and have found that Windows Photo Gallery is no longer available. I have previously used that to open photographs, rotate them, crop them etc - can anyone suggest a suitable alternative please ?

Check out these 2 websites below. Your penny is almost certainly a BP1860T and you will find examples of the coin on the rarestpenny site and information about the coin on the pennyvarieties site (go to the Victoria obverse page, look under obverse G).

We're only talking of those that survived rather than those struck - there may have been several of these different anomalies which have got lost over the years.

I think I've answered my own question - Windows Photos seems to do the job.

The results are now up and differ a little from what I observed in the room. The R over B was unsold as was the 1827. For every lot, Steven Lockett announces that "£x is bid" and then if there are no further bids the hammer drops (actually he taps a drinking glass with a biro) and one might assume that it's been sold for £x. But no, either he's just flying a kite or someone has bid below the reserve (although this happens so often that it can't be a coincidence). It would be more honest to say "I'm looking for £X" in my opinion.

Yes, I'd noticed that it was the same coin and wasn't surprised that they were selling it on because it's so nice - much better than the description in my opinion. Having seen it in hand, I thought it would go for much more. I think they will be disappointed in yesterday's price which I put down entirely to the lousy quality of the LCA photos on their website. The quality has really gone downhill over the last year or so. They are doing themselves no favours either by their poor picture quality or their failure to allow online bidding.

The die 2 penny went for £5148 which I thought was reasonable. The E over P went for £514.80 but will probably go back as it's no more than a die crack. The R over B went for £397.80 and looks pretty authentic in hand. The 1827 was a real steal at £1287.

And Freeman may have taken his comments from Peck who rates 1935 pennies "artificially toned as issued" as Extremely Common and 1935 "untoned" as Very Rare.