Colin G.

Collect farthings

I agree!!

BUNC I would say about £15-20.....UNC with 50% lustre...about £7...

Thanks again, I might have a dabble later! Everyone else, keep off!! You are being worryingly normal tonight Peter! If you had a sneaky lottery win that Mrs P didn't need to know about, and you negotiated £4k-ish for the 2005 HC with CC, would you go for it? I know you want one!! I am on line in Barbados.Don't tell Mrs Peter. I'm at a stage when I would prefer a true UNC ED7 rather than overpriced key dates.A type collector away from 1/4d's Good man, I won't tell her, she is in the kitchen at the mo fixing me a snack, so we should be ok One reason I prefer top grade types to a parade of dates is when you show people your collection, no non-numismatist is going to be wowed by a mid grade rare date or variety! What you mean you show them to other people

Not quite enough legend variety to attract you to it though Scott, I hope! I wonder if there really is a 'FARTING' out there somewhere?? There certainly is, but you have to read it phonetically....there is a Lauer model farthing which has the legend FARHTING And by the way that is a 5 berry portrait, and an attractive looking coin, that will have a nice red tone to it, and as Peter says underlying lustre...did you get it? Oops not gone yet!!

Two great finds!!!

I saw this post and thought great I have at last found someone who can do me a fake Afghan passport, then I realised Afghan passports were not on the product list...Oh well I will have to carry on looking!!

Spam about spam, that is a new one

The picture I posted is of my own coin Dave, which is of a fairly clear example (though it's not a great photo, I admit). I'm still not convinced about the coin for sale, even comparing with the various photos in Michael Gouby's book. I agree. There is absolutely nothing on the left of the 5, as there is in ALL Michael's examples. There is a faint ghosting to the right of both the top stroke and the main loop. If I had to stake my life savings, I would suggest it was a 5/5 recut. The puzzling element is the "teardrop" below the upright of the 5, which doesn't correspond to anything. (ETA: it could be the ball at the end of the loop, if the underlying 5 was a slightly different style than the recut one?) Having looked at the image in more detail armed with what others have said, I agree that a 5/5 is a likely explanation, although without the coin in hand it would be difficult to be certain, anyone got any spare birthday money to buy it with so we can settle the debate

Happy Birthday Scott & Debbie!!!

I don't know in relation to pennies, but the phenomenon spans multiple dies in the farthing world for both 1865/2 and 1865/3

I have to admit I would also be interested

It looks for all the world like "Hmmm". The one I don't 'get' is this one : (the description of ph34r doesn't help one little bit!) ph34r = Fear ......I assume = A disapproving hmmmmm I would guess Fear! Interesting - I'd always guessed (a bit wildly) that it was someone going incognito, or being a spy, or covering up something or other, or just being mysterious. I'd never have guessed fear. (Wouldn't "f34r" have been better than "ph34r"? Or perhaps we will never know... ) You are now trying to get into the mind of the person who came up with that smiley.......a very dangerous area to be I would guess

Are you taking about re-cutting a datal figure with a new figure or re-cutting a date with the same digit? For example an 1865/2 farthing was the re-use of 1862 dies by re-cutting the 2 with a 5. It just allowed unused working/master dies to be re-utilised. There are several different dies used for the 1865/2 farthings, so they were recycling multiple dies at that time. Re-cutting of the same digit is normally done when a die becomes clogged or damaged, and therefore that particular area of the design is re-cut to strengthen the design.

It looks for all the world like "Hmmm". The one I don't 'get' is this one : (the description of ph34r doesn't help one little bit!) ph34r = Fear ......I assume = A disapproving hmmmmm I would guess

Would have been near VF (but not quite), if it hadn't have been for the gouge in front of Britney's face, Greg. Clear hairline on Victoria's forehead, and Union Flag on the shield more or less clear. I would agree, not much short of VF (but not quite there) but the dig/flaw? is an issue.

Are you talking bronze only, or are you including copper in there? What do you define as good grade? And anyway how dare you, the smallest denomination holds a special place in many people's hearts whereas the halfpenny, is not big enough to please the collectors with the deep pockets and is a boring medium That's the touch paper lit!!!

The 1895 YH is very difficult to obtain in full lustre, whereas the 1895 OH is fairly easy to obtain in full lustre. The 1895 YH tends to be more readily available due to its "key date" status and the fact that it is sifted out and sold separately, but I would be fairly comfortable stating that a large proportion of the mintage is the OH variety. The 1872 I would agree is a toughie to obtain in higher grades, and is underestimated. I also agree that the 1869 is easier to obtain in a decent grade than expected. The 1875 large date is not too bad, but the small date version is much tougher. It is also quite bizarre how some coins are really difficult to obtain in a pleasing lustred state. I am yet to see a blazing 1885 farthing, but there are masses of them out there which are toned or that have good uneven lustre.

Thanks all, I am currently looking for my pressie I am just having trouble deciding!!

Great result, well done you, it makes it so much easier when they do the "right thing".........in the end

Very attractive looking coin there Bob!!

Notice how the bidding went from £255 to £333 in one leap? No-one is going to tell me that's not suspicious! No reason why a leap of that magnitude should be any more suspicious than small increments. If I bid on a coin at £200 and put a max of 400, then it will go to the next bid up from 200 (205 or 210 or whatever it is). If a second person puts in a bid of £450, then it will go to £400 + one increment with the second person winning. Far more suspicious is the anonymity issue where a shill bidder can beat the high bidder repeatedly without third parties being able to identify the person responsible. I agree, I would be more suspicious if the bidding crawled its way up a few pounds at a time.

A good point well made, the impact on copper and bronze is huge, it virtually destroys the value unless it is a scarce coin/variety. I would guess at a MINIMUM 50-75% decrease for bronze silver if retoning evenly, up to a 90% reduction for freshly cleaned/unevenly retoning copper/bronze.

Happy New Year everyone!!

Was alcohol to blame?