Colin G.

My latest purchase, and a farthing error I have never seen before, or even seen recorded. It is an 1874H with the O in Victoria having been repunched sideways. Similar to the G/G but with the O this time. I would be interested in knowing if anyone else has seen this variety recorded before. I am unaware of it in any of the Colin Cooke catalogues etc. It is instantly apparent when holding the coin even without a lens

A friend of mine, who has since made an even bigger find that is yet to break the mainstream news, a huge hoard of William and Harold coins.....the hat pin took 6 years to go through the treasure process and was eventually disclaimed and returned to the finder

The coin is encased at the time they are produced,, there used to be an organisation called the Encased Collectors International who solely focused on encased cents. I spoke to them for a while and sent some modern coins and farthings off to be encased of which they returned me a few samples of each.

I agree with Rob, debate is a wonderful part of our society and in many ways a great route for education. I do not always assume I am correct and therefore value other peoples opinions in case they convince me that I need to change my view on something

I wasn't talking about the UK democracy system, the discussion was about "true" democracy. I was highlighting the fact that once your chosen representative has proposed a choice of options, and one of those options has commanded a majority vote by the electorate that it should be acted upon. Regardless of what system is in place, that is the surely the true definition of democracy 🤷‍♂️

Is that any different to parties holding up manifestos for election only to not carry out the promises contained within, or the future direction the EU is heading? They may as well be blank envelopes because no-one knows for certain where we are headed. I wonder whether the same view would have been considered if we had remained, the EU is ever changing, would you have endorsed a referendum every few years on whether we want to continue with our membership because we would be more informed about the EU relationship every few years? The reason why anyone chooses to vote in a particular way is of no importance to anyone other than the individual voting. My vote carries no more weight than any other individual and if their reason for choosing to leave or remain was completely based on nothing more than them ticking a box at the last minute on the flip of a coin in the booth, I would have no issue with that. It is their prerogative Surely true democracy is being given a choice by representatives and then those representatives delivering the choice that received the majority of votes. I agree that being informed is a sensible thing to do, but do you really expect everyone to be informed or even care about the decision that is being made. I expect a good proportion of voting in general elections is done by nothing more than choosing a least favourite party, or a tribal alliance to a particular party, this does not seem to be people making well informed judgements either. The system is not perfect but at least everyone has the feeling that they have an input into the system.

I have always agreed with that approach, I either want the coin and will pay the price asked, or I will not. I have never understood the complaint over mark up, if you can buy something and sell it for more, surely that is good business sense.

There are numerous factors at play here, the single stop coins are usually die fill, which is what is likely with 3a because the faint outline of the stop can be seen and therefore questionable whether it is just a progressive flaw and shouldn't be given too much attention in my opinion. Obverse 3 has die polishing lines across the area where the lower stop would be and therefore this is a clear variety in my mind. The 1.5 stops was just a term I used to distinguish between the two varieties, one variety has the bust overlapping the legend and therefore the colon stop is incomplete, sometimes it is half a stop, sometimes it is just the edge that is missing. On the full colon types you can normally see a recess in the back of the bust where the stop punch surround overlays the bust. This is normally a clear indicator of each of the types. It is unclear whether this feature is a result of either: 1. Sequencing of the placement of the bust or legend onto the original design, and therefore one overlaps the other depending on which aspect was applied first 2. The more likely scenario is that the original master die had 1.5 stops due to the explanation above, and on some working dies it has been reworked with a punch to correct the partial stop Your top image certainly carries the features associated with a 1.5 stop coin.

If your eyesight was going an R does look a bit like an E 😂

What is not to suggest that the 5 was actually intended to be recut, and therefore on the working die it would have been the second digit from the left, the cutter made a mistake and instinctively recut the 8 by mistake due to the inverted design of the die?

Also at a time when sovereign dies were being reused for farthings so a potential farthing variety

Although they are exaggerated in the image attached, there are two distinct types of 8 encountered in the farthings from 1862 - 1865. Your 1863 has the fat 8 style, but you often find the underlying thin 8 is also visible, by the thicker diagonal mid bar being partly visible in one of the loops.

A detecting find from the end of last year, and a real shot in the dark. I reckon it could be Henry V - Spink 1882 - North 1466, definite Mullet on breast, looks like 4 points in the photos but definitely 5 under the loupe. However what meagre bit of legend exists on the Reverse I cant match up with York 🤷‍♂️ P.S. apologies for the photo quality 😂 I love his coffee bean/hayfever eyes

You know when someone points something out and you realise how obvious it is...that just happened!! 🤦‍♂️ Thankyou Rob, that coin has been sat on my side driving me mad

Thought I had better stop in and say hello to you all, what an eventful year I have had. Obviously the collapse of Carillion led to me experiencing redundancy for the first time in my life, which seemed quite daunting at the time, however it actually provided me with a perfect opportunity and the push I needed to take a chance. This has led to me setting up a business with a couple of former colleagues which has consumed much of my time in the last 12 months, but things are starting to settle down. I closed my online coin shop so I could focus attention on my new business, but still kept an eye on numismatics where possible. It will be quite nice to be back just in the collecting market again, and hopefully can get purchasing again very soon!! Hope you have all been behaving without me, any news I should know, I started to trawl through some of the unread posts, but I have a bit of catching up to do...I see Brexit and slabbing seem to be the most dividing topics as always 😀

It is sooooo refreshing to be away from all the corporate nonsense.....😁

It is my opinion that this thinner appearance comes from the metal displacement when the die was recut. If you imagine you had stamped a letter into plasticine and then stamped another letter over the top slightly misaligned, the underlying letter would become thinner due to the movement of the plasticine under the pressure of the new stamp. It seems to be quite a common effect with recut letters/digits.

Without the coins being lit from the same direction, it would be difficult if not near impossible to confirm a difference, it is amazing what difference lighting can have on the appearance of a coin.

Not strictly true...his James I and Charles I farthing tokens are in there

It wasn't me!!

I am my secretary, my buyer, my postman, my accountant, the list goes on!!! That's the trouble, it is too time consuming when you try to wedge it all in alongside a full time job. I really must stop work and start to concentrate on my other projects

Welcome to the forum, as Rob says there is no right or wrong way to compile a collection, have a good look at what appeals to you. Knowledge is key in this hobby/addiction. Most of all have fun and don't jump in with purchases, take your time and have good look around to see what appeals to you.

Sad loss, sorry to hear the news.......thoughts are with his family, also had the pleasure of a few conversations with him via email

Sorry to hear about your loss

You can also reverse your argument, that each ancient coin should be unique in appearance with unique identifiers and yet you have images of two that are identical, the roundness of the lettering varies, which would imply the top coin is a cast of the bottom. I am with Stuart on this one steer well clear!!