jelida

2 and 3 both appear to have trifoliate crowns and read CIVITAS CANTOR for Canterbury on the reverse, both Edward I. Difficult to be sure about 4, lacking detail, may be bifoliate and is of London, probably Edward II . Number 1 has me stumped, no access to books at the moment, reverse legend seems to start with a Lombardic ‘N’ , ‘NAM’ or RAM’ and ends with an ‘S’. Could it be a continental imitation of Edward III? Thats as much as I can offer while grandchild sitting. Jerry

Very common - in fact ‘normal’ on obverse 6 pennies in better condition, must have been present on at least one master die. It was likely featured on a ‘C’ punch used in die preparation, size /depth a little variable with the strike. Jerry

Also die fill, the recesses fill with grease, metal powder etc over time during the minting process and don’t fill fully when striking the coin. Jerry

You would be well advised to attend a coin fair, such as those advertised in the back of Coin News. I go monthly to the Midland Coin Fair and have had many bargains as well as fairly priced offerings- but it does pay to know your subject, and don’t be afraid to take a reference book or target list. I have also done well on EBay over the years but again know your subject. Bronze and copper pennies are faked , but the usual Chinese offerings are fairly easy to spot to the trained eye. Look at the vendor’s feedbacks and if there are any complaints or they are new sellers steer clear. And I wouldn’t buy purported Celtic or Saxon coins on EBay without taking advice eg on this forum, as at any one time most are fakes. Jerry

Clever, Chris, though it took me a few minutes………….😀 Jerry

It could well be, though I am not sure that the rock to the lower left of the shield is present which would be diagnostic. Can you post both sides, these rare coins tend to have very few die pairings and digit spacing etc will help confirm the possibility? Jerry

I think that actually might be an F78, it has the narrower gap between the ribbons, the gap is wider on an F72. But one of the best that I’ve seen. Do you agree Richard? Jerry

Yes, it’s a ja. Is it F72 or F78? The F72 ja variety seems rare in the higher grades - most are plain obverse j. All the F78 are ja and it is a fairly scarce coin . Jerry

Die fill to the ‘0’, commonly seen. I still suspect that the dot is corrosion given its lobular shape and adjacent surface granularity. But a definitive answer could only take place under a microscope or by finding identical duplicate coins. Jerry

This looks to me like a corrosion product dot rather than a die issue. Again, better pics would help. Jerry

We really need much better focussed pictures I’m afraid to make a valid judgement. The close-ups are great and show a variety of die repairs - very common with these early bronze- but you need to take clear full resolution pics of the coins and shrink them with a program such as ‘Irfanview’ to get them to a size below 500 k suitable for posting. Good luck! Jerry

That sounds a good possibility. You quite often see 1866 pennies with the final 6 appearing larger. Jerry

It is unlikely that the issue would be with the master die, but it is possible that a working die was repaired either with fractionally larger ‘I’ and ‘T’ punches though I think die repairs with correct punches very slightly misplaced could have a similar effect. Jerry

In fact “ barbarous radiates” were produced unofficially as an ‘illicit’ currency from the third century or earlier , and tend to mimic the official currency then circulating for example the radiates of Tetricus but also the non radiates of the family of Constantine and later. On many of the third/fourth century Roman sites that I have detected they are as frequently found as non barbarous coins so they clearly circulated widely. Yes, this looks like a “barbarous’ coin to me, and a particularly interesting example. Jerry

The raised lines are due to cracks in a die nearing the end of its useful life. You do occasionally see raised blobs where a chunk of the die has actually broken off. Very common on coins of the C19 and earlier, and of little significance to collectors. Jerry