AardHawk

This is a numismatic myth. Both Coins & Medals and Coin Monthly carried out detailed studies of die numbers during the '60s and '70s before finding the true reason for them had already been provided in an article, 'Registration of Coins' in the July 1866 issue of the Intellectual Observer which I quote as follows. "It is done with a view to identifying the particular die by which each individual piece of money was struck, the particular press at which the latter received its impressions, the day on which it came into existence and the name of the press attendant under whose agency it was borne. Thus if a defective coin, which had escaped the vigilant and scrutinising eye of the examiner at the Mint and passed out into the channels of general circulation, were subsequently discovered - no matter how long after its issue - it would be possible, by reference to Mint records, to establish its identity and to fix the responsibility for its defect upon the unhappy wight who managed the machine which stamped it into being." Who said that Big Brother was a new idea!

I don't know anything about these coins other that the information contained in Coincraft's catalogue. Your example has Obverse 1 but the Reverse dosnt seem to tie up with any of the listed reverses. There should be a K below the shield, but I cant see it on your image. See the attachment for details. 18040001.pdf

It shows up very clearly in the original article. Probably people rubbing it with their fingers as they try and pick the 7 off to see if its stuck on. I still think it looks a bit to good though.

This is a higher resolution scan of the original image. Not very good I'm afraid. The thing that strikes me, is how clear the date is considering the wear on the rest of the coin.

This is the original article from Coin Monthly July 1973.

Ok, for non catalogue type books then its got to be Numismatic Forgery by Charles M Larson. Any one who's looking for a career change, then this is the book for you!

The Guidebook & Catalogue of British Commonwealth Coins 3rd edition 1649-1971. Full of useful snippets and info. Just found its got three pages on GB "miniature coins". Fascinating! Merry Christmas to all.

There are a couple of reports of weakly struck and re-entered numbers in the date for 1962. It would be very helpful if you could provide a higher resolution scan/photo that also shows more of the surrounding detail, including the border beads and exergue.

I wasn't discussing varieties and according to the Royal Mint, £5 coins are legal tender.

I wasn't listing varieties as the OP didn't ask about those, and as for the 2008 £1 then some thirty plus million of those have been produced. How many £5 coins have been produced as those are listed as circulation coinage.

For a coin that is currently in circulation then it is a 1988 £1 (Royal Shield) with a mintage of 7,118,825.

I do hope it is Michael as I found his The British Bronze Coinage 1860 - 1869 to be a fascinating read even though I don't collect Victorian coins. His new book certainly looks very interesting.

Davies confirms Staffords and Salzmans earlier findings. Obverse 4 (174 bt, Full neck, I of GEORGIVS to space) didn't turn up untill 1920.

It finished in 1992. I have Jan and Feb '92. Which ones do you have? I have a large number of duplicates. Let me know which ones you are missing and I will send them to you (if I have them) for the price of the postage, or you could pick them up if you want (J6 M25).

Its just a bit of swarf that's found its way onto the die during the actual striking process. The "quality assurance" process just failed to pick it up. Probably because they have offshored it to the Bombay mint.

I received a reply from John Jerrams regarding the availability of his booklet. Who is the "gentleman enthusiast" he refers to?

Coincraft use them. Give them a call.

OK you asked for it, so here it is. Why on earth would any hobby collector want someone else to tell them, that they are a very clever person, to have bought a particular coin/clock/car etc. Slabbing/grading is just a scam. Its just a group of people developing a market in tulip bulbs. It serves no useful purpose other than to the person doing the grading. It may add value, but I don't want 'value' added to my hobby. I want to keep it within reach.

If you fight your way through the Royal Mints dreadful website you may after some time find a couple of pages that list mintage figures by year for decimal coins since 1968. I warn you though, its going to try your patience!

Surely those are all just date varieties, what about a 1937.

Why so many? If minor changes in design don't count then we have only one reverse and eight distinct obverses.

Still looking for a 2 and 50 myself. May have to resort to buying them which goes against the grain.

There does seem to be a blob below the 7. A close up would confirm this.

Do Satin Coins have a web site? Any search I do brings up a load of US sites talking about satin finished coins, whatever they are.

Errr, you mean 7 different types, surely! Your comments are interesting, but confusing to me. When these coins were in circulation, every man and his boy collected one of each date, but once you got them, then what, hence the interest in varieties. The fun to me was finding them in my change. I would never have dreamt of going to a coin dealers. It was the hunt rather than ownership that was the fun part of coin collecting for most people. The trouble with coin collecting on ebay is that its taken the fun out of the hobby. No one has any interest in the coins in their pocket any more (2008 dateless 20p being the exception), which is a shame, as that's where the new generation of hobbyist will come from. It seems that most people who hunger after coins are entrepreneurs looking to make a profit, rather than true numismatists.