1883 1/2 Crown

[Guest Mikedyson]

I am doing some research on a coin for my grandfather. Its a worn half crown. The reason I ask if its rare is he has three of them and if you line them all up the same way then turn them over one of them has the tail printed (or what ever you say) upside down and not the same way as the head. I'm a complete beginner to this as is my grand father to the internet!! Please help is this rare and roughly how much is this worth? Thank you

[Guest mikedyson_I'm_a_Guest]

I have made on little mistake the coin I'm on about is 1883 the other two I compared it to are 1885 and 1901, not sure whether this makes a difference. just trying to give as much info as possible. thanks again

[wybrit 2]

None of the dates are rare as such, but the pieces themselves will attract interest provided they have not been polished or put in a silver cleaner.

[Geoff T 3]

There's nothing unusual about the "tails" (reverse) being the wrong way up compared to the "heads" (obverse). This is known as reverse die axis and was the norm until well into the late 19th century. It reflects the way the coins were struck. Modern coins use what is called parallel die axis.

Geoff