1876 penny no H

[1949threepence 3,367]

link to 1876 Royal Mint report extract

Interesting that their letter to you states "breakdown of machinery" while the actual Report states "fully occupied with gold and silver [issues]". I wonder where the modern Mint gets its information about "breakdown" from?

I'd hazard a guess from the 1875 report. The text says that the 1876 coins were contracted out because the equipment was fully occupied striking silver and gold. The number of presses at the Tower mint would have to be investigated, but is likely to have been a minimum of half a dozen, so if a couple of them were unavailable, then sub-contracting the copper would be the logical option security-wise. Also, the Heaton mint was regularly striking coins on the same size blanks, so familiarity with the product wasn't an issue. There were a lot of halfcrowns and shillings coming off the press in 1874 onwards. How long this upsurge in demand lasted I don't know because I don't have the records, but thinking about it, the equipment probably broke down due to the excesses of the previous two years because there was no time for maintenance and a lot of coins produced.

That makes logical sense. I wonder where the 1875 100 tons comes from - the penny is rare so must we assume it is mostly made up from halfpennies and farthings? I know Heaton's farthing issue for 1875 was pretty sizeable

Either that, or given that mintage records, for what they are worth, show 752,640 pennies being produced dated 1875 by Heaton, and 11,074,560 produced by Heaton in 1876, can we logically conclude that the contract started towards the end of 1875, continued into the new year, and the date of those coins produced after 1st January, was changed to 1876 ? 11 million was a high mintage for Victorian buns, and we know that for pennies at least, these are not from 1875.

Heaton halfpennies and Farthings also indicate a high mintage from Heaton. The halfpennies showing a similar, though narrower ratio between 1875 and 1876, whereas the Farthings show the greater production from 1875.

Edited May 17, 2012 by 1949threepence

[argentumandcoins 70]

link to 1876 Royal Mint report extract

Interesting that their letter to you states "breakdown of machinery" while the actual Report states "fully occupied with gold and silver [issues]". I wonder where the modern Mint gets its information about "breakdown" from?

I'd hazard a guess from the 1875 report. The text says that the 1876 coins were contracted out because the equipment was fully occupied striking silver and gold. The number of presses at the Tower mint would have to be investigated, but is likely to have been a minimum of half a dozen, so if a couple of them were unavailable, then sub-contracting the copper would be the logical option security-wise. Also, the Heaton mint was regularly striking coins on the same size blanks, so familiarity with the product wasn't an issue. There were a lot of halfcrowns and shillings coming off the press in 1874 onwards. How long this upsurge in demand lasted I don't know because I don't have the records, but thinking about it, the equipment probably broke down due to the excesses of the previous two years because there was no time for maintenance and a lot of coins produced.

That makes logical sense. I wonder where the 1875 100 tons comes from - the penny is rare so must we assume it is mostly made up from halfpennies and farthings? I know Heaton's farthing issue for 1875 was pretty sizeable

Either that, or given that mintage records, for what they are worth, show 752,640 pennies being produced dated 1875 by Heaton, and 11,074,560 produced by Heaton in 1876, can we logically conclude that the contract started towards the end of 1875, continued into the new year, and the date of those coins produced after 1st January, was changed to 1876 ? 11 million was a high mintage for Victorian buns, and we know that for pennies at least, these are not from 1875.

Heaton halfpennies and Farthings also indicate a high mintage from Heaton. The halfpennies showing a similar, though narrower ratio between 1875 and 1876, whereas the Farthings show the greater production from 1875.

The mintage figures don't actually tell you how many were dated 1875 or 1876 or 1874 for that matter (if they were struck in 75), they are merely an output for the year. It would be entirely possible that a very high proportion of the 1875 coins were actually dated 1874 hence the scarcity of the 75H.

[1949threepence 3,367]

link to 1876 Royal Mint report extract

Interesting that their letter to you states "breakdown of machinery" while the actual Report states "fully occupied with gold and silver [issues]". I wonder where the modern Mint gets its information about "breakdown" from?

I'd hazard a guess from the 1875 report. The text says that the 1876 coins were contracted out because the equipment was fully occupied striking silver and gold. The number of presses at the Tower mint would have to be investigated, but is likely to have been a minimum of half a dozen, so if a couple of them were unavailable, then sub-contracting the copper would be the logical option security-wise. Also, the Heaton mint was regularly striking coins on the same size blanks, so familiarity with the product wasn't an issue. There were a lot of halfcrowns and shillings coming off the press in 1874 onwards. How long this upsurge in demand lasted I don't know because I don't have the records, but thinking about it, the equipment probably broke down due to the excesses of the previous two years because there was no time for maintenance and a lot of coins produced.

That makes logical sense. I wonder where the 1875 100 tons comes from - the penny is rare so must we assume it is mostly made up from halfpennies and farthings? I know Heaton's farthing issue for 1875 was pretty sizeable

Either that, or given that mintage records, for what they are worth, show 752,640 pennies being produced dated 1875 by Heaton, and 11,074,560 produced by Heaton in 1876, can we logically conclude that the contract started towards the end of 1875, continued into the new year, and the date of those coins produced after 1st January, was changed to 1876 ? 11 million was a high mintage for Victorian buns, and we know that for pennies at least, these are not from 1875.

Heaton halfpennies and Farthings also indicate a high mintage from Heaton. The halfpennies showing a similar, though narrower ratio between 1875 and 1876, whereas the Farthings show the greater production from 1875.

The mintage figures don't actually tell you how many were dated 1875 or 1876 or 1874 for that matter (if they were struck in 75), they are merely an output for the year. It would be entirely possible that a very high proportion of the 1875 coins were actually dated 1874 hence the scarcity of the 75H.

Yep, that's an equally plausible theory.

[Peter 615]

On mintage figures and current rarity I'm quite happy to go along with Freemans R scale.

Good for him his surveys were on such a massive scale and spawned today's Penny addicts.

[Peckris 579]

On mintage figures and current rarity I'm quite happy to go along with Freemans R scale.

Good for him his surveys were on such a massive scale and spawned today's Penny addicts.

Yes - Peck, though awesome, wouldn't have kick started the bun penny craze on his own.

[headsortails 8]

On mintage figures and current rarity I'm quite happy to go along with Freemans R scale.

Good for him his surveys were on such a massive scale and spawned today's Penny addicts.

Yes - Peck, though awesome, wouldn't have kick started the bun penny craze on his own.

theories theories theories Daz any chance on giving the coin A scrub up and posting a decent pic.xray would be better