Large British Coin
ajaan
Posts: 17,620 ✭✭✭✭✭
DPOTD-3
'Emancipate yourselves from mental slavery'
CU #3245 B.N.A. #428
Don
3
ajaan
Posts: 17,620 ✭✭✭✭✭
DPOTD-3
'Emancipate yourselves from mental slavery'
CU #3245 B.N.A. #428
Don
Comments
I like that.
I've never seen that copper two pence before.
How big is it?
"Inspiration exists, but it has to find you working" Pablo Picasso
41 mm, 1.6 inches, two avoirdupois ounces! 56.7 grams! 8 coins to one avoirdupois pound!
Mr. Boulton gave good weight.
The copper penny and twopence have very similar designs. Th easiest way to tell them apart, if all you have is photos, is by the position of the trident on the reverse: on the penny, it points between the second N and the I; On the twpence, it points directly at the second N. So this coin is a twopence.
The weight of a twopence, when first struck, was exactly two aviordupois ounces. Mine is 56.7 grams (1.999 ounces). It's 40mm across and almost 5mm thick.
The general public in Britain hated the copper twopence - it was simply too darn big. Shopkeepers loved them, because they got a free two-ounce weight. Finding copper twopences in pristine condition is therefore much easier, though many have edge knocks as this example does.
Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius, "Meditations"
Apparently I have been awarded the DPOTD twice.
The general public may have hated them, but enough of them were struck that they and the penny were still prominent in circulation studies in N. England during the 1840s. The 1797 ounce pennies were popular for a macabre reason, they were used to keep the eyes of expired people closed and more than likely they are common in graveyards.
These were commonly called “cartwheels.” The public did not like they because of their weight to value ratio.
I had read that they were so large/heavy because you actually got 2 cents worth of copper with them .. the coins had a value equal to their scrap when minted. Then copper got more expensive and they could no longer mint a coin with a metallic value equal to it's denomination. I have a few of them.
I have a decent one. A great coin. Very impressive in size and weight.
I just sold my nice EF pair to a collector friend. Gave them a good sonication in CH2Cl2 to get off any pvc that might have been in the crevices.
As impressive as the tuppence were in 1797, Boulton's mint was cranking out larger tokens valued at 3d in 1813 for the Birmingham Workhouse. An even massive 6d coin was planned, and a few patterns struck. The 3d weighs 2.5 oz, the 6d weighs 5 ounces. I own a couple of the 3d tokens but don't have them imaged.
I like those! Very cool.
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Nice.. Just loved the Chocolate Brown toning. It’s more interesting because it’s a copper two pence.. must be large and heavy..