My new monthly addition to my King Norton Mint collection’s specimens: BWA 1952 1d PCGS SP 66RB

SYRACUSIAN

I’m not the only member here adding a few rare and truly special coins from the Birmingham mint’s collection, the King Norton mint that no longer exists. The collection has been sold almost a decade ago, although a big part of them was sold in 2016,(during the sale of the David Vice collection), but the majority of them are being sold in the secondary market since... 2012. The oldest and nicest (including a very rare Greek 1921 50 lepta that never circulated, because its intrinsic value had exceeded its nominal value by the time they arrived) have already been sold but there are still nice examples to be had.

Still, considering that none of these has anything to offer to my sets and all they are is just special coins that I purchase, based on their appearance, rarity and personal taste, I try to be as selective as I can. Last night was the turn of the British West African penny from 1952 in SP 66RB. The TrueView is as glamorous as it gets and I have no idea what the coin will look like in hand, but after all, these colors are there, provided that the coin is seen from the exact same angle.

There was also a 1936 BWA penny , perhaps rarer, but I passed, because it was in cuni instead of copper.

My goal is to add a few more and perhaps exceed half a dozen of these special beauties or more, but mostly to not repeat my mistake of the first decade of this century when I had purchased a few equally nice examples from the Heaton mint’s collection that I sold without a valid reason, just not realizing that I won’t come across them again.

7Jaguars

Beautiful coin there. I have gotten about 25-30 of them over the years but don't compete on the Greek or African pieces.....Been very happy with them an agree with the specimen designation on most - although a few are not necessarily better than currency PL higher grade coins, so "Caveat Emptor".
Also, I had one that got separated from the provenance and our hosts gave it a currency designation, and this despite sending in the DNW ticket....

1984worldcoins

The colors on that coin are stunning and the history of that mint and the specimens is fascinating!

AuldFartte

Absolutely stunning, Dimitri! I love the color!

ajaan

Very pretty. Let us know how it looks in person.

Zohar

@SYRACUSIAN said:
I’m not the only member here adding a few rare and truly special coins from the Birmingham mint’s collection, the King Norton mint that no longer exists. The collection has been sold almost a decade ago, although a big part of them was sold in 2016,(during the sale of the David Vice collection), but the majority of them are being sold in the secondary market since... 2012. The oldest and nicest (including a very rare Greek 1921 50 lepta that never circulated, because its intrinsic value had exceeded its nominal value by the time they arrived) have already been sold but there are still nice examples to be had.

Still, considering that none of these has anything to offer to my sets and all they are is just special coins that I purchase, based on their appearance, rarity and personal taste, I try to be as selective as I can. Last night was the turn of the British West African penny from 1952 in SP 66RB. The TrueView is as glamorous as it gets and I have no idea what the coin will look like in hand, but after all, these colors are there, provided that the coin is seen from the exact same angle.

There was also a 1936 BWA penny , perhaps rarer, but I passed, because it was in cuni instead of copper.

My goal is to add a few more and perhaps exceed half a dozen of these special beauties or more, but mostly to not repeat my mistake of the first decade of this century when I had purchased a few equally nice examples from the Heaton mint’s collection that I sold without a valid reason, just not realizing that I won’t come across them again.

Wow!!

ELuis

that's a double wow for me - the only time i have seen in my hands a similar one was a morgan dollar with a very nice blue patina on all the coin, i did not bought it, because was damage on the rim.

cool coin, good.

Stork

This deserves one of those old flipping around cool signs we used to have. Nice!

desslok

I too like to pick up such coins from time to time, especially the more unusual ones. Here are a couple of my recent purchases.

2 Shillings with raised "SPECIMEN" legend, 1952-KN PCGS SP-62
1 Shilling with raised "SPECIMEN" legend, 1936-KN, curious British defunct(?) CGS slab graded 85 on a 100-point system.

Both have the KN mint mark at the base of the tree. Although not supergrade coins like yours, the specimen inscription does add to their rarity.

Images are the best I could manage. The PCGS coin does not have a trueview.

SYRACUSIAN

I like these BWA specimens desslok, they’re very cool and rare I guess. A CGS 85, a rare sight outside of London UK . I saw some BWA shillings sold by the same seller, but without the « specimen » term written on it, but rather a special form of striking, very near to a proof, but not quite like it by very little, like the entire collection, with (among others), this part by David Vice, who catalogued the collection of this mint in Birmingham says:

« One can obtain an excellent overview of the content of the Archive Collection by a study of the holding gifted to Birmingham Museum. It contains a handful of different patterns and uniface trial pieces but the vast majority of the coins are what I would describe as being currency examples in choice condition where it is obvious that special efforts had been made to include the initial pieces struck from new polished dies. These pieces are worthy of the description of being called SPECIMENS. I suspect that this term originated from a previous disposal of a collection belonging to the Birmingham Mint in 1974. These coins were only marginally inferior to a full blown proof and were of exceptional quality with tremendous eye appeal. They required a new term to describe them and help explain why they attracted a considerable premium over a normal currency strike. So if you excuse the pun the word SPECIMEN was coined. »

David Vice’s own collection was sold in 2016, not sure if it had any Heaton or KN specimens in it or not, both Heaton and King Norton mints have dispersed their collections a while ago but there’s still the pursuit of nice specimens that can be found in the secondary market.

Sorry for my late response and I certainly appreciate all the good comments. Don, when I have it I’ll tell you how much glamour Phil put into it. But that’s his well paid job, to make them look better than they really are. 😉

jt88

very nice looking coin.

SYRACUSIAN

I received my parcel today with other goodies. It waited an additional six weeks and some coins were added to the UPS shipment.

Trying our best to reduce to a minimum the demands of a voracious Greek Customs that have become like this since 2015 and they are taxing everything that they can, by simply enforcing existing laws that they had neglected for years and an Orthodox Easter that had four straight bank holidays, I got it.

And yes, the BWA penny is equally impressive in hand. Having owned several Ionian large proof copper coins, as well as Mint State, this kind of blue pinkish purple toning is almost a proof striking trademark.

The parcel contained other goodies too, notably the coin that had stolen my heart, a tiny 15-16mm , most likely 15mm by the looks, I’ll post an image of the slab in daytime ,a minuscule piece of perfection in the numismatic art, a 1931 (EE 1923) Ethiopian matona, 1 birr = 100 matona, a terrific PCGS SP 67 RD posted.

Also a desirable full red dragon sen, a Meiji 21 PCGS MS 65RD. A Greek coin of this age, size and condition, would be worth $2K. Not that there are many left, but theoretically speaking.

And one more Japanese, a huge 2 sen, that believe it or not, I’m cracking it out for my Dansco type set album. It is not as red as it looks in the picture but it’s a super high end coin for a Dansco, from Auction World as the sen above.

And a cheap Bolivian 1942 restrike but pretty for an $11 coin. 65 Red.

SYRACUSIAN

And one more. A Greek 1833 half drachma, that was temporarily filling a gap in my collection, after selling one that I had for 20 years. This one is good too, but it’s gone. I had to sell it to pay for some of the above, I will find another, whereas the above I probably won’t.

The 1833 half drachma, is perhaps the easiest almost 200 years old Greek coin that can be found so nice for $600, but it gets higher with the grades especially if they surpass 65.

SYRACUSIAN

I found a better image of the Japanese sen that hasn’t been Truviewed, because it was probably graded and encapsulated at or via their Beijing office, who just like Paris has mediocre imaging. Well, I hope that it’s the same one, I still don’t get the dating system.

But the real thrill is this minuscule piece of art, the SP 67RD Ethiopian matona when Ethiopia was still producing world class coins, posting it again and reminding you that it is only 16 mm in diameter. Perfection!