St Patrick shilling

Aegis3

Below is an overlay of two St Patrick shillings from the Syd Martin collection auction from today, lots 1335 LINK and 1338 LINK. I think they show that these are in fact the same variety. Same die crack between EB; same details in the bird and dragon.

The only difference is the bottom of the robe, including the protruding fold to the right. On lot 1338, the robe is slightly larger than on lot 1335 (and others of the variety.) Be sure to enlarge the image to get the best view of the differences.

The question then, is why the difference in the robe line. I can think of three possibilities, tho there are likely others.

1) Re-engraved die. If so, the "Ba.23" state must come first, before any of the more "common" "Ba.11". (There are later states of this combination.) I consider this easily the least likely explanation.

2) Re-tooled (and re-surfaced) coin. Have a damaged coin, and someone re-engraved the bottom of the robe, but in a different way than the die actually had. But if so, why is the robe (which is in relief) extended further compared to the unaltered original?

3) Struck from copy/counterfeit dies or molds. For whatever reason, it needed some touching up at the bottom of the robe, but they did not get it quite right. But if a copy of some sort, why does the original robe fold not show up at all, which would be incised in the die/mold? I vacillate as to which of these other two explanations are more likely. Sometimes I suspect fake, sometimes I suspect retooled.

So, with these lots now sold, it's time to open it up to ideas.

(For the record, I did contact someone at StB, but got no reply. I suspect my email got lost somewhere. I don't collect St Patrick farthings, nor, as far as I can remember, have looked closely at one in person. The specimen I question has been slabbed by PCGS, gone thru at least three auction companies, and been in the collections of the two most important researchers of the series. I do find the series interesting, especially back when it was basically a non-cataloged series of about 200 varieties. During that time I was able to slowly compile a listing of 170-some varieties. I first saw the 1d.1-Ba.23 piece in the Griffee auction catalog of 2003. I soon concluded that reverse Ba.23 was probably the same as as Ba.11; and was a retooled/re-engraved piece. But the auction plate was not the best. Fast forward to the present, and it's appearance in the latest Martin auction. Much better plates allowed me to do a good overlay, and hence this post. I try to stay humble, but I still cannot reach anything but a questionable conclusion to this coin...)

RobertScotLover

Can you show the 2 obverses side by side for favor

Aegis3

I made the links to the auction more obvious; so you can see the obverses and reverses.