British copper experts?

coinkat

Well, this may be alot about nothing but I think the subject is worth a thread. I bought a decent 1860 1/2 d beaded border recently. By US standards, it is probably MS62 brown and by British standards ef or perhaps gef. I was looking at the berries in the wreath trying to figure out if there were 4 or 5. I even e-mailed another boardmember about the berries thinking that someone closely associated with mushrooms would be helpful and he was...

Now, back to the issue at hand. The obverse has a significant re punched I in VICTORIA... perhaps it is not repunched but almost misplaced... because it is that significant. I looked in Coincraft and there is nothing. Has anyone heard of this? Wybrit, Lloyd... any thoughts? I really wish that I had a digital camera to post a photo of this. Thanks for any thoughts you may have...

wybrit

Coinkat - there are a lot of varieties in the British Victorian bronze coinage. Most of the varieties out there are unrecorded. Repunched and doubled letters are quite commonly found in both the copper and bun head series.

Sad to say, some varieties, like the seemingly endless versions of the 1881H farthing, seem to attract much attention, while others such as the 1866 farthing with RFG instead of REG do not.

Your coin will likely be of interest going forward, since I have observed substantial activity in that area of late. Lloyd will have to weigh in on it being the halfpenny expert here.

coinkat

Thanks Wybrit... I think I need to invest in a digital camera one of these days.

1jester

I too carefully seek out die varieties, and have noticed plenty of repunched letters and other doubling, especially on British coins. It's really neat!!! I can only hope that one day they'll be worth something.

Lloyd

Coinkat
the doubling of letters on the 1860 are very common. In fact it's difficult to find an example without one or two doubled letters. There's also doubling on many of the datal figures. Neither is there a pattern to them. The only things to make sure of with a BB 1/2d are:

1. The knot to the tie ribbon. If it's not there the coin is rare, but not as rare as Freeman makes out (R16). However the R16 is very useful if selling.
2. One of the sides hasn't a TB (Mule).

By "doubling", I also refer to stark misaligment doubling. For instance I over an I at 20 degress diff.

I would mention also that the 1861 is prone to this (to a lesser extent).

BUT THE MEATY PART. In higher grade this doubling can be put to good use when selling... A couple of nice close-ups and an articulate description...... come into my parlor

EDITED TO ADD: there are also two factors which are yet unrecorded. These factors are the reason Michael Gouby has cancelled sales of the 1860 BB 1/2d on his web site. I think that he thinks he's the only one who knows about them. Like him, I'm not sure how frequent these combinations are. Neither am I sure what's "rare". These factors are available by PM, but they come with an invoice...

But in all seriousness, subsequently I will post pictures which hopefully will explain the stark differences.

L

coinkat

Thanks Lloyd...

Great comments and thanks for sharing.