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A little help with this GB 1841 1 1/2 pence (or three halfpence) if you would

laurentyvanlaurentyvan Posts: 4,243 ✭✭✭
in World & Ancient Coins Forum
Hi, trying to find one of these on the internet for comparison purposes has been very hard.

I'm trying to nail down the grade and approximate value. For those not familiar with this coin,
it had a small minting of 158k and while originally minted for colonial use,
it became accepted as legal tender in the homeland.

A whopping 12mm in size in .925 silver with a slightly rotated reverse...

image
image
One of the penalties for refusing to participate in politics
is that you end up being governed by inferiors. – Plato

Comments

  • coinpicturescoinpictures Posts: 5,345 ✭✭✭
    Yup. These are worse to grade and photograph than quarter farthings. At first glance I would guess EF45-AU50, but could actually be UNC... hard to tell from the pics.
    Numismotography

    1/2 Cents

    U.S. Revenue Stamps

    image
  • laurentyvanlaurentyvan Posts: 4,243 ✭✭✭
    hard to tell from the pics.

    OMG, I sweated for 45 minutes over those pics!

    OK, maybe not sweated but took a number of examples in different lighting... always holding the coin to the screen afterwards to make sure it was accurate.

    I had thought the grade was XF because there seemed to be wear on the hair. Just couldn't find anything to compare it to- would love for it to be AU or UNC but I have my doubts...image Please, correct me!image

    Different tack- let's call it a three halfpence and Coincrafts images are the size of the coin but B&W and the page quality is not enough to help with grading.
    image
    One of the penalties for refusing to participate in politics
    is that you end up being governed by inferiors. – Plato
  • HussuloHussulo Posts: 2,953 ✭✭✭
    I haven’t seen many personally and like you say they are quite a low mintage. Personally I would say US EF possibly AU, British good VF due to slight wear on the hair and very slight wear on the floral wreath (left hand side of the bow).
    Nice coin with a nice original tone.
    The Coin Yearbook 2007 values the 1841 at VF £15 and EF £30.
    CoinsGB (Free British coin reference website) | Gold Sovereigns
  • DaltonistaDaltonista Posts: 354 ✭✭
    I've had the pleasure of owning a bunch of these over the years, William IV's issues too, in completing high-end date sets, and, believe me, that 35x lighted scope of mine sure helped a lot! You're sort of accomplishing the same, laurentyvan, thing by blowing up the image so that now you're in a good position to compare the portrait against any graded pieces of this young Vicky in any denomination, not just the three 1/2d. I'm in agreement with the EF, or maybe even more conservatively nEF, with the "tell" for me being the condiiton of the high points on the Rx wreath...those leaves have seen friction of some sort, wouldn't you agree? Also, the hairband slightly above and in front of Ms. V.'s ear. As always, there's the caveat that the coin could behave differently in real light and in hand...a photo will never do complete justice.

    A related point: I think I read somewhere many moons ago in a Spink or Seaby publication that 10x magnification is about the most anyone should use for grading...not sure if that holds up any more, in this era of 12-megapixel cameras and high-defintion monitors on our computers. Back then, I believe the theory was that anything greater would introduce visual "noise" into the evaluation that could never been seen by a naked eye anyway and that should therefore have no bearing on the grade. Am I alone in remebering that sort of guidance?

    Best to all ~
    Tom
    I never pay too much for my tokens...but every now and then I may buy them too soon.

    Proud (but humbled) "You Suck" Designee, February 2010.
  • laurentyvanlaurentyvan Posts: 4,243 ✭✭✭
    A related point: I think I read somewhere many moons ago in a Spink or Seaby publication that 10x magnification is about the most anyone should use for grading...not sure if that holds up any more, in this era of 12-megapixel cameras and high-defintion monitors on our computers. Back then, I believe the theory was that anything greater would introduce visual "noise" into the evaluation that could never been seen by a naked eye anyway and that should therefore have no bearing on the grade. Am I alone in remebering that sort of guidance?

    I agree, part of the danger of blowing it up is that the image shows every microflaw. However, without the coin in hand, the larger images will hopefully provide guidance to someone looking at it on the screen. It's just so small it's hard for me to image with my crude skills. Getting better slowly though...image
    One of the penalties for refusing to participate in politics
    is that you end up being governed by inferiors. – Plato
  • RareBronzeCollectorRareBronzeCollector Posts: 1,270


    << <i>I haven’t seen many personally and like you say they are quite a low mintage. Personally I would say US EF possibly AU, British good VF due to slight wear on the hair and very slight wear on the floral wreath (left hand side of the bow).
    Nice coin with a nice original tone.
    The Coin Yearbook 2007 values the 1841 at VF £15 and EF £30. >>




    image


    I would agree with Hussulo on the grading [based in the images] (there IS a difference in grading standards between GB and the US)....

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