My farthing set 1917-1956 a work in progress

SYRACUSIAN

The roots of this set can be traced in early 2011, when I was waiting for the birth of my daughter in London.



With the financial crisis already hitting Greece very hard, and probably at its worst point,
I tried to distract myself, first by purchasing two Greek gem minors from Baldwin's
(where I've stumbled upon MrEureka checking out a wonderful Belgian Congo gem set)
and after that, by ordering farthings from the late Colin Cooke's shop, now run by Neil Paisley,
as well as some fine Geo VI certified pieces from Teletrade's old version, and of course, ebay.

However, it took me a very long time to decide to actually build a set, and not just buying, dealing and wheeling with them.
It actually took one coin, the 1951 1/4d won on TT by pure coincidence on the very day of little Evie's birth,
that I finally decided to build a cheap pure British set, now that the closest and dearest member of my family was half British and half Greek.

Along the way, I also purchased an 1862 1/4d, from a small hoard of gems that Neil had come across, and a less appealing bright finish old head 1895.
The 1862 is a date very dear to me, and I already had this coin in MS65RB from Mac's collection, a coin that truly deserved an RD.
That coin had been sold at a moment of stupidity and I should consider myself lucky that I was able to relocate it in gem at a very low price.
It graded MS65RD (small 8), but I don't think that it deserves the full red designation.
But then again, there are so many of the rest of the coins that returned undergraded, that it kind of made up for the rest.

I hope that you enjoy the coins and the images. I've submitted them to PCGS US,a couple have been crossgraded to PCGS Paris and a few were bought already slabbed.

Finally, there are still some coins missing: the elusive 1923 and the 1934 from Geo V, and the 1938,1940 and 1941 from Geo VI,
without counting the 1911-1916 part, of which I wish to obtain the first date in dupe (black BU only).
For the time being, I opted to not include blackened farthings, except the 1917, that was available and serves as an example,
and I also opted to not bid on a 1902-1909 Edward VII set with top quality NGC coins.
In fact, after I'd taken my decision and had already started to build my set, two lots of bright finish Geo V farthings were sold by Heritage,
one in NYINC last year and one with almost similar grades ,but two missing coins that went totally undetected in a weekly world coins sale by HA.com.

A big thank you to ajaan who helped me in as many ways as possible and to (were)Steve with whom we've exchanged a lot of interesting PMs and a few coins along the way.

1 1 28083534 200590 1862 1/4D Gr.Britain MS65RD Small 8
2 1 26638659 200832 1895 1/4D Gr.Britain MS64RB Old head

3 1 28576346 200921 1917 1/4D Gr.Britain MS65 Blackened finish
4 1 28083535 200924 1918 1/4D Gr.Britain MS63RB Bright finish
5 1 26091374 200928 1919 1/4D Gr.Britain MS65RD
6 1 28083538 200930 1920 1/4D Gr.Britain MS64RB
7 1 28083536 200933 1921 1/4D Gr.Britain MS64RB
8 1 28083537 200936 1922 1/4D Gr.Britain MS64RB

9 1 24387496 200943 1924 1/4D Gr.Britain MS65RD
10 1 28083539 200946 1925 1/4D Gr.Britain MS64+RD
11 1 28576347 200947 1926 1/4D Gr.Britain MS64BN
12 1 24387517 200952 1927 1/4D Gr.Britain MS64RD
13 1 24387523 200955 1928 1/4D Gr.Britain MS64RD
14 1 26174395 200958 1929 1/4D Gr.Britain MS65RD
15 1 14901634 200959 1930 1/4D Gr.Britain MS64BN
16 1 28576348 200962 1931 1/4D Gr.Britain MS65BN
17 1 24387529 200967 1932 1/4D Gr.Britain MS64RD
18 1 24387451 200969 1933 1/4D Gr.Britain MS64RB

19 1 28672405 200975 1935 1/4D Gr.Britain MS65RB
20 1 28576349 200978 1936 1/4D Gr.Britain MS65RB

21 1 28576350 201110 1937 1/4D Gr.Britain PR65RB
22 1 20242553 611108 1938 1/4D Gr.Britain MS64RB



23 1 28576351 611118 1942 1/4D Gr.Britain MS65RD
24 1 28576352 611121 1943 1/4D Gr.Britain MS64RD
25 1 28576353 611123 1944 1/4D Gr.Britain MS65RB
26 1 28576354 611127 1945 1/4D Gr.Britain MS65RD
27 1 28576355 611130 1946 1/4D Gr.Britain MS64RD
28 1 28576356 611132 1947 1/4D Gr.Britain MS65RB
29 1 28576357 611136 1948 1/4D Gr.Britain MS65RD
30 1 28576358 611139 1949 1/4D Gr.Britain MS64RD
31 1 28576359 611142 1950 1/4D Gr.Britain MS65RD
32 1 19275222 611145 1951 1/4D Gr.Britain MS65RD
33 1 28576360 611148 1952 1/4D Gr.Britain MS65RD
34 1 28576361 611151 1953 1/4D Gr.Britain MS65RD
35 1 28576362 611154 1954 1/4D Gr.Britain MS65RD
36 1 28576363 611157 1955 1/4D Gr. Britain MS65RD
37 1 20242560 611160 1956 1/4D Gr.Britain MS64RD


So far so good. There's certainly room for a few upgrades and I will eventually fill all the missing holes at some point.

I can't remember how long it has been since I last posted a thread with newps: it feels good.





(BN??)















(Here's one 1946 among the many farthings that were unfortunately sold.)












Unfortunately, I cannot locate (for the time being), the wonderful image of the 1930 farthing, taken by Jeremy, in the second NGC slab that was crossgraded. It is a wonderful blue toned farthing, the kind that most copper afficionados prefer to RBs and even RDs at times. After 60 minutes of extensive search, I give up.

And my last purchase, an old friend that I've repurchased a few days ago:

mnemtsas2

Very nice set there

coinkat

Wonderful thread and pictures- Great looking coins and terrific set-well done

Seems a 4th DPOTD is well deserved and in order

7Jaguars

I really love those wrens even if they may not be all that rare. There is a pattern 1956 that is nearly half crown size graded by NGC to my recollection.

Very nice job, and congratulations on pursuing that set!

Zohar

Evie is a cutie! And very nice background and set you have built.

gscoins

Wonderful coins - thanks for sharing them, Dmitri!

STLNATS

Nicely balanced set. I've always thought that the wrens were amongst the best designed coins which actually circulated during the 20th century and those in your set are honeys!

SYRACUSIAN

Thank you all for all your nice comments so far. One promise that I'm willing to make, is that this will be the first ever side set to my main collection that I will not sell, due to the fact that it was built in honor of my little daughter. But besides that, how many side sets have I built over the years and sold, ALWAYS regretting them afterwards?

Here are a few examples: just before the year ends

MacCrimmon

I see you have one farthing which grades.................















































MS70RD

trozau

Nice set in the making. Thanks for sharing. Daddy's little girl is a cutie! My little girl got married in 2010 and is expecting to deliver me a grandson this February.

lordmarcovan

Those are pretty. I think this is the first picture of Evie that I've seen, unless there was a newborn picture circulating way back when...

nicholasz219

Dimitri,

Very nice collection, very nice daughter and a great way to tie the two together forever. I think what you have accomplished is something many of us with children or even without children: to leave a little legacy with a lot of meaning for our child, our spouse or just in the pages of numismatic history. Since we aren't meant to live forever, leaving behind something that matters is a good feeling. I know that I started a 2003 set when Fiona was born and then stopped working on it for a while. Then to my surprise and delight, when I gave her my old British collection as a matter of course, she really enjoyed it and now I get to make purchases for her collection that are waiting for her when I get to have her on the weekends. The joy and the look of curiosity on her face, working on labeling and organizing the coins together as a father and daughter: those are my rewards.

Thanks for giving me a reason to work on our British penny collection today and this weekend when she is home.

LochNESS

<< <i>Thanks for giving me a reason to work on our British penny collection today and this weekend when she is home. >>

That's Dimitri, bringing people together through coins. If it weren't for him, I wouldn't have joined this forum.

Excellent work on the farthings!

Swampboy

Wonderful set.
I admire your dedication to building it.

nicholasz219

Lochness, for sure Dmitri is one of the reasons that I love reading this forum. My collection of circulated British (mostly pennies, but the occasional gift or odd purchase of other denoms as they come along too) is a great thing that we love to do together. Dennis88 was able to sell Fiona and I a box of circulated large pennies that was a great buy and a great time for my daughter after we got home from the ANA last year. Filled a lot of spots, worked really hard and she had a lot of fun at her first coin show.

I'm really grateful to make a lot of acquaintances on here and enjoy getting to know a few people better and better as time goes on. Collecting wouldn't be any fun if you had to do it in a locked room.

Greig

Dmitri, I was trying to send to send you a PM, but am apparently not using the PM feature properly. Can you send me a PM, to which I can reply?

Thanks.