I received this coin from a friend. It's 1843 1 1/4 pence. Comments welcome. Just sharing. What's your smallest North American coin? So far, this is mine.
Neat. That is not a North American coin. They are cataloged under Great Britain. These were struck by the British for use in Ceylon (now Sri Lanka). The type is Numista-13826.
I really like the California Pioneer Fractional Coins. The one below is BG 106, MS-62, R-4. I now have 20 of these, almost all of which are period one (1852-1856). One of the wisest numismatic book purchases I've ever made was finding a copy of the Breen and Gillio book. It cost me $225 but it was definitely worth the price. I just wonder how they were used in commerce as they are so small. I cannot picture a miner with scarred hands being able to count these out for a purchase. This one is BG 430, AU-58, R-5.
The three halfpence was also used quite a bit in the British Caribbean, to be fair. But yes, it's generally considered an issue of the UK proper. My 1834: Here's a Panama pill, which is a little smaller at 10mm:
I got the smallest ever made.... Etruria/ Unknown City State AV Ass ND/ NM 4th. century BC .02g. 2.4mm. There are 2 known, one found in 1743, other 19th century Legend has it, that relatives stuck these in a dead person mouth before burial.
This one at 9mm might be my smallest. It’s also currently my oldest. Greece (Ionia, Phokaia): ca. 478-387 BC electrum hekte
Thank you @panzerman - I had not heard that before. I did some searching on Numista and turned up this one: https://en.numista.com/428100 which is Mysore Haidar Ali, and although different from mine seems to be genuine? Anyway, I also have this one, which I believe is Maratha Confederacy of a simi;lar size. Don't tell me this is fake too?
Sadly, many auction houses do not know and have these "FAKES". The Maratha/ Tanjore looks OK. Here are some types for comparision...
That is a really awesome coin! I'm not sure why but I really like the low-denomination British coins. One of my favorite is an 1866 1/3 farthing that I have, but I also like quarter farthings that were used in Malta.
Yes, I also appreciate the smaller GB coins. After over 20 years I have examples for all the dates for the quarter, third and half farthings as well as the all the threehalfpences. Here is my 1839 quarter farthing:
The Hans Herrli book on Indian States/ Medieval -Princely is great for weeding out modern workshop fakes. Some are eve fabricated from BRASS! Just a terrible bunch of crooks. I got caught myself when I was at Ottawa CNA show with my Dad. One dealer had a trunkload, I was 12 and my Dad was not knowledgeable, so we bought 18 Fanams, all were brass. One needs to be fully "armed" with books to do research and real guns to protect collection from the other kind of crooks.
