Hey everyone! I have this 1694 William & Mary-Unbarred 1/2 penny that I posted a year and a half ago but have some more questions. 1. What grade would you give it? 2. Do you know what the reason or cause was for the Upside Down V's in Maria??? I read somewhere that it was totally a mistake and was probably caught soon after. I don't remember the story too well. I might just be wrong??Maybe he was sipping the "Cider" that day!! 3.The last set of questions pertain to the Value. I paid $50 for this coin directly from a seller from the U.K . How do you think I did? I'm having trouble finding out the Unbarred variety or Error (??) 's Value. does anyone have a website for these? Sorry if I said anything incorrectly. I'm more of a U.S coin collector.
Looks to be a $20-$30 coin, but who knows what people pay. Legend varieties are known to exist but yours doesn't appear to be one of them. The two A's in Maria are correctly oriented on yours. Anyway, here is info about the coin https://en.numista.com/catalogue/pieces12960.html
“Half penny” is accurate. The cent is a U.S. invention. It is 1/100th of a dollar. There are 240 pennies in a £ (pound). The math is 12 pence to a shilling times 20 shillings to a pound. For a half penny, it would be 480 pieces. It’s hard to believe that it took that much copper to get to a pound, but that’s the nature of price inflation over time.
Hey Sal, I've seen coins on Heritage Auction site as old as yours in seemingly fair to good condition go for a very sizable amount of money. Search very closely you could have a very profitable coin there. Be safe not sorry you have a winner in my opinion. Thanks for sharing. Best of luck toy you!
As far as I can make out after some research is that the money is made on those varieties that have unbarred A's on both obverse and reverse
In England you would say tupence ha'penny, not three halfpence because nobody in England called them "halfpence".
I'd give the grade near Fine. These are relatively common up to fine or good fine, but quite rare in VF and very rare in EF. I'd expect to pay £40ish for it, retail. The question of unbarred As is moot. A punches exist, but frequently the letter was made using a V with the crossbar added. This frequently results in a very weak crossbar which can give the impression of an unbarred A, but under magnification you can usually see a trace of the crossbar. Given the dire state of many examples, it is unwise to assume no bar means an unbarred A and personally would want to see a coin from the die in high grade before deciding. Having said that, the quality of the engraving was pretty dire, so I would expect a reasonably number of unbarred As, though others have questioned whether Peck 604 with unbarred As exists at all. In addition to the 23 proofs and patterns listed by Peck, he notes 8 varieties of currency halfpennies, though that number is considerably greater due to the lack of documentation. The Nicholson collection sold in 2004 had over 2 dozen examples spread across the currency types listed by Peck together with varieties thereof. The rarities given in Peck are outdated with the regular type given as scarce; rev. no stop as very rare; GVLIEMVS, MVRIA, unbarred As, I over unbarred A in BRITANNIA and overstruck on a Chas II halfpenny as extremely rare. The last one is a brass example of which there are still 2 known, and so excessively rare still applies. The legend errors are genuinely rare. I've never had a GVLIEMVS (Peck 603). Consensus is the MVRIA variety (Peck 603A) has 4 known. This is the worst of 4 less than stellar examples. Unbarred As occur quite frequently, either on one side or both. The caveat noted above should apply IMO. Peck 604 with MARIA unbarred will be commoner than Peck believed. BRITANNIA with I over unbarred A (Peck 604*) at the end is known for at least half a dozen examples. Peck 605 with reverse no stop is liable to die fill as well as depth of punch. A decent grade example is therefore preferred for confirmation of the variety. Peck 606 which is overstruck on a Charles II halfpenny is rare. Nicholson had Peck's example and that is the best, but going nowhere. I have a second example and know of no more, but given you are looking for what is already weak residual detail from its previous incarnation, it is likely that more exist. In this case it is possible to see the Charles II obverse detail between Britannia's arm and head where there are tie ribbons and the O of CAROLO. Peck 607 struck in brass is definitely rare. The other one is in the BM and decidedly worse, being struck off-centre. In addition there are examples on a heavy flan of 15-25% above the top end of the normal weight range. A piedfort weighing 22.75g. Various legend errors such as IE over EI in GVLIELMVS and a quirky GV over B in the obverse legend where the die sinker obviously thought he was engraving the reverse legend before making the correction. I only know of this example and one other, but doubtless more will surface in due course. The same error is also known on a 1701 halfpenny. All in all, this and the following reign offer a lot of potential for the variety enthusiast.
