This weekend I attended the ANA Dallas coin show and I was able to pick up the key date for my British Penny Collection, the 1951 penny with a mintage if 120,000. I'm a fairly new collector and a teenager. Because of this, this has been my biggest purchase so far. I got this penny for $45. I think I did fairly well, and I like toning that it has. So, this big question: Did I get a good deal, did I overpay, and what do you think the value of the coin would be? Also, how are the pictures? (It was my first attempt on the kitchen counter :smile)
Looks a high grade.However artificially toned? If you like toned coins you paid below book. You will find 1950 harder to get in top grade despite a 240,000 mintage. All 1950 & 51 1d's were shipped out to British colonies.It was the coin craze of the 60's which sent dealers hunting them down. At one time they were going for silly money 40 years ago. The 1953 was only issued in plastic sets and given to school kids for the Queens coronation.Some of these ended up in the sweet shop.
Where can I find more information like that? I'd love to read up more about the coins! Next time I'm able to go to another coin show I'll definitely try to pick up a 1950 in a high grade. Currently the one I have is labeled VF condition, but I'm tempted to lean closer to XF (Then again I don't really know how to grade ). Speaking of the 1953, I was also able to pick up a 1953 proof. I wouldn't say it is the best one out there because of some spots on the obverse, but it was the only proof from the series that I've ever been able to find in person so I snatched it up for $11. Any opinions on this one? It was quite hard to capture the proof qualities in the photo, so I snapped this one which shows the reflective background as well.
Information has been gathered over 40 years of collecting coins.There is no one resource.:smile I have a few plastic sets I also have the cased 1953 proof set.(10 coins farthing to crown) Recently I have seen these go for anywhere between £40 on Ebay and up to £150 on dealers lists.
The funny thing about the 1950, 51 and 1953 pennies is that I have managed to find at least one of each whence going through large lots of pennies, say in the hundreds or thousands. Some of them no doubt slipped into circulation back in Britain, someone breaking them out of collections etc - much like I find circulated proofs from time to time.
both coins look to have had a soaking in malt vinegar to create an artificial tone, i have found quite a few 50, 51 and 53 pennies over the years in junk boxes, they are not as rare as many imagine and can be had for around £5-10 in XF to unc. now the bargains are when you find a nice group of ten 1918 and 1919 kings norton pennies for 10 pence each and sell them for £45 to £60 in VF to XF. i did that earlier in the year and it has to be just about my best profit ever...........
Of course I'd love it if my coins had a natural color, rather than artificially toned coins, so please allow me to play the Devil's advocate for a moment. Could it be possible that they appear to be artificially toned because of bad photographs? Originally the pictures were coming out extremely orange, but I was able to change some setting that caused what I thought to be more naturally looking photos. Even though they are much better than they were before, the color isn't exactly as it is in real life. I'll try doing some white balance in GIMP to make the 2x2 holders they're in appear white instead of dark color they currently are and post them here once I figure out how to do it.
I ended up taking the 1951 out of its 2x2 and taking new pictures. I can see why it could possibly be artificially toned, but I hope it hasn't been. These were the best results that I got:
really nice detail on each coin, if they weren't so heavily toned they would be brilliant. again it's a preference thing, some folks like heavy toning and some folks don't.
Very Nice Coins Hello Zephr, I find it difficult to photograph copper coins. Obviously, you want the photograph to depict how the coin looks in hand. I will not represent this as being an easy thing to do. Please take plenty of photos & post the photos that most closely resemble the coin. Firstly, set your camera for the type of lighting you are using (fluorescent, tungsten, sunlight, etc,). If the photo color still appears to be off, try “auto-fix” in your post-picture photo editing software.
Thanks for all of your input into the subject! I personally don't mind toned coins, especially if the toning isn't ugly. The main thing that I'm still unsure about is whether or not they may be artificially toned. When I bought the coins it didn't even cross my mind that they could have AT, I just thought they looked nice. Of course, I would prefer that these have NT rather than AT, but either way I still like they way they look. That's exactly what I've done. I tried both fluorescent and incandescent lighting okayish results. What I found worked best for me was to use the flash on the camera with a tissue over it so that I still get the light from it, but without the reflection of it on the coin. After taking the pictures I used GIMP to use its own white balance to further try to correct the color. Using this method I was able to get the pictures I posted above, but I then took them and combined them to get this:
keep collecting the pennies zephr, they are a great series with quite a short history when compared to most other british coins, i have a few naturally toned coins which happens with bronze and copper more than any other metal, when they adopt that beautiful chocolate coloured hue they look brilliant.
Hello Zephyr, Here are some links (with photos) describing the Penny type collection I had been assembling. Getting the color in the photo to accurately resemble the coin in-hand is no easy task with copper. Sometimes I find that two photos are necessary to fully describe a coin. One photo to show-off the surface detail & one to show-off the toning. http://www.cointalk.com/t47690/ http://www.cointalk.com/t83446/ http://www.cointalk.com/t107336/ http://www.cointalk.com/t174421/ http://www.cointalk.com/t198155/ http://www.cointalk.com/t211720/
Thank you both for your help, and Collector89, those are some magnificent coins! I'm afraid that coins like those may be a tad out of my price range!
