Occasionally one hears about with the passage of time the degradation of the engraving and appearance of Victorian silver coinage. IMHO this is best seen in the halfcrowns though seems to be true of other smaller denominations as well, including the shilling. The later shillings with the Fourth Head obverse have a tendency to look rather flat and so many including myself are thereby disappointed. First Head coins are thought by most to be better engraved and more attractive and I tend to agree (mostly). Below I will show two First Head coins, 1838 and 1839. but then I will show an exceptional currency Fourth Head which just happens to be an 1882 that frankly is quite rare especially in this state of preservation. My photos are woeful as in hand all three are superior coins with no marks to speak of, but what do readers think? 1839 and 1838 both with “WW” (these posted inversely so had to edit, sorry) 1882 I will not ask GTG but will say the 1839 and 1882 are IMHO correctly graded at 66 and the 1838 appears to nearly match with likely PL status.
Very nice shillings. Crisp detail and clean fields. If I had had to place a grade on the ‘82 I would have been wrong, because it looks to have some evidence of stacking or handling (cheek), not referring to toning. Wonderful specimens. Lucky you…imo…Spark
Yes, good point but that is largely my photography. I think it is pictured on the NGC site but was a purchase from Heritage so is on their archives as it is the best graded by two points....
I remember seeing a few half-decent 1882 shillings (not uncirculated but not worn flat) for sale a few years ago - maybe someone found a small hoard?
