Well this should keep me busy for a day.... Or a week

Today I received a package of 381 old Aussie Pennies and Half Pennies. About 8 pounds worth I love those designs and it's a goal of mine to complete a set. I'm going to see if I can finish off what I need from this (except for the rare ones of course). I'm hoping to cherry pick some from here. I've looked through about half of it so far.
Here's the box and the coins.

As I was looking through I found a nicer Old penny, not near uncirculated but good detail.
But the thing that surprised me was I have found a ton of 1955's that are woodies and also toned. Either something with that year or whoever stored them has made some beautiful coins.
This one actually is blue

 

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Nice pile! Is that last one 955 BC or AD?

Chris

 

Wow. Nice woodie ones. As far as I know, isn't the grainy look from the incorrect mixture of the alloy when they made the planchets? I read that somewhere. What did you pay for all those? I would have fun going through that many. I have a small set going for the large cents. I also collect English large cents from 1897 to 1967, Canadian large cents and early small ones, etc. Its quite affordable for these kinds of coins

 

Nice. Good luck getting the 1946 and 1925. I finally got the 46 but still need the 25. I have to admit though I don't understand the appeal of "woodies." It's just not a look I care for. But to each their own.

 

I have a small set going for the large cents. I also collect English large cents from 1897 to 1967

This is one occasion when you should call them pennies. Because that's what they are, unlike US Cents that people call 'pennies'. Large cents they are not. Neither are the Australian coins 'cents'

Today I received a package of 381 old Aussie Pennies and Half Pennies. About 8 pounds worth.

Depending on the penny to halfpenny ratio that would be about £1 to £1..10 shillings worth. Face value. Or maybe 8 pounds weight.

 

True about the use of pennies vs cents. I'm so used to being careful to use the proper term for US cents that I've mistakenly applied it to other countries!

 

haha I would prefer it to be a BC, I could sell that one for a ton of money Nice grease filled die then.

That's what I heard about the woodies as well. I guess '55 was a bad year for them because almost all of them in the box are wooded. I paid about 50 cents each, so you can do the math. The foreign coins usually are a lot cheaper than their US counterparts. That's why I like them.

Sadly there isn't any of those rare dates. I'm almost done looking through them and no 1925, 1930 or '46. Do you have a 1930? You said the only one you're missing is the 25. The 1930 is a beast However I should be able to get almost a complete collection out of this. Then I'm going to sell the rest. Keep the few I like. I'm neither for or against woodies. If I see one I like, I'll keep it.

I'll keep posting nicer ones and errors that I find.

 

No, I don't have the 1930. I pretend coins like that don't even exist because I know I'll never, ever have the money or the opportunity to get them. I actually thought I had everything but that and the 1925 and then I realized there were multiple mintmarks for many of the years, so I had to go out and look for the others. I'm not really into minor variations though so that search is a low priority for me and I still need a few. Plus some like the 43 b no I I don't really understand and certainly can't identify from grainy eBay pictures.

 

To make things more exciting, there are varieties as they were struck at different mints. Here is an example

http://svc-collectables.com/Mint-Marks.html

I've seen a 1930 penny in hand before. I think I'll pass on the opportunity to own one. A rare variety is the 1916 half penny mule.

 

haha I agree. I'll never be able to get a 1930. But that's the nice thing about this set. That's about the only unreachable one. You can still get a very nice set for not a lot of cash. If you PM me a list of what you need I'll keep an eye open for stuff as I look through.

I know I've read about it, but I still can't figure out what a mule is (beside a cross breed).

 

Man you got some nice pennies there. I agree with you that going through these coin by coin can be tedious, but if you find a diamond in the rough it makes it all worth it. BTW...I love that kangaroo design too. Great find.

 

haha yes I meant weight. Sorry I forgot about the pound. The package was like 7.2 pounds total.

 

UPDATE:
So I've found more interesting stuff. In my basic search I found a 1939 Half Penny kangaroo reverse. Which has a much lower mintage than the 1939 with the old reverse Also there was a large amount of 1920 pennies which have many varieties all focusing on dots. The rarest is a lone dot on the top scroll. Didn't find any of those. But I found a nice mixture of the rest Including 4 with two dots, the second rarest. Two I'm sure on and two I'm 90% sure.

 

Oh that's where those dots are, I wondered about that before. Nice pics by the way. That 39 kangaroo reverse is interesting

 

Nice. I feel like I paid $10 or $15 for my 39 kangaroo coin.

 

Looks like you are going to have lots and lots fun.

 

I am having tons of fun. Here's some errors that I have found. And I think the '39 roo reverse goes for about $10-15.

 

Learning more as I go along. Found some nice die cracks. 1943 had a lot, must've of been the rush due to the war.
Don't know about this last one though. Looks like a weird error or someone just decided to gouge it up pretty nice.

 

I, too, like the look of these coins: Basic, well-executed main devices along with large-font titles and dats. Large diameter bronze coins with heft are sweet.

Just don't go swimming with a pocketful of these...

 

http://www.coinfacts.com/error_coins/mules.htm