My family history goes back many generation in Canada. I don't know why I keep finding these British coins in my Grandfather's possessions.
I'm fond of calling those "slick Vickies". The 1860-1967 British halfpennies and large pennies circulated for a very long time! (And not just in the UK itself.) Many are quite a bit slicker than your example, there. We had a "Slick Vickie Contest" on Collectors Universe once, to see who could show the slickest one that still had a readable date. Cool thing is, even the really worn-out ones often do have a readable date.
I don't know why but I like the Young Victoria bust, so much so, that I have one with two heads. This one also seems to have circulated for awhile too.
That's a winner! Smooth as can be, while still identifiable, and with the right part of the date readable.
Now I find myself tempted to try assembling a whole date set of the slickest-possible (yet still dateable) Young Head Vickie halfpennies and/or pennies…
I could sell you mine, but damn, in that condition it'd be expensive. Am I right in thinking that there are lowball collectors? It's not something for me, but I like this one because it's not scratched or dented, it's just wear from many, many thousands of transactions.
Schoolboy humour. The name, which was known to all coin collectors of those days, comes from the fact that in almost all of Victoria's bronze coinage, the end of Britannia's trident rests on a delicate spot between her legs - on her "lulu". From 1895 onwards, the end of the trident prudishly - and prudently - rests on her knee. And why is an 1861 penny is saved? I began collecting Victorian pennies from circulation in the mid 1950s, and my friends and I knew that certain dates, such as 1861 and 1862 were almost impossible to find.
Sorry, meant to write 1869, not 1862 for the pennies. Mopydick was talking about halfpennies, and the 1862 halfpenny with a die letter of A, B, or C to the left of the lighthouse is the rarest of them all
