Hey World Coin collectors. Cheers over in England ! I have this coin all the way from across the "Pond" . It's a 1694 W&M -Unbarred . Does any have a site for values and what grade would you give it ?
The first thing is to establish if it has unbarred A's because the letter was made using the V punch and adding the crossbar separately. These are usually weak, so unless the surfaces are good it can be ambiguous. Assuming it is genuinely an unbarred A's in MARIA, then the current Spink price for a P604 is £150 Fine and £525 VF, but you will struggle to get that in low grade and even up to VF the demand is not that great. Better than VF halfpennies of this period are genuinely rare. I'd give yours about Fine. The reverses are nearly always weak on W&M halfpennies. I used to have a dire example from what looks to be the same obverse die where there appeared to be no obverse crossbars, and you can also see the typically thin and weakly cut crossbars on the reverse (which are unusually well defined). That is why it is difficult to be sure there is no crossbar. The variety is also known with unbarred A's to both sides. I have a second coin from a different obverse die where the variety is unambiguous.
Thanks @robp ! Yeah, well it looks like the real deal to me. I bought it for $50 U.S . I figure take a chance , I just Love the coin !
I'd buy that and similar all day long for $50. If you are into die-sinking errors, W&M and William III are fertile reigns. Some are decidedly rare, but others are more common than the book price might imply. Missing letters, transposed shields, corrected legends, the end of the 17th century has them all.
