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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;TheRed, post: 7769156, member: 87080&quot;]I love collecting the pennies of the Plantagenets.&nbsp; While I generally focus on mints, moneyers, and classes, from time to time I will pick up coins with errors to feed a little side collection.&nbsp; The errors themselves can range from a misspelled city name or blundered legend to a bust of a king without hair.&nbsp; Such coins make for a nice distraction from the usual fare.&nbsp; My latest coin is a penny of Edward I that was minted at Durham with not one, but two very interesting errors present.&nbsp; Interesting to a fly-specker that is.</p><p>[ATTACH=full]1332177[/ATTACH]<font size="3">Edward I AR Long Cross penny 1307-1309 AD Durham mint class 10cf3</font></p><p><font size="3">19mm 1.36g</font></p><p><font size="3">Obv: EDWAR&#039; ANGL DNS HYB, Cross moline initial mark, crowned facing bust of king</font></p><p><font size="3">REV: CIVI TAS DVR EME, long cross w/ three pellets in each quarter&nbsp;&nbsp; </font></p><p><br /></p><p>At first glance this looks like an ordinary, if quite worn, late penny of Edward I from the ecclesiastical mint at Durham.&nbsp; The penny was clearly struck under the bishop Antony Bek because it has a cross moline as the initial mark.&nbsp; Compare the one from the photo of my coin (on the right) though to the standard cross moline on pennies of Durham and it looks a little odd. </p><p>&nbsp;[ATTACH=full]1332181[/ATTACH]&nbsp; </p><p>The nice rounded tips of the cross moline on the left actually round back on each other while the rounded tips are missing one the lower left quarter of the cross moline on my coin on the left.&nbsp; Also present on my coin are serifs at the 6 0&#039;clock position and the 3 o&#039;clock position.&nbsp; What this means is that the die for this coin had a plain serifed cross as the initial mark that re-engraved with a cross moline.&nbsp; The bust of Edward I is also interesting because it has a broken chin, a feature that could not be caused by wear.</p><p><br /></p><p>On the reverse there is some more interesting engraving.&nbsp; The legend, CIVITAS DVREME, is fairly common.&nbsp; What makes the reverse legend interesting is that the letters DVR in the lower left quarter.&nbsp; The letters look jumbled, as if different letters were laid one on top of the other, and that is in essence what happened.</p><p>[ATTACH=full]1332205[/ATTACH] </p><p>I have tried to make it a little more discernable above.&nbsp; In blue I have outlined the letters D and V, and in red the letters L and O.&nbsp; On this reverse die the legend was initially engraved CIVI TAS LO, and then reengraved to read CIVI TAS DV.&nbsp; Those weren&#039;t the only letters that were re-engraved.&nbsp; The letters R and E in DVR EME were engraved over N and D, but wear has made it nearly impossible to see.</p><p><br /></p><p>So, why did this happen? Well, except for a few classes and the mint at Berwick, dies for the regional mints that produced coins during the reign of Edward I were minted at London.&nbsp; Once finished, the dies would be sent to the intended mint.&nbsp; Some poor engraver in London, in the middle of making dies for that city, realized that they were really destined for Durham.&nbsp; Instead of starting over and wasting an otherwise fine die, he just engraved over his mistake.&nbsp; And for all but the sharpest of eyed, who would notice?</p><p><br /></p><p>What is also interesting about this coin is that J.J. North, in his SCBI volume on Edwardian silver coins, doesn&#039;t record this die combination.&nbsp; He records the obverse die, with the broken chin and the cross moline over plain cross, as paired with a standard DVREME reverse.&nbsp; The reverse die with DVR/E over LON/D is paired with a standard obverse die with the cross moline as the initial mark.&nbsp; So, I have a double mint error unlisted in SCBI 39!&nbsp; </p><p><br /></p><p>Thanks for reading my post.&nbsp; Please feel free to add any coins with errors, medieval, Roman, or Greek.&nbsp; Its always fun to see the mistakes that have survived.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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