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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;Jimski, post: 2915397, member: 77373&quot;]1774 regal British halfpenny, S-3774.&nbsp; The bust of George III on this coin was used on the 1774 thru 1775 halfpennies.&nbsp; Earlier halfpennies from 1770 thru 1773 used a slightly different bust design.</p><p>[ATTACH=full]704738[/ATTACH]</p><p>[ATTACH=full]704739[/ATTACH]</p><p>When I bought this coin, I was looking for a worn coin that would match up well for comparison with a 1775 contemporary counterfeit British halfpenny in my collection. This coin was being auctioned as a counterfeit on eBay, but I recognized it as a regal because of the letters.</p><p><br /></p><p>Below are a G and A character from a regal halfpenny that is not in my collection.&nbsp; On the G, I first look for the crescent moon at the top of G.&nbsp; It leans to the top right.&nbsp; The A has a narrow left side and a similarly narrow looping cross bar.&nbsp; I believe these are the easiest letter characteristics to use, and will likely eliminate all suspects.</p><p>[ATTACH=full]704740[/ATTACH][ATTACH=full]704741[/ATTACH]</p><p>Below is a comparison of this regal and the 1775 counterfeit halfpennies.&nbsp; Also shown for comparison are the G and A characters from those coins.</p><p>[ATTACH=full]704742[/ATTACH]</p><p>[ATTACH=full]704743[/ATTACH]</p><p><b>Differences:</b> There are many differences in the designs, but the one that I would like to elaborate is:</p><p><br /></p><p>-&nbsp; <b>The regal obverse</b>, on the left, has worn at its highest point, the laurel diadem, where the details of the leaves are worn away in the center laurel.&nbsp; The top and bottom of the laurel still show detail because they are lower (and thus protected) on the coin.&nbsp; Notice that the center laurel is worn, but the face details are still strong.&nbsp; This is a normal wear pattern.</p><p><br /></p><p>-&nbsp; <b>The counterfeit obverse</b>, has details that are exactly opposite to a normal wear pattern.&nbsp; The center laurel shows detail, the top and bottom of the laurels show less or none, and the face details look worn down.</p><p><br /></p><p>I speculate that the counterfeiter used the method of taking a regal coin and driving it into a hot, soft metal die.&nbsp; This method does not capture the fine details, but captures the overall design likeness. The counterfeiter then maybe opted to add the leaf detail at the center of the laurel, but largely neglected the face detail, and the rest of the laurel; or maybe the high points on the sacrificial coin just transferred better than the low points.</p><p><b>Similarities:</b> The photo below (leftmost view) shows the semi-transparency of the regal coin and the counterfeit and versions of the overlaid images with the top coin cropped to show how amazingly the fit is between the devices of these two coins.&nbsp; The photos of the coins in the semi-transparencies were shot in succession with the camera mounted on a stand so that the dimensions in the photos are the same.&nbsp; The coins were laid flat to avoid distortion from coins at an angle to the lens.&nbsp; The images colors were altered to enhance features, and to differentiate the coins in the semi-transparency.&nbsp; The images were loaded into PowerPoint and no adjustments to the photo dimensions were made.&nbsp; The images were aligned to overlap the devices.</p><p>[ATTACH=full]704746[/ATTACH]</p><p>[ATTACH=full]704747[/ATTACH]</p><p>[ATTACH=full]704748[/ATTACH][/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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