I had started to collect the Great Britain One Penny - my first non-American coin series. I have heard about "ghosting" but I have never seen much. But on British Pennies sold on eBay, I have noticed what could be ghosting and it seems to be very common. I have some photos below. I would greatly appreciate if someone could verify that there is ghosting in these coins. If this is ghosting, why is this effect very common with Great Britain One Pennies? Also, does ghosting on a coin lower its value?
From 1900 when the design changed to the larger Widowed head penny right through to the end of George V Ghosting appeared on all penny coins. Caused by the larger obverse portrait in relation to the reverse side. Displacement of metal has to be balanced for both obverse and reverse. As the obverse covered a much larger area this caused the ghosting effect seen on the reverse of nearly all Pennies. Doesn't effect the value as they all have ghosting. Probably more the case of a premium if you find one without
Thank you for your reply. I am still on the left hand side of the learning curve. I was comparing the G.B. Penny to the US Kennedy Half Dollars: both coins have nearly the same diameter and a very similar obverse design. From my limited experience, I have not seen ghosting on Kennedy Half Dollars. However, the Kennedy Half Dollar has a greater mass and different composition - so maybe I am not comparing apples to apples. I have never seen ghosting firsthand until I began collecting the G.B. Penny.
I've seen this a lot and never realized that it was the king's head on the other side that was causing it.
It's all to do with the reverse mass and the obverse mass. Kennedy halves are pretty much equal in the size of each design and virtually cover the same area of the coin . Our UK pennies Have a large portrait on the obverse covering 75% of the coin surface. Whereas the Britanniar reverse is small in comparison as in the area of the coin she covers is around 50% . So that unbalance causes the ghosting effect. Or the pressure of the obverse being pressed on an area of the coin where the reverse has no strength to stop a Ghost image of the obverse coming through We didn't have this problem with the bun head pennies as her portrait was smaller
