I know nothing about British coins and just lucked into these. The edge lettering is upside down one one of these compared to the other. Is this normal?
I like them coins, Reeded and lettered,Square , I know on the regular Sacagawea its random, but like to see what others say on that coin. I don't know.
It'll be roughly a 50/50 split between them (like Sacagawea/Presidential dollars, and the vast majority of world coins with lettered edges).
It is very normal and it all comes down to which side of the planchet is loaded into the lettering mechanism. It would be highly impractical to attempt to keep the lettering lined up to face either the obverse or reverse on a production line comprising millions of coins. Like TheGame mentions it's not just on pound coins but on most world coins that have lettered edges.
Edge lettering is always "at random" indeed. Not sure about proof coins, but with regular circulation coins the roughly 50/50 mix is perfectly normal. In countries where edge lettering has been used for a long time, collectors do not really care - but when the first euro cash came out for example, people in countries where that was a new thing started collecting pieces with both "A" and "B" positions. Oh well. Christian
I've got a friend who collects world coins and collects both the A and B type for all 2 euro coins. Ironically, he doesn't care to distinguish between first and second map...
Thanks guys. As I stated, I lucked into these. They are a part of a single haul from the reject slot in a coin star machine. Several British coins and a few other foreign. Oldest coin is a 1919 Wheat. Was a fun haul.