I found this in a bulk lot of British Pennys recently. As you can see the date is clearly rendered as 3913 instead of 1913. I have never seen this before, nor can I find any reference to it. Has anyone else owned, seen or even heard of this variety? Alternatively can anyone, especially US members recommend a dealer who may be interested? A couple of observations, the initial "3" is different in form to the last digit. There is no evidence of "sculpting" the date from the surrounding metal and the color/patina is the same as the surrounding field which as far as I am aware are the two commonly performed checks for later alteration of a coin. Can I bring forward my retirement date by a few years?
Nope, it is just an altered date. Once you understand how the dies were made it is clear that a 3913 date would be impossible. All the dies trace back to a single master hub which is made from and enlarged model. Since the date was included on that model if one die had a 3913 date they would ALL have a 3913 date.
