I'm in the process of buying a large collection of US & World coins. I've worked my way through the US and am now looking at the Australian coins. At the bottom of the box there were two 1923 half pennies. I know that these are key dates and there are fakes. Beyond that I'm totally lost. Both of these coins are medal alignment and 25.5 mm diameter. The first coin weighs 5.67 grams and the second weighs 5.55 grams. I'm hoping these pictures are good enough to get opinions on authenticity and possibly grades.
They look Ok but Coins without die-cracks need close scrutiny as there are some excellent fakes out there. There are several Threads on this Forum about 1923 halves. The majority of genuine Coins also have a tiny die chip under the date,my go to site for this "Sandpit' has disappeared so i'll have to find a Pic. in my notes.
The left of the 3 in the date should start just to the left of a rim denticle. The lettering on the reverse of a genuine 1923 halfpenny has flat bases. Typically altered date 1933 half pennies show fishtailing / curved base lettering.
The 1st coin has a die crack that runs through the top of the GEORG on the obverse. The 2nd coin has a die crack running through the bottom of the letters O through S.
The pics are a bit fuzzy but they look OK to me. As mentioned above, look for a very thin die crack under the date. To get an idea of what it looks like ,go to the PCGS pop report for 1923 halfpenny. And download the third pic.
I sent these to ANACS in mid March. It took forever for them to get graded and then UPS lost the package. They finally showed up early last week. Both were genuine & straight graded VF 25.
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