1891 H British North Borneo Cent

Kopper Ken- Thanks for the help. My krause says the same for unc, but I am just not sure if that is truly what one would be worth. After all, at times krause can be way over or way under the real value of a coin.

Kopper Ken has said it right, but a nice piece to have anyway. I notice a fingerprint stain, but that wouldn't worry me too much, anyway. Remember, these things were for a tropical climate.
Sometimes, you can get lucky in finding these in top condition, in dealer's junk boxes. Just make sure that the price is OK.
The small silver for this series is harder to find.

Almost always pays to grab top condition bronzes of the 19th Century, no matter what country they are from.
Just DON'T store them in soft PVC flips, or they will go black over about a 10 year period.

So do I. I know there are a lot of collectors who focus on this area. It was also so widespread that there is a lot of diversity and choice to be had.

This is what a proof SHOULD look like; they were struck from dies, made to the highest standard possible for business strikes, and struck on the best of selected blanks intended for circulation coins.
These proofs were intended to be the highest standard possible to be compared with the rest of the business strike production. They are the standard against which the rest of the business strikes were to be compared. There were intentionally not deliberately cameoed.
Quite often, only a handful of them were made, to be retained by the mint, and were not intended for the collector; they are therefore necessarily very rare.

Modern proofs intended for the collector are made in much larger numbers, (sometimes in the millions) and are struck fom specially polished dies and blanks, the devices etched by laser, acid or sandblasting to give the cameo effect. Some of the detail is necessarily lost in the etching process.