Double Sided Half Penny (New Pence) Coin

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Author	Replies: 6 / Views: 2,620
smartybones New Member United Kingdom 5 Posts	Posted 07/29/2011 07:40 am I was looking through a tin of coins that I found in the basement of our house. In the tin is a large variety of coins, some I have identified as being worth small amounts of money. Some of them are un-circulated commemorative £5 coins, but as they were just in a tin with other coins they are all scratched up and no way could be described as un-circulated. The coin that fascinates me most is a half penny (new pence) but it is double sided. it looks like it has been stamped both sides (ofset slightly) the design is raised both sides and after careful examination and comparison to another half penny they are exactly the same. my issue is that it could be a minting error so could make the coin quite valuable, or it could be a joke coin to cheat at heads or tails. the thing makes me think its more a minting error over a joke coin is that the design is perfect and to make a fake two sided coin, you wouldent want anyone to examine it close enough so to give the game away, therefore the design of the coin would not have to be so perfect. the patina of the coin also matches other half penny coins so indicates they are made of the same metal I will photograph the coin and post it below. Any help and thoughts on this coin will be greatly appreciated. Marty. Report this Post to the Staff

biokemist6 Bedrock of the Community United States 12437 Posts	Posted 07/29/2011 10:43 am As you suspect, it is almost certainly a trick coin made of two coins machined into half coins on a lathe and then joined together. Double sided minting errors are incredibly rare because the shanks of obverse and reverse dies are almost always sized differently to prevent a heads/heads or tails/tails pairing. The seam is not usually on the edge because that can be fairly obvious. Look at the inside of one of the rims for a joining seam and check out this post for what one of the halves should look like. Report this Post to the Staff
smartybones New Member United Kingdom 5 Posts	Posted 07/29/2011 1:02 pm Yeah, it is indeed a machined coin. To be fair, it is a very good one, as you know an English half penny (new pence) is a tiny coin so the work involved to produce this was very intricate and would need a precision workshop to produce a coin like this one. This particular example is of high quality work. The seam is not visible to the naked eye and can only be seen when I put a close-up lens on my camera. (i'll upload the photo to flickr shortly.) If it was a genuine double sided minted coin I would imagine it would have been worth quite a fair bit of money. but as a very high quality trick coin I would imagine it would have some value over the normal value of a 1/2p coin? Report this Post to the Staff
smartybones New Member United Kingdom 5 Posts	Posted 07/29/2011 3:40 pm Report this Post to the Staff
EgCollector Pillar of the Community Egypt 3470 Posts	Posted 07/30/2011 2:31 pm to CC forum {:)] Report this Post to the Staff
desertgem Pillar of the Community United States 860 Posts	Posted 07/30/2011 6:00 pm Hi, Welcome to the forum! It appears to be a magician coin ( man made). The coin side shown on the right hand side of your photo is the base which had the other side hollowed out to accept a turned down and thinned side ( left coin side photo) There appears to be a line on the left photo just inside the rim, that if you look at it with a magnifier, should show where it was put together. jim Report this Post to the Staff
smartybones New Member United Kingdom 5 Posts	Posted 07/30/2011 7:08 pm yeah, I had a good look at the enlargement after I photographed it and you can just see around the edge a thin line where it is glued. you cant see it with the naked eye or feel a ridge. Its a very well done example of a "magician" coin. I wonder how many people lost out on whose turn it was to buy a round of drinks in the pub based on heads or tails? most people pick heads... Report this Post to the Staff
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