I've just finished going through a big bucket of coins donated to the missionary charity I volunteer for. Down the bottom of the bucket were a couple of anomalies: they look suspiciously like halfpenny planchets. They're the correct size and weight (more or less) and are rimmed.
They are also both distinctly not-quite-flat; one has a bend, the other a couple of dints.
If anyone has any opinions about them, feel free to contribute.
The provenance: a bucket of foreign coins. There were hardly any Australian coins in the bucket (a few 1 and 2 cent pieces, and one penny). I don't know where the collection came from, other than someone in Queensland gave it to us, so I don't know if the person lived most of their life overseas or here. The coins do seem to be at least in part a "true collection" rather than just a holiday accumulation, as there are some rather nice though incomplete date-runs of foreign coins. If they are actually halfpenny blanks, then they're probably the most valuable items in the bucket - the next-most-valuable item was an Iraq 10 fils 1943 worth about $40 or so.
Even if a halfpenny blank origin can be confirmed, given the context, there's no guarantee it's an Australian halfpenny; I don't know if there are any obvious differences between planchets from the Australian mints versus India, South Africa, or London. Happy to hear from anyone with experience in verifying and/or differentiating predecimal planchets.
And of course, it could just be two copper disks superficially resembling halfpenny planchets but with no actual mint connection at all.
No idea but will be interested to see if anyone does. Superficially they do look like blanks.
Which leads me to ask.
If these were donated, how does the charity make money out of them?
Sell them off somewhere?
[quote="gweidion" pid='130076' dateline='1752498200']
If these were donated, how does the charity make money out of them?
Sell them off somewhere?[/quote]
The charity is primarily a "stamps" charity; postage stamp collections are donated to them and their experts then sell them either on eBay or through various dealers and contacts. I'm "the coin guy" on the committee; any coin collections donated to them go to me and it's my job to then sell them on behalf of the charity.
I don't have a firm opinion,if the weight is correct they may well be blanks but i've seen pennies and halfs hollowed out on a lathe then polished to look like blanks.
Not sure with these S. so not much help.
Hi, I have penny and half penny blanks in my collection.
In the day they were just a curiosity.
As Basil notes, they should be correct weight.
Blanks occurred because the blank coin would skip the feed mechanism on the press, not get stamped and go straight into the collection hopper.
Being normal weight and size they would not be detected as 'faulty' and go straight out to weighing and bagging.
Cheers, Fred.
Good to see you Posting Fred.
They look like it but no idea how to confirm beyond checking the weight and size.