1966 50c Reverse Die Cracks

Mister T · October 26, 2012, 03:17:56 PM

I wonder whether those patterns were silver or not.

Fordprefect · October 26, 2012, 03:47:28 PM

Treasury had requested that submissions be in no less than .800 fine,
so I presume they were. Dion Skinner who assembled the collage does
not mention metal type.

There is also a Image attribution stuff-up in the collage.
Image 1 is in fact item 4
Image 4 is item 1

Australian coin · October 26, 2012, 05:42:22 PM

Cool, do those coins actually exist somewhere!

Mister T · October 26, 2012, 05:51:24 PM

Maybe deep in the mint somewhere.
I thought those examples were shown to Dion Skinner by David Gee back in the day, but I'm not completely sure.

Australian coin · October 26, 2012, 06:00:40 PM

I remember seeing these pics of 1966 50c,
>>
http://www.cruzis-coins.com/50c/1966db.html

But wow, would love to see photos of the beaded 50câ€™s

I also found the â€œclear field picâ€

Wonder if this is the same personâ€™s pic?

Fordprefect · October 27, 2012, 12:13:53 AM

Quote from: 'Mister T' pid='1889' dateline='1351236084'Maybe deep in the mint somewhere.
I thought those examples were shown to Dion Skinner by David Gee back in the day, but I'm not completely sure.

Yes, in the novel "Heads I Win" the story of Australia's most famous forger, it is stated that Gee requested a meeting with Skinner and it took place, 1972 in Sydney.
In 1974, when Gee was interviewed by police, Gee had in his posession 10 50c pattern Australian coins thought to be the property of the R.A.M..
At his court appearance in '76 the charge sheet read 8 examples.
Two examples, struck in Aluminium had been claimed to have been gifted to him (Gee) by Henderson the retired chief of RAM.
Henderson neither confirmed or denied the claim.

Of the 17 known surviving pattern coins prepared by Vembola Veinberg (Chief Engraver, RAM) only the eight retrieved from Gee are held by the RAM. The whereabouts of the balance of nine is still a mystery including the Aluminium examples.
All other patterns were smelted in the RAM's furnace.

Sorry to drag it off-topic, but interesting story:drooling:

purplepennyhunter · October 27, 2012, 07:31:02 AM

If that's off-topic I'll just change the topic name. I read the David Gee story a few years ago now and loved it. Maybe if more books were about coins then I'd read some more.

btw I don't think we have off-topic police here.

Mister T · October 27, 2012, 09:12:40 AM

Quote from: 'Fordprefect' pid='1903' dateline='1351259033'All other patterns were smelted in the RAM's furnace.

What a waste.