5th Variety of 1931 Penny discovered

Yurist · June 11, 2019, 07:30:10 AM

Hi All,

Just wanted to let you know of an interesting new discovery. A 5th variety of the 1931 penny. It has a dropped 1 and Indian obverse, but other characteristics distinguish it from the benchmark 1931 dropped 1 Indian obverse variety. It's been dubbed by collectors as the "Unicorn Penny" because of its rarity and mystical origins. There have been 7 coins discovered so far. Some of them have irrefutable provenance - one Unicorn Penny was owned by an 80 y.o. collector for many decades and another was discovered belonging to a woman born in 1931. Her father (a collector) gave her the coin when she was young.

Check your collections - you may unwittingly own one of the truly rarest varieties of Australian pennies.

Have a read of this article for more information.

https://sites.google.com/view/1931dropped1indianpennyvariety/home

JeffH · June 11, 2019, 07:37:06 AM

Quote"Unicorn Penny"

Have you been holding out on us Uni?

Unicorn · June 11, 2019, 07:52:43 AM

That's a great link Yurist! :good:

Geez, I wish Jeff! I think I would have spilled the beans on that one before now if I had one! :laugh2:

Basil · June 11, 2019, 08:59:52 AM

:welcome:

Interesting,i'll leave it for the more experienced to comment but AFAIK no genuine 31 dropped Indian had been ID without the Die Chip.

Also the dropped Indian and its rarity was well known to Collectors/Dealers when i was at School in the 1960's although several 'experts' had claimed to have ID it in the 1970/80's.Downies auctioned several in the 1960's.

Quote..."It wasn't until the late 1970's that the third variety of the 1931 penny (i.e. the benchmark 1931 'dropped 1 Indian obverse') was properly identified, and it was initially thought that the coin was related to the already famous 1930 penny (of which only about 1500 were struck). However, it was soon established that the two coins had neither their obverses nor reverses in common.".

This is from 1966..

autocoupler · June 11, 2019, 10:37:01 AM

Very interesting. Hmmmm, you guys were close to the trail previously on the other thread. :good:

https://www.australian-coins.net/showthread.php?tid=5506&page=5

serenitystan · June 11, 2019, 03:55:24 PM

Who's to know! There could be more of the 5th variety than the third..Everyone will be getting there rulers out .

nealeffendi · June 11, 2019, 08:10:24 PM

So this dropped 1 Indian is distinct because it has CBL lettering and the dropped 1 has a different alignment?
That means it was struck from a reverse die that wasn't the product of the standard dropped 1 hub.
My next question is: do any dropped 1 English have CBLs and this differentially aligned 1? Now I'll have to dig out my dropped 1 English album to see if they exist.

Yurist · June 11, 2019, 08:21:25 PM

Quote from: 'nealeffendi' pid='119561' dateline='1560249624'So this dropped 1 Indian is distinct because it has CBL lettering and the dropped 1 has a different alignment?
That means it was struck from a reverse die that wasn't the product of the standard dropped 1 hub.
My next question is: do any dropped 1 English have CBLs and this differentially aligned 1? Now I'll have to dig out my dropped 1 English album to see if they exist.

I did that same check as well, but it looks to me like the Unicorn Penny was born from a unique reverse die. I'll be interested to know of your findings.

Yurist · June 11, 2019, 08:23:55 PM

Quote from: 'Basil' pid='119556' dateline='1560209392':welcome:

Interesting,i'll leave it for the more experienced to comment but AFAIK no genuine 31 dropped Indian had been ID without the Die Chip.

Also the dropped Indian and its rarity was well known to Collectors/Dealers when i was at School in the 1960's although several 'experts' had claimed to have ID it in the 1970/80's.Downies auctioned several in the 1960's.

Quote..."It wasn't until the late 1970's that the third variety of the 1931 penny (i.e. the benchmark 1931 'dropped 1 Indian obverse') was properly identified, and it was initially thought that the coin was related to the already famous 1930 penny (of which only about 1500 were struck). However, it was soon established that the two coins had neither their obverses nor reverses in common.".

This is from 1966..

Thank you for this insightful piece of history. I will advise the Unicorn Penny article authors to amend accordingly.

nealeffendi · June 11, 2019, 08:42:49 PM

Didn't the dropped 1 Indian get a mention in the Deans Variety Catalogue of 1964/5 with 6 examples known? That predates that Downies advert by a few years.

Mister T · June 11, 2019, 09:06:07 PM

So it's still a London reverse and Indian obverse, but with curved-based letters and no dot after the S - interesting. I guess it's different enough that any examples would have been dismissed as possible fakes.

Quote from: 'nealeffendi' pid='119566' dateline='1560251569'Didn't the dropped 1 Indian get a mention in the Deans Variety Catalogue of 1964/5 with 6 examples known? That predates that Downies advert by a few years.

I thought it was mentioned in the 1960s at some point too.

Yurist · June 11, 2019, 10:26:17 PM

Quote from: 'Mister T' pid='119567' dateline='1560252967'So it's still a London reverse and Indian obverse, but with curved-based letters and no dot after the S - interesting. I guess it's different enough that any examples would have been dismissed as possible fakes.

Quote from: 'nealeffendi' pid='119566' dateline='1560251569'Didn't the dropped 1 Indian get a mention in the Deans Variety Catalogue of 1964/5 with 6 examples known? That predates that Downies advert by a few years.

I thought it was mentioned in the 1960s at some point too.

Thank you for your historical clarifications. I am able to report that the Unicorn Penny website has now been amended to reflect your points.

Basil · June 12, 2019, 09:18:17 AM

Yeah,the ID of the dropped Indian goes back to the early 1960's at least,possibly before that.I did a Paper run/route from 1962 to 1966 and was looking for one then after a reading an article on the 1930 Penny(around 1962/3?).
As i posted in the other Thread the author stated in the last paragraph that the "..1930 wasn't the rarest Penny,that title belonged to the Dropped Indian,less than a thousand were minted before the Die broke."

Yurist · June 12, 2019, 06:07:43 PM

Quote from: 'Basil' pid='119572' dateline='1560296897'Yeah,the ID of the dropped Indian goes back to the early 1960's at least,possibly before that.I did a Paper run/route from 1962 to 1966 and was looking for one then after a reading an article on the 1930 Penny(around 1962/3?).
As i posted in the other Thread the author stated in the last paragraph that the "..1930 wasn't the rarest Penny,that title belonged to the Dropped Indian,less than a thousand were minted before the Die broke."

Thanks for that! A valuable piece of recollection. I hope you found some of them :winkextra:

Basil · June 15, 2019, 07:07:40 PM

Quote from: 'Yurist' pid='119574' dateline='1560328663'Thanks for that! A valuable piece of recollection. I hope you found some of them :winkextra:

No,never found or purchased one but i still keep my eyes open 50 years later.I did find a 1919 Double Dot,which back in the early 1960's was starting to cause ripples amongst the Dealers,many were in their Teens when it was minted and they had never seen one.