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A Die Study of Victorian Shillings Dated 1867 – Gary Oddie

The high relief young head portrait of Victoria, combined with die clashing (when the blank feeder missed a blank), resulted in a high die failure rate through the middle of the reign. During the die numbering period (1864-1879) the obverse dies outnumber the reverse dies by about 50%. During 1867 a new obverse die (Davies obv. 5) was briefly introduced. This is in slightly lower relief than the previous portrait (obv. 4). A new reverse die (Davies rev. B) was also cut. The brevity of these issues suggests they were trials, identified by a small pellet above the die number. Following the trials, the stock of earlier 4B dies were used up for the remainder of the year. Starting in 1868 the new 5B dies would be used on the shillings until 1879. This note presents a complete illustrated set of known die combinations and die numbers, allowing the trials of the 5Bs to be seen in the context of

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A Die Study of Victorian Shillings Dated 1879 – Gary Oddie

In April 1879 the death of T.J. Minton, the engraver responsible for finishing the dies (and adding the die numbers), coincided with and possibly precipitated the end of the use of die numbers. The die numbered shillings of this date are found with two different Obverses (P.J. Davies Obv. 5 and Obv. 6) and the numbered reverses are all Davies type B. New obverse and reverse dies were also made for the issues without die numbers (Obv. 7 and Rev. C) and the stock of old obverse and reverse dies was also used to produce shillings without die numbered reverses. A complete set of known die numbers is presented, with enlarged photographs, along with examples of all known types of the 1879 shillings without die numbers.

A Die Study of James I Shillings – Second Issue, mm Coronet – Gary Oddie and Michael Thompson

This note continues the die studies of James I shillings, working backwards through the mintmarks of the second issue. Here the mintmark Coronet is presented. On 17th May 1609 there was £67 2s 5½d of silver at the trial of the pyx, representing coins struck in the 16 months since the previous trial on 11th November 1607. This mintmark has the first appearance of the 5th Bust. Working through the previous die studies, six distinct varieties of the 5th bust have been identified, three of which can be found with mm coronet. This study includes 92 specimens struck from 68 obverse and 79 reverse dies, with just 6 die pair duplicates. The sample statistics are poor but suggest that this issue of shillings had 198 obverse and 477 reverse dies.

A Die Study of Victorian Shillings Dated 1878-Gary Oddie

The year 1878 is the penultimate for which die numbers were used on the shillings and it is clear that the process of adding the numbers was becoming less precise. Several of the die numbers are very weakly entered on the die, and others have been entered two, three or more times. This date is characterised by the use of two different Obverses (P.J. Davies Obv. 5 and Obv. 6). These were not used in a simple sequence. A hybrid Obverse die has also been discovered, with characteristics of both of these Obverses, found exclusively with die number 53. To add further complexity, for die numbers 49-54, each die number is known on two or more distinct dies. An almost complete set of known die numbers, including the varieties, is presented with enlarged photographs.