Author: BNS Blog Coordinator

Unrecorded White Metal 18th Century Tokens – Part 4 – Gary Oddie

The previous three notes published on the BNS blog highlighted several series of non-contemporary white-metal late 18th century tokens. Essentially all were found to be cast or struck copies, made using moulds or dies created from genuine tokens. At the 2022 Token Congress five further specimens were brought for analysis by Jeff Rock and Merfyn Williams. These are presented here and fit nicely into the groups presented previously, reconfirming there was a small number of prolific counterfeiters of white metal 18th century tokens, mostly in the early 20th century.

Henry III Posthumous Class 7 Pennies, Obverse Die Types – Rob Page

This article documents all the known dies of the Henry III Posthumous Class 7 pennies, from all three issuing mints: London, Bury and Durham. It is an update on work I published several years ago, and benefits from the new specimens that have come to light since then. For the obverse dies of Phelip of London, statistical analysis suggests that about two-thirds of the obverse dies may now be known. The article is actually a report output directly from a Microsoft Access database, so any new coins that turn up can be entered into the database and the article quickly updated. I invite readers with any further examples to please contact me using the comments box below.

Thomas Witheridge – Mariner and Slaver, Bristol – Gary Oddie

The coin presented here is an outstanding piece of late eighteenth century engraving in miniature. The host coin, possibly a shilling dating from the recoinage of William III, has been smoothed and engraved to act as a love token from the sailor Thomas Witheridge to his future wife, on his departure on the slave ship The Phoenix in 1772. This note will trace some details of the ship, its voyages, and the life of Thomas Witheradge.

A Die Study of Victorian Shillings Dated 1865. Part 1 – Validating the Statistical Methods – Gary Oddie

For some years the equations proposed by Warren Esty have been used to estimate the number of dies used to strike a particular issue or coinage. The equations are used to give point estimates of the number of dies and the coverage and also 95% confidence limits on these numbers. However, the equations are based on assumptions, and as reasonable as they are, it is still only a model, and therefore the question has often been asked “do you believe the results?”The acquisition of an 1865 shilling with the die number 102 (a rarity according to specialist collectors) led to the realisation that a study of the die numbered coinage can be used to test the statistical models. This is simply because we know what the answer is, as the dies are all numbered.A virtual collection of 184 shillings dated 1865 was gathered and used to systematically test the statistical methods with increasing sample size. This confirms that the equations

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