May 30^th. 2005.

Next club meeting Monday 6^th June 2005

This is the club's AGM and Annual display Competition for the Michael Broome Cup.

The AGM is the meeting where the officer's report the status of the club, the membership voice their concerns/ideas and the officers are elected for the forthcoming year. On this latter point, each year the process of finding persons willing to stand for election seems to become more and more difficult. Thus if any member is willing to stand for office please come forward and talk to the chairman (or any other member of the committee).

We need new blood to learn the ropes since next year at least 2 persons have to retire from the committee. This is in addition to limited availability of the current 5^th committee member. We really are approaching crunch time. Remember no officers = no club.

The second part of the evening will be devoted to the annual display competition, with the winner being awarded the Michael Broome Memorial Trophy for 1 year. The competition is open to all members and can cover any topic connected to numismatics. Remember, it is not necessarily the grandest coins that win. Quite mundane items are prime candidates to lift the prize when well presented in an interesting context. So to all members please have a go and enter a display.

May Meeting

At the May meeting Mr Graham Dyer, who replaced the advertised speaker, gave a talk entitled `the withdrawn sixpence of 1887 - a tragedy of errors'

To set the picture Mr Dyer opened his talk by explaining one of the principals of modern coinage, namely to be able to distinguish the differing denominations, either visually or by touch, from their design, legend, size, weight or colour. He then spoke about what happens when these principals are not adhered to. For example the `racketeer nickel' in the US where the 5 cents did not state the value and when gold plated resembled a higher value gold coin. This was followed by several examples of the distinguishing variations in English Hanoverian coinage of similar sizes. For example, the gold coins of George I have a draped bust whereas the silver coins have an undraped bust. Guineas have reverses with sceptres in the fields, the shillings are plain in the fields. In the later coins of George II the style of the shields tend to be very different on the gold & silver. Despite all this experience, problems have arisen, notably the first one-year issue of George IV. The 1821 half sovereign and the sixpence, were so similar they were quickly withdrawn. The subsequent designs were sufficiently different but were still based upon ornate shields. Eventually in 1831 the wreath and value word design was introduced which lasted for the next 56 years, during which time there were no problems.

Then in 1887 we had the new coinage to celebrate the Queens jubilee - and the 6d & half sovereign were almost identical designs. Within a matter of days of issue (21' June) august bodies, such as the Bank of E, were requesting their withdrawal - even mint officials were expressing the same views within the first week. By November a new reverse had been prepared with the old laurel and word reverse, but the initial issue of 610,000 remained in circulation and no attempt was made to withdraw them. This was probable because contemporary evidence/ reports that gilding 6d's to pass as half sovereigns were few; however, Mr Dyer's research has revealed that today gilded 6d's are far from scarce.

There is little doubt that the reverse design of the new 6d was an error of judgement, a view expressed by many at the time. The then master of the Mint (Freemantle) was not of this view and was reluctant to acknowledge the mistake. He was a well-respected master with a proven record and it is therefore a puzzle as to how the situation occurred. Mr Dyer proposed the view that Freemantle was blinded by the search for perfect coinage. He (Freemantle) considered that the current coins did not match the art of the past and he wanted a return to those proven designs. We first see this in a return of St George on the 1871 sovereign. The 1887 reverses can also be linked to earlier times. The 1887 crown has Pistrucci's St George, the 2/6, 1/- &6d compare well to the reverses of the George III re-coinage, while the 4/- & 2/- hark back to the cruciform and sceptres design of previous reigns. It was postulated that in his pursuit of perfection he forgot the lessons of the past. Others at the time expressed a view there was insufficient consultation, but in Freemantle's defence the mint was very busy during this period, had resource problems, and was under considerable time pressures that could not afford prolonged bureaucratic debate. He may therefore have felt it was safer to use the tried and tested designs of the past.

Freemantle was a perfectionist and several dies were made in an attempt to improve the detail. This undoubtedly led to more pressure in order to be ready for the issue date. Mr Dyer described 2 varieties. Firstly the differing detail in the arches of the reverse crowns and secondly the JEB monogram below & on the bust, Ironically while Freemantle strove for perfection many of the coins produced do not bear close scrutiny. There is evidence in the coins of clashed dies, cracked dies, and repaired/ reworked dies. The repairs have left us with some interesting varieties in the letters of Victoria, viz I over R (2 varieties of un-repaired sheriffs), R over V, R over B (probably a doubling of R), A over A. These errors show the dies used were far from perfect, with short cuts in work processes being taken in order to meet commitments.

In conclusion this period of the Mint's history was a tragedy of errors, but the lessons were learnt and acted upon. For the 1893 re-coinage the designs were assessed by a committee following a competition, a full time engraver employed to cut the designs and the reducing machine effectively employed. The coins also stated the denomination.

Mr Dyer is to be congratulated on an excellent talk much appreciated by the 25 strong audience. It has been some time since we have had such an informative talk on English modern coinage.

Post script - in answering a question Mr Dyer explained that dies numbers on Victorian coins were not there to assess die wear, they were to be able to trace machine/worker quality of workmanship.

Thanks to David for arranging such a good replacement speaker at short notice.

Next years Programme

The programme for next year is still in the course of preparation. However, the 4^th July meeting is the talk `Of Celts & Cartwheels' by D Symons (curator of B'ham museum) ( talk deferred from 9th May)

Summer Social Yet to be confirmed - any ideas?

Future Events.

• London Coin Auction, Dartford Crossing, Kent - 5th June
• London Coin Fair & Baldwins auction at Holiday Inn, Bloomsbury - 11th June
• Birmingham Coin Fair at National Motorbike Museum, Birmingham - 12th June

For those interested I have the details of the Northampton Token Congress scheduled on 14th to 16th October. The weekend cost is £140 full board, day attendee + meals £70. Contact me for details/ booking form.

Past Events

• 30 years ago Mr D Metcalf delivered a talk on the coinage of Henry 7th
• 20 years ago in May 1985 Marion Archibald spoke about a day in her life at the BM covering dealer/ collector relationships, funding and the security the BM coin treasures.
• Ironically it was Marion who spoke 10 years later on recently found early medieval treasure troves such as the Woodhouse find of Sceattes and the Box find of Matilda & Stephen pennies.