Lot 8
Scarce
-
Notes:
- The './/.' mint mark was assigned to the Sydney Mint in July, 1920 when it was sent three 1919-dated penny dies bearing these marks so that it could experiment with penny production before the striking of the first 'official' penny in October of that year. It can therefore be safely assumed that the 1920 .//. Penny is also a Sydney-strike, and on the numbers found it is likely that it was these dies which were predominantly used to calibrate the presses for the main production of the 1920 /./ pennies. The unaltered Calcutta reverse die used on this variety exhibits flat based letters in the legend. Variety collectors rely on a die fault or 'marker' above the 'W' of 'COMMONWEALTH' to confirm a 1920 .//. Penny when the dots are weakly struck although as there was probably more than one reverse die used this is not conclusive. W. J. Mullet in his book 'Australian Coinage. An Account of Particular Coins' states that the Sydney Mint struck 146,160 pennies in 1921 that must have been dated 1920, as Sydney had no 1921 reverse dies. This figure is more likely to have been the 1920 production from the dies with differing dot placements that were forwarded to Sydney so that it could experiment before beginning its main production of the 1920 /./ pennies. According to Mullet it was mint practice that coins struck from experimental dies "would be placed in a calico bag, added to the canvas draft bag and held in the strongroom and still accounted as a draft of blanks. The main responsibility was to account for the metal belonging to the Commonwealth rather than to claim an inconsiderable coin production". In that way the total number of 'experimental' coins would likely have been counted in a strongroom audit in 1921 before making their way into circulation.
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