If building a complete set of coins from the Island of
Jersey is not challenging enough, then collecting the various die varieties of
these coins should keep any numismatist busy for years. There are many
things to look for including striations, repunched dates and letters, prominent
die cracks, mis-aligned letters, and various spacing between letters and
digits. Broadly defined a die variety represents a coin that can be linked to a
specific pair of dies. Typical die varieties included repunched dates and
letters, variations in placement or alignment of letters and numbers, or a
slight modification of the design itself. These are differences that
occurred at the time the die was made. Also, when looking for varieties
it is important to know that there are changes to dies when they are used.
These changes can be defined in two categories, a die state and a die
stage. A die state refers to how long a die has been used. A die
stage refers to die cracks, die breaks, striations, or any other damage to a
die. There are many references on the subject of die varieties, die
states, and die stages and I would suggest further reading for a better
understanding on this subject. However, for this work, a
"variety" is something that readily distinguishes one coin from the
next. For example, consider two coins that are identical except for one
noticeable feature. One has striations and the other does not. We
will consider these two coins as two die varieties. (Yes, in reality both
come from the same set of dies. The obverse die is in a different die
stage.) To properly describe a variety, the obverse die and reverse die
must be identified. For this work, numbers are used to indentify obverse
dies. If the die has striations, the letter "S" is appended to
the number. Letters are used to identify the reverse dies. A die
variety is identified by the pairing of the two. For example, an 1851
half penny has seven die varieties. The seven are: 1-A, 1S-A, 2S-B, 3-C,
4S-C, 5S-C, and 6S-B.
The
following table lists the obverse and reverse die types for the penny, half
penny, and farthing. It also reports the number of known varieties for
each coin. There are not any varieties of the one fourth of a shilling
and five shillings coins.
|
|
Penny |
Half Penny |
Farthing |
||||||
|
Year |
Number of Obverse Types |
Number of Reverse Types |
Number of Varieties |
Number of Obverse Types |
Number of Reverse Types |
Number of Varieties |
Number of Obverse Types |
Number of Reverse Types |
Number of Varieties |
|
1841 |
2 |
3 |
3 |
3 |
2 |
3 |
4 |
1 |
4 |
|
1844 |
3 |
2 |
3 |
2 |
2 |
2 |
|
|
|
|
1851 |
4 |
1 |
4 |
7 |
3 |
7 |
|
|
|
|
1858 |
5 |
1 |
5 |
4 |
3 |
4 |
|
|
|
|
1861 |
9 |
6 |
10 |
5 |
3 |
6 |
|
|
|
|
1866 |
5 |
2 |
5 |
3 |
1 |
3 |
|
|
|
|
1870 |
4 |
1 |
4 |
6 |
1 |
6 |
|
|
|
|
1871 |
5 |
2 |
5 |
2 |
1 |
2 |
|
|
|
|
1877 |
5 |
1 |
5 |
9 |
1 |
9 |
3 |
1 |
3 |
|
1881 |
1 |
2 |
2 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
1888 |
4 |
5 |
7 |
6 |
2 |
6 |
|
|
|
|
1894 |
1 |
4 |
4 |
2 |
2 |
2 |
|
|
|
|
1909 |
2 |
1 |
2 |
1 |
2 |
2 |
|
|
|
|
1911 |
1 |
4 |
4 |
1 |
3 |
3 |
|
|
|
|
1913 |
1 |
2 |
2 |
1 |
1 |
1 |
|
|
|
|
1923-1 |
1 |
3 |
3 |
1 |
2 |
2 |
|
|
|
|
1923-2 |
1 |
1 |
1 |
1 |
1 |
1 |
|
|
|
|
1926 |
1 |
1 |
1 |
1 |
1 |
1 |
|
|
|
|
1931 |
1 |
1 |
1 |
1 |
1 |
1 |
|
|
|
|
1933 |
2 |
1 |
2 |
1 |
1 |
1 |
|
|
|
|
1935 |
1 |
2 |
2 |
1 |
1 |
1 |
|
|
|
|
1937 |
1 |
2 |
2 |
1 |
1 |
1 |
|
|
|
|
1946 |
1 |
1 |
1 |
1 |
1 |
1 |
|
|
|
|
1947 |
1 |
3 |
3 |
1 |
1 |
1 |
|
|
|
|
1945G |
1 |
1 |
1 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
1945E |
1 |
1 |
1 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
1957 |
1 |
1 |
1 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
1960 |
1 |
1 |
1 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
1964 |
1 |
1 |
1 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
1966 |
1 |
1 |
1 |
|
|
|
|
|
|