45 pence a log!!!

[Jackdaw]

I reckon SWOG should be re-branded as the latest branch of the W.I !!!!. Damn, there's a lot of people with waaaaaaaaay too much time on their hands.

[Toby Allen]

I've used money as washers for years. A 2p also makes a good plug to cover a coach bolt in a 1" rebate.

My mate used to live next to a railway line. He did loads, they look great.

[boxerman]

And here's a halfpenny I did earlier..... (about 50 years earlier) and flattened by steam..

[Toby Allen]

That could be worth money in a few years !!

About 1/2 of 1/2p.

[boxerman]

The copper's probably worth more than that...... they used real metal in those days....

[oldclaypaws]

The copper's probably worth more than that...... they used real metal in those days....

Contrary to colloquial terminology, coppers, that is old pennies, strictly speaking, aren't.

In the 20th Century they were actually bronze, which although 95% copper is far harder than pure copper and more resistant to wear in circulation. The tin portion of the bronze was increasingly replaced with zinc as tin got too expensive.

Old halfpennies weighed 5.67 grams and todays copper price is £5,588 per ton, or 0.558 pence per gram

That makes an old halfpenny actually worth about 3.2 new pence in metal today. Just to confuse matters, old pennies do not weigh twice as much as an old halfpenny, they come in at 9.4g or worth 5.25p

My life savings is just over 4 old shillings at face value, but they are 11th Century Norman pennies in as struck condition, so they are worth slightly more than 5.25p each, I hope.

Silver 'Sword' Penny of William the Conqueror, best not put on railway lines.

sword.jpg (77.98 KiB) Viewed 16213 times

[boxerman]

Hmm.... don't think much of the portrait...... They have to be pretty rare I'd imagine - ones you found yourself presumably?

[oldclaypaws]

Realistic portraits didn't appear on English coins until the late 15th Century, the naive nature of early coins is part of their charm. For its time it was a little work of art, done with very simple tools, its only about the size of a modern 1p but very thin. Very rare, this one was struck at The Tower of London by a chap called Edwin and there are only two others known, both in museums. I didn't find it, it was found in the 19th Century and used to belong to the famous archaeologist Sir John Evans.