ENGLISH HAMMERED FARTHING VARIETIES OF BMC 340

An exercise is being attempted to determine how many different punctuation varieties exist for the BMC 340 Charles.1 Rose Farthing. The identification number being taken from the book by Charles Wilson Peck "English copper, tin and bronze coins 1558-1958 in the British Museum" regarded by many as the bible. Unfortunately now out of print but second hand copies can still be picked up for around £80.00.

This exercise has previously been attempted in the Spink Circular of September 1981 in an article by Graham Entwisle, a facsimile of which was sent to me a few years ago by the late Colin Cooke, who was a leading coin dealer and collector of this series, located in the Manchester area.
A total of 12 different combinations were listed in the article, three of which have not been picked up in the 30 depicted in table 2. Feedback was requested in the article but I have no idea if anything became of it.

An example of Obv B and a Reverse with a large single central comma between H . I and Rex, mentioned previously as unseen, has turned up. It has been included as number 29 in table 2.
Also unusual with this coin is the stop between H & I
The 3 remaining combinations from the article (using the same references as in the tables below) are

1. Obv B    Rev 9
2. Obv C    Rev 2
3. Obv C    Rev 9

A similar tabular format to the article has been used below for recording the variations.

Basic description of BMC 340

Type 2f
Single arched crown on both sides
Two sceptres saltire through crown on obverse
Single rose below crown on reverse
Privy marks crescent (top centre on obverse) / crescent (end of legend on reverse)

Punctuations are represented by standard keyboard characters.
The semi colon is used for for apostrophie stop
The stop is only represented at the bottom, although sometimes it is in the middle or top
The swiggle (Tilde) is used to represent the privy mark, cresent, on the reverse where necessary

The naming suffix allocated to BMC number are not in any concrete defined order, nor are the obverse and reverse suffix
They are only there at the moment for indentification purposes.

One or two may have had assumptions made, so confirmation of the different dies would
probably help with fully defining the variants and how many exist.
On BMC340-12 Punctuation is not totally clear
On BMC340-20 Rev 13 No punctuation is assumed between FRA and ET, also apostrophe stop between HI and REX may possibly be colon stop.

Click on the BMC340 number in the RH List No. column of Table 2
to view the coin or, if applicable, on the [+] to expand for die listing

If any collectors have other fully identifiable punctuation variations in their possession
which can eventually be scanned for confirming and updating the tables and would care
to assist in a hopeful conclusion to this exercise.
Please send details to this e-mail address for attention

A natural progression to this exercise could be to determine the different dies associated
with each punctuation variant or/and to investigate if any of the same punches have been used
to cut other dies like the same letter punches or the same crowns or rose or sceptre punches.

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