Scarce “Dot” Pennies
There are many examples of pennies with small raised circular “dots” on either the obverse or reverse, now thought to be caused by a rust spot on a working die which eventually is removed by successive strikes leaving an incuse area which produces the raised flaw when creating the coin (see my article in Coin News June 2022).
My own definition of the “variety” of a coin (the unique combination of date, obverse design type and reverse design type) excludes such non-man made changes but Michael Freeman created a precedent when he recorded the 1897 penny with such a dot on the reverse as variety Freeman 147.
Further similar examples have been identified on both copper and bronze pennies and are not usually formally recorded but have proved both interesting and collectable to coin enthusiasts. They tend to be scarce as they were produced from a single working die and are therefore quite rare in high grades.
All known (to me) examples are shown below for interest and to enable collectors to identify these coins.
Note: these “dot” pennies seem to be gathering more attention amongst collectors and, as a result, I have created their own pages on this site for some of the more widely reported types, e.g. 1870 Dot, 1875 Dot and 1875 “cannon ball”.
1846 P1491 near colon – dot between T and I of GRATIA
small raised circular dot to the right of the T in GRATIA
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1853 P1504 Plain Trident (Italic 5) – dot between I and A of GRATIA
small raised circular dot to the right of the I in GRATIA (also found on 1853 O.T. pennies)
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1854 P1506 [1+F] P.T. – dot below 1st I in VICTORIA
raised circular dot below 1st I of VICTORIA
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1855 P1508 [1+A] O.T. – dot on forehead
die flaw appears as a raised dot on the queen’s forehead
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1858 P1518 [2+A] O.T. (No W W) (large date) – dot on neck
tiny perfectly circular raised dot to the bottom right of the queen’s neck
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1859 P1519 [2+A] O.T. (No W W) (small date) – dot above DEF:
small round dot above the colon dots after DEF
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1860 F13 [Gouby E+d; Freeman 3+D] – dot between E & N of PENNY
small raised dot between the E and N of PENNY
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1860 BP1860Sx [Gouby F+d; Freeman 4+D] – (F15) partial ONF plus dot in date
raised dot between the date numerals 6 and 0
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1870 BP1870Am (Gouby J+g; Freeman 6+G) – dot below Y
raised dot at the base of the Y of PENNY
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1875 BP1875Ce (Gouby L+k; Freeman 8+J) – raised dot to right of ship
raised dot to right of ship – recorded by Gouby as “cannon ball” – Very rare (<10 known)
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1875 BP1875Cd (Gouby L+k; Freeman 8+J) – raised dot below I of VICTORIA
raised dot below the I of VICTORIA
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1878 F94 (Gouby L+k; Freeman 8+J) – tiny dot above 1st 8 in date
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1893 F136 (Gouby R+r; Freeman 12+N) – with raised dot between B & R
Raised dot on obverse between B and R of BRITT
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1897 F147 (Gouby V+w; Freeman 1+B) – with raised dot
die flaw – raised dot between O and N of ONE (almost certainly the most common of the “Dot” pennies)
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1909 (Gouby C+d; Freeman 2+D) – Dot in ONE
Small dot at the top right of the N in ONE
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1911 F171 (Gouby A+a; Freeman 1+A) – Dot left of date
Small raised dot to the left of the date numerals
Pictures courtesy of Stephen Dallyn
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1922 F192 (Gouby C+b; Freeman 3+B) – Dot on trident
Small raised dot on the centre prong of Britannia’s trident
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“Non-Dot” Pennies
The above “dot” pennies all bear what appears to be a perfectly circular raised dot. However, it is not uncommon to find the odd raised “cud” of extra metal on a coin and, generally, they are of little numismatic interest although Michael Gouby did record the following penny in his book “The British Bronze Penny 1860 – 1970”.
1946 BP1946B (Gouby A+c; Freeman 2+C) – ONE’ flaw
die flaw appears as a small raised dot (or apostrophe) after E of ONE
It is therefore not surprising that other pennies with seemingly randomly shaped raised metal are being marketed as “dot” pennies to presumably cash in on the growing interest in these pseudo-varieties. After all, collectability is in the eye of the beholder.
Examples of these are shown below:
1863 F42 [Gouby J+g; Freeman 6+G] – oval “dot” below the D of F:D:
Not the usual circular dot described above so maybe just some excess metal on the coin ?
Pictures courtesy of Terry Eagleton
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1855 P1508 [1+A] O.T. – 3rd colon dot [?]
Extra metal between the 2 colon dots after FID
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Other similar examples are being “found” all the time but I don’t really consider that they merit inclusion on a website dedicated to genuinely rare penny varieties.