Rhodesia half crown 1964 varieties

There are two quite significantly different varieties of the 1964 Rhodesian half crown: one has wide rims with the denticles nearer to the portrait and legends, the other one is the opposite. The difference is obviously visible with a naked eye. Judging by a small search through different online auctions, the coin which I have labeled as A is the more common one, but B doesn't seem to be very scarce either.

Is this common knowledge that I have just somehow missed, or might it be something new? Maybe this should be mentioned in the catalogue?

Hi,

well detected, but I think you have to think in denticles and beads and not so much in the width of the rims?

What do you think?

Yes, good catch to the OP.

Agreed. Denticles and beads and not wide and narrow rims.

Edit. Maybe these old eyes but I see beads. OP's example photo, reduced and altered lighting.

I do not agree with beads. I don’t see beads. The picture is very fuzzy, looks like shorter denticles. I have several copies, I would call them short denticles with wide rim and long denticles with narrow rim. I may be able send images in the next 24 hours. 
 

Are there clear images of examples with beads distinctly separated from the rim?

edit: spelling

Beads or denticles, fact is OP's A coin has 88 denticles (on Elizabeth's side), OP's B coin has 90 beads/denticles.

The two I posted also have 90 on both sides.

I counted the beads/denticles on my coin as well, and look I came to a different result!

Essor Prof

Beads or denticles, fact is OP's A coin has 88 denticles (on Elizabeth's side), OP's B coin has 90 beads/denticles.

Did you count the same sides? Looks the same as mine!

One die of each type.

rsirian1

One die of each type.

That's called a mule, but I don't want to recount your two coins…..

Data points (I have 5 copies):

3 copies have 90/90 denticles

2 copies have 88/90 denticles. The 88 denticle side appears both times on the obverse (Her Majesty's) side.

Instead of counting all 88/90, the difference on the obverse can be noticed when looking at the “S” of SECOND:

On the 88-denticle, the S is centered between 2 denticles:

On the 90-denticle, the S is centered on 1 denticle:

My copies: No beads, only some rims wider than others, with the appearance of shorter denticles.

Sjoelund

 

Did you count the same sides? Looks the same as mine!

I've only counted the side with Elizabeth on it and that was 88 for OP's A coin and 90 for OP's B coin.

I've counted now the other side too and that was for both coins 90. So there's only a difference on the Elizabeth side.

gyoschak

 

 

My copies: No beads, only some rims wider than others, with the appearance of shorter denticles.

When I look at your pictures it seems the wider rim has longer denticles and the narrow rim has shorter, and that's the opposite of what you're saying. But it's possible because your pictures only show a very small part of the coins. Look at OP's B coin, the Elizabeth side has a wide rim at the bottom but a narrow rim at the top. That's why I'm reluctant of the use of the terms wide/narrow rim. Let's stick to the counting, that never lies. And thanks to your “S”-thing we even don't have to count anymore.

Essor Prof

When I look at your pictures it seems the wider rim has longer denticles and the narrow rim has shorter, and that's the opposite of what you're saying. But it's possible because your pictures only show a very small part of the coins. Look at OP's B coin, the Elizabeth side has a wide rim at the bottom but a narrow rim at the top. That's why I'm reluctant of the use of the terms wide/narrow rim. Let's stick to the counting, that never lies. And thanks to your “S”-thing we even don't have to count anymore.

Yes, I did not write it well. I see no particular correspondence between the rim widths and the denticle lengths, because some copies vary in rim width and denticle length around the circumference. 

Agree that counting denticles is what we should be doing.

Sjoelund

Essor Prof

Beads or denticles, fact is OP's A coin has 88 denticles (on Elizabeth's side), OP's B coin has 90 beads/denticles.

Did you count the same sides? Looks the same as mine!

The two I counted had 90 on both sides.

Here are our findings

The OP should make the the Change Request, not with the width of the rim, but by counting beads/denticles. Please also include gyoschak 's S-thing!

I have 2 different ‘S-things’ too!
Very nice find.

Thank you everyone! This turned out to be most fascinating! You have outdone me, I did suspect that the coins might have different numbers of denticles or beads, but I never actually counted them! The easiest points for clearly seeing the difference are the positions of the denticles/beads to the extreme upper and lower parts of the royal portrait - that's how I make sense of them. The same goes with the legends and denticles/beads.

I tried to check the other denominations of this series for similar varieties too, but they seem to be all the same. I only have a small handful of them, and online picture search is limited. Maybe you could compare your coins for similar varieties in the other denominations? I also wonder if there are other combinations of the front and back in the half crowns?