Royal Mint Expertise - Another Cockup!

[LawrenceChard]

I received a marketing e-mail from the Royal Mint today with the title "Latest Acquisitions - Newly sourced Coins from Collector Services"

The first of these was a

1931 South Africa Sovereign in VF+ for £540.

Nothing particularly remarkable about that, except for the high price, which is standard, and unsurprising, at least to most members of TSF

I thougth I would take a look at some of the other 3 items they were proudly trumpeting, but I got no further than the second item:

1893-1901 Victoria Old/Veiled Head Crown - London  in Fine condition priced at £47.

Again nothing too spectacular there. Being slightly pedantic, I could point out that the old head portrait was only used on crowns from 1893 to 1900 inclusive, so the inclusion of 1901 is somewhat questionable, a fairly common newbie mistake typical of many coin marketing companies with little or no numismatic knowledge or expertise. I will ignore the price.

Awaiting Stock

This was slightly amusing considering the e-mail header proclaims "newly sourced", but perhaps they had such great demand that they sold out!

Now, after the build-up, I will give you all a chance at spotting the big boob:

... and just to help, I will include the text:

1893-1901 Victoria Old/Veiled Head Crown - London
Fine+ Condition
Price:£47.00

Rated 0 out of 5
Original sterling silver Victorian crown expertly sourced by The Royal Mint
In a minimum of Fine plus quality
Obverse features the Veiled Head portrait by Sir Thomas Brock
Reverse features Saint George slaying the Dragon by Benedetto Pistrucci
Read the full description
Awaiting Stock

PRODUCT CODE: HISVVC

The Remarkable Woman who defined the Nineteenth Century.

The young Victoria inherited the throne in 1837 at the age of 18. Her reign would last for more than 63 years, a Victorian-era characterised by unprecedented change and progress. As queen and empress, Queen Victoria saw the British Empire spread far and wide, and when she died in 1901, almost a quarter of the world’s population used coins that bore her portrait.

Her final portrait, by Thomas Brock RA, was introduced in 1893 and shows us a dignified and veiled queen. This coinage portrait would be her last and was struck until Queen Victoria’s death in 1901.

SPECIFICATION
SPECIFICATION    VALUE
DENOMINATION    Crown
ALLOY    .925 Sterling Silver
WEIGHT    28.28 g
DIAMETER    38.61mm
REVERSE DESIGNER    Benedetto Pistrucci
 

Spotted it yet?

Answers on a postcard...

😎

 

 

Edited October 7, 2021 by LawrenceChard

[Zhorro]

17 minutes ago, LawrenceChard said:

Spotted it yet?

Answers on a postcard...

😎

 

 

So as not to spoil the fun, I wil give you a heads-up later.

But can you spot the error here?

[dicker]

@ZhorroFull set price £10. Should be £60

@LawrenceChardIts a Jubilee Head!

[Zhorro]

1 minute ago, dicker said:

@ZhorroFull set price £10. Should be £60

That was not the error I was thinking of!  I was looking at the picture.

[dicker]

The 2020 date **** up? 🙂

[Zhorro]

Just now, dicker said:

The 2020 date **** up? 🙂

Yes, I believe this second issue set are dated 2021, whereas the original three were I think 2020.

[LawrenceChard]

2 hours ago, Zhorro said:

So as not to spoil the fun, I wil give you a heads-up later.

But can you spot the error here?

No, I would need 2020 vision to see it!

Incredible!

😎

[LawrenceChard]

2 hours ago, dicker said:

@ZhorroFull set price £10. Should be £60

@LawrenceChardIts a Jubilee Head!

Correct, and in case nobody at the RM has the same encyclopaedic knowledge of Victorian coins, it is dated 1891, so that should have given someone in Llantrisant a clue! 😎

[LawrenceChard]

2 hours ago, Zhorro said:

So as not to spoil the fun, I wil give you a heads-up later.

But can you spot the error here?

At least they are consistent:

 

Perhaps they will supply mules with the incorrect dates? 😎

 

[Coverte]

2 hours ago, Zhorro said:

So as not to spoil the fun, I wil give you a heads-up later.

But can you spot the error here?

 

Add the current 9 coiner to your basket and you get this:

"This is a continuity product (What you can expect from our nine-coin series • You only need to add a quantity of 1 to your basket to order all 9 coins. • Coin 1, 2, 3 and 4 will be charged at the point of purchase and despatched shortly. • Coins 5 and 6 will be despatched and charged to your payment card in 2021 (exact months will be shared with you at the launch of the 2021 collection). • Coins 7, 8 and 9 will be despatched and charged to your payment card in 2022 (exact months will be shared with you at the launch of the 2022 collection). Note: Prices are subject to change due to fluctuations in raw material prices.)"

The Royal Mint - oh so helpful keeping my card and charging it without any notification .... 

[dicker]

Employees are not necessarily obsessively interested in the subject matter of the companies they work for, and I find that often impacts the quality of their output.

 

 

 

 

 

[LawrenceChard]

44 minutes ago, dicker said:

Employees are not necessarily obsessively interested in the subject matter of the companies they work for, and I find that often impacts the quality of their output.

 

What about the leadership?

[dicker]

The leadership (owners or shareholders) almost always are!

 

[Coverte]

17 minutes ago, dicker said:

The leadership (owners or shareholders) almost always are!

 

Since the ultimate owner is the treasury, we are all shareholders - but wait, I never got a dividend yet ....... 

[LawrenceChard]

On 11/09/2021 at 21:24, Coverte said:

Since the ultimate owner is the treasury, we are all shareholders - but wait, I never got a dividend yet ....... 

You probably have had a dividend, it's called tax. 

Are you familiar with negative numbers? 

[LawrenceChard]

On 11/09/2021 at 16:50, LawrenceChard said:

I received a marketing e-mail from the Royal Mint today with the title "Latest Acquisitions - Newly sourced Coins from Collector Services"

The first of these was a

1931 South Africa Sovereign in VF+ for £540.

Nothing particularly remarkable about that, except for the high price, which is standard, and unsurprising, at least to most members of TSF

I thougth I would take a look at some of the other 3 items they were proudly trumpeting, but I got no further than the second item:

1893-1901 Victoria Old/Veiled Head Crown - London  in Fine condition priced at £47.

Again nothing too spectacular there. Being slightly pedantic, I could point out that the old head portrait was only used on crowns from 1893 to 1900 inclusive, so the inclusion of 1901 is somewhat questionable, a fairly commone newbie mistake typical of many coin marketing companies with little or no numismatic knowledge or expertise. I will ignore the price.

Awaiting Stock

This was slightly amusing considering the e-mail header proclaims "newly sourced", but perhaps they had such great demand that they sold out!

Now, after the build-up, I will give you all a chance at spotting the big boob:

 

How about a TSF sweepstake on how long the RM will remain uncorrected.

I will include the direct link in case anybody wants to monitor it:

https://www.royalmint.com/our-coins/ranges/historic-coins/historic-crowns/1893-1901-Victoria-Old-Veiled-Head-Crown-London/

 

[Zhorro]

Earlier this year, the Royal Mint released the commemorative Decimal Day 50p.  The reverse showed images from pre-decimal coins.  Prominent in this design was the Wren which had appeared on the farthing.  The problem was, the farthing had ceased to be struck after 1956 and was demonetised in the UK from 1st January 1961 – i.e. more than TEN years before the original Decimal Day (15^th February 1971)!

Now The London Mint Office has taken this one step further by producing a coin just featuring the farthing as an example of “Britain’s last pre-decimal coinage / 1971-2021”!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_British_farthing

https://www.historytoday.com/archive/farthings-last-day

Edited September 13, 2021 by Zhorro

[LawrenceChard]

On 13/09/2021 at 16:27, LawrenceChard said:

How about a TSF sweepstake on how long the RM will remain uncorrected.

I will include the direct link in case anybody wants to monitor it:

https://www.royalmint.com/our-coins/ranges/historic-coins/historic-crowns/1893-1901-Victoria-Old-Veiled-Head-Crown-London/

 

It has still not changed!

[LawrenceChard]

On 13/09/2021 at 18:09, Zhorro said:

Earlier this year, the Royal Mint released the commemorative Decimal Day 50p.  The reverse showed images from pre-decimal coins.  Prominent in this design was the Wren which had appeared on the farthing.  The problem was, the farthing had ceased to be struck after 1956 and was demonetised in the UK from 1st January 1961 – i.e. more than TEN years before the original Decimal Day (15^th February 1971)!

Now The London Mint Office has taken this one step further by producing a coin just featuring the farthing as an example of “Britain’s last pre-decimal coinage / 1971-2021”!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_British_farthing

https://www.historytoday.com/archive/farthings-last-day

That's funny, but not entirely surprising.

LMO claim to employ a numismatic expert.

Although I do know a girl who used to be pert, now she is ex-pert.

☺️

[LawrenceChard]

On 15/09/2021 at 14:30, LawrenceChard said:

It has still not changed!

Still unchanged!

If the error remains long enough, will it become part ot the RM 1100 year tradition?

Edited September 20, 2021 by LawrenceChard

[MonkeysUncle]

I think the Welsh are all hiding at home scared of the lurgy. Or possibly just scared of hard work? The DVLA disease could have spread easterly...

And in the meantime the sheep are running the show. Baa!

[LawrenceChard]

On 20/09/2021 at 14:54, LawrenceChard said:

Still unchanged!

If the error remains long enough, will it become part ot the RM 1100 year tradition?

Another week, and it's still uncorrected!

[LawrenceChard]

On 22/09/2021 at 21:51, LawrenceChard said:

Another week, and it's still uncorrected!

No change! 😎

[LawrenceChard]

On 29/09/2021 at 22:05, LawrenceChard said:

No change! 😎

We are now into October, and still nobody at the RM has noticed the error!

[MonkeysUncle]

Nothing surprises me with RM.

They can't communicate, they can't control quality, they have next to no idea of product availability. I wonder if their vaulted storage is actually secure - if it is then it's probably the only thing they're doing right! That's if a padlocked garden shed can be termed a vault!