Miscellaneous, The Mint, Birmingham: Specimen Piece, in nickel-silver, c. 1870, obv. blank, rev. from the same die as previous, edge plain, 38mm, 30.53g (Sweeny 22). Streaky toning, otherwise extremely fine and extremely rare (£100-150)

This lot was sold as part of a special collection, The Joanna Tansley Collection of Patterns, Proofs and Coining Trials.

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The composition of a similar piece illustrated by Sweeny (p.66) was revealed by X-ray spectrographic analysis as 70% copper, 15% nickel and 15% zinc