Ancient, British and World Coins, Tokens and Banknotes

George v, Pattern Octorino or Eightpence, 1913, by Reginald Huth, struck by John Pinches, in copper (ESC 1481A). Good extremely fine and extremely rare (£120-150)

No records exist of how many of these curious and charmingly called Octorinos Reginald Huth ordered from Pinches. ESC assigns them a rarity of R4 (eleven to twenty). In relation to Huth’s other issues these figures seem high. Forrer quotes mintage figures for some of his earlier coins, and there are some additional notes in the Huth sale catalogue (Sotheby, 1927), based on his tickets. If Forrer’s figures are to be believed and we have no solid reasons for questioning them (he was a contemporary of Huth and they were probably based on personal conversation or correspondence) off-metal strikes were made for Huth in very small numbers indeed. Unless the Octorinos and Eightpences were an exception one can tentatively suppose that these too were struck in similar numbers in metals other than silver, perhaps ten or less.

The example in the Norweb sale (SCA 56, November, 1986) sold for £220