What is an Arabic 1?

[TheGoldSovereign]

So I've seen a few of these but I think only from PCGS, what is it? I've had a close look and don't see much difference....

[augur]

Isn't the Arabic 1 standard opposed to the inverted Arabic 1 which ends up (once corrected) as a Roman I?

[sovereignsteve]

The Arabic "1" looks just like that.

A Roman I is actually like a capital i with a serif on all 4 corners.

The variation on quite a few Victorian coins is an Arabic 1on top of an inverted Arabic 1which looks a lot like a Roman I

 

[TheGoldSovereign]

I've just received an "Arabic 1" slabbed, I don't understand it looks like a 1, maybe the serif is larger but what punch is apparently used to make it different?

Hopefully a few interesting coins to report on in the next week, not posted for a while but filled some gaps in the collection

[augur]

What sovereignsteve and i am trying to say is that there is no difference to see since the Arabic 1 is used by default and it shouldn't have gotten a special mention in the first place. 

The Roman 1 is the exception to the norm. 

 

In the font used by the Royal Mint the Roman 1 is like the letter I with serifs on all four corners. The Arabic 1 is missing the serif on the top right. When the engravers at the Royal Mint by accident punched the 1 inverted on th die and then overdated the inverted 1 with a correct 1 you end up with what looks like a Roman 1 or I. This overdate or a Roman 1 deserves special mention. 

[sovereignsteve]

40 minutes ago, sg86 said:

I've just received an "Arabic 1" slabbed, I don't understand it looks like a 1, maybe the serif is larger but what punch is apparently used to make it different?

What coin are you talking about?

In most cases, the Arabic 1 is the standard variant and the Roman is the anomaly. Not always though, some are about 10:1 or less, although in many cases the relative distribution is unclear.

PCGS just label it as Arabic 1 to differentiate from the Roman. They do this mainly with coins where there is a roughly even distribution between the 2 variants.

[TheGoldSovereign]

That is exactly the answer I was looking for, why the hell label it different when it's the same as every other shield!

Is it only PCGS that do this or NGC as well? It shouldn't be labelled different imho.

[Murph]

I don't see a problem really as long as they differentiate between the Roman and Arabic.  Just a standard term in numismatics especially with British (usually Victorian?) coins.

[TheGoldSovereign]

It's not consistent though, either label them all this or none as it confuses the end user

[Murph]

If there is only 1 variant for that coin I could see why they wouldn't bother but if there are both...