These big Pennies, based on the British Style of Coinage are BIG BRASH COPPER and RARE in high mint state with RB.  The New Zealand environment doesn't encourage copper to remain in decent shape.  But look at these coins!  In the hand they are so impressive in their color and the engraving and strike.  It is hard to imagine why they didn't abandon the large copper early, as they are hardly convenient.  The bird Tui Bird in the branches is a daring design that impresses.  Tuis are nectar eaters and native to the Islands an not extinct.  https://www.doc.govt.nz/nature/native-animals/birds/birds-a-z/tui/They are about the size of a raven, 11-12 inches.   In life their feathering sparkles, and they have this touch of white under the chin.  ANd they are decent songstershttps://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/40/Prosthemadera_novaeseelandiae_vocalizations.ogvAside from that, this particular specimen is special.  You have to enjoy the great depth of field in the engraving of the dies and balanced composition which is enhanced by the partial toning.  Enjoy!

Of the New Zealand Coins I sent out to ANACS, I had hopes for this one because it not only had great details in the strike, but it also had a lovely die crack.  Somehow I missed the surface troubles with the coin and it came back details AU58 - Wire Brushing.  I looked at it under the loop and failed to catch the problem.It does seem that  Anacs is getting annoyed with me sending in cheap NZ coins.  A few came back upside down in the plastic.  Other than send tham back, there is not much I could do about it.  How hard can it be to put the coin rightside up in the holder?

I share my collecting with my kids and they had fallen in love with the New Zealand coins circa WII.  They have especially taken a liking to six pence silver coins and we collected more than a few and sent them off to be graded by ANACS.  What returned was that many of these coins had detailed grades, which suprised me.  I've gotten pretty good at recognizing when coins are cleaned, at least in the US series.  The 50% silver mix and the history of these coins seems to have thrown me off as nearly half of them have returned detailed cleaned.  We've been told that is is hard to get such series in decent condition from NZ withouth them being treated to polishing agents and harshly wiped.  Alought, looking over the coins, I'm not certain what to look for in terms of signs of cleaning.  Needless to say, this is a new learning curve.  In a few weeks, the NY Internation coin show will being coming into town.  I hope to get a crack at a few new NZ Six Pence coins at that time, and have a chance to discuss when we have at this point learned with real experts.