Provenance

Provenance: The Coote Family Specimen

One known specimen of the Unicorn Penny is supported by a clear, continuous, and well-documented provenance tracing it to the Coote family of New South Wales.

This provenance provides not only a human narrative, but a chronological and evidentiary framework that strongly supports the coin’s authenticity and early origin.

The Family Tradition

The coin was retained by Fred Coote, who recalls a long-standing family tradition established by his father, Frederick Edmund Coote (born 25 March 1908, Millers Forest, NSW). Frederick Coote was a milkman by trade and later served as a Sergeant with the Royal Australian Air Force during the Second World War. Each year, he marked his children’s birthdays by gifting them a penny corresponding to their year of birth:

• Fred Coote (born 1 July 1933) received a 1933 penny

• Heather Margaret Coote (born 23 August 1930) received a 1931 penny

Heather was born in 1930. However, because 1930 pennies were not readily available in circulation, Frederick Coote substituted the next available date: 1931. According to Fred’s recollection, this practice continued throughout their childhood.

Based on the children’s ages and the duration of the tradition, the latest possible year in which these coins could have been selected from circulation is no later than 1949.  

Documentary Corroboration 

The family account is independently corroborated by multiple contemporaneous records:

A statutory declaration made by Frederick Edmund Coote confirms:

• His marital status

• The names and birth dates of his children, including Heather Margaret (23.8.1930) and Frederick Edmund (1.7.1933)

• His residence in Gordon, NSW

Also a police clearance record lists Frederick Coote’s occupation as Milkman, directly corroborating his son’s description.

The National Archives of Australia service records, including a portrait photography from Frederick's enlistment file and confirm:

• Identity and date of birth

• Place of enlistment (Sydney)

• RAAF service during WWII

• Next-of-kin and family details

Together, these documents establish that Frederick Coote was a real, verifiable individual living in New South Wales during the 1930s–1940s, supporting a family on a modest income.  It is believable that he was acquiring ordinary pennies from circulation and gifting them to his children.

Numismatic Timeline 

This provenance becomes especially significant when placed alongside the documented history of Australian penny varieties.

In 1964, John Dean published Australian Coin Varieties, the first formal catalogue devoted to Australian mint varieties. Among his observations was a fourth variety of the 1931 penny, which he designated P31D.

Dean defined this variety by its curved-base letters on the reverse, and recorded that only six examples were known at the time. Their extreme scarcity meant that few collectors ever encountered one, and the listing soon became something of a quiet legend within the numismatic community.

In the years that followed, collectors searching for Dean’s elusive curved-base P31D instead discovered a different rare 1931 penny: the Indian-obverse “Dropped 1” variety, characterised by flat-base reverse lettering. Approximately fifty examples of this flat-base type are known today.

Because the Dropped 1 variety was findable, it gradually displaced Dean’s P31D in common numismatic practice. Dean’s original curved-base variety slipped into obscurity, and over time some experts came to assume it had never truly existed.

From this disappearance, arose the mythology of the “Unicorn Penny” - a variety recorded in the literature, spoken of by specialists, doubted by those who had never seen one, and largely forgotten.

The Link to Authenticity

The Coote family provenance fixes the presence of a 1931 curved-base penny firmly to the 1940s, decades before John Dean's publication enabled:

• Public awareness of the Indian-obverse Dropped 1

• Any established collector premium for a rare 1931 penny variety, and

• Any conceivable incentive to manufacture or alter such a coin

Even if one assumes, hypothetically, that Frederick Coote continued selecting 1931 pennies from circulation in later years, this could not have occurred beyond 1966, when pennies were withdrawn with the introduction of decimal currency. At that time, the Indian-obverse Dropped 1 was not yet recognised as a valuable or forge-worthy variety.

Accordingly, it is implausible that:

• A private individual in the 1930s–1950s would commission or create a highly specialised mint alteration

• Use micro-welding techniques that are not available even at a modern day industrial level

• Such a forged coin would be repeatedly gifted to a child as an ordinary birthday keepsake 

• Or that, later in life, a milkman living on a pension would purchase an extremely rare 1931 variety once it became desirable

The logic simply does not support a forgery hypothesis.

Expert Examination

The Coote family specimen was later examined in person by Noble Numismatics, one of Australia’s leading numismatic authorities.

Following physical inspection, Noble produced a handwritten authentication note, identifying the coin as a genuine Unicorn Penny. This assessment necessarily implies that the possibility of forgery was considered and dismissed based on direct examination of the coin itself.

It is worth pointing out that none of the critics of the Unicorn Penny have actually presented any physical inspection evidence to support their hypothesis that the coin might be a fake.  It is questionable whether in fact any of these critics have had the opportunity to inspect any of the known Unicorn Penny samples.    

Conclusion

The implications of this provenance are straightforward. No rational forger in the 1930s, 1940s, 1950s, or early 1960s would have invested significant labour to manufacture a specialised mint anomaly that:

• Was scarcely known even to specialists

• Carried no recognised market value

• And pre-dated the varieties collectors later sought

The Unicorn Penny exists precisely where a genuine early mint irregularity should exist - quietly circulating, unrecognised, and preserved only by chance and family habit.

The Coote family provenance explains how such a coin survived. John Dean’s 1964 publication explains why it was known, yet forgotten. Independent expert examination confirms what it is. Together, these strands establish the Unicorn Penny as a genuine early mint anomaly - not a later fabrication.

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