Max, I will give your suggestion a try if ever I come across an external coil.
Looking at the new aftermarket coil, I can see it is made a bit different. I wonder if I should have reversed the coil on the steel core? Would doing that have made any difference? I suspect not, but I guess it can't hurt to try. It is really odd the way it produces a spark sometimes but not all of the time.
Be great to have enough coils to do some trial and error testing to sort out which ones will work and which will not.
BTW, I contacted several coil rewiring companies and one manufacturer in Australia about the possibility of rewiring old Victa coils or even re-making them. The replies ranged from "not able to do" to "not worth our bother". I am surprised one of the mower parts companies has not started manufacturing replicas in Taiwan.
