"Phil Allison" wrote in message
...

"Black Iccy"


And just for kickers, the forward conduction breakdown from each diode,
in
turn, ought to be lower than the reverse destruction breakdown voltage,
in my
experience anyway. Therefore a single dropping resistor would be
effective.

** For interest sake, I checked a few 5mm white LEDs in stock for reverse
breakdown.

Each exceeded 21 volts with reverse current under 3uA ( maybe nothing)

You might have got away with dumping that much reverse voltage just the one
time, but continuous reverse half cycles probably puts their life expectancy
in the same ball park as filament bulbs!