juanita77

Hello. I write for the first time. I´m from Argentina. I found the forum looking for some information about a coin i have. It´s a gold sovereign of 1917. I read the post of joserra and my coin doesn´t seem to have any mintmark either, so could it be from London? I know it´s gold because some years ago i took it to a valuer who told me so. My question is: if it`s made of gold, could it still be fake? Sorry if my english is not right...i hope you´ll understand my question. Does anybody know where can I go in my country to authenticate it? Thank you very very much!!!!!

GDJMSP

Yes Juanita, it could still be fake even if it is real gold. I am sorry, but I do not know of anyone in your country who could authenticate it for you.

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Fullmoonkid

Its generally helpful if you could perhaps post as high res pictures of the coin as possible Juanita77.
Why if i may ask would you suspect it fake ? The valuer estimating it is gold would normally be enough for most , im curious , thank you.

fretboard

Welcome Juanita,
What you can do and it doesn't always work but it does alot of the time is find somebody with a digital scale. You didn't mention whether your coin is a full sovereign or half sovereign. Check the weight on the internet, like you could go to ebay and the ppl selling those usually list the weight. Weigh your coin and see if it weighs the amount that it should. Just because your sovereign doesn't have a mint mark doesn't mean it's fake as the mint mark can wear off fastest at times. good luck

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juanita77

Thank you very much for your replies! I´m not a coin collecter and I really appreciate your help. I was reading about this coin and it seems that the coins minted in London in 1917 are very rare and quite valuable. The one I have has no mint mark so it would indicate that was minted in London (the ones minted in Australia, Canada, etc, have a mintmark above the date). But like GDJMSP said here http://www.cointalk.com/t68335/ it could be fake because it´s a very counterfeited coin.
That´s why, Fullmoonkid, I was asking that if the coin is made of gold is enough to determinate its authenticity. Or maybe the forgeries were also made of gold. For GDJMSP´s reply I assume it´s a possibility. In which case its only value is the gold value...I don´t know if I´m making myself clear I don´t speak english very well!!
Thanks fretboard for your advise, I´ll try to weight it, I don´t know if it´s a half or full sovereign, in fact I don´t know anything about coins! I tried to post pictures but I couldn´t do it, I´ll try again later.
Thank you all very much!!

juanita77

Here are the pictures. I hope it works now. Any comment is welcome! thanks.

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fretboard

If it's around the size of a nickel it's a half a sovereign, around 3 grams of gold. If it's almost a US quarter then it's a full sovereign and the weight is a 1/4 oz. These are just approximations. I think the half is just a tad over 3grams and the full is a tad under a 1/4 oz. From your pic it looks like it's a full sovereign.

Keep in mind that alot of the fakes were made a long time ago and they did use real gold. It's not much gold and isn't worth much for sure. Of course if it's real then you have some quick cash or a nice coin. You certainly don't have to be a coin collector to like gold, just ask my wife. lol

juanita77

That´s for sure! My husband wanted to melt it when we took it to the valuer and I said "wait! maybe it´s a valuable coin", that´s why I did all these research...I think I´ll never know if it´s genuine or not...but I´ll keep it, just in case...Thank you very much for your help!

Fullmoonkid

Looking at my own half sov its exactly the same size as a US cent in diameter.Weight is 3.81gm if my memory is correct.

Juanita thank you for the courteous reply , im afraid to suggest there seems to be something amiss with the reverse design on that coin which is a red flag for me anyway.
St Georges midrif seems to vanish.Im no expert though.

Edited to add the reverse of mine,while one can see its been through the wars its a strong design unlikely to fade where the example you have shows.Again , im no expert,could be a weak strike i dont know.

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juanita77

You´re right Fullmoonkid. I noticed that too. It`s pretty obvius comparing with the reverse of your sovereign that there´s something wrong about the design. These coin belonged to my grandmother it had a frame and she wore it as a necklace so I think it was more like a jewelry piece than a collectable coin. I would ask her if she got it already like a necklace or she made it framed..but she is senil :-( she won´t remember..Thanks for posting yours it was really helpfull

Fullmoonkid

Your welcome Juanita , but you know ..if it was worn as jewelery that would perhaps account for the strange worn area.
It looks fine but for that spot,its worth thinking about.

Prestoninanus

I can't know for sure because a photograph is never as good as the real thing, but it doesn't look real to me. The design looks far too weakly-struck in places, if its struck at all (it is showing signs of being a cast in my opinion). Don't just take my word on that though, there is a chance I could be wrong as I'm naturally more suspiscious of rare types. I would get it checked out properly by an expert who can see the specimen in person, but I wouldn't get your hopes up....

juanita77

Yes,i`m convincing myself that it`s more likely to be a forgery the chances it could be genuine are rather remote, but...I had to take the chance. There´s a numismatic museum here in Buenos Aires, I think I´ll take it there and see if they know anything about sovereigns...I´ll let you know what they said. Thank you all very much for your help.