Thread: old old coins gold I think

Went to the bank to take invintory of my late fathers bank box. Among a few things were 7 gold colourd coins in plastic sleves that are not perfectly round. On one side is what looks to be a fleur de les and on the other side is a guy holding a staff at an angle across his chest, with a cross on the top of the staff. He is bierded and is whereing a long shirt like thing. The lettering on them I can only make out as FEO . There seems to be more lettering but Cant make out the charictors. There are bacially two words and seprate three letters with a dot at the end. I don't have pics as I am not allowed to take pics in the bank vault so I have to remove them. I have searched for hours trying to find what they are and led to here. Can anyone help? I need to know roughly what I am dealing with before I remove them. the bank mgr said he has seen a lot of gold and was sure they were gold. Any help would be great.

until I can get pic does anyone have any idea what these are and if you have a pic I can compare to what I saw. Its driving me crazy not knowing what they are.

Originally Posted by toolsinbox

until I can get pic does anyone have any idea what these are and if you have a pic I can compare to what I saw. Its driving me crazy not knowing what they are.

You can look on ebay if you have some kind of idea what they are. If you don't have an idea then it's like throwing water in the wind. Pull them out of the vault for a day, or have your Mom pull them out just to do research.

There are many experts on this forum but they need something to work with. good luck

thats exactly what they are what you have in those pics. Thanks so very much. Would these be valuable behond there gold content. They are not nearly as shiny as the one in your pic. And there is a cross at the top of the staff not a ball. longer bierd too.

here are what they look like exactly. Just not as clean looking. But the immages are the same.

It looks like they are florins from Italy. Why on earth would my Dad have these tucked away. He collected stamps ?

Thanks very much Krispy. A friend of mine happens to be in the jewelry busness so I will get him involved. He carries insurance to handle these things so I will hand it off to him for evaluation. He is on vacation right now tho. I have been reading like a mad man and so far they seem to be original florin coins from Italy. The guy with the bierd is non other than John the Baptist. Are there a lot of these around? i cant find any where saying what the value may be. just a lot of history of the Renasounce (sp sorry). Would a musium want these ? I sure hope they are valuable cause I could sure use the money. My Mom figures they were won in a poker game. They were willed to me but if the have exeptional value I will have to share with my Mom. She said my Dad had them appraised at some point but we can't find the paperwork. But emediatly after the appraisial they went in the safty deposit box. The articles I have read state these are the first minted coins in Italy and were duplicated throught the rest of Europe but without John the Baptist, but instead using people like the virgin mary. i will keep reading. This is fun.

I hear you Krispy. Thanks for the words of caution.

First, congratulations on your coins. I also have jeweler friends, and they generally know very little about coins, particularly numismatic value, unless they have some particular interest in it. For most of them, gold is gold, and all they are going to be able to do is weigh the coin for you, which you can do yourself. You are much better off posting a picture here in terms of getting an idea of its value.

Aside from that, what Krispy said is true, your coins should never leave your sight for an appraisal. Think about it, all they are going to do is weigh it, measure it, and look it up on the Internet. If they can't do that in front of you, I wouldn't trust it. Besides, it is much more fun learning about it yourself and puts you in a better position when you sell. By the way, handle the coins carefully (by the edges) when you are examining them. Enjoy!

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