I have a coin confirmed as gold by a local auctioneer. He says it may be French due to the word Franc on the head side. As weight value he reckons around £45 would be the gold value. The coin itself is 20mm in diameter and 1mm thick. The head side features a man with long hair and ribbon to tie it back. There is a frilly collar or ribbons roung his neck. He is also wearing a necklace showing an eagle possibly carrying something. around the head is written .. FRANC.D.G.R.I.S. followed by A.GER.I ER.REX On the tail side shows a double headed eagle with a sword in each wing. There is a crown between the heads and a coat of arms in the body. Around the edge is written.. MEA.1752. followed by .. TUDOMINE SPES. Also at the bottom of the eagle's tail are the letters G and A
Question: I am by no means a coin collector or expert, but I am certainly very keen on history, particularly the eighteenth century. I have had in my possession for a long time now, a mysterious coin, dated 1752. What I really want to know is, what is this coin, and is it contemporary? I really have no idea, but I would very much like to find out as I have puzzled over it for a long time now. It appears to be French, on one side there is a profile of who I can only presume to be Louis XVI, and a Latin inscription, too abbreviated for me to translate - FRANC.D.G.R.I.S.A.GER.IER.REX. On the other side there is a coat of arms and another Latin inscription which is somewhat easier to translate - TU DOMINE SPES MEA 1752 The coat of arms is hard to describe - it consists of what appears to be a griffin with two heads, holding two swords with a crown covering both heads and another smaller one below the heads. The coat of arms is in the centre of the bird and at the bottom on either side of the tail are printed the tiny letters: C and A. I don't know if that made too much sense to you, but I am no expert on coats of arms! The coin itself appears to be in good condition, the markings clearly defined, which makes me wonder if it IS contemporary or not. It is a strange colour - it may have been a silver colour, but it is almost a dirty yellow now. (But still shiny). ANSWER: This is a German Coin. The Legend, FRANC.D.G.R.I.S.A.GER.IER.REX. says Francis, By the Grace of G-d (D. G.) Emperor of the Romans ever August (Romanorum Imperator Semper August or R.I.S.A.) and King of Germany and Jerusalem (GER. IER.REX). The reverse says, TU DOMINE SPES MEA 1752 or Thou Lord is my hope, 1752. Fortunately most of Europe used Latin in their coin legends irrespective of the national language. At least one only has to learn the Latin abbreviations. I'm not sure which German City State this coin is from, though I will guess it is a silver Thaler (approximately the size of a English Crown) and could very well be from Nuremberg. The value depends on the which type, denomination and grade but the most common of these Thalers trade in decent condition between US$100 - $300. Taken from http://www.coinsite.com/content/cdanswers/cdarchive14.asp **Not sure how old/recent that information is so the value may or may not be accurate Try here too: http://www.cointalk.com/t867/ probably a little more accurate -Shrek
Thanks guys but if this is genuine and in good condition how much would it sell for? Is it rare? i will get the electronic scales at work and weigh it as well.
Here is a link to a genuine example sold last year - http://www.coinarchives.com/w/lotviewer.php?LotID=754683&AucID=551&Lot=709 Find out what the weight of your's is. I would take it to a jewelry store to do that. You need the weight within a hundreth gram, as in x.xx grams.
So, I've just had coin weighed and it's coming up at 2.6g. Does this mean that it's one of the readers digest replicas?