Stunning coin and are you referring to the circular thing on the obverse as the scratch? If so its another die clash of the shield from the lion.
I'm a nut for Albanian too, or anything designed by Romagnoli for that matter. What's kind of interesting about Albanian nickel minors, all of the coins in gem BU are usually dated 1926-R. All except the 1/4 Leku which for some reason usually shows-up dated 1927 in this condition. If you want a real challenge, try finding the later dates (1930, 1931) in uncirculated. They're out there in conditions up to XF but virtually nothing above that.
Nice, one year issue. Hold on to those. The early union coins were also cheap at some point. Look at the prices now.
Yeah I know I've found over here, if you wait you can find bargains at times ! I think this is one although normally I would only pay 10 pounds max for a silver crown
The best bargains I got were from SA. I remember well, a 1923 proof Farthing for $40, 1892 Penny BU with nice blue tone for 200 and a 1926 Florin AU for 100. You must see what prices these get on HA. Crazy!
I have never seen something like that. Sorry for ignorance, at what point in the DIE prep you think the tool marks came in. I it when they do the final touchup before scaling it down?
I don't really see em ? I've been working with dies for a while now and haven't noticed anything like that but then again the dies I play with are for making car sides ha !
I know they had lots of problems with theses coins, to date, there's 161 DDRs for this year, and mint mark
That is a interesting thing since it is not made by the actual minting process, but with the die preparation itself. It looks to me like the tool marks were done on the plaster model before the reducing lathe.