Washington Cent 1791

Hello,
Can i please have your opinions on this Washington 1791 one cent piece. Unlike most of my other older US coins, i bought this one not at auction, but at from a dealer in Belgium. For this reason i would like to have some confirmation of its authenticity.

The coin has all the edge lettering, and it weighs 12.32 grams. I believe this weigth is in-line with what it should be according to the Red Book which i have. Your comments, includings your opinions of this coins' grade are very welcome.
Thanks,
Eduard

 

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I dont know if it is authentic but Its a beautiful cent, how much did you pay for it?

 

thats a great coin,WOW

 

definately cool, regardless of authenticity.

 

Very neat piece !

 

It isn't going to be worth more than one cent if you continue to touch it.

 

That side lettering beats the dickens off the side lettering of the current washington coin.
Mond you that the picture of Washington is better as well than the 2007 model. BTW - I think it is a pattern.

Ruben

 

oh please.

 

XF40 is my grade. As others have pointed out, it is not a good idea to put your fingertips on the coin anywhere but the edge (and I would suggest not even there).

 

you are the king of coins

 

Thank you for your adivce. I will be sure to be careful handling these coins.
I like this one, it has a very nice colour. Also, for me it has the historic appeal of a contemporary coins depicting your country's first president.
What i was unsure of was its authenticity since it was not bought at auction.
Thank you,
Eduard

 

It seems to be real. I don't think there is much danger of the patina of that coin being interrupted by your fingers, as there is no lustre left. However is this an american coin ?? Or a token ?

 

He is not kidding. Finger oils and acids can do massive damage to some coins. The body acids interact with the Cupric Oxide on the coin and will leave a finger print that will never come off. It's your coin so if you don't care, continue holding it like that.
If you went to the LINK noted by GDJMSP you would have noticed that what you have is NOT exactly a small time coin of little value.

 

Its not an official coin. Its a Washington token. Still, nothing to scoff at: Redbook puts it at 1,000 in EF.

 

Someone really ought to invent a term for this category of token - the exact opposite of NCLT - that actually circulated as though it were money even though it was completely unofficial.

How about CNLT, for Circulating Non-Legal Tender? Or, CIT, for Circulating Illegal Tender?

The term would apply to Hard Times Tokens, and Conder Tokens, among others, as well as the early US Washington tokens.

 

Would you like to try for medal-coin? It almost seems appropriate in this case. Or is that a sore subject?

 

Aside from the fact that a banned member used to harrass everybody by using that oxymoronic term for NCLT, it is inappropriate for the category I'm talking about because it just doesn't apply.

For centuries there have been times when there simply was not enough official coinage to meet the needs of commerce, which resulted in privately minted substitutes, such as the Washington tokens, Hard Times tokens and Civil War tokens in the US; Conder tokens in England; notgeld in Germany; and others. My suggestion is that a generic name for those tokens, all of which were actually used as if they were money, would be useful, and would help distinguish them from special purpose tokens such as transportation or relephone tokens.

 

I'd say his sentence structure was more like Roy's than Aidan.

 

Eduard,

Nice coin! Thanks again for sharing your' collection with us here on Coin talk!

I do not see anything on the coin that would leave me to believe that it is not authentic! The coin has a a really nice planchet for this early period of U.S. coinage and I believe that it should grade at VF-35 to EF-40! These early pieces are fairly hard to grade as I have not seen any grading standards on them whatsoever and I probably couldn't afford any in book form if I did.


Frank