Hi guys.....Please ID this Indian Coin I got this coin from my dad's friend. It has Hindu religious symbols at reverse and a God man in obverse. All the letters are in Bengali and is dated 1839 which suggests that it's probably from the princely state West Bengal during British rule. I can't trace its origin. It might even be a temple token. I had to clean some green stuff off it coz it was really dirty when I first got it. Also let me know whether it holds any numismatic or exonumiatic value because I don't collect ancient coins or exonumiatic stuff and want to sell it out. Thanks.
Nope.....Its Lokhnath Baba.......Bengali people have huge following of his preaching......I am a Bengali too.......My mom wants me keep this.....But its worthless to my collection......I just want to make some moolah if its worth anything or trade it...lolz..
oh....I forgot to give its diameter....Its a few mm greater than modern Kennedy half....hope this helps......
bengal was not a princely state during the british rule it was a british colony even before the crown formally took it over this one is a token as to the value of it i doubt there is a market for these tokens outside their religious and metal content.
Yeah you are spot on regarding bengal's status...... I guess its some sort of temple token..... Now all I gotta find a very religious bidder in ebay..... Do you have any knowledge of Tripura state coins? It was an independent kingdom but joined Indian union after independence. Tripura's king was bengali and hindu too.... there is still outside chance of it having some numismatic value.....
Hello Rusty :hail:......Yup its cool alright....I actually hate ancient shapeless coins but this coin is perfectly circular.... so its good to be in my collection...... :loud.s. Its my 100th post....yahoo..
whatever numismatic value it had you took it away when you decided to clean it. I am not aware of any milled coinage from Tripura
Its absurd to make a blanket statement like that. Saying whatever numismatic value a coin / token might have had is gone because you cleaned it...honestly. It matters how you cleaned it and why....if it had green stuff chances are you arrested corrosion which is good...and if you did not clean it harshly and the coin still has good eye appeal, you are just fine...it matters how you cleaned it and it is, IMO, very misleading to say such a thing about cleaning a coin and the value without knowing more details and seeing the coin in hand. Its down right misinformation.
Whoa...thanks Drusus......that's a relief to hear..:whistle: I just gave this coin a mild hot water bath and rubbed off the green stuff with a lint free cotton cloth.....Guess that's the least I could do to make it look attractive... Before that it was really ugly believe me.....
Understood...what you did isn't that bad...especially if it had green corrosion forming. I would just say that instead of hot water just use distilled with no heat. Don't rub a coins surface if you can help it but instead let the water work on it for a bit in a distilled water soak and maybe a dab or a slight rub with a very soft cloth. If you have corrosion, there are other ways to remove it than to rub the surface but I doubt you did any real damage to it...I don't like filthy coins either and there are ways to handle corrosion and dirt where you wont have to rub the surface much. With a soft cotton cloth, you probably didn't hurt it in any way unless you look at it under high magnification....and even then if you didn't rub it very hard of for long you probably didn't harm it much if at all. If you have a filthy coin that has been regularly handled and circulated, a little light cleaning isn't going to do any more harm to it then circulation and corrosion already did to it. In fact you may SAVE or PRESERVE any numismatic value a coin might still have by proper cleaning.
first of all its not a coin secondly it absurd of you to think that it was a blanket statement for all coins. it silly to call something misinformation without knowing the subject matter.
eh? reread...I said: "coin / token" ...not that it matters what I called it...either coin or token is the same when it comes to cleaning ...you can both improve or lose value by cleaning them either correctly or incorrectly and if that statement quoted above is not a blanket statement telling a person: "whatever numismatic value it had you took it away when you cleaned it" then I do not know what is...you didnt inquire how he cleaned it...you didnt say 'if you clean it incorrectly'. What about the subject matter do I not know enough about to call it misinformation? The statement above is purely misinformation.....he simply said: I had to clean some green stuff off it coz it was really dirty when I first got it. and then you made a pretty blanket statement saying in no uncertain terms he took away any numismatic value it had by doing so (even though the green means, most likely, it needed attention.) and then I said that was just plain misinformation...there are many factors to consider as to whether he harmed it or helped it....mainly HOW he cleaned it. If someone told me that, I would take away from that statement that cleaning a coin (or token) takes away any numismatic value...period.
drusus do you know how much those tokens are worth? 5 to 10 rupees at best if you go to buy them if you go to sell them you wont even get 2 rupees how much is that? it doesnt matter what he did to the particular token its going to be difficult to sell anything for less than rupees 2. if you want to argue that well it was worth 1 cent before and now its 2 cents you can make that argument but even he will realize what i am talking about. Just a friendly advise try and understand the subject matter before you go accusing other people of misinformation you will make more friends that way.
Ok guys...no point arguing over my worthless token..... I like it cleaned and I have no problems keeping it with myself for the rest of my life..... I do what I deem good to my eyes and don't care about other collectors think of it or its value......thank you all for all the helpful replies....
