Can anyone share any info on these. A friend of mine gave one of these two me without any history on he acquired the other than he has had for a long time. I started to do some digging around on the internet only to find that these coins were mass counterfeited. Is there a good website to help me determine if the one I have is legit or a fake? I did find one site that has some good info, but not the detailed info that I was looking for. THe coin I have has the bust of Maximilian facing to the left with Maximiliano Emperador on the obverse and the Mexican Eagle on the reverse with the date 1865 below the eagle's perch. Also says Imperio Mexicano on the reverse above the Eagle. You nearly need a 16x loupe to really look at this coin because it is so small. My findings yielded many, many die cracks all throughout the coin which I understand is typical for a small coin like this. Thanks for any help that if offered.
jaceravone, What I can find in world gold numismatic reference books is .... NOTHING ! It has got to be a token "gold or gold plated"of some sort and not a gold coin. The only Maximilian gold coin I can find is a 20 pesos dated 1866 ... which is very uncommon with a mintage of on;y 8,274
they are either 18, 22, 24 karat HGE. Just replicas is all. EDIT: it looks something like this?: http://cgi.ebay.com/MEXICO-1865-MAXIMILLIAN-RARE-22K-HGE-GOLD-PESO-TOKEN_W0QQitemZ370338880124QQcmdZViewItemQQptZCoins_Bullion?hash=item5639eada7c stainless
Some are replicas and others are not. Mine looks like that, but the bust of Maximillian is facing the other way.
Here is close up of my Mexican Max coin. Just simply looking for authentication and feedback. No big deal.
Better photos! It appears to be a fantasy token. One, there is no denomination on it ( 1 P or 1 Peso). If it is really gold, it should weigh 1.69 grams for the monetary system in use then, most imitations are less than a gram. So weigh it , school chem lab, jeweler, or someone that deals in gram weight. Jim
Correct, thank you, no denomination and weighs at, 0.038 grams so a fantasy token maybe for a wedding or something.
These Maximilian fantasies are quite common, like the wedding tokens that seem to pop up everywhere, like mushrooms after the rain, or ants at a picnic. But it's not surprising that they're so attention-grabbing.
These are worth talking about, if only because those of us who look at Mexican coins on eBay have to slog through so many of them. They've been around for decades. Neil Utberg listed something similar in The Coins of the Republic of Mexico 1823-1905. He shows a tiny gold medal, about 10mm in diameter, with Maximilian's head on one side (a crude facsimile of the Maximilian silver peso) and a small eagle on the other with the date 1865. He goes on: "With a magnifier you will note a small initial 'B' on the medal. This is the initial of Sr. Baron who had the medal struck and is still having them struck." That was in the 1960s. Utberg seems to have included the medal in his book to dispel a widespread perception that it was really an old coin. The version that's common today lacks the initial "B" but looks very similar, like the photos in post #5. Like Sr. Baron's original medal, it's often represented as a gold one peso coin (as silvereagle points out, an impossibility in 1865) but just as often as a gold-plated souvenir piece. They usually trade for a few bucks, but yeah, occasionally you see one sell for a price that makes you cringe.
I noticed this listing today. It has the "B" marking and could be the "original" gold fantasy piece from the mid-20th century (as opposed to the now-common plated 21st century copy): http://www.ebay.com/itm/1865-Mexico...406419?hash=item2cc0ee5753:g:gmMAAOSwR29ZJ0KF Then again I just re-read the OP's description which has Maximilian facing left, so this may all be off-topic.
I obtained this coin among others, from a, young child believe it or not like 12. His Uncle got him into collecting Mexican coins, and Sebastian got hooked. His Uncle lives in Mexico currently and shares his collection with Seb. I purchased from him as the uniqueness and quality of this coin. I will upload more pictures on, total weight, and measure with my digital Caliper with pictures.
I'm not expecting it to be legit, but could be. I just like coins. Way more to come, lots more, in Mexican, and American coins.
Just a note, gold is soft. If you're checking the diameter of a gold coin use the middle flat area rather than the pointy end. Might safe a mishap that could cause damage to the coin.
