I have found this coin in my backyard and I don't know the value of this GOLOID. METRIC. 1878. Can anyone help me to determine the value of this coin?
That's a cool find for a backyard find. Are you in the US? EDIT: I'm questioning it's legitimacy due to the positioning of the word "OF" on the reverse. Seems a bit off. My opinion isn't worth much, though.
I'm from Serbia, probably my neighbor tossed a coin in my backyard, he's numismatist. So you think that this is not worth much?
My guess is that it's a modern reproduction of a pattern piece. It would be stamped "Copy" if it were made in the US (to reduce confusion) but manufacturer's outside of the US often choose not to put a distinguishing mark. If it's legitimate, the coin would be worth $1,000-$6,000 (probably on the lower end, since this appears to be circulated): http://coinauctionshelp.com/Pattern_Guides/goloidbandedcaplibertydollar.html You might want to ask your neighbor if he's missing any VERY expensive coins (or if his wife/gf might have gotten angry with him and thrown things over the fence). Barring that, send it in for certification to find out if its real. Here's what I found on the Goloid trial pieces: "Goloid is an alloy of silver, gold and copper patented by Dr. William Wheeler Hubbell on May 22, 1877 (U.S. patent #191,146). The patent specifies 1 part gold (about 3.6%), 24 parts silver (about 87.3%), and 2.5 parts copper (about 9.1%, all by weight); however, the patent also states that "The proportions may be slightly varied" and goes on to specify that the silver portion can range from 20 times to 30 times that of the gold, and the copper could range from one-eighth to one-twelfth (from 12.5% to 8.33%) of the total mixture. The patent specifies that the metals be separately melted, then mixed, along with "sulphate of sodium or sulphate of potassium" in the amount of one part sulfate to one thousand parts metal. The alloy, in varying proportions (sometimes slightly out of these specifications), was used by the United States Mint to strike pattern dollars, sometimes called "metric dollars" (some were marked with "metric" in the coin design, while all had metal proportions and total coin weight as design features) from 1878 to 1880. Patterns of the same design were struck in other metals, including aluminum, copper, normal coin silver, lead, and white metal. In the end, goloid was rejected as a coinage metal because it could not be distinguished from the normal U.S. 90% silver coin alloy without chemical analysis, thus inviting counterfeiters to use silver-copper alloys alone to make lower-value copies."
