Afternoon all, I just had a call from a guy who has a silver coin in a silver broach looking thing. It has a picture of a lady on it and it is from 1887 about the size of a half dollar, on the reverse it has the words britainia nirium on it, I have no idea if this has any numismatic value does any one have any clue? in addition to the coin he had a huge diamond and several mens 18k gold rings all looking very old.. what a day. I found a link to a picture of the coin http://maltergalleries.com/archives/auction00/cat77/lot672.jpg worth buying? apparently the 1887 Jubilee Head Florin is worth £10.00 So I wonder what that is in Dollars Can anyone reccomend a good world coin book? YAY!! I solved my own riddle I looked at the exchange rate and its worth about 18.90 US dollars, Its in that silver broach too so its worth about 20 bux I think. What I am going to do is see if the diamond is real and concentrate on that and the other gold items he has.
Man you are right, the coin's obverse is the same but the reverse has a word like Nerium on it but similar markings? Maybe the guys coin is not from the UK but from on of the colonies? Now that puts me back to square one.....
The photo you show is of a shilling. The coin you mention is a florin. Neither coin has the wording you mention. The Halfcrown however has a reverse legend BRITANNIARUM REGINA FID. DEF., which roughly translated from Latin means `Queen of all the Britains, Defender of the Faith'. Methinks you have been looking at a silver halfcrown. There are two types for 1887. One with the same bust as in the photo you showed, the other was the last year of an earlier type showing Queen Victoria with a young bust. The young bust type is the more valuable of the two. It is impossible to say what the coin is worth without an understanding of its condition. For example in `straight from the mint' condition the cxoin could be worth £30 +. In `worn out washer condition' it is worth its weight in silver and no more.
I believe you are exactly correct it has to be the half pound, it was made into an antique looking brooch, the guy had this old jewlery box and even the 18k rings looked real Old I am wondering if its worth it? The coin appears to be in ex-fine condition I have scowered google and am still scowering apparently it was more common to put Brit coins in broochs then US coins? bandito
You are correct I did a search 0n an 1887 half crown, that is it! any Idea what value it has in f-20 to vf?
Top catalogue values are £5 in F and £8 in VF. Coins in brooches can often have been subject to the odd bit of polish or `cleaning'. Sometimes they escape that phenomenon. Have a care to check that it hasn't been cleaned or you will end up with a nice piece of silver to tell the kids about, but little else. At circa $10 you can't go far wrong for the coin itself. If the brooch mount is of the type that doesn't cause physical damage to the coin, it would easily be worth another $10. Just my opinion of course, which comes free of charge....and should be valued accordingly Ian
