I recently came across something completely beyond my expectations. There were only 215 of these minted, & only 32 (possibly now 33) are known today. Here's the story (apparently, if you do a favor for the President, he might just let you use the mint facilities for a day to make whatever fantasy coins you want!): http://www.coinweek.com/world-coins/world-coins-the-1898-sammy-marks-tickey/ This one looks pretty rough, but tests out at 22k under a jewelry shop analysis machine (x-ray or other beam based testing, I was told). I'm thinking it would get a VF30 details grade (cleaned). First question - are there 22k counterfeits of these floating around? Secondly, does this pass a low-magnification inspection (for those who know far more about the series than I do). Third - which slabbing service has the most expertise in this period of South African coinage? Finally - how would I go about estimating a value for this?
I really don't know much about this area, but I would always make the assumption that counterfeits exist for everything - especially a high value item from a popular area of numismatics. NGC is the only company you should consider for world coins.
The beads on the rim look wrong, here's a real one to compare it to. The whole coin's details also look too mushy and soft. Here's yours
your coin: South Africa, 1896, 3 pence, KM#3, metal-.925 silver (your coin was gold plated) mintage-166,000 weight- 1.4138g or 0.042 oz. grade/ value F-$2.00 VF-$4.00 XF-$8.00 UNC-$50.00 as Coinman1234 said... your coin looks counterfeit. the beads on your coin look to small. and the original coin was made in silver.
I don't think it's an altered date, gold plated 1896 piece. You didn't follow the link at all, did you? This coin was made in 1898 in gold as a presentation piece. It's similar to a $4 stella or an 1856 flying eagle cent. Compared to the picture that coinman1234 posted, the beads looks right to me, but the rim looks too thin. I'll have to see if I can find more than 1 specimen to compare it to though and see if that's within the realm of variance. If it does turn out to be authentic, any estimate on value?
I didn't get it at all. It is one of a cache of "I'm not planning on selling these" coins that a store owner of a "We Buy Gold" place was kind enough to show me. He was wondering if any of his coins were worth getting slabbed instead of selling at a slight premium to their melt value. This one jumped right out at me and grabbed me by the throat. My immediate reaction was similar to yours - I felt that a gold 3 pence must be a plated phoney. Then, I googled it (just in case there were gold Maundy pieces or something similar made in 1898) and found that it's kinda the holy grail of South African coinage akin to the 1848 gold $2.50 US pieces marked "Cal." https://www.ngccoin.com/coin-explorer/liberty-head-250-pscid-57/1848-cal-25-ms-coinid-17749
Doesn't look right at all. One matching yours was in an auction a few years ago and had been withdrawn, mistakenly attributed as a genuine pattern. According to this, at least it should be solid gold. https://www.sixbid.com/browse.html?auction=212&category=2194&lot=107641 There are several replicas also advertised as solid gold and matching yours. http://www.bidorbuy.co.za/item/2027...TICKEY_REPLICA_PURE_22KT_GOLD_HIGH_VALUE.html http://www.bidorbuy.co.za/item/2075...AMMY_MARKS_TICKEY_REPLICA_PURE_18KT_GOLD.html http://www.bidorbuy.co.za/item/5337...ENCE_1898_GOLD_TICKEY_PURE_22_CARAT_GOLD.html
I agree that it doesn't compare to coinman's picture at all. The beads are smaller and have more separation, and the overall detail is just all wrong.
