a neighbour who doesn't have access to internet, asked me to determine what is this. she beleives that it is made of gold. the only thing I recognise is this FRANC IOS and that must be Franz Ioseph (Franjo Josip), king from Austria (Austro-Ugarska). Her father gave it to her. Is it fake? How much does it worth? thnx
Howdy borisd - Welcome to the Forum !! I believe what you have there is a medal that commemorates the reign of Franz Joseph that has been made into jewelry - it is not a coin. It appears to have been made of silver, and I believe it genuine. But it has been very roughly handled over the years. Because of this value would be minimal - perhaps a few dollars but I doubt more.
It appears to be a medal. Probably once had a ribbon attatched to it. It doesn't look like gold, due to the dark dicolorations and also appears to be cast, due to the pitting. Those are my thoughts. Hopefully, someone will come by that recognizes your piece, and can go into more detail. Sorry, GD. Didn't see your post soon enough.
Welcome to the forum borisd. With the 1848-1898 dates, it appears to be a commemoration of the first 50 years of his imperial reign, which went on for another 18 years. "Signum memoriae" roughly translates as "sign of history" or "sign of time within memory". I agree that it is probably cast silver, with an integral ribbon attachment point. It might have more than a nominal value to a collector of Austro-Hungarian historical items, but sad to say I don't see much numismatic value there.
