Your Coin is from German East Africa 2016 Krause KM#16.1, 1916-T, 15 Rupien, .750 gold, mintage-9,803 , T=Tabora mint grade/value F12-$800.00 VF20-$1,750.00 XF40-$3,450.00 MS60-$4,300.00 MS63-$5,000 guessing your grade is VF-XF a rare coin for sure. where did you get this coin ? I am not sure how much this cleaning will affect its value ??? wait for more experienced opinions.
I was going to say that the lettering looks "off" to me, like one sees on Chinese counterfeits. However, I see the lettering on the Krause plate coin looks somewhat similar, so perhaps the originals had this rather crude style of lettering. I do not know, but I'm still a bit suspicious, given the rarity of the issue. I would recommend professional third-party authentication, grading, and encapsulation on this one, just to be sure. Potential buyers would prefer that, too.
Keep in mind that these are notgeld issues; the world's only ones in gold as far as I know. The German military administration in Tabora used the gold from the Sekenke mine, and neither the purity (the 15 rp pieces contain silver and copper too, to varying degrees) nor the weight nor the edges were as accurate as you might expect it from a coin minted "only" 100 years ago. You have different dies too; the 9,803 mintage refers to the second type with the ornament that reaches the T in the word Ostafrika. (The other type, ornament ends at the A, had a mintage of 6,395.) And yes, TPG probably makes sense for the US market ... Christian
It is authentic actually..it was authenticated by a German auction house recently.. they wanted to sell it but I changed my mind last minute. It was bought in 1981 by my father for 400 dollars. The coin has never been cleaned..the bad cleaning someone mentioned probably means that it needs a cleaning. I'm afraid I might damage it though. Any cleaning tips would be helpful. From what I was told it is very rare to find this coin in such good condition. There is some copper in the gold I think which gives off a reddish tint as well.
