This coin is an "R-5" - and now I have it...

This is a coin that falls into a lot of firsts, being - my first California gold token, my first gold coin ever purchased on GC, and if the R-5 is correct, my rarest coin to date.


This was $176 with Buyer's Fee; while Greysheet for AU50 is $225, most of these California gold coins can achieve over that even with a Details grade - many a time have I been smoked like a mile-long cigar on these gold pieces on GC because of that. Every piece I've owned before this is either fake or the BG-1328 that I think may be real, but thankfully I know this one is authentic.

An R-5 is an estimate of around 46 to 60 surviving pieces. Several others, out of the hundreds of varieties, are R-5 or higher and still don't get the recognition they deserve.

What are your thoughts on this?

 

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Cool Coin and it's Gold too! Now you have to change your username to Half Dollarman...

 

My thoughts? Very nice, but scarcity doesn't carry as much weight unless the population of collectors of a particular coin type is high.

 

I guess my thoughts are. Congrats, looks like an interesting coin. There is a definite adreniline burst when you get a rare coin. For me, much of the fun is in the researching part of the hunt. On the other hand, much of your attention has been focused on the potential flipping quality of many of your wins. I guess you will have to decide whether this is a coin you wish to keep; or sell. james

 

What happens if I get one of the gold "1/4"s? LOL, to be honest I don't even remember what I originally intended to use as my username, but I do know it was already taken. I put in what I have now, and by the grace of the coin gods, it's been strong for over a year.

 

That is the true issue with California gold; ths fact that there are so many varieties makes it exceedingly difficult to know scarcity without a Greysheet, and even then, I am unsure where they got their numbers.

It looks to be that I have the duty of bringing this coin to light. When I start on Ebay, that'd be a great place to bring it to light, as there is currently no trace of a BG-1019 on the site.

You're right - my main goal generally is to flip slabs for a quick profit, but I do also buy some coins to keep, often at low prices so it's no worry about selling; this one is roughly in the middle of the 2. The real hard part is advertising it, since for a coin with about 46 to 60 known examples, you'd need some pretty strong backing.

PCGS puts the survival estimate at 45.

 

This coin was found by me and is listed in Wildwinds/RIC as R4, only 2 known. It has insignificant premium due to population of those interested. That's the way our hobby goes.

Constantius II, AE follis, Cyzicus. AD 335-336.

FL IVL CONSTANTIVS NOB C, laureate, draped and cuirassed bust right.

GLOR-IA EXERC-ITVS, two soldiers holding spears and shields with two standards between them.

Mintmark star SMKA.

RIC VII Cyzicus 113 var (officina); notinric 7cyz113.

Rated R4.

Contributed by David Zachmeyer, Feb. 2020

 

HALF D L AR ?
Has someone been sampling on the reverse OL?

The market on these is generally sporadic Yes? with lots of copys. I think people look the other way when these come up so you either want it or it's just another gold bit.

 

Great buy for sure, more than a fair price as well, here's mine!

 

Very nice coin (/token)! I would like to get one of each denomination eventually but they're kinda hard to come by, around here at least. I've only got one so far but am always looking for another to add. Here's mine

 

It is rather sad for a coin to be one of two known and not carry a big premium. That is the biggest downside to coinage with so many known varieties; in California gold, there's several hundred, but in ancients there's probably several thousand.

I researched the BG-1019, and even MS examples have abysmal reverse strikes. About all of them I saw have the nearly missing O and second L.

You are very correct with there being a lot of copies - those of which actually do get certified are usually given a designation such as:

"1853-Dated Cal. Gold Token
Round, Liberty
Bear on Reverse
MS-63"

- generally by NGC. They seem to know a lot about the gold tokens, if I ever got a high-grade real one I'd probably send it to them.

That first one is really nice. Looks like a Robert B. Gray token like mine, not sure if that's the only one who put a G mint mark on the coins but nonetheless cool.

Is the second one gold? I'm thinking it should be real since it is denominated correctly.

 

Yours appears to be an R-4, and at least a $200 coin - aka a cool one! I wish you luck on building the denomination set; thankfully they're readily available, just a matter of if you can get them at a price you're comfortable paying.

 

Congrats on your pickup. I understand that R-5 means around 50 known to exist.

My question is, how common are R.5s in that series? That is, how many different varieties are R.5? So for example, on Capped Bust halves, there are about 27 R.5 marriages out of 473 die pairs.