Buying a high value raw coin on eBay? (1943 Ireland Florin)

It looks genuine to me. I don't see any distorted or missing design or anything else suspect. I hope it works out well for you.

 

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The 3 looks a bit off from the ones I see on PCGS since the bottom loop is bigger, but then looking at the ones that sold on HA, one of them had a 3 that looked like that.

Who knows, we'll see what PCGS says I guess. If there's a even a 20% chance it's real it's worth temporarily tying up the money and losing $200 to PCGS to me.

 

Do you know how many obverse dies were made for 1943?

 

The only thing I know is that the London Mint (early Irish coins were made in London even after independence) delivered one bag of 1000 of these coins to Ireland but due to the war and increased silver price they didn't want them and they were intended to be destroyed but inadvertently some were released into circulation and about 35 are thought to exist.

Based on that it seems weird there are a bunch of obverse dies, but looking at the 4 sales on Heritage Auctions, one of the 3's looks (to me at least) different from the other examples.

The population report for PCGS is 9, NCG is 6, ANACS is 1 and ICG shows 0 so if the estimate of 35 is correct about half are presumed to be raw. Then again I have no idea how they came up with the 35 number.

 

Good luck, they say no risk no glory and I've taken plenty of risks on ebay but never for anything close to that amount. We'll see but since it's so rare, I think there's a high probability it's legit!

 

Thanks! I'm absolutely awful at spotting fakes but nobody here seems to think it's quite obviously fake so that's good enough for me to risk it. eBay is pretty good about their buyer protection so while I think there's a very good chance this doesn't work out, I feel confident I'll get refunded everything but grading fees if it doesn't.

I'll definitely update this once I find out.

 

Yes, keep us posted and you never know, if you need to get a refund, this thread may help your case!

 

If you really wanted it then as we say over here "who dares wins".