1733 VOC ‘Silver Rider’ Ducaton from ‘t Vliegend Hart - Real or reproduction?

The coin appears to be genuine as it shows signs of having been sea-salvaged, and signs of improper cleaning as a result of that salvage which is common with these. I would also say it cost you a fair price, which you can interpret to mean it's not worth more than that.

 

Yes really. And yes I'm well aware that auction prices do not reflect that, but that is because most of the buyers simply don't any better. They are buying the coins because of the "cool factor" that shipwreck coins have, not their real world value.

For example, if you had another Silver Rider, same date, same mint, same condition as the one you have - and it was not from a shipwreck, it would be worth about $40.

And people who know the coins would say the one you have is also worth about $40.

edit - I know that's not what you want to hear but it is the truth.

 

They're not hard to find, all ya gotta do is look for them.

 

Uhh - you found the one you've got didn't you ?

 

For a sea-salvaged example, it looks pretty nice.

FWIW, I'd be all over that for forty bucks!

 

To be honest I probably shouldn't even bother posting this given the responses in this thread. But I will do so for those who are willing to listen, and then make up their minds.

There's a couple of things that one needs to always remember. With any coin from anywhere it is extremely common to run across them at various dealer shops and or websites. And when you do, even when the coins are in the same condition if raw, or same grade and same TPG, you will often see examples being offered for sale at double or even triple what other dealers are offering them for. An example of that is seen at the link above. And by the way, all of those are grossly overpriced, not just the high priced one. They are a whole lot like the coins you see being offered on TV all the time, when the real world value of the coins is a tiny fraction of what they are offering them for on TV.

And it's not that the dealers with the extra high prices don't know what the coins are worth, it's that they are fishing for those buyers who simply don't know any better. And sadly they find them all too often. Which of course is why they are being offered at ridiculous prices to begin with.

Another thing one needs to remember is that almost without exception silver coins recovered from shipwrecks are damaged because salt water badly corrodes silver. Put another way they are all problem coins, and if submitted to a TPG they will be placed in Detail slabs. And with problem coins, it is a given that they are only worth from 20% to 80% of what problem free examples are worth. And the variance is determined by the rarity/scarcity of the coin with common coins being at the lower end of the scale, and the degree of damage to the coin as many are far worse than others.

So should you find yourself considering buying coins like this, you would do well to remember these things. As the saying goes - there's a sucker born every minute - don't allow yourself to be one of them.