I am new to posting on forums so please be gentle... I also have one of these coins and would appreciate an opinion. I have provided a quick scan (i know the scans suck very much, I will try to get better), if it helps but do not know how huch it weighs. It is approx 22.5mm wide. It belongs to a friend who asked me to do a little research for her, apparently her grandma gave it to her and she had the coin for 20+ years. Thanks for any assistance.
Hope somebody else can see them better than I can. I cant make out anything. Can you get a better scan ?
Howdy bluebagger - Welcome to the Forum !! I'm going to hazard a guess that what you have there is dated 1752 and on the obverse it says - FRANC.D.G.R.I.S A.GER.IER.REX - and on the reverse it says - TU .DOMINE SPES MEA Now then, I'm also going to guess that coin is a common copy, a fake, that was distributed as part of a promotional campaign quite a few years ago. But just in case, you can take the coin to a jewelry store and have it weighed. If it is genuine it will weigh 3.50 grams. If it weighs less, it's a fake as I suspect. By the way, the genuine coin would be an Austrian ducat.
Doug,that is one of those pieces of rubbish that Reader's Digest put out some years ago! I don't even think there was a genuine coin with that inscription to my knowledge. Aidan.
deja vu all over again: http://www.cointalk.org/archive/index.php/t-867.html And this article from 1996,so the "coins" were made about 1984 which would match the date your grandmather got it: 1752 AUSTRIAN DUCAT FUNNY MONEY. 'Some time ago a correspondent to the 'Australian Coin Review' (now incorporated into the 'Australasian Coin & Banknote Magazine') mentioned having found, what appeared to be, an unlisted Austrian Ducat dated 1752 bearing the legend 'FRANC. D.G. R.I.S. A. GER. IER. REX.' with the portrait of Francis of Lorraine on the obverse and the legend 'TU DOMINE SPES MEA' on the reverse. It was very similar but 'not quite right' in comparison to others of that time period. The 'coin' was in fact manufactured and distributed on behalf of the 'READERS DIGEST' organisation some 12 years ago as a promotional gimmick, and samples regularly turn up on market stalls in both 'gold' and 'silver' finishes. These 'coins' usually have a dark chemical reaction spot in the centre where they had been attached with an adhesive glue to a 'Reader's Digest' give-away sheet.' - April 1996.
Aidan, you really need to persuade that boss of yours to get hold of the Krause Catalogues. It's like wallowing around in the dark (as far as world coins are concerned) without them. Alternatively, you need to review / get up to speed with other similar threads. Lord knows, there have been quite a number concerning the 1752 fake/ repro ducat. The `real' coin Doug refers to is the very well documented and catalogued as `Austria KM2041.2'. The readers Digest modelled their repro on a real coin, albeit a trade ducat.
Aidan, I don't know if I would call it rubbish my friend, some people collect many different things. I know a lady who has collected tokens from fast food restaurants for over thirty years, so there could be people who collect novelty item coins same as pup tokens or casino tokens, I think that hobby is called exonumia so ,they might be a copy but rubbish I don't so some people just collect copy of coins just my opinion no harm meant.
