The Baltimore show Saturday turned up 14 new (to me) old coins. The newest in both senses of the word is something I have really wanted and next to no one else would want in their collection. This is the perfect situation. I collect fourrees. Most are silver on the outside and copper inside. A couple are gold over copper. I was aware of but have never owned one that was gold over silver. Saturday I got this ugly solidus of Constantine VII and Romanus II that is solid silver with gold plating. Gold sticks better to silver so the coin wore through rather than peeling. Certainly a silver core cost more than copper would have but this coin had a much better chance of circulating without being noticed. It is slightly thicker than normal so, even with the wear it is only about .2g lighter than normal. This example is more worn than I might prefer but there is still some gold on Christ's face and plenty of silver to show exactly what it was that made this coin more appealing to me that to the seller who really could not understand why I wanted it. To his credit, he did ask to be sure I knew the coin was plated. To my discredit, I did not ask if he knew it was silver and what that meant to me. I would have paid more that the $25 he asked. Certainly I would prefer it did not have all those scratches. Most of you will like the other dozen coins I got Saturday better than this one.
I don't think I've ever seen a gold plated silver coin. Very interesting. Does the wear strike you as normal? I can see the high points all wearing, mainly the faces, but some of the other points of wear don't look to be high points.
Wear seems mostly on edges and high points. Ancient dealers at Baltimore were a bit odd. Relatively few of them had packed up and left by 3PM Saturday but half the US tables were empty. I wonder if most trading was not done between dealers rather than selling to the public. I even saw a couple dealers shooing away people since they had started packing up and were more interested in leaving than selling.
I like fourres too but most I see tend to have bronze disease so that's why I don't buy them. This coin is interesting for sure.
I do not recall this being addressed on gold over silver coins but the standard method was wrapping the base core in precious foil which was heated and fused by pressure (of striking) in the same method used for Sheffield Plate silverware. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sheffield_plate This is the first gold over silver coin I have seen in person. Those interested in fourrees should read Campbell. http://www.vcoins.com/en/stores/anc..._ex_bruce_r_brace_library/438243/Default.aspx
Interesting coin Doug. I have read quite a bit about Constantine VII since it is with him the rare Christopher coins are struck. Being a Christopher myself, I am always on the lookout for these.
Doug, this is a marvelous fouree! I absolutely love it. I've come across a few gold fourees, but they were all phenomenally expensive and I had to pass. I would very much like such a coin in my collection, especially for the price you paid. Fantastic!
