Having several of the base metal versions, I have long wanted one of these cup shaped coins in gold. Actually this is Electrum and I am not sure what the percentages of metals are. It is lighter than full gold but more yellow than many electrum coins I have seen and a bit more yellow than this image. Michael VII was a rather insignificant ruler 1071-1078 AD. The Christ portrait does not line up perfectly from the two component strikes but its worst fault is a fine flan crack that shows well in the photo. That probably explains why I could afford it. I am not at all experienced in photographing curved gold so this may require a few more attempts to get just right. This is my only coin of Michael VII.
Wow, cool gold pick-up (congrats) ... I look every now and then, but I never seem to pull the trigger on silver and/or gold cup-coins (maybe because they all seem quite similar in design => not a lot of big-time animal coins in these types ... usually pretty much the same type of design as your new coin) ... but again => very cool ... and fantastic new pick-up, Doug (it is certainly a fantastic example of this type => yummy, yummy)
My wife said the color was wrong on that first shot and that the coin itself looks like glare so the photo should, too. The above is a lot closer to in hand look but still misses some of the shine.
Congratulations on your many recent new coin old coins. I don't want to bump every thread to tell you how awesome they all are so I will do it on my favourite of all of your new coins. It does surprise me though that a cup shaped gold coin has not passed through your collection in all your years collecting. I really like the portrait of Michael. He looks incredibly stern and has a bit of a unibrow thing going on. If he had a bit of a longer face I would consider him Bert from Sesame Street!
I would really prefer it if the software had a feature such as the current 'Like' button that would be used by folks to indicate 'nice coin' but would not lead all of us to keep revisiting the thread when all that was new was someone else said 'nice coin'. Your reply is special to my way of seeing it because you told why you liked the coin. I also liked the Michael portrait better than other gold cups I saw. Jesus' face is overly thin due to a slight misalignment of the two strikes and I've seen many I liked better. Still, the reason I got this one was the dealer was allowing a price break for the crack. I have very few gold coins and this one is really only about half gold (technically it is electrum). Thanks for the comment.
I think he means your first photo. You can see some purple tint at 3, 7, and 9 o'clock on the side with Christ's portrait.
Gold and other shiny coins can pick up reflections from things well away from the photo site. The color being off in that first photo was why the second was taken.
