I won this on Teletrade and think I got a fair deal. It's a beautiful coin. I googled the heck out of it and found nothing. Anyone have any ideas about weight, purity and mintage? All the searching I did revealed Belgian Euro denominated coins, none prior to 2001. The holder says 500 Francs but the coin itself appears to be 5000 Francs. Any ideas? Thanks.
Very nice piece indeed. And yes, of course that is a 5000 francs/frank coin, not a 500 ... Actually this commem was issued in a 500 F silver version (Ag 925) and in this 5000 F gold version (Au 999), with identical designs. The coins were issued to commemorate the 500th anniversary of Emperor Charles V's birth. He was born in Gent in February 1500, and the building in the background is the Prinsenhof http://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prinsenhof_(Gent), his place of birth. There are two varieties of the gold coin; one has a milled edge (mintage 262), one has a smooth edge (mintage 514). The latter is a little less expensive - milled €450, smooth €400 according to the Schön catalog. Christian
Gorgeous Coin! Very sharp looking. I like it! Nice grab! It looks as though the reverse on the coin is rotated 90 degrees or is this how the reverese is supposed to look.
Nah, that's fine. The lines that go through the map of Europe, with the year 2000 at the bottom, are vertical. Christian
