Can anyone identify this coin? if it's even a real coin. where it's from, value, metal, and ect. thanks
The item looks to me to be a copy of a Guldiner from the Hall mint in the Austrian Tyrol. The very first Guldiner / Thaler minted there. The Guldiner, one of the earliest dated `dollar' sized coins in the world, was made from silver. It is rather scarce. It was struck in two variants, one (like yours) has the knight wearing a ribbon on his helmet. The other is ribbonless. It is difficult to tell from the images, but your coin looks to have been made from copper(?). Maybe it's heavily toned silver. There are copies of this coin out there made for collectors, museums and generally the tourist trade. Some are obvious re-strikes, some are clearly marked as such either on the surface or on the edge, and some are pretty good imitations without any such markings. The real ones tend to sell for a hundreds of $'s when they emerge (from collections being sold off). Put it this way, if someone trys to sell you one claiming that a friends relative dug it up in his garden somewhere in the Upper Nile Valley....or anywhere else come to think of it, then give it a wide berth. Rather interestingly (well, at least for me), the die for the coin was depicted on the 2003 issue of the Austrian bi-metallic 25 euro coin (silver outer ring with a Niobium centre). The coin was issued to commemorate 700 yrs of Hall mint.
thanks well looking at the coin more carefully it does seem to be made out of copper, did they make those coins out of copper?. its kind of heavy if that helps determing the metal. Looking at your picture it looks like the coin was struke in the coin unlike mine its coming out of the coin. There is nothing on the coin saying it's a copy. So if this coin is a copy is it stlll worth any thing or should i just throw it away. thanks for all the info. you have been very helpful so far. keep them coming. I'll try to get a better picture of the front on later. thanks
If it's anything other than silver then its definitely a copy / replica which has been made for collectors / tourists. I've a good few replicas myself but they can generally be bought for a few dollars each from the german ebay site. A die is the what is used to strike / make a coin with. It's the `negative' image as it were. That is why I showed my coin. If you look closely, it is only the centre which is like this. A simple explanation of coin manufacture is: a coin is made by being struck under high peressure using two such dies. One for either side of the coin. The pressure squeezes the metal of the coin into the dies thus forming the raised image letters etcetera.
