Message:

<p>[QUOTE=&quot;7Jags, post: 26438251, member: 78719&quot;]Well, not yet in hand but a recent submission that I left off with PC at the last Baltimore show has at last been graded (not particular at bargain rates despite being a &quot;Quarterly Special&quot;).</p><p>I will post pictures when available, but the gist was that I made what I was pretty sure an excellent discovery on eBay - a coin source that has become a mere shadow of what it was 15-20 years ago if I may say.</p><p>I routinely comb through listings relevant to my main interests, late milled pre-decimal British copper and silver &amp; British Caribbean colonial and SOME more modern issues. I have largely given up on the former as I&#039;ve not found anything of interest for a very long time but occasionally find goodies in the latter category.</p><p><br /></p><p>So the Bahamas fits into the latter category but they have had produced for them a lot of schlock, if I may use that term. Modern Bahamian coinage began in 1966 when the Royal Mint struck quite a few circulating coins that ranged from the one cent coin to the large crown-sized 5 Dollar coin with the latter as well as the 50c, $1 and $2 coins being struck in sterling 0.925 fine silver (well, the the lower 2 denoms were actually struck in 0.800 silver). </p><p>Into so-called specimen sets the Royal Mint tossed one of each currency denomination. They were nicely packaged in sets similar to those used for earlier QE II GB sets but the coins inside were nothing too special and the same as ordinary currency with possibly slightly better handling. They all were struck like the ordinary coins with satiny surfaces and with average pressures evidently.</p><p><br /></p><p>So anyway, at any given time there are many of the sets and individual coins up for sale on eBay and they certainly are not rare. What is scarce is to find one of the very large 5 Dollar coins that is well preserved because even coins in the cased sets were not protected and have been banging around with and on each other for nearly 60 years!</p><p>A cursory glance at PCGS pop reports show a mere 3 of the $5 coins grading at the top MS66 level.</p><p><br /></p><p>Anyway, having combed eBay offerings for 25 years (!!!) I had seen many such coins though usually with plenty of marks and dings, etc. I got about 4 sets with superior coins and even got one of the $5 coins to grade as MS66.</p><p>But about 6 months ago I was idly scrolling through the listings when I spotted some coins that looked different &amp; all 9 coins in the typically cased Royal Mint set looked to have mirrored surfaces! At first I thought they must have been polished or treated but even with sub-standard photos (which probably ended up helping me) all nine coins looked to be proof or at least proof-like coins.</p><p><br /></p><p>I then did as much research as I could and was not able to find any trace at all of such coins as proof with the final exception being that I found one set posted in the Royal Collection in Great Britain. Otherwise completely unknown and not in any catalogue!.</p><p>Unfortunately no great care had been taken with the coins that had been rattled about in the case just as ordinary &quot;specimen&quot; coins have been.</p><p>Anyway, I dropped them off along with some extraordinarily rare modern Guyana uncirculated coins at the PCGS booth in mid-June and they must have had them sent out to authenticated. They came back in grades ranging from 63 to 66 mostly Cam and Deep Cam quality with the cent an ordinary proof. So exciting to a nerd but at last in hand. I will post pictures as they become available.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

Your name or email address:

Do you already have an account?

• No, create an account now.
• Yes, my password is:
• Forgot your password?

Stay logged in