Go Ahead and Brag. Show Me Your Prize

Beautiful MPL. A 1916 MPL has been on my list for a long time.

 

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This is a great thread. Prized in terms of value. Prized in terms of sentimental value. Prized in terms of 'it's my favorite'. All perfectly wonderful ways to interpret the word. I went through my photos and came up with quite a few...not even including my medals. I realized it was actually very similar to a 'box of 20' .

In any case, too many to post.

But, this coin probably is the crystallization of 'prized' and one I assumed I'd never own due to price and scarcity reasons. It is definitely my most pricey. I've posted it elsewhere, but it sure fits here!

For whatever odd reason I became obsessed with the Zog era Albanian coins and, even accounting for the provas, there is one coin that stands above the rest.

Would I sell it? Hm, to upgrade sure, or if I really need money/funds or just decide to get rid of the whole set.--which is highly unlikely as I keep seeking out the few I don't have and occasionally upgrading.

This one is A favorite design though maybe not my absolute favorite (a moving target), but I do love Prince Skanderbeg and the winged Lion. The Italians did a fabulous job of designing the Albanian coins!



This is the 1926 20 FrA with the Prince Skanderbeg bust, R mintmark, with fasces.

It is most unusual as there is a total mintage of 6000 for PS in 1926. Of the 6000 there were 100 made that, in addition to the 'R' mintmark, also had the Italian fasces (nearly obscured by the dang prong).

Of the 100 coins that had the fasces, 90 are documented as melted, leaving a population of 10.

The coins were produced by the Italians on behalf of the Albanians, and have the mintmark 'R' (Rome) as well as the engraver's name. Plus, the Italian coins of the era also had the fasces so not unusual perhaps to see one here.

I only suspect, but wonder if perhaps the coins with the fasces were rejected by the Albanians as 'too Italian'. There is a precedent for that as one of the banknotes of the era was recalled in it's entirety as the eagle design was 'too Italian'.

The fasces may have been unpalatable to the Albanians resulting in the melting of the first (??) 90/100 coins produced and subsequently re-working the dies to remove the fasces. Total speculation but that is part of why I love this particular coin.

This particular coin came out of a European auction, and I had someone look at it for me before buying it. A few abrasions in the obverse fields but a reasonably honest (for gold) MS-63.

The fields (esp. on the obverses) are somewhat proof like which also lends credence that these were early struck coins, which made me think the 100 fasces coins were the first. One text in Albanian also referred to them as 'trials'. Not in the prova sense though as those are clearly marked as such, but perhaps in the sense they were first struck to show the Albanians as examples.

PCGS recently slabbed two, a 63 and a 64 (I have been stalking the pops and just a few months ago they had zero). NGC shows 5 in 63 and 1 in 61. So up to 8 grading events, but who knows how many of those were repeats.

I also got a chance to talk to the auction house reps when they came to NYINC. They confirmed the one I purchased was raw (as evinced by the photos of the auction) but slabbed for the auction.

In any case, going by auction appearances that I can access, the number '10' does seem pretty reasonable guestimate for population. Then again, who knows what is hiding in those old Italian/European collections.

So, cool design (that beard, that lion, and Prince Skanderbeg was quite the hero), plus gold, plus a highly limited mintage, AND add in how much fun it's been trying to find out more about it. There's probably a whole body of work about it in Italian or Albanian, and maybe someday I'll get a hold of it.