A terrific Giuseppe Romagnoli design..,, https://coins.ha.com/itm/albania/zo...c3=ViewItem-Auction-Open-MyTrackedLots-101116 Notice the bag mark on the reverse located near center on the horizontal beam that extends at left into the lion's mouth. Nearly all (but not all) of this issue display this bagmark, --and yes pretty sure it is a contact mark, not an anomaly with the die. My belief is that the coins fell out of the press in such a way that nearly all have this same bag mark from being impacted by the next subsequently minted coin once ejected. The grading on these is highly subjective to begin with, with virtually none of those extant having ever circulated. My own opinion is that coins displaying this bagmark shouldn't be in a holder labeled anything above MS64, let alone in an MS67 holder.
When that auction was live I recall going through every shot of one of those I could find on Heritage and they all had the mark (well, not the provas), or what appeared to be the marks with allowances for lighting/technique. The coins otherwise had enough differences to not appear to be the same coin getting re-slabbed/sold again.
As I'm in the mood to resurrect threads...I was thinking of this one while looking at the Stack's auction in New York this year. Two lots: https://auctions.stacksbowers.com/lots/view/3-FMB6Q and https://auctions.stacksbowers.com/lots/view/3-FMCQE caught my eye. Two examples without the hit on the beam. First two I have seen despite looking at loads of auctions since I first read this thread. Give me a few minutes and I'll add some of my own photos as one of these may have landed in my mailbox.
The 66+ was a great deal for whoever won it. Would have been a $1,600 coin 5 years ago. For anyone considering the Albanian series struck for King Zog, now is a terrific time to add coins. The prices are considerably lower than a few years ago, especially when compared to a few other countries in the region, notably Egypt, where the coins from this same era have gone absolutely parabolic over the last few years.
I got the 66+. The 64 was tempting for my budget but really didn't go for much less so I'm super happy to add this one. Someday my poor heirs are going to have to figure what to do with this collection. Probably the only interested party will be a museum. Maybe. I had no business buying another one of these, but I wasn't going to pass up the chance at the "clean beam" version. Could not resist. Two different lightings, one shows the luster better, the other is a bit more even on the details. And here are the two reverses side by side. Different toning and the one on the left has had that old ring toning so many of them have dipped off.
