Recently I has seen several coins listed on ebay claiming a condition of MS60+ but also claiming to be up to 800 years old (a 1200's English penny). They all even have been slabbed. I have also seen 1500's German thalers, And the following for example among others. http://cgi.ebay.com/1670-KB-HUNGARY-6-KREUZER-KING-LEOPOLD-I-NGC-MS-64_W0QQitemZ250504970486QQcmdZViewItemQQptZLH_DefaultDomain_0?hash=item3a534280f6&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14 I am not claiming these coins are fake, even though I am very skeptical. But my question is, Anybody here have a theory of how a coin minted 800 to even 400 years ago could have been preserved in such a state? Even if it was buried I don't know it its condition will be that good, Or could it?
There have been coin collectors since coins were first minted, and they have preserved them quite well over the years. I was in a museum in Strasbourg, France once and they had a collection of Roman coins that looked like they were just made that day. Apparently, even during Roman expansion there were collectors on the fringes of the empire. Guy~
Do you know what this hobby is called ? It's called the Hobby of Kings. Know why ? Because Royalty used to be the only collectors there were - they were the only ones who could afford it. And what happens with Royal possessions when a King dies ? They are passed on to the next King, and the next etc. Such collections become national treasures and are preserved and passed on for centuries upon centuries. That's why I was once able to own the finest example known of this coin - minted in 1364 and used to pay the ransom for the King of France who was captured in battle during the Hundred Years War.
I guess that's part of my skepticism, How do you know the story of the ransom is true? Watching the Antiques roadshow on PBS You find out the provenance is everything in a case like this. What proof did you get to back up the story of the Ransom of a king and this coins role in that ransom? Or did you just take their word? If any of these coins were once part of a royal collection or a museum collection there should be some traceable trail proving this.
There is, it's called history. You see, the only reason that coin was ever even minted was to use it to pay the ransom. Every mint in France and its provinces minted those coins with the sole purpose of using them to pay the ransom. It took them 4 years just to get together the first downpayment of 600,000 pieces, of the total 3 million pieces to be paid. The coin itself is known as the Franc A Cheval - which means Free Our King. These coins were the first French francs ever minted.
Remember - if a coin is lost or hoarded right after its minted, it won't receive any wear from circulation. This is a coin of Constantine the Great that I owned (gave it to our cancer fundraiser, though). Struck in the spring of 317 AD.
