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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;someconcerns, post: 1705802, member: 51052&quot;]Hi PaddyB,</p><p><br /></p><p>Thanks for replying.&nbsp; While I share your reluctance to&nbsp; deal in &quot;restrikes&quot; to some degree, my greater reluctance would be with&nbsp; anything which has been misrepresented or is ostensibly a counterfeit.&nbsp;&nbsp; I had to deliver the bad news to a number of customers at the coin shop&nbsp; at which I worked part-time in the 1970s, so I am sensitive to&nbsp; misrepresented and misunderstood items.</p><p><br /></p><p>You mentioned fantasy&nbsp; issues.&nbsp; To me, fantasy issues can be clearly differentiated from the&nbsp; genuine coins by an inscription or by a difference in size or shape,&nbsp; such as a minter using a buffalo nickel design as a centerpiece on a&nbsp; one-ounce silver bar or a Lincoln cent three inches across fr use as a&nbsp; coaster.&nbsp; To some degree, a mint may produce it&#039;s own fantasy pieces,&nbsp; such as the many items in Judd&#039;s book on American patterns.&nbsp; At one of&nbsp; the margins of official issues, such as with the 2000 pieces (Ref 2)&nbsp; struck of the copper-nickel 1856 flying eagle cent to win approval of&nbsp; the coin by Congress, the coin essentially becomes a regular issue, as&nbsp; the same design was produced in great quantity in 1857-58 as we replaced&nbsp; many of the large cents in circulation.&nbsp; At the other margin we have&nbsp; the 1804 dollar (Ref 1) which was produced at US government direction to&nbsp; order as part of official gifts to foreign dignitaries.&nbsp; Moving over&nbsp; the edge to unofficial strikes, we have such things as the 1913 V Nickel&nbsp; or the 1933 $20, also made in the mint, but without official sanction.&nbsp;&nbsp; The 1933 pieces are seized on sight by the US government, while the&nbsp; 1913 nickels sell freely (on the rare occasions they change hands) at&nbsp; auction.</p><p><br /></p><p>In the US, we have gone through phases in which private&nbsp; mints (Franklin Mint being the most prodigious) produce copious&nbsp; quantities of fantasy reproductions, medals and non-coin coins to sell&nbsp; to people with a desire to collect, much as did private mints in Great&nbsp; Britain at the end of the 17th century with Conder tokens (of which I&nbsp; have a nice grouping of mint and near-mint pieces) for the collectors of that era.&nbsp; Fantasy pieces are clearly collectible.</p><p><br /></p><p>My&nbsp; understanding of the India 8 Annas and other issues is that the Bombay&nbsp; Mint retained the dies and mint personnel would strike pieces to order,&nbsp; in whatever metal the person wished.&nbsp; The pieces I have were lacquered&nbsp; (presumably at the mint) to protect the surfaces in the heat and&nbsp; humidity, carefully wrapped in tissue paper (I assume to wick away&nbsp; moisture) and placed in 46 by 70mm white envelopes stamped H.M. Mint&nbsp; with the item at bottom.&nbsp; I acquired them as restrikes at attractive&nbsp; prices in the 1970s and considered the packaging to be old-looking at&nbsp; the time, so I might expect they were produced some years before,&nbsp; although after their 1920 date.&nbsp; Regrettably, they are the round ones,&nbsp; not the octagonal ones to which you referred.&nbsp; I keep the coins in the&nbsp; bank, but the packaging materials here.</p><p><br /></p><p>I expect the market to&nbsp; distinguish between originals and clearly identified restrikes, and I&nbsp; also expect that some collectors would turn up their noses at the&nbsp; restrikes, leading to the difference in prices.&nbsp; My question, however,&nbsp; should be restated.&nbsp; Do the prices achieved on Ebay and at Heritage&nbsp; Auctions fairly represent the values of these restrikes ($800-1200 for&nbsp; the 1920B 8 Anna)?&nbsp; Is there some reference I can access which can give&nbsp; me a clear idea of the value of the restrikes?</p><p><br /></p><p>Someconcerns</p><p><br /></p><p>Ref 1: <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1804_silver_dollar" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1804_silver_dollar" rel="nofollow">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1804_silver_dollar</a></p><p>Ref 2: <a href="http://flyingeaglecent.com/flying-eagle-cent-mintage/" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="http://flyingeaglecent.com/flying-eagle-cent-mintage/" rel="nofollow">http://flyingeaglecent.com/flying-eagle-cent-mintage/</a>[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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