My Italian coins

Heavily counterfeited as are all of the 20th century Italian crowns. Real examples are so vastly superior in quality that most of the fakes are pretty easy to identify.

 

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Your coin is about as nice as they come. I have the 50 Lire in MS62 but I don't think it has quite as much luster as yours.

 

I hate to admit, but my coin is in another TPG's holder and not graded so liberally. I purchased it for a mere pittance over spot though so who is griping? Half ounce gold coins that are now over a hundred years old with lovely designs are vedy vedy nice poichases when you can get them so pitifully near spot me thinks.

 

I'd sure enjoy seeing a much larger image of the reverse. It is one of the all time favourite early 20th century European coins for me.

 

Another dounut ring of tone. I would call this one an AU55, the 58 grade seems a little generous. In any case, one of the nice things about AU coins in any collection is that they tend to make the other mint state coins look more spectacular when viewed side by side.

 

Click on the link in your post, then click on the image again. It's a 4.3 meg file, should fill half your browser.

 

Both PCGS and NGC are merciless when grading coins with proof-like fields. Which, in this case, isn't even attributed. The very trivial marks on this coin would be completely concealed on a frosty example, though only the fakes of the issue look frosty. Instead, on real examples, any marks at all in the fields are greatly accentuated by the proof-like surfaces and the grade gets clobbered as a result. The 1908 Austrian 100 Corona "Lady In The Clouds" commem suffers from this same fate; -nearly all are proof-like and have marks that the grading services murderize the grade with.

 

World War One went very badly for the Italians. Unlike WW-2, Italy was an American/French/British ally fighting against the Germans and Austrians. 95 years ago this week, the Battle of Caporetto cost the Italian army over 300,000 soldiers. In all, 650,000 soldiers were killed out-right in the war. And yet as bad as the war was for Italy, the mintage on most silver coins from the era are strong through 1917, with a complete halt in silver coinage from then until the reintroduction of silver coinage in 1926 with the new reduced weight 5 Lire (which weighed 5 grams). The 1917 Lira is very common, even in mint state. The 2 Lire coins are also fairly common up to MS62 and then become somewhat scarce in the higher grades. The 1917 Italian 2 Lire (unlike the Lira) is a better date, and so far I have not found a nice one that didn't have ugly tone.

 

One of many coins designed by Giuseppe Romagnoli at the Rome mint. Romagnoli was the most talented die sinker anywhere in the wolrd in the 1920s and 1930s, with Lucien Bazor at the Paris mint being a distant second place.

http://currencies.wikia.com/wiki/Giuseppe_Romagnoli

This particular coin really is an MS62, much nicer than the photo would indicate. Also a better date, as are all dates aside from the 1927 which is very common in AU and below.

 

1931-IX gold 50 and 100 Lire, a nicely matched pair both in NGC MS65. The more available date for both denominations.

 

Better date.

 

Very rare. 1933 coins struck in gold are nearly non-existent no matter what country you collect. The only exception would be the Vatican 100 Lire, but then it's actually dated 1933-1934 and most numismatists consider 1934 to be the correct date not '33.

 

Another tight grade, minimum 62, probably 63 in my opinion.

 

Well, that's pretty much it. I have a bunch of other Umberto 20 Lire coins in slabs, but if you've seen one you've seen them all so I skipped uploading them. In any case, a pretty nice collection with a few areas that are not represented, notably silver 5 Lire coins from the 19th century and silver 20 lire coins from the 1920s or 1930s. Also, no 1936 Italy 10 Lire which is a $125 coin in low MS. As for WW-2 copper, brass and stainless steel, --all of it junk if you ask me. The post war aluminum issues have nice designs, but tend to be overpriced in MS64 or higher in my opinion. Probably the biggest challenge is cost, most of the coins in this collection were added a dozen plus years ago when prices were more reasonable. Many of the coins are out of my reach now days.

 

Princeofwaldo, very nice collection of Italian coins!! I personally find most of the Umberto era pieces to be quite boring. I think the most beautiful era of Italian coins is from around 1908 through 1935 or so. I picked up a 1 cent 1912 piece at my last coin show, and the thing is simply stunning, just ridiculously small and quite difficult to find in MS condition.

Here's an aluminum piece I have whose design is stunning, but as you said, these post-war pieces can be spendy in high MS grades.

 

This thread is gettin' too pricey for me. :goof:

 

Prince of Waldo, you have some amazing coins. I'll never be able to afford any of them sadly. The best coin in my Italian collection cost me about $10.

 

Nice one. On a percentage basis, the early post-war coins have gone up in price more than all the others. What had been $7 coins 15 years ago now cost $150 if it's nice.

 

Nice thread, much appreciated.

 

One day I'll write a post on the struggle of Il Risorgimento (Italian unification). For those who know Italian history and culture, Italy is not a unified culture. The Austrian diplomat Klemens von Metternich, the influential diplomat at the Congress of Vienna in 1815 who recreated the European map after the Napoleonic Wars, stated that Italy was nothing more than "a geographic expression." Even today, most Italians have little sense of a national identity.

Here are a few coins from the preunification states of Italy:



guy