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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;goldducat, post: 7945675, member: 37873&quot;]You read it in the auction catalog, I suppose. It only means that the person writing the description knew so many copies of this type. Look at the description of the coin sold for $ 2.16 million in the CNG auction: <a href="https://www.cngcoins.com/Coin.aspx?CoinID=350283" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="https://www.cngcoins.com/Coin.aspx?CoinID=350283" rel="nofollow">https://www.cngcoins.com/Coin.aspx?CoinID=350283</a>&nbsp; They say &quot;6 copies known&quot;. In 2008, at an auction, Stack&#039;s wrote about the same coin &quot;one of 2 copies known&quot;. This is what Friedberg reported after Stack&#039;s in his Gold Coins of The World catalog in 2009. I don&#039;t blame them. There was no literature in the subject, but you have to admit that no one studied it well. At this time you had a copy at the Smithsonian Inst. from a long time, you had several old Stack&#039;s and Chapman sales in the US, etc.</p><p><br /></p><p>When I wrote a book about the Polish 100 ducats, it turned out that there was a mistake in the CNG description and one of the 6 coins indicated was a copy weighing 90 ducats. At the same time, I found 14 (sic!) different copies of 100 ducats full weight and showed almost all of them in photos.</p><p><br /></p><p>What I want to say is you need to read, study and do not trust 100% what you read in the auction descriptions of the European coins. And never ever write it as a certain information. My impression is that many US auction houses and especially US grading companies know a lot about American coins but have a very limited knowledge about European coins, especially on the coinage prior to 1800. The leading grading company keeps mixing the forgeries and original minting of the Netherlands ducats from the 19th century, not to list my complains further.</p><p><br /></p><p>Regarding the Delmonte&#039;s rarity grades: the book was published in 1964 and most - yes, most! - of grades are outdated. At this time Albert Delmonte did his best. Today his book is no longer a guidance for coin rarity. Just google for the Utrecht 1650 gold ducat, rarity R3 in Delmonte. Do you think it&#039;s really so rare? <img src="styles/default/xenforo/clear.png" class="mceSmilieSprite mceSmilie1" alt=":)" unselectable="on" unselectable="on" />[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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