Reply to Thread

Message:: [QUOTE="mlov43, post: 1732860, member: 16729"]I want to get a few opinions on what makes for a "pattern coin".  The issue:  There are some pattern coins that I see for sale from Guatemala at ebay.  After inquiring with the seller, she/he told me that the coins were from the Guatemala Mint.  That implies that they are "official" patterns.  After doing a little googling using my limited Spanish, I find out that these coins were NOT made by that country's mint, but were presented to the Bank of Guatemala by an outside entitiy "as an example of material that could be used to manufacture currency" in Guatemala "without the solicitation or acceptance of the (Guatemala) Mint."  A little more searching revealed that the Mint of Romania made them! The question: So, when an outside manufacturer, without solicitation, makes patterns in order to "fish for business" from a certain country (and is turned down), would you consider those unsolicited/unaccepted coins as legitimate patterns?  Is there such a thing as a "legitimate" pattern? Now, if they WERE accepted by the Mint as patterns (but not subsequently used in any coin designs), does that make a difference?  Even more interesting, I see that SCWC (39th edition) has these SAME tri-metallic versions of these coins listed as patterns. Your thoughts on this might help me decide whether or not to purchase one.[/QUOTE]