World Coins: Your Newest Acquisition!

Bought these three as upgrades yesterday. 1874 Gothic Florin, 1878 Shilling and 1839 Sixpence - all GB of course. Particularly pleased with the Sixpence. (The flecks of black have gone now - a little gentle teasing with a cocktail stick shifted them easily!)

 

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I think im going to take a break from crowns and concentrate on small gold. I really like this one. I have the silver crown version also.

 

I have one those rupees. is yours the thin or normal legend?

 

I do not know, this is the first I heard of the legend thickness thing.

 

So picked this nice date (1897) up for $2, even though I saw the verdigris I did not see the counter punch next to the 1 until I got home and got it out of a very old looking 2x2. First set of Pictures is straight out of the 2x2 and the second set is after about a 30 minute soak in acetone and a little picking with an acetone soaked toothpick.

 

Razz: Time for an extended soak in olive oil. Don’t let a week or more scare you! And you can always stop the process at any time if you don’t like the way it’s going. In any case, pls. let us see the results. It’s a nice coin & well worth helping.
D.

 

4 hour soak in EV olive oil and rinsed in acetone. Obverse is coming along very nice. What looks like weakness in the NE quadrant of the cross is from the counter stamp on the reverse. Back into the oil for overnight.

 

I added two expensive coins to my bears collection, including by far the oldest one yet, a 1621 thaler from St. Gallen, Switzerland. The other is also Swiss, a shooting festival coin.

 

A new pickup from over the weekend:

Hungary 50 Forint 1972BP
Pattern Proof of KM-596
Commemorating the 1000th Anniversary of the Birth of Saint (and King) Stephen

As is typical for patterns from this period, 50 examples were struck as specimens of the business strike issue, and 50 examples were struck as specimens of the proof issue.



I don't typically collect modern Hungarian commemoratives, as the mint started producing way too many starting in 1973, making the set prohibitively large to complete, and full of coins of little topical interest. Occasionally, they hit it out of the park with a really nice commemorative though, and this coin is one of them.

The pair of Saint Stephen commemoratives issued in 1972 are some of my favorite modern Hungarian commemoratives, and I couldn't pass up this beautiful example of a pattern proof issue of KM-596 with deep cameo. Adding more interest to this particular piece is that the reverse commemorates another Hungarian coin, the Saint Stephen denár issued (AD 997-1038).

 

It's not new for me but I did recently take pictures so it's new to share.

Japan - 1708-1709 AD (Hoei 5)
10 Mon - Shichijo Mint / Kyoto
Obv.: Ho Ei Tsu Ho
Rev.: Ei Kyu Sei Yo with Chin countermark on rim at 1:30
Ref.: KM#57 and Hartill#5.1​

 

9

Almost 46 hours of olive oil soak. The obverse is looking pretty decent the reverse has a ways to go.

 

WAAAAAY TO GO!
D.

 

An odd little pattern I picked up:

Hungarian Forint (ND) Hamburg State Mint
Aluminum-Bronze Pattern
Reeded Edge
1.4g 12.77mm x 1.5mm



It's a Hungarian forint struck in aluminum-bronze, but there is no date. Typically the date would go in the blank space underneath the bow at the bottom of the wreath. It's a version of either the 1957-1966 or 1967-1989 Aluminum forint, however, it is much smaller (slightly smaller than the nickel-brass forint issued in 1992).

The description says it is a pattern produced for Hungary by The United German Metal Works (formerly Basse & Selve) in Altena (Germany) on a commission from the Hamburg State Mint (Hamburgische Münze).

I take it that the Hamburg State Mint was producing this as a minting technology specimen for a possible contract with the Budapest Mint, however, while I can find records of this type having been struck in aluminum bronze, I cannot find any records of an undated example.

 

Very interesting piece and it appears in great condition! Quite odd to not find any other records or examples of this no-date version but that makes it intriguing. I hope you're able to find more information about it!

 

Mintage of 10,000 with nearly all impaired or showing handling marks. Knowing that meant knowing an MS64 was something special when I saw it. Had no idea until after I got it just how special: Pop-1/0-Finer at PCGS(!) From Stack's Bowers online October sale.

 

Another 4 days in olive oil. First set of Pictures are taken after a quick rinse in water and patted dry. I think it is about as far as the oil is going to take it. The second set of pics are after a rinse in acetone has removed the oil from the coin's surface. I think the oil is just covering up the verdigris at this point and not getting rid of it. It helped a bit overall especially on the obverse, but I think olive oil is limited to what it can do from a conservation standpoint.

 

Just for grins, here is a Swiss coin I cleaned in a similar fashion some time ago. I think it only soaked in olive oil for half an hour, and it seemed to be taking off some of the patina, so I stopped that and cleaned with acetone. Did some careful work with a toothpick also.

 

Excuse the poor photos quickly taken with my phone, but wanted to share this interesting coin I just received today. So I've been on a kick with these Argentina 2 Centavos coins...while relatively low mintage, they aren't all that uncommon and can usually be found for a few dollars. This series however is just filled with repunched dates and other varieties.

This one here is a repunched I in "Libertad" on the obverse. This is one I've not seen yet and when I stumbled across it, I had to have it.

This has been a fun series to collect as for most dates, there are multiple different varieties like this. Would love to see some sort of catalog of the different varieties if one is available, if not...may just have to start one.

 

This came to me from eBay a couple weeks ago. It's not something I normally buy graded, but PCGS has been doing them lately and it was a nice match for a rather nicely toned Bu I picked up over the summer. Gemmy and not dipped out. And not to pricey but there does appear to be a chop or test on it not mentioned on the label. I'll take that any day .

 

Here are most of the lot of 179 coins a friend brought from England for me a couple of days ago. I have been sorting, taking pix, doing all my coin inventory type work. I will post some of them in the near future, I am sure.