augur

An interesting format is the ‘25 Franc’ sized 5 Venezolanos and 5 Pesos / Argentino.

Theses are the ‘entry’ coins into this format since 5 Pesos from Guatemala and Colombia carry a much higher premium. While all coins weigh 1/4 of a 100 Franc or 20 Pesos piece (as per legend 8.0645 g), there is quite some variety in diameter and thickness across the currencies (21.3 mm - 22.2 mm). Since the 5 Venezolanos was minted by the Monnaie de Paris, the diameter of 22 mm and thickness of 1.5 can probably be considered an unofficial LMU standard.

Not sure if we have featured finnish 20 Markkaa yet; as all eastern european ‘LMU’ coins these carry more of a premium.

maybe @Xander can post pics of his 7 1/2 Roubles?

1 hour ago, Kookaburracollector said:

Just back from NGC the 1915 from above...and as predicted it is one of one.

Wow 😲 and in mint condition 

Do you have more one of a kind?

Added a 1925 20 Dinara – just need the other two varieties now...

8 hours ago, mezmer1411 said:

 Wow that's a shady looking holder for that coin. Got "Obrenović" and "Vienna" spelled wrong, and what's up with the font and icons... Looks like a 11-yo school project. The seller seems legit though from the volume of feedback, hope it goes well for you.

This dealer does his own ‘grading’ and ‘certification’ and for some reason always sets the focus plane on the label. I am sure @Choi bought the coin based on the images of the coin outside the holder which are in focus.

Consider these holders as sales packaging; the motto “buy the coin, not the holder” has never been so true as with this specific french dealer. 

Rhetorical question. Truth be told i didn’t follow the vs. thread as it was going nowhere so i wasn’t sure i had missed something. 

Was that HH, @sixgun?

i agree here with @Minimalist that this will become the greatest wealth transfer in history.

22 minutes ago, Minimalist said:

Banks; Destroying the economy and buy it all back at bargain prices: Largest transfer of wealth in history.

Just for clarification: I fully agree and it saddens me. 

This week i received the shared top 1911 MS64 20 Bolivares. Particularly happy since this is now the second coin of this variant in my possession. 

43 minutes ago, richatthecroft said:

This example is currently on eBay- AU58 at over US $6000- What price range would you expect this coin to be in? 

Since this is not the proof but the circulation 100 Corona piece, you should try to pay $4,000-£4,000 for it.

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On 22/12/2019 at 09:18, augur said:

On the Hungarian 8 Forint the initial obverse was that of the younger emperor with fuller cheeks, a lower hairline and most notably the laurel wreath or “triumphal crown” had only 3 berries instead of 6. The Austrian 8 Forint used the updated portrait from day one.  

 

Double berries in the laurel wreath and a little fold in the ribbon on the neck means Austrian 8 Forint or second Portrait Hungarian 8 Forint (1880-90)

 

Single berries in the laurel wreath is the early Hungarian 8 Forint (1870-80)

I added better and more comparable pictures but admittedly on coins with some more wear the berries would be the easiest way to distinguish these. 

I just wanted to alert you that there are forgeries out there. In specific the 1911 20 Bolívares from Venezuela:

While these forgeries have the appearance of lustrous and uncirculated coins, they seem to be minted from a copy die of a very specific version of the 1911 coin

(dot closer to 1 rather than centred between 1 and L – undocumented)

Especially the reverse is struck off centre and under magnification it will become clear that the letters and numbers of the legend are very weak and mushy:

I have seen two coins on eBay – one in the US and one in Spain. Typically the seller will have low magnification or resolution pictures to mask the shortcomings of the forgery; in terms of weight and size these coins will pass but they are definitely not worth any premium over spot (I haven’t tested the alloy).

23 hours ago, Toshunya86 said:

I find the 5 quetzales of Guatemala - Even though this is central America -particularly beautiful as well .

I would also draw the geographical line for this thread South of Mexico. Coins of the Central American Republic (República del Centro de America) are very attractive and unfortunately also quite dear.

As the thread operator I am also focusing on South America (here Caribbean) for the time being. 

On 24/12/2019 at 01:32, richatthecroft said:

Today picked up this invaluable resource.

 

It’s a fantastic book even if you are not into French coins. Just the introduction about the preparation of the dies and punches is worth the purchase 

17 hours ago, Toshunya86 said:

Do you see any difference between the 8 forint 1880-1890 and the 8 forint 1870-1880 ?

On the Hungarian 8 Forint the initial obverse was that of the younger emperor with fuller cheeks, a lower hairline and most notably the laurel wreath or “triumphal crown” had only 3 berries instead of 6. The Austrian 8 Forint used the updated portrait from day one.  

Double berries in the laurel wreath means Austrian 8 Forint or second Portrait Hungarian 8 Forint (1880-90)

Single berries in the laurel wreat is the early Hungarian 8 Forint (1870-80)

17 minutes ago, Kookaburracollector said:

This beautiful coin arrived from America 

Maybe the person encapsulating thought the shield was so nice, it should be upright... I had coins in NGC slabs moving during transport (usually soft 24K gold so i guess they are a bit less firmly gripped) but a sovereign spec coin shouldn’t move, hopefully 🙄

3 hours ago, Toshunya86 said:

There are in fact 3 Dinara with LMU specs.

Two 20 Dinara from the Kingdom of Serbia. 1879 & 1882.

The third one , often classified as Yugoslavia , is actually the 20 dinara 1925 - belonging to the "Kingdom of the Slovenians , Serbs & Croats" which was somewhat the ancestor of Yugoslavia.

You must be using an interesting source: my Cyrillic deciphering is a bit rusty but to me It looks like Slovenia is named last rather than first: Александар краљ Срба, Хрвата и Словенаца 😉 

And @whuamai pointed out to me that this “united kingdom” has actually three variants with differing mint marks positions. 

Received a nice 1912 20B with struck through material imprint. Struck through grease (e.g. blocked up letters in the legend) seem quite common but does anybody have another struck through piece from the Monnaie de Paris?

In hand under the loupe you can even make out the threading of the piece of string but on the pictures only the fibres are visible. 

On 06/12/2019 at 11:57, richatthecroft said:

Maybe add a 100 Soles down the line 😉 just for the size and weight

The closest I could offer in this respect is a 100 Bolivares

Sorry, no good light this time of year; the reverse is actually quite lustrous but this greenish gold mined in Guyana is not the most photogenic anyway.