Kookaburracollector

A few pick ups this week on the 20 Francs front...and at last I have had delivered an 1879 Barred Anchor...the last one I bought ended up in West Africa never to be seen again!!

Nice to compare the two 1879’s now I have both.

Below is the standard Anchor...a bit like a round blob on the end if you ask me!

The one acquired today has two distinct bars on the end...

I have no idea if one is rarer than the other...if you do..please let me know.

Just a shame the 1887 I also obtained today has a hairline next to the ‘A’...otherwise it would have been my best condition Angel by far.

Also makes you aware of how buying online can lead to disappointment..A seller could easily use the 2nd photo and not the first!

46 minutes ago, DarkChameleon said:

Can the feds steal things that were already stolen?

In theory they weren’t stolen, they were ‘swapped’ ..one ounce for one ounce..but I know what you mean...but let’s be honest...the feds can  steal just about everything they want!

Found it.

https://archive.org/details/PAN18005Strange

28 minutes ago, silversurf said:

A six ounce silver copy of one of the worlds rarest coins, the 1933 Double Eagle. Only 13 coins in existence and only one in private hands. Fascinating story if you want to look it up. Theft, court cases, a king and the US secret service all involved, amongst others.

Last sold in 2002 for $7.6 million.

Watched a documentary about the coin recently, if I ever remember what it was called I will post it..great story! A guy at the mint swapped a load for 1932’s and had a stash of them at home...only discovered when he died.. then the Feds stole the lot!!

31 minutes ago, augur said:

My Alzheimer’s must be getting worse: i cannot recollect when i said all that 🤔 

Still waiting for the day that someone posts a 1912 20 Perpera on this thread. 

Ummm..I could be wrong (most probable answer), but I thought the 20 Perpera from Montenegro was only minted in 1910, and there is no 1912.?.....I hear Ibruprofen helps fight Alzheimer’s @augur... shall I send you some ?

PS Don’t forget you owe me £20,000!😃💰

@whuamai you have a lot to answer for! 😂!

Back in June, I was admiring your beautiful Skanderbegu thinking..I need to get one of those.

After 3 months of looking..I have managed to grab one (as seen on Today I received)

As this thread tends to lean on the side of educational, I asked my good friend (and spender of all my money) @augur what he knows about this coin..and this is what he said...

“Zog I, King of the Albanians (1895–1961), born Ahmet Muhtar Zogolli, taking the surname Zogu in 1922, was the leader of Albania from 1922 to 1939. He first served as Prime Minister of Albania (1922–1924), then as President (1925–1928), and finally as the first and only King (1928–1939).

This type was struck for Albania 1926-27 at the Rome mint to the standard of the French 20 francs d'or, even tho France had ceased striking such coins in 1914.

The Franga is an obsolete unit of currency, equal to 5 lek, used in the Albanian Republic and Albanian Kingdom under Zogu. Coins denominated in Franga were in use from 1926 until 1939.

Engraver: Giuseppe Romagnoli

George Castriot (1405–1468), known as Skanderbeg (from Turkish Iskender Bey, meaning “Lord Alexander”, or “Leader Alexander”), was an Albanian nobleman and military commander who led a rebellion against the Ottoman Empire in what is today Albania and North Macedonia.

A member of the noble Castriot family, he was sent to the Ottoman court as part of the Devshirme, where he was educated and entered the service of the Ottoman sultan for the next twenty years. He rose through the ranks, culminating in the appointment as sanjakbey (governor) of the Sanjak of Dibra in 1440. In 1443, he deserted the Ottomans during the Battle of Niš and became the ruler of Krujë, Svetigrad, and Modrič. In 1444, he was appointed the chief commander of the short-lived League of Lezhë that consolidated nobility throughout what is today Northern Albania. Thus, for the first time Albania was united under a single leader. Skanderbeg's rebellion was not a general uprising of Albanians, because he did not gain support in the Venetian-controlled north or in the Ottoman-controlled south. His followers included, apart from Albanians, also Slavs, Vlachs, and Greeks. Despite this military valor he was not able to do more than to hold his own possessions within the very small area in nowadays northern Albania where almost all of his victories against the Ottomans took place. Skanderbeg's military skills presented a major obstacle to Ottoman expansion, and he was considered by many in western Europe to be a model of Christian resistance against Muslims. For 25 years, from 1443 to 1468, Skanderbeg's 10,000 man army marched through Ottoman territory winning against consistently larger and better supplied Ottoman forces, for which he was admired.

Skanderbeg always signed himself in Latin: Dominus Albaniae ("Lord of Albania"). In 1460–61, he participated in Italy's civil wars in support of Ferdinand I of Naples. In 1463, he became the chief commander of the crusading forces of Pope Pius II, but the Pope died while the armies were still gathering. Together with Venetians he fought against the Ottomans during the Ottoman–Venetian War (1463–1479) until his death in January 1468. He ranks high in that military history, as the most persistent opponent of the Ottoman Empire in its heyday who was also ever-victorious.

Depicts the Lion of Saint Mark dividing value, country name above, mintmark and date below.

The Reverse..

The Lion of Saint Mark, representing the evangelist St Mark, pictured in the form of a winged lion holding a Bible, is the symbol of the city of Venice and formerly of the Venetian Republic.

The Venetian lion appears in two distinct forms. One is as a winged animal resting on water, to symbolise dominance over the seas, holding St. Mark’s Gospel under a front paw. The other form is known as the lion “in moleca”, in the form of a crab. Here the lion is depicted full-faced with its wings circled around the head resembling the claws of a crustacean. It is emerging from water, so that the lion “in moleca” is associated with the lagoon and the city, whereas the standing winged lion is thought to be more associated with Venetian territory around the Mediterran.

By the way..When I said I had to get one...I lied...I had to get two...a fine example of the1927 has already been sourced! Pictures to follow in a few weeks!

All a bit too quiet on this thread..so an excuse to post something I welcome..my first graded 20 Francs coin..and very happy with it I am too. 

Started to rebuild my gold ETF portfolio yesterday , as the POG is showing some resilience. I am hoping prices will rise in anticipation of what the fed will do later next week...will probably sell half the day before to hedge my bets!

The next opportunity for gold to get slammed will probably be tweets about a great trade deal with China....although I really can’t see that happening any time soon!

OR

If The Fed only cuts rates by 25 basis points...I think the market wants 50 minimum...will soon see.

On the Brexit front, most people aren’t stockpiling toilet rolls like last time, (apart from me!)  so I guess the majority don’t think it will happen...!

Well the ECB rate cut rally didn’t last long..

Buy the rumour sell the news springs to mind...

Like @Frenchie (on a different thread))I think the trend is lower,I’m hoping to buy back into ETF’s at 1450.That said, I will probably start building some sort of  position prior to the 18th, regardless of price...I don’t know anyone with a crystal ball that works for gold..which is a pity!

Will be interesting to see what the ECB gets up to later this week..Gold is struggling, and needs a boost from somewhere..I guess the big one is on the 18th September, when the Fed have an opportunity to shake the markets up a little..Trump will explode if there is no rate cut!

Currently sat predominantly in cash, and sat on the fence observing...sometimes the hardest thing to do is wait and do nothing!

NFP came in low so gold should pick up again...

26 minutes ago, sixgun said:

i wonder if the NFP 'survey' results coming out today aren't that good - quite a few times i've seen price taken down only to rise of weak NFP. 

We should find out at 12-30GMT...

Yesterday, I noticed US service sector activity accelerated in August, and private employers boosted hiring beyond what the market was expecting. Hence risk-on and gold gets slammed. If the NFP figure is strong today ,the market won’t like it...good news is bad news, as it may give the Fed reason not to accelerate the cutting of interest rates! For this reason, I sold half of my gold miners portfolio earlier..I will buy back when I think the time is right...could be hours...could be months..who knows! 

It has been a stellar three months..a pullback is no surprise..

Well, no fecker predicted that one coming...whatever method you use..when someone dumps 40 tonnes of paper gold on COMEX in 2 minutes, this is what happens...no charting method can accommodate this. Physical gold is a derivative of the paper market = crazy times!

There is one big worry for me here..the commercials are holding a massive short interest in gold at the moment, the complete opposite to the hedge funds, who hold 300,00+ long contracts....and the commercials nearly always end up on the winning side. Will look for the next COT report to see if this has changed! Either way...it’s getting interesting!

Things could get interesting from here..the yield curves in both the USA and the UK have just inverted..and that includes the 2 to 10 in the USA...the business news channels should be all,over this one later today..

Jammy dog you are!

😃 😃 😃!