GoldElliott

6 hours ago, SILVERFINGER said:

I first want to dedicate this post to my very good, patient, and understanding friend Merm, who has been a godsend since I lost my best mate last week.

I won in an auction these uncirculated and strong lustre USA Philippines silver coins.
This design of coin was released in 1937 and minted from .750 silver for all denominations, when WW2 started and the Japanese invaded the Philippines the majority of these years of coins were apparently dumped into the sea to prevent the Japanese getting their hand on precious metals or metals of any kind, therefore coins of pre 1941 date in mint condition are very rare, the seawater doing a job on them (while silver is none ferrous the metals mixed with it were not).
With the re-capture of the islands the Denver mint was contracted to make the 10 & 20 Centavos coins and the San Francisco mint the 50 Centavos coins to replace all the ones that had been lost.
Production figures of the coins I have bought that I am keeping are as below,

1944 dated, 10 Centavos, 31,592,000
1944 dated, 20 Centavos, 28,596,000
1945 dated, 50 Centavos, 18,120,000

 

 

 

 

The coins below were part of the collection but I decided to sell, as one is a duplicate (20 Centavos) and the other was made after WW2 (50 Centavos), both are full lustre, though the sun was quickly disappearing by the time I took these.

Production figure for the 1945 20 Centavos was 82,804,000

The 50 Centavos was a real dilemma for me do I keep it or not, but I have quite a lot of interest in it from collectors due to its mint condition and incredibly low mintage, I only stack pre 1945 coins but these were made in 1947 only, but they commemorated General Douglas MacArthur's retaking of the Philippines islands from the Japanese during WW2.
They were the first coins minted in the Philippines new republic and the design came in 50 Cent and 1 Peso, the 50 Centavos being minted from .750 silver and the 1 Peso of .900 silver.
The coins were struck in low relief only by the the San Francisco mint.
Production of these coins were as following,

1947 dated,  20 Centavos, 200,000
1947 dated,  1 Peso,           100,000

 

So sorry to hear about your loss mate  

As always, your coins are amazing and the accompanying story amplifies their appeal. I have to say I haven't actually come across the 1947 50c- will have to keep en eye out in the future for one.

41 minutes ago, richatthecroft said:

Auctioneers are lazy and extremely greedy.  

Not only do they provide poor advice to their ignorant vendors that some coins would be better sold elsewhere due to the Auction house inordinate two way commission charges- this exemplified by them frequently selling single lots of run of the mill Sovereigns- they often don't serve their vendors well, signposting the ignorant Sovereign vendor to the first Gold buying shark they see on the high street would show much more integrity. 

And then we have this type of scenario, they clearly often don't have the decency to appraise the lots they are selling.  You would like to think that with them charging huge commission rates each way, they would at least examine what they are selling or moreover, employ someone with some knowledge of what they are selling- Its an absolute scandal that they get away with this type of practice, particularly when its so obvious that those coins you received were fakes.  Indefensible.     

Agreed. I have bought another lot of coins that I am 99% sure are fake and they refused to hold a magnet to them or weigh them before posting saying that they were too busy and that was not a service they offered. Honestly the complacency of the auction houses is astonishing it's a miracle theyre still around.

Just now, SILVERFINGER said:

I would return them mate, selling forgeries is a crime and a reputation for doing something like that sticks.

I have returned them but defaced them with the word FAKE across each so as to avoid liability myself for distributing counterfeit coins! It also prevents the auction house from reselling the coins themselves should they want to do so. If they kick up a fuss about refunds etc Im going to post their name very publically.

So I won my first lot in a proper auction the other day and if it wasn't so funny I'd be quite angry 😂

£20 hammer price, which plus commission and postage ended up costing £41 all in! these guys are criminals, 33% buyer fees and 30% seller fees, and £10 handling charge on postage just for them posting it for you!

Anyway, thought I had bagged an absolute bargain here and had 6 pretty rare south American coins- admittedly I didn't look at the photos closely at all before bidding, just chucked in a £20 bid and won.

Coins arrived and well... as you can see they are cheap cheap chinese copies. all weighing at around 18g (real weights supposed to be between 25-30g roughly for these coins) and very magnetic.

These were bought off the saleroom from a reputable auctioneer so please be careful guys! I have protected the anonymity of the auctioneer whilst my case is still pending with them. If they do not resolve it to my satisfaction I will release their details and report them to the trading standards. They seemed to be genuinely surprised and they do not sell a lot of coins typically, however I find it strange that an auction house with supposedly master valuers cannot tell silver from cheap chinese copy....

On 26/09/2020 at 14:20, SILVERFINGER said:

I have been bidding and winning some of these lovely walking liberty half dollars, the first arrived today, this is a late San Francisco mint one which was made on worn dies, the coin has its full lustre but the centre of the coin on both sides slightly lacks detail which does not bother me, I will wait until all the ones I have bid on (and hopefully won) arrive before I decide which one I want to keep and which I want to sell on.

that's amazing. If you decide to sell this one let me know

1 minute ago, SILVERFINGER said:

World gold coins next , I tried to buy some from a well known dealer but they couldn't be arsed to even get back to me.

haha only got about 3,800 more silver ones to go before I start thinking about gold!

7 minutes ago, SILVERFINGER said:

There is quite a few in your recent treasure haul that I am after for my stack, some nice coins there.

Which ones?

6 minutes ago, SILVERFINGER said:

This is my recent pickup, an Australian 1943 dated Sixpence, minted from .925 silver at the Denver mint in the USA, featuring King George VI on the obverse and the Australian coat of arms of a kangaroo and emu.
Australia minted all their silver coins from the high grade of .925 until 1946 when it dropped to .500, silver still being used until 1963 when they stopped using the UK £ and went to the AUS $, the high grade of silver might account why its hard to find unworn coins from the pre 1945 era with them being quite soft.
Three mints manufactured these coins every year from 1938 to 1945, these were, Melbourne in Australia (no mint mark), Denver in the USA (D mint mark) and San Francisco in the USA (S mint mark).
The production figures for the two (Australia didn't make any this year) mints in 1943 alone were,

1943 D,  8,000,000
1943 S,  4,000,000

 

Always amazes me how late they circulated .925 and large coins too! One of my 6d today was a 1922! Very low mintage and the florin was 1935 also a good year!

21 minutes ago, SILVERFINGER said:

This arrived the other day, its a 1930 dated Austrian 2 Schillings coin made from .640 silver.
Starting in the late 1920's Austria released a circulating commemorative silver 2 Schilling coin each year, this carried on until the Germans united the country in 1938 and replaced their currency with the Reichsmark.
These coin's featured a different person or building from their history each year, also the mintage's were quite low on most of them at 500,000.
All the coins were minted for one year only, the early ones had all the different house shields surrounding the value on the obverse, this was later replaced by the two headed eagle, though the former design would be re-instated after WW2,

The 1930 coin here features on its reverse Walther Von Vogelweide and remembers his death in the year 1230, he was a German poet and songwriter, this same man and design on the coin also features on a German 1930 dated 3 Marks silver coin, that coin has far lower mintage's and is worth considerably more.
500,000 were minted of the 1930 year coin, how many of those survived the melting pot when the Third Reich marched in is anyone's idea.

 

as always a beautiful coin and great story to go along with it :) thanks

2 hours ago, JBrans said:

Latest hoard

This puts my total silver net weight at about 69 ounces

One of my favourite coins the older 2.5 gulden

2 minutes ago, SILVERFINGER said:

Good to see you back matey, I missed your posts on here.

Been a busy few months but back in UK now. Got a lot of catching up to do with everything- prices gone crazy not sure I'll be buying much for a while.