Booky586

On The Lone Rangers horse? 🤠

I don't think heat would lighten the metal. There was a recent series on the TV about jewelry making and they were soldering gold using some sort of welding torch to heat the gold. The surface changed colour and went darker, but when cleaned went back to its original colour. The colour of the coin will come from the alloy base metals and I'm guessing your coin has a higher than normal silver content.

There is another check that may be worth doing, the die axis alignment. It should be medal alignment on this coin, both obverse and reverse upright when spun on a vertical axis. It's not a normal check I make but I'm just thinking about the heat ripples. If the heat has been applied in one position then I assume the ripples would form back to back on the coin. As the photos indicate, they look like they are in the second quadrant on both faces, meaning the die might be out of alignment by about 90 degrees. If the alignment is out it doesn't indicate a fake but it would be another indicator in the wrong direction. And it's an easy test to take!

I use the saleroom as a search engine as such, then goto the the individual auction houses and use their bidding options. This will usually reduce the overall fees slightly compared to the saleroom, but there's no avoiding the extortionate fees.

Personally I would avoid buying polished coins, they'd be harder to sell on the open market (eg The Silver Forum) than an unpolished coin.

There are a couple of extracts from the Royal Mint Coin Club Bulletin attached giving a little information on engraving and die polishing. The techniques employed are from the 1980's though and not specifically Victorian. I hope they help. 1989-33 Engraving.pdf 1986-21 Die Polishing.pdf

Queen Victoria shield every time but they are my favourite. I would like to think it will hold it's premium in the future, but who knows?

Thanks for pointing this out, I hadn't spotted it. Here's a close up.

My first thoughts were "it's another eBay forgery" but the photos are of a full sovereign! Who's going to take the chance of a bargain by bidding on it when the seller has a feedback score of only one though. Any bidders from TSF?

I had a £2 coin, date 2015, with a die rotation error of about 90 degrees (photos below). It's was a circulated coin worth £2, in average condition, and sold for over £50 on eBay. It's not a sovereign, so it's not a direct comparison, but it gives you an indication of the market for this kind of error.

1860 with very tired obverse lettering. There's a few missing serifs in VICTORIA DEI and an unbarred A in GRATIA.

I'm not entirely sure of the production of dies and how errors and faults are corrected, if there are any experts out then please comment. Any links to printed material would be helpful. I've found a little more info on the F over Inverted A Variety though. Here's an extract from The Bentley Collection Auction Catalogue by Baldwins (credit to Steve Hill, the cataloguer) with an insight into how the error may have been formed: There's a wealth of knowledge to be found in these archived auction catalogues that are available online in PDF format to download. This extract is taken from auction catalogue 79, but take a look at the others, especially 73 and 76: https://www.baldwin.co.uk/auction-archive/

Has the A.M.A. been released yet, I'm looking forward to it.

@Dan12345 you seem to be really unlucky, all the coins you've posted pictures of look like counterfeits.

I agree with @dicker and @ilovesilverireallydo, they do look suspect. Something I've noticed on some old silver coin copies (not just Morgan Dollars) is the counterfeiter will try and add some tarnish/toning to them to give them an aged look. They apply a darker coating to the whole coin then wipe it off the high spots, but it doesn't always look genuine. The tell tale sign is the wipe stroke direction left behind in the fake tarnish. I've added a red line in the direction of the wipe on your coins below, I hope this highlights it. if I ever see this on a photo of a coin for sale I'll always give it a wide berth.

After watching them first 2 episodes I won't be watching the 3rd one tonight. The theme is more about the social aspect rather than having any precious metal interest. I found forum members reactions to the BBC much more interesting though, there's obviously some strong feelings about the company. It'll not stop me enjoying the Antiques Roadshow, Britain's Biggest Dig and some of the quality history programs on BBC 4 though.

Nothing too much to worry about here, it's only a documentary about the social impact of a small mine in the local community.

Hello and welcome!

I can't work it out either. It's listed in Marsh as 'F over inverted A' but you have to use your imagination to find an A under there!

There's no record of this one in Marsh but PCGS have them in their population. 1861 T over a skinny and sloping offset T in Victoria. Looks like it might have been an first stamp in the wrong position, then re-positioned.

Thanks for the lead. I went to the PCGS website and found a photo of the F over inverted A variety for comparison (PCGS on right), I'd say they were a match. Really pleased as Marsh has this rated as R2.

I'd like some help with this one, a 1862 Shield. A lot of the characters and numbers have been restruck/overstruck, but the E and F in DEF look a bit messy as well as the number 1 in date. Marsh has varieties for "F over inverted A over F" and "E over F", but I'm not sure if this is either of them, it could be something else: Any ideas?

The OP is asking for thoughts regarding retrikes (fakes) based on the photographs. He has his doubts regarding the first one. I'm merely sharing my observations and trying to be helpful. If the OP had asked for help judging the grade of his coins them I may have done so, though it's not a skill I have expertise in.

Nice coin, the obverse reminds me of the Australian sovereign issues from the Sydney branch mint.

I've attached a photo a genuine coin for you to make a comparison against. Perhaps contact Bairds and ask them to exchange it.