Stopheles

Hi all, you seem to be very knowledgeable about the Victoria Jubilee half crown and its finer details. I wondered whether you'd be so kind as to give an opinion on a couple of 1889 half crowns I bought recently. One from a coin shop, one from ebay. My kitchen scales are not accurate enough to give a precise weight. They should be 14.14g according: https://en.numista.com/catalogue/pieces8474.html Both seem to be a bit underweight on my scales, but not massively, perhaps due to the wear on the more worn one (A) at least. I've just bought better digital scales and am waiting for those and some calipers to be delivered. In any case, one of the coins is noticeably thicker (B). See photos below. This suggests to me that it may be a restrike or counterfeit, but I'm a complete novice in this area having just started collecting this year. I already bought a couple of obvious fakes of some 8 reales by mistake. Luckily I've been able to return those. Any thoughts on these two would be much appreciated - any details that don't look right, or on the grading, toning, or them ultimately being counterfeits. I assume it's not really worth sending them off to be graded as they are not highly valuable coins? It's of course possible that both are counterfeit, but I'm minded to think the more worn, thinner one is genuine. All good learning in any case! Thanks in advance. Chris

Yep, a valuable first lesson. Hopefully a relatively cheap mistake to make. In life, nothing focuses the mind better and gets you thinking about the details than getting scammed :-D

Hi all, many thanks for the all feedback. Seems a mix of positive and negative views. The major issue with it, as I see it, and without having it tested for purity, is the "T.H." assayer's marks relate to a much later period (1803-10) as Walter (first comment above) has linked to. Thus how would those marks be on an earlier dated coin. Quite simply all the sources I have consulted suggest for 1787 it should carry the "F.M." marks for the Mexico mint, which is clearly on the coin. I agree that it looks genuine, I suppose good counterfeits do! But I also can't see the overlapping 0-0 links on the edge as some folks suggest should be there (x2) for the coin to be genuine, which I've read is due to the way it has been cast from two dies. All very interesting but not the simplest foray into the world of collecting coins. No wonder people stick to evaluated coins or just buy bullion In any case, I think I will alert the seller to this issue and ask for a refund. Let's see what they say. Many thanks again folks, and happy collecting!

Hi there, first foray into collecting coins, and first post here, so please be kind! I recently bought an 8 reales coin online, then stumbled across some old forum posts online with experts discussing the high number of counterfeits and forgeries of the Silver 8 reales coin. Not sure if anyone here has an eye for them, but I can't find the assayer's initials (T.H) on any online site for that year, to check this was minted in Mexico (which only seem to list F.M. for the year 1787), so starting to think this could be a counterfeit one. The one I (thought I) bought is a Silver 8 Reales, Carlos III, 1787 Mo.T.H. Some photos attached. Any thoughts much appreciated! Cheers, Stopheles.