San Marino 5 Lire Real or Fake ?

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Hi all!

 

Picked up this beauty and after the initial hype and some research online the doubts about it's legitimacy began. 

 

The piece is weighing in at 24.65 grams (1.4% off). 

 

 

What's your guys thought - real or fake?

 

Thanks @ all! 

Topic moved to "Coin information and questions" (ZacUK, 15-Nov-2023, 09:32 pm)

Looks good to me.  A minor weight discrepancy is not uncommon after 125 years.  

Splendor.

I'll just focus on the metal and the body of the coin - everything is fine in my opinion, the coin shows no signs of forgery and patina application. The structure corresponds to a period coin and shows no signs of forgery.

 

 

,, Saint Marinus, a stonemason from Lopar on the Adriatic island of Rab, which today is part of Croatia and was part of the Roman Empire in Marinus' time. Marinus worked in Rimini and was a Christian. After the Roman Emperor Diocletian began the persecution of Christians, Marinus fled to Monte Titano, where he built a small church and founded the present-day city of San Marino.  date of establishment is 3 September 301,,

I deliver:

,, I don't know for sure, but when I was there someone told me that he actually fled Croatia on a boat because they treated him badly because of his sexual orientation,,
it's a gem

Ivan

Thanks for your opinions, much appreciated. 

 

Sounds like I got really lucky on this one then, picked it up at a flea market in Spain from a dealer that was specializing on spanish medieval coins and this was in random box with mixed world coins without any protection. 

 

How would you guys grade this coin ? 

As an amateur myself I wouldnt touch it in regards of cleaning, but is the black “stuff / dirt” something that should be removed by a professional or the grading company before getting it slabbed ? 

Chenso

 

As an amateur myself I wouldnt touch it in regards of cleaning, but is the black “stuff / dirt” something that should be removed by a professional or the grading company before getting it slabbed ? 

I do not recommend cleaning at all - at least not in an amateur way - trial and error.

 

And at least from your photo of the coin it is clear that in the recent past someone wiped the right part of the coin by moistening it with a napkin-obverse.

It has a different color on one half - wiped with a pulp with agent - so someone has mishandled it in the recent past.

it can be seen with the naked eye - it is not a shadow during photography.

In another thread yesterday I wrote never to clean and if I want and have to thoroughly and completely - this is an intervention that spoils the overall view of the coin and reduces its value.

I do not rate - for me everyone is a saint and every story - every coin with a story is rated (Apw-absolutely perfect work) by the artist.

Ivan

Thanks Ivan - learning a lot from your comments and appreciate you also sharing the history bits. 

The history behind circulation coins is what led me from bullion investing into numismatics 2 years ago. 

 

Personally I never cleaned any coins and am not planning to do so. After you saying it is cleaned on one side it is clearly visibly. 

 

My ask for appraisal was not because I am interested in the $ value of the coin as I will keep it for my personal collection - wanted to compare the grade I would give the coin in terms of details, scratches and condition to the grade someone experienced would give this coin. 

 

Personally would have said XF+ 

In any case, thanks again for the help. 

Thread can be closed. 

Ok. but have a look at this one we saw last year. 

https://en.numista.com/forum/topic116865.html#p955846

Jamais l'or n'a perdu la plus petite occasion de se montrer stupide. -Balzac

@ Mimael had another close look at the coin and what you were saying seems like half cleaned, was indeed the shadow of the lighting. Here another picture with different (more natural) light:

 

@ Mr Midnight / all - here some additional pictures of the edge to help determine: 

 

Chenso

Personally I never cleaned any coins and am not planning to do so. After you saying it is cleaned on one side it is clearly visibly. 

 

So is it clearly visible?

I'm judging the photo, you have a coin in your hands and you can best tell if it is a shadow or not.

 

I think the coin is genuine -it is my opinion. 

I will leave that assessment to others according to the scale of the individual scales in the assessment.

Ivan

Chenso

@ Mimael had another close look at the coin and what you were saying seems like half cleaned, was indeed the shadow of the lighting. Here another picture with different (more natural) light:

 

@ Mr Midnight / all - here some additional pictures of the edge to help determine: 

 

looks good.👍

Jamais l'or n'a perdu la plus petite occasion de se montrer stupide. -Balzac

Tovarich

Looks good to me.  A minor weight discrepancy is not uncommon after 125 years.  

I was also thinking this, but …

 

I can find quite a few of these on acsearch, and the only specimen that was not very close to 25.0 g like yours, was this one which also has a beaded border:  https://www.coinarchives.com/0f75e592114de144add221b1c26f08c1/img/numisbalt/028/image02082.jpg

 

To look at other examples, you can go here (if the link works) https://www.coinarchives.com/w/results.php?search=san+marino+5+lire+1898&s=0&upcoming=0&results=100

 

If authentic, I think you are looking at a value of not more than 150 eu, so I would try to avoid the investment in grading (which I also think might not meet your expectations).  If you know a coin dealer or jeweler who can check the silver content, this would be a better next step.

Hi

Weight range is normal . Even in unc coins 1%  weight range is common .

 

This is about VF- or F+

 

regards

Shamik

It depends on what we mean by “common.”

 

Out of curiosity, I ran some statistics on 42 examples of this coin I could find on CoinArchives and acsearch sold since 2020 and where the weight was reported.    

 

The median weight was 24.99 grams, in good agreement with the published value.  The standard deviation was 0.15 gr.  If we consider a weight within +/- 2 standard deviations as “normal” then this coin is below a normal weight.  If we consider +/- 3 standard deviations as normal, then it is. 

 

Either way, a weight this low does not occur very often in this sample (1 out of 42 was lower than 2 SD).

Really impressed by the help and valuable input everyone is providing - thanks a lot!

 

I will definitely follow this up the next time I'm going to a coinshop and take tdziemias advice of checking the silver content. Unfortunately there is no coinshop where I currently live and the jewler I went to yesterday only offered me an acid test as he didnt have a machine. 

 

Once I got it checked I will post an update, although this might take me some time to get done. 

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