nickr

For my money it is a fake made from dies that have been made from a genuine coin or an old die that has been reused. It is not a modern copy and it would be a very rare die that was not blundered after being finished with. The close ups of the edge just doesnt look right for a circulated coin that has been cleaned in a bad way. The only exception would be a coin cleaned by heating in a vacuum with an oxygen getter and there arent many people who can do this (or at least risk it with a coin going to be sold) I did a few test pieces about 5 years ago but on Roman stuff from a hoard that were all the same mintage so different cleaning methods were tested on them as none were rare. The problem is the oxygen getter may sputter on to the coin and give strange readings. The cleaned coins often have a shiny blackened finish, not unlike pewter.

I once won an ebay auction for some nice Victorian lower denomination silver that were beautifully toned to a deep chocolate in the images but when they arrived they were as bright as a piece of new rhodium plate. The lady seller thought I would be upset that they were so dirty and had spent an evening polishing them all for me before despatch! What can you say?

It would be interesting to know what coins he already has and add to them as a theme if there is one. You could collect by year or coin face value and that would allow a search through your change. The olympic 50 pences seem to have struck the imagination of the nation and there are quite a few varieties of 50 pences, pound and 2 pound coins to be collected now. If they are pre-decimal coins then get decent examples of each denomination of coins from each reign where possible. Nick