Jump to content
British Coin Forum - Predecimal.com

50 Years of RotographicCoinpublications.com A Rotographic Imprint. Price guide reference book publishers since 1959. Lots of books on coins, banknotes and medals. Please visit and like Coin Publications on Facebook for offers and updates.

Coin Publications on Facebook

   Rotographic    

The current range of books. Click the image above to see them on Amazon (printed and Kindle format). More info on coinpublications.com

predecimal.comPredecimal.com. One of the most popular websites on British pre-decimal coins, with hundreds of coins for sale, advice for beginners and interesting information.

Sign in to follow this  
willr

1789 two-escudo doubloon possible fake?

Recommended Posts

I have a 2 escudos gold doubloon that I purchased from a very reputable seller on eBay some years ago. For whatever reason I never thought to weigh it at the time as I trusted that it was legit. Having just purchased some accurate scales, and remembering this coin I bought back in 2011, I weighed it and it is coming up light, 6.27g instead of what should be 6.77g. Does this mean it's definitely a fake or did they vary a lot by weight, half a gram seems an awful lot though for a small coin.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

7% is clearly underweight - although all coins lose a bit when they circulate a lot, and especially gold which is very soft. Is it very worn?

However this doesn't necessarily mean that it's a fake. In the past it was common practice (and illegal) to file or scrape gold coins to obtain free gold.

Also, there were cases of some american mints and assayers (Potosi more often) when the purity was altered. Gold being so dense, that could explain the underweight.

I suggest that you publish some good photos in a specialised forum.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Ok, thanks for the reply.

It's not worn, here's some photos of it anyway. I'm not sure what grade it is, would it be VF? It's 22mm in diameter which is the correct diameter.

 

doubloon front.jpg

 

doubloon back.jpg

 

Edited by willr

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Ah, I didn't read the date on the title and thought it would be a colonial cob, which weights were all over the place... But being a relatively recent Madrid piece, it should definitively be standard, so all alarms ring with the underweight. Take a look at acsearch - all examples are around 6.60 - 6.68g

I am no expert at this, but the king's portrait and tie look wrong, on the soapy side. More importantly your coin's rim is not right. It should show raised indentations more clearly. I can't see the actual edge, there should also be a chain of diagonal grooves all around the edge that overlap at some point, most fakes fail in this area.

So it looks fake to me, but I'm only a collector with limited knowledge of gold coins of that period. Is the dealer still active? Maybe he will give you a refund without much fuss.

I paste a couple of examples for your comparison.

VF:

2001949.jpg

EF:

1429480.jpg

Edited by Leo
  • Like 1

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Ok cheers. I did think something wasn't quite right with the rim, it looks less substantial than on other examples and the teeth aren't as well defined, I thought this may have contributed towards the lack of weight. I will definitely try my luck and get in contact with the seller who's still active, thanks for your help.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

You're very welcome, I hope he/she is reasonable. Good luck

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
3 hours ago, willr said:

Ok cheers. I did think something wasn't quite right with the rim, it looks less substantial than on other examples and the teeth aren't as well defined, I thought this may have contributed towards the lack of weight. I will definitely try my luck and get in contact with the seller who's still active, thanks for your help.

good luck with that, i just had this experience with a coin 

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
17 hours ago, willr said:

Ok, thanks for the reply.

It's not worn, here's some photos of it anyway. I'm not sure what grade it is, would it be VF? It's 22mm in diameter which is the correct diameter.

 

doubloon front.jpg

 

doubloon back.jpg

 

love the smile on his face haha, just noticed the goat hanging at the bottom of the reverse 

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
4 hours ago, craigy said:

just noticed the goat hanging at the bottom of the reverse 

and off his tie!

It surely is some bling

c86c44042f1f7909371fee66cf2b93f4.jpg

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
Sign in to follow this  

×