1886 silver halfpenny

[safi]

Hi guys, its been a while, I hope everyone is well.

I have a bit of a conundrum , I have an 1886 halfpenny that according to The Royal Mint Museum is an authentic coin , but has been silver plated, the thing is it has deep initials scratched/gouged onto its surface and I see no underlying bronze at all, I took it to my coin dealer and we did an acid test, which came up as silver , slightly magnetic and  he thinks it is a  low grade silver, but the ping test came out as a normal halfpenny, by the way my coin was gone for 4 months , not the usual 6 to 8 weeks, when I got in touch with a guy I email regularly he chased it up for me .

 The RMM response said "they had no reason to think it was not authentic", but at the end said it was "silver plated".

I would appreciate any help on this please

Many thanks in advance

[safi]

Sorry, I think I put this in the wrong place😔

[Rob]

You sometimes get silvered base coins for use as a pendant or similar. I see yours didn't have a hole for suspension, but the intent will likely be the same.

If the silver is recoverable as part of a bigger lot, then best recovered that way, but sadly no or very little collectable value.

[safi]

Ok, thanks Rob , I wasn't sure, still a nice curiosity piece😊

[oldcopper]

An obvious question is - what's the weight and how does that compare to the standard bronze weight?

 

Also, Soho gilded coins can often tolerate field scratches without breaking through the gilt surface.

[Rob]

1 hour ago, oldcopper said:

An obvious question is - what's the weight and how does that compare to the standard bronze weight?

 

Also, Soho gilded coins can often tolerate field scratches without breaking through the gilt surface.

Yes, but the big difference there is that the gilt pieces are patterns or proofs and so readily distinguishable from the currency issues. This one looks to be a normal worn currency piece that someone has had fun with.

The weight is likely similar to what it should be. Silver is only a bit denser than copper, so the wear will likely cancel out the difference at best.

Edited 19 hours ago by Rob

[absence of uniformity]

I would go with the RMM opinion, however you can do another test if you want to check yourself that doesn't involve working out the specific gravity. Simply place a strong rare earth magnet on the coin and tip the coin up to let the magnet slide off. If the the magnet free falls at normal speed its not Silver. (You need a strong small rare earth magnet for it to work) If the magnet slides down across the coin much slower at a constant speed its Silver. Worth thinking about metal sliding across the coin and potential damage /scratch you could place a piece of paper on the coin so the magnet doesn't cause any damage. Its called magnetic braking. The test would not work on a copper/silver plated coin because copper's high conductivity will cause the magnet to slow down although the magnet will still slide faster than silver. 

Edited 17 hours ago by absence of uniformity

[Citizen H]

4 hours ago, absence of uniformity said:

I would go with the RMM opinion, however you can do another test if you want to check yourself that doesn't involve working out the specific gravity. Simply place a strong rare earth magnet on the coin and tip the coin up to let the magnet slide off. If the the magnet free falls at normal speed its not Silver. (You need a strong small rare earth magnet for it to work) If the magnet slides down across the coin much slower at a constant speed its Silver. Worth thinking about metal sliding across the coin and potential damage /scratch you could place a piece of paper on the coin so the magnet doesn't cause any damage. Its called magnetic braking. The test would not work on a copper/silver plated coin because copper's high conductivity will cause the magnet to slow down although the magnet will still slide faster than silver. 

very interesting information / knowledge 👍

[oldcopper]

18 hours ago, Rob said:

Yes, but the big difference there is that the gilt pieces are patterns or proofs and so readily distinguishable from the currency issues. This one looks to be a normal worn currency piece that someone has had fun with.

The weight is likely similar to what it should be. Silver is only a bit denser than copper, so the wear will likely cancel out the difference at best.

The point about the gilts was of course that a surface layer need not be removed by scratching, nothing to do with identification of the variety.

The silvered 1841 colon currency penny in the latest Spink auction, initially wrongly described as the silver proof, was heavily marked and worn but with the coating fully intact. In that case though the silvering was probably applied to an already worn and marked coin, unlike with Soho gilts where any markings, scratches etc would happen to the already gilded coin.

The halfpenny is nowhere near worn enough to cancel out the circa 15% increase in weight that would be observed in a sterling silver analogue of similar dimensions. So the weight would be useful to know.

Edited 43 minutes ago by oldcopper