Is this Half Crown real or not?

[Guest Walk on my Shoe]

Hi everyone!!

I recently found this nice looking 1889 half crown on ebay, do you recon it is really or not, as its condition and lustre seems to me, to good to be true.

Thanks for your attention

[Guest Walk on my Shoe]

mmmm it would help is showed the link!

http://tinyurl.com/yr3vv

[Master Jmd]

it does look a bit too good to be true, but looking at the obverse the head has some slight toning...i would say it is real, anid i would not see why someone would fake a coin that is not worth too much...

colin cooke has a 1885 half crown (here), and that is in about the same condition as the one on ebay...

Edited May 15, 2004 by Master Jmd

[Emperor Oli]

i would not see why someone would fake a coin that is not worth too much...

Purely for that reason - it is not worth too much. If one faked a Una and the Lion, it would be too "hot" to sell thereby defeating the point of counterfeiting it. The same reason goes for modern banknote counterfeiters; they fake £10 and £20 notes to avoid attracting attention and scrutiny as they would with the £50 note. By manufacturing smaller, less valuable denominations, one can sell more of them and sell them more discreetly.

I think the coin looks ok - he's sold many before to satisfied customers looking at his feedback.

[Half Penny Jon]

I think it is all legitimate however, I would e-mail the seller and ask for some sort of guarantee that it is not a fake.

[Sylvester]

i'm not sure about that, look at the bit near the garter, surely there should be more detail than that down there. The design also looks flat.

[Sylvester]

it could of course be a real one weakly struck from a worn die

[Half Penny Jon]

Correct me if I am wrong, but the coin looks like it is made from aluminium or steel rather than silver.

[Emperor Oli]

I thought that but I put it down to the EF grade.

[Master Jmd]

I thought that but I put it down to the EF grade.

yes, EF seems like a reasonable grade to put it to...

[Half Penny Jon]

I wouldn't buy it even in EF grade because I am not happy with it's authenticity.

[Geoff T]

I've been comparing the picture with the real thing which I have in EF+ and I see no real reason to doubt its authenticity. You need to bear in mind that 1889 was the highest mintage of all the Victoria half crowns (4,811,954) and so it stands to reason that there are likely to be more of them around in high grades than with less common years. As for the reverse looking flat, this is a fairly low relief to begin with.

There is a bit of wear on the lower part of the obverse on the Queen's garter sash, but Joseph Boehm's initials look pretty clear. If anything, it looks as if it might have been slightly polished at some stage.

For a genuine 1889 half crown in EF the going rate is around £50.