A couple of cruel coin days

[Iron Patch]

Both were in collections where they actually fit in, and the gold I figured out right away, but I got phone call right after seeing the sixpence so it was 20 minutes of talking, and then 10 minutes on the net to realize the bad news. All I could think is please coin God just let this be the one time it's ain't a fake!

Stack's Bowers Galleries - Lot #6001 - Undated (1616) Sommer Islands Sixpence. BAM Type I, W-11445. Large Portholes. VF-20 (PCGS).

But it wasn't all bad because I made about a $1,000 off the group that had the fake gold. But that's the very reason I felt it had a chance, because there was good stuff. The Sommer Islands coin had me going too because it was with a bunch of other coins, every single one dating around the same period. I save them because they make me laugh, sort of like the detecting finds where you think you hit something great but doesn't turn out.

 

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[jerseyben]

Where does one purchase a collection that would have stuff like this in it?

 

[diggummup]

I can't get your link to work. Did you spy these on an ebay lot?

 

[Iron Patch]

Where does one purchase a collection that would have stuff like this in it?

The answer is ebay and anywhere I can find it. The "gold coin" was actually mixed in a token collection which also had coins and it seemed obvious to me fairly soon after starting to sort this person didn't know how much more they could have made.... which sort of planted a seed in my mind before seeing the 8 Escudo fake.

 

[Iron Patch]

I can't get your link to work. Did you spy these on an ebay lot?

Must be down temporarily. It's an $86,000 sale for a Summer Islands Sixpence at the Baltimore coin sale that happened fairly recently. It was the first thing I found when I started the hunt to ID the coin, or confirm it was fake I should say.

 

[jerseyben]

The answer is ebay and anywhere I can find it. The "gold coin" was actually mixed in a token collection which also had coins and it seemed obvious to me fairly soon after starting to sort this person didn't know how much more they could have made.... which sort of planted a seed in my mind before seeing the 8 Escudo fake.

Is it real gold? A plated copy?

 

[Iron Patch]

Is it real gold? A plated copy?

It's plated white metal, but looks way better than the cheap souvenirs we see posted all the time... which was another reason my heart skipped a beat.

 

[tlowery04]

Don't want to seem crude, but is this what is actually on that coin?

 

[Iron Patch]

Don't want to seem crude, but is this what is actually on that coin?

It's a pig.

Sommer Island Coins

 

[jerseyben]

It's a pig.

Sommer Island Coins

Doesn't the Red Book call them "pig tokens" or something like that?

 

[Iron Patch]

Doesn't the Red Book call them "pig tokens" or something like that?

Hogge Money.