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Malta Rarity: 1976FM Matte Uncirculated 50 Cents

7Jaguars7Jaguars Posts: 7,228 ✭✭✭✭✭

I've never seen this coin before, wasn't sure it existed even.


Love that Milled British (1830-1960)
Well, just Love coins, period.

Comments

  • Manfred1Manfred1 Posts: 59 ✭✭

    Nice pictures ... thanks

  • ashelandasheland Posts: 22,612 ✭✭✭✭✭
  • giorgio11giorgio11 Posts: 3,811 ✭✭✭✭✭

    Interesting! My KM volume says the matte coins have a mintage of 150 (vs 26,000 for the proofs). The 25 cents of this year are also low-mintage, 300 matte pieces. Great coin! Thanks for sharing.

    Kind regards,

    George

    VDBCoins.com Our Registry Sets Many successful BSTs; pls ask.
  • 7Jaguars7Jaguars Posts: 7,228 ✭✭✭✭✭

    Yes, they do have those mintages listed. The thing is that I have collected FM, including the scarcer matte versions of 1975-6 for 40 years and have never seen another of the 50c or the 25c. So I am just not sure what these mintages now reported in Krause represented.

    Not to bore anyone, but these unc. non-specimen set issues were alleged at the time to have been sent to the Central Banks of the issuing countries. Whether that was all or some or none [in actual terms] remains to be told. The larger denomination coins, and for Malta that would be this one, were of copper-nickel or worse in alloy without intrinsic value and so may have simply been pitched or lost.

    I would like to hear from ANYONE having more information as this has been my sideline collecting interest that even predates my interest in Brit predecimal coins...

    Love that Milled British (1830-1960)
    Well, just Love coins, period.
  • JBKJBK Posts: 14,643 ✭✭✭✭✭

    Tell me a little more and I might start collecting them also....

    I recall when the FM was making proof sets for several countries they would crank out a few hundred "circulation quality" coins to add legitimacy as a producer of legal tender coins for that country, even though the bulk of the cons the countries used were made elsewhere. I am not sure this practice was legally necessary or not but they did it for whatever reason. Maybe they were trying to avoid the appearance of being just a producer of collector coins that never actually circulated.

  • Timbuk3Timbuk3 Posts: 11,658 ✭✭✭✭✭

    Sweet !!! :)

    Timbuk3
  • 7Jaguars7Jaguars Posts: 7,228 ✭✭✭✭✭

    Hi JBK, well I have always loved them since high school. Some of the mint sets are also quite scarce with a few that may (or may not) exist not really traceable. The Franklin Mint really had a bad rep for all the dolls and car models and Darth Vader outfits, etc.
    Actually the engraving quality and strike of the coins was excellent; the proofs kind of ruined the picture but even some of these are EXCEEDINGLY rare from the 1982-85 period.

    To return to this bit about making circulation quality coins, it is difficult to know the truth & only what we have been told. A few, such as Belize, have always been available but others not so. I have seen a couple of small denomination Belize coins (the so-called Birds of Belize) that appear to have truly circulated & had mintages supposedly in the tens of thousands....
    But mostly they are scarce to rare animals; for example the "circulation strikes" of Malta such as this are much scarcer than they should be, but also Guyana 5 and 10 Dollar uncs in base metal after 1976.
    Until last year I had never seen the 1984 Jamaica circulation strike 10 dollars, or the Barbados 1984 10 dollars. I did a couple of posts on this site on those that are somewhat informational to those interested. The Jamaica 1975-77 unc. strike 10 dollars are so rare that I have only seen one each of the 75 and 77, and no 76s.
    I guess these are what make it fun to me, now that my budget is much more limited than ever before. I can have real rarity with beauty at an affordable price is how I look at it.

    Love that Milled British (1830-1960)
    Well, just Love coins, period.
  • CoinCrazyPACoinCrazyPA Posts: 2,899 ✭✭✭✭

    Rare coin, nice

    Positive BST transactions: agentjim007, cohodk, CharlieC, Chrischampeon, DRG, 3 x delistamps, djdilliodon, gmherps13, jmski52, Meltdown, Mesquite, 2 x nibanny, themaster, 2 x segoja, Timbuk3, ve3rules, jom, Blackhawk, hchcoin, Relaxn, pitboss, blu62vette, Jfoot13, Jinx86, jfoot13,Ronb

    Successful Trades: Swampboy,
  • PatARPatAR Posts: 347 ✭✭✭

    I really enjoy your posts on these FM pieces. Very informative. From my days helping out at a coin store in the 1980s I remember dumping world coins into buckets that, at that time, no one ever looked through. If only I still had those coins today! These days I mostly do the opposite, seeking out the world coins. Problem free FM coins are certainly much harder to come by now.

  • 7Jaguars7Jaguars Posts: 7,228 ✭✭✭✭✭

    Ah, thanks. I am obviously a collector, and always like to help out if possible. Do feel free to PM.

    Love that Milled British (1830-1960)
    Well, just Love coins, period.
  • Manfred1Manfred1 Posts: 59 ✭✭

    Nice pictures ... thanks

  • MrEurekaMrEureka Posts: 23,892 ✭✭✭✭✭

    Someone really needs to write the reference book for FM coins!

    Andy Lustig

    Doggedly collecting coins of the Central American Republic.

    Visit the Society of US Pattern Collectors at USPatterns.com.
  • 7Jaguars7Jaguars Posts: 7,228 ✭✭✭✭✭

    Problem is that who might get to any archives (if they exist??). I am really curious as to what happen to the "currency strikes", or those that supposedly were released to the Central Banks. This is information that may or may not exist.

    Love that Milled British (1830-1960)
    Well, just Love coins, period.
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