Kings Norton: RARE !

SYRACUSIAN

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You didn't expect to see a penny, did you?



<< <i>I don't normally sell coins with a reserve but I feel I must have a good price for this one. >>



Greek rarities are hot. Unfortunately the word is out.


20 bids already (as of this typing) , among which the usual suspects.

1jester

Neat piece, Dimitri. Were any officially released for circulation? How many are extant?

Not knowing much about foreign coins, I'm always pleasantly surprised when I see coins from various countries with the H or KN mintmarks on them. It's cool.

wybrit

Heaton and Kings Norton coins were made for countries all over the world. Never heard of this particular rarity, but it's way over Krause value now!

Why aren't you on the suspect list?

1jester

Snipers don't like to advertise their presence!

Philip

Now is the time for me to throw a bid in just for the thrill of it.

1jester

Philip, you must have a hefty paycheck!! I guess Bulgaria is a mecca for private enterprise....

SYRACUSIAN

Here's a bit more info on the coin and its era. (KM 65)


"King Constantine I , George's eldest son, wielded more power than any other 20th century Greek monarch.
He ascended the throne on a wave of popularity earned by his successfull commanding of the Greek army during the Balkan wars.
Even in the next years, when his views ran counter to those of many Greeks,
and he ignored parliament,he retained many supporters.
When WW1 broke out, Constantine favoured a neutral to pro-German standpoint
(his wife was the Kaiser's sister)
but his strong-willed prime minister (El. Venizelos) ,led a rival fraction that wished to commit the country more actively to the allies.
In 1917 conditions deteriorated rapidly and eventually the country was divided with two governments,
one headed by the King,the other set up by Venizelos.
Intervention by the Allies finally forced Constantine to leave the country.
During his absence, his second son ,Alexander , became the nominal king until his death by a monkey bite in the Royal Gardens in 1920.

At the Versailles Peace Conference,
Venizelos asserted Greece's territorial claims and although the Allies were against dismembering Turkey proper,
he successfully negotiated the cessation of Thrace and Smyrna.
Despite these triumphs, Venizelos was defeated in a general election
and the country subsequently voted for the return of King Constantine.

After the Kng's restoration in 1920,
two minor coins were struck, of which one is the above:
a holed 50 lepta coin in cupro-nickel (75% copper, 25% nickel),
which was minted in England.
The Royal Mint Report for 1922 states that a total of 2,524,277 pieces were issued by the Heaton Mint Ltd
and the King's Norton Metal Co Ltd in Birmingham. (the former struck 1,000,000 and the latter 1,524,277)
When the coins reached Greece, the metal value was higher than the face value and the coins were immediately melted down.
Only a very few pieces escaped the melting pot.

The various pieces seen by the author (J.P.Divo),
are all mintmarked H for Heaton,
while only one specimen with mintmark KN is known to exist (this is obviously not true but still an R8 coin)
in the National Museum's numismatic collection."

Philip

<< <i>Philip, you must have a hefty paycheck!! I guess Bulgaria is a mecca for private enterprise....

>>



Actually what I meant was that if I threw in a marginal bid now, the chances of it being the winner are nil.

Most I have spent on a single coin is 15 Euro. This has happened twice - once for a Swedish 2 Kronor from 1904 in Fine and once for a Russian Ruble from 1817 in F-VF.

Enough about overspending

Philip

Adding to Syracusian's story:

In 1923 Bulgaria issued aluminum 1 and 2 Leva coins. Part of them were minted in Heaton, part of them somewhere else - I forgot exactly where. In Heaton, however, they did not quite get the alloy right and by the time the coins arrived in Bulgaria almost all of them had turned into dust. Only a few remain and Krause is in error when stating that the mintage for these was 2-3 pieces.

That's what I have been told by collectors, I haven't seen it written in a book, though.

tbirde56

'The seller ended this listing early because the item is no longer available for sale.'

SYRACUSIAN

He must have received an offer he couldn't refuse !




I can think of two of the bidders that might have done this.


"
Bid: Mar-16-04 22:54:28 PST
Cancellation: Mar-17-04 01:58:54 PST Cancellation: US $2,711.05
Explanation: Löschen durch Admin "

What does this mean?

1jester

It says that it was cancelled (actually, dissolved) by the administration. I didn't realize it was on German ebay.

edit: I didn't see anything written in German; of course, there are no bids visible now. But it's not on German ebay.

SYRACUSIAN

Thank you Jester. It wasn't on German eBay, just one of the bids was cancelled with this explanation next to it.

Seller's response confirmed my suspicions:

"I am sorry - but I was offered a five-figure sum for the coin and accepted.

Life is good!"


No, seriously , only the last sentence is mine.

cosmicdebris

Norton????? Didn't he work in the sewers?

1jester

See, Philip, you should have bid when you had the chance!!! He who hesitates is lost.

Philip

Yes, I missed a chance to get a well-deserved negative

1jester