Can anyone help me identify this coin?

Sambeauxrme

I think this is an Isle of Man coin, but I can't find it in my book, so it must be post-2000. I think it is a restrike, but I'm not sure. Any help will be greatly appreciated.

HTubbs

That is a privately struck Fantasy coin produced by Spink in 2001. There are quite a few other designs, I'm not sure how many there are total. Here are some:

Sambeauxrme

Thanks so much for the info. Does it have a denomination? If you were going to list it on EBay (ugh), how would you title/describe it?

Sambeauxrme

hmmmm..........
Just looked back in my records and when I bought this coin on EBay it was advertised as a pattern coin Isle of Man Double Florin Proof with a mintage of 360. Looks like this may be a bunch of hooey, but that's Ebay! I tend to believe your identification of the coin as a fantasy piece.

lordmarcovan

I had one of those Irish pieces. They're nice fantasy issues.

The mintage figure of 360 on yours might be correct, actually. Unfortunately the people who've been hawking them on eBay in the past have mentioned the low mintages of these modern issues but not the fact that they are fantasy "restrikes". (Not technically restrikes, though, since they're of designs and denominations that never truly existed).

Not all is lost, however- some of these have a respectable catalog value in their own right. That Irish copper piece I had listed for something like $35-45 in the Krause "Unusual World Coins" volume, if memory serves. I will get the book out and try to find your IOM piece in there.

Stand by...

lordmarcovan

Your piece is listed in Krause "Unusual World Coins" as (KM)X#11, a model "4 shilling". X11a was bronze and X11b copper. Yours, the silver proof, is the one to have, as it catalogs for twice what the others do. The mintage was indeed 360 pieces, and the catalog value is $50.00.

So there you have it. No, it is not from 1901 but a century later, but no, it is not worthless, either, and the mintage figure was correct.

Hope this helps.

Sambeauxrme

Thanks so much for the info....My Krause book ends at 2000 which explains why I couldn't find it.

lordmarcovan

Well, even the 21st century Krause volume wouldn't have helped you. These are only listed in the "Unusual World Coins" volume, to the best of my knowledge, since they technically aren't true coins, per se.

lordmarcovan

I should also add that the folks using "pattern" in their titles to sell these are being a bit deliberately deceptive, I think. "Fantasy issue" is more correct.

Sambeauxrme

Thanks again. I'm about to list it on Ebay and I will call it what it is....a fantasy coin. When I bought it I paid $33 for it, and if I can get close to that for it, I'll be ok. Wouldn't even sell it but for the fact that I've lost my job....the company I worked for went out of business due to the current economic situation. It's really killing me to have to sell my coins.....grrrrr.

lordmarcovan

You might get your money back out of it, at the very least, though with eBay these days, who knows. Be sure to mention that it books for fifty bucks. At least you got it at a fair price (according to the book, anyway).

I can't remember what I paid for my Irish one a few years back. Maybe only about 12-15 bucks, which is the most I'd be willing to go on a fantasy coin, usually. But it only books for 35 or so- something like that.

PS- losing your job and having to sell your coins? Been there, done that, just this last August when I got laid off. Doesn't seem like almost a year ago. I feel your pain. I was pretty far along in a Roman Imperial emperor portrait collection when I had to sell 'em off. I still have a couple of dozen leftovers, but the collection was pretty well gutted and had been over 100 coins to begin with.

SaorAlba

BTW the piece was commissioned by CoinCraft, not Spink. CoinCraft in London likes to make all sorts of "coins that never were" and sell them on their website, and in their circular. They also originated quite a few of the Euro lookalikes.