gold escudo...legit? (update)

steveben · January 21, 2013 10:28AM

is this coin a fake? i got it recently, but i have started having doubts. what do you say? sorry i cannot get better photos:

millennium · January 21, 2013 10:30AM

It looks legit to me..the minting process back then lended itself to a lot of doubling....so I'll say legit.

lordmarcovan · January 21, 2013 4:37PM

Hmm. Tough call for me. I see no obvious red flags. The denticles look OK, and, as far as I can tell, the lettering ... maybe.

Mind you, I'm no specialist, as I own exactly one of these and no more.

If I had to choose something that makes me uncomfortable, it would have to be the softness of the detail overall, and the lumpy appearance of the portrait. Come to think of it, there appears to be some possible bubbling or grainy surfaces above Ferdinand's head and in front of his face. That could be indicative of a cast copy. A small red flag goes up there, to my mind.

I'm not saying that means it's a fake, though. There could be reasonable explanations for that, I guess.

Have you weighed it?

The jury's still out as far as I am concerned. My gut instincts right now are about 60% in favor of real and 40% fake. I will defer to those more experienced for the final answer, however.

MrEureka · January 21, 2013 5:05PM

Looks OK to me.

lordmarcovan · January 21, 2013 5:20PM

If you got a thumbs-up from MrEureka, that's good enough for me.

s4ny · January 21, 2013 9:50PM

Looks OK, but would be best to physically hold it.

steveben · January 22, 2013 1:34AM

thanks for looking!

CaptHenway · January 22, 2013 4:51AM

Curious punctuation of the word "IN" as "I.N" and the assayer's initials as "I.F" instead of "IF", but I think that is just an engraving error and not anything that would condemn it.

TD

7over8 · January 22, 2013 8:23AM

I am by no means even close to an expert on Spanish gold - but when I see raised "dots" on the obverse above head and in the fields......it peaks my suspicion

steveben · February 9, 2013 6:12AM

thanks everyone!

JohnnyCache · February 9, 2013 6:23AM

Not only was it not fake but it graded very nicely, congratulations.

bronzemat · February 9, 2013 6:52AM

Congrats!

EVillageProwler · February 9, 2013 9:35AM

Nice score. Congrats!

I gotta say... This place makes it very hard for me to stay on a (numismatic) diet.

EVP

lordmarcovan · February 9, 2013 1:48PM

Awesome!

ricko · February 10, 2013 7:00AM

Great...well done...Cheers, RickO

ColinCMR · February 19, 2013 2:01PM

It looks nice, the bubbling is intriguing
What is going on there? Slight impurities? Grease on the dies? If it was an early strike while they were figuring out the striking that could accnt for the doubling and softness in some areas

MrEureka · February 20, 2013 7:39AM

It looks nice, the bubbling is intriguing
What is going on there?

Die rust.

gold escudo...legit? (update)

Comments