OK, I admit I lied.........

SYRACUSIAN

When I posted this thread, I said that I've got an Ionian coin (a 1835 1 lepton), which I've decided to return, after I realized that it was inferior to my own example. I also said that I didn't want reimbursement, because said dealer is someone I want to become a client of his : no great collection has ever been built by auction purchases only and/or purchases ,trades with collectors, a few good DEALERS are absolutely needed in order to fill some voids and more. This is one dealer that I want to become his client, and for this reason, I've decided not to ask for a reimbursement, but to switch this Ionian for another coin, even more expensive.

But did you really believe that I would have done such an effort for an otherwise nice, but a 0.500 silver Turkish coin? Politics aside, they have no business in coins, why on earth did I sell my beloved

AH 1277/4 10 para proof NGC PF66BN in order to replace it with that? No, no no.

I ended up switching the Ionian with this Italian gold coin, reasonably priced,1932-R 50 lire gold, raw BU, virtually as struck according to the seller and with a mintage of 12000.

trozau

Can't go wrong with gold. Sweet coin.

JCMhouston

Very nice, the Italians put some very interesting historical designs on the coins of this period.

worldcoinguy

Very attractive design with low mintage to top it off. Nice addition.

Zohar

Early 20th century Italian material represents (to me) some superb designwork - I saw a bunch with an Italian dealer at the NY Show, and quite a few are of low mintage.

I agree Dimitri regarding support from knowledgeable dealers.

BTW - who did the image?

SYRACUSIAN

Image is by the dealer himself Z., he's quite talented at that.


BTW, thanks for all the nice comments so far.

And it wasn't an outright lie. I did indeed thought of choosing that Turkish coin, but instead I've browsed the dealer's inventory, and this was a coin I always wanted to own.

Now that I have it, I've looked it up and was quite curious. The same design was introduced in 1912 I think, but with LMU standards, as in 20 lire = 6.45 grams. Mintages are infinite in this version, and prices vary from $3500 to over $30000 , which I assume is way more in reality with a mintage of 20.

Then, in 1932 and around that date, the same design resurfaces but with a peculiar weight of 4.6 grams, but who cares in the end?

Stork

Very nice! But then, I like that 'between the wars' stuff designed by the Italians (like the Albanians ). Cool coin and worthy.

canadacolornut

One to lust after all right.

I just can't afford to get into high grade gold until it's a must in a registry set.

Lovely piece though.