Home World & Ancient Coins Forum

An article about Israeli Specimen coins

Following my recent acquisition of several unusual Israeli specimen coins, I've done some research into them and wrote an article for local coin collector's association newspaper (it's small coin club operating in Tel Aviv). The article is now also up on my personal website in both English and Hebrew versions.

israelerrorcoins.wixsite.com/coins/israel-specimen-coins

Any comments, questions and additional information would be most welcome. Additionally, as English is not my first language, if you spot any mistakes or just badly-phrased sentences, please don't hesitate and let me know so I can fix it.

Comments

  • StorkStork Posts: 5,205 ✭✭✭✭✭

    Excellent read! Also, I read as a collector and not an editor and did not notice any issues with language. A very interesting article indeed.


  • ZoharZohar Posts: 6,629 ✭✭✭✭✭

    Excellent write up on this important subject

  • Jackthecat1Jackthecat1 Posts: 1,122 ✭✭✭

    I just read your article. It was informative and well written. This is not my area of collecting but I found it fascinating.

    Member ANS, ANA, GSNA, TNC



    image
  • pruebaspruebas Posts: 4,302 ✭✭✭✭✭

    Great article! Thanks for translating and sharing it.

    I only found one minor spelling error: "courtesy" in the description for the Museum Coin photo.

  • desslokdesslok Posts: 310 ✭✭✭

    Thanks pruebas, I fixed the typo. Glad you enjoyed the article.

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

    As a followup: there are now 20 specimen Israel coins, mainly of KN origin on eBay at the moment.

    Love that Milled British (1830-1960)
    Well, just Love coins, period.
  • StorkStork Posts: 5,205 ✭✭✭✭✭

    Most of those look they are from Atlas...could probably contact them directly for a better price too.


  • desslokdesslok Posts: 310 ✭✭✭

    @7Jaguars said:
    As a followup: there are now 20 specimen Israel coins, mainly of KN origin on eBay at the moment.

    Only one is a "true" specimen, i.e. with the "SPECIMEN" inscription on the coin in raised letters. All the others that I see are labeled as specimen by PCGS, but they look like regular BU coins with the KN archive provenance. I personally don't place that much value on the pedigree, unless the actual coins are of a special type. Regular coins whose only merit is that they were found in the KN mint archive are much less appealing to me.

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

    I have several of these from other countries and they do have a "specimen" look to them. As you may recall they also did a few with the words "SPECIMEN" on them from other locales such as Nigeria, and these are of like finish as well.

    Love that Milled British (1830-1960)
    Well, just Love coins, period.
  • desslokdesslok Posts: 310 ✭✭✭

    @7Jaguars said:
    I have several of these from other countries and they do have a "specimen" look to them. As you may recall they also did a few with the words "SPECIMEN" on them from other locales such as Nigeria, and these are of like finish as well.

    I understand what you're saying, and the market agrees with you to some extent. Israeli specimen coins without the inscription, but with the KN pedigree on the slab, sold for about $200. That's a LOT more than the cost of a plain UNC coin, but well below that of the specimens with the inscription on the coin.

    I saw only two other examples of world coins with the word "SPECIMEN": one was British West Africa (several denominations and metallic compositions), and the other was Indonesia. I have not seen any other world coins with this specific word. Coins from Nigeria, Tanzania and several other locales bear the words "Trial", "Essai", "Prueba", and even "Model". I was thinking about starting a collection of strange labels on trial coins, but after acquiring a few cool pieces, my budget ran out.

  • ZoharZohar Posts: 6,629 ✭✭✭✭✭

    I had been inspired by desslok's research, passion and friendship as well as his ongoing willingness to share his in depth knowledge of errors and patterns. As these specimens carry a historical importance as the prelude to modern state of Israel's initial Pruta series and have an unknown mintage tied to them, I targeted the three 25 Pruta Specimens, post auction at Stacks. Still missing the single Pruta type but its a start.



Sign In or Register to comment.