Expert: Brad Swain - 12/31/2009

Question
QUESTION: To Brad,
         hi Brad recently while renovating my home i stumbled upon a little gold coin dated 1908 this coin is roughly the size of an australian 5cent piece with the words Edward:Vs:VII D:G : Britti:om n:rex f:d:IND:IMP: on the front with i assume edwards head on it, on the back of the coin is a man riding a horse which looks like it the horse is either kicking or rearing at a lion ive tryed several times to take pictures of this coin how ever because its so shinny and such good nic my digital camera only picks up a blur, so i cant show u an image, on top of this coin i have several 100s of other coins dating back to the late 1800s from both home here in Australia and abroad which i would like to find out if they might be worth something to leave to my kids in the future.

kind regards

steve Jolly

Texas QLD Australia

ANSWER: Hi Steve, this is a British gold Sovereign coin (1 Pound) if it is 22 millimeters across or a 1/2 Sovereign if 19 millimeters across, depicting King Edward VII (1901-10) as well as Benedetto Pistrucci's rendition of St. George slaying a dragon. There may be a mintmark letter (S, M or P for Australia) below the horse's rear hoof indicating it was minted and used in one of the British colonies. With more info I'll be glad to help further.
A Sovereign should weigh 7.988 grams and would contain .2354 of an ounce of gold. A half Sovereign would be half of the two above weights. Value is likely a little over the gold value depending on wear and demand (kitco.com).
You might also try a library for a copy of the Standard Catalog of World Coins for pictures, values and lots more interesting info.
Brad

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: hi Brad thank you for the feed back have you got a direct email address ide like to send you some email attachments of this gold coin and some others ive got here, there are some very top qaulity coins in my possession, some my grand father bought back from the war and others he had before he passed away.

regards
Steve Jolly

my email address

is

ANSWER: Hi Steve, If you have pictures (not over 1 megabyte each please) you can email them to me at tbirde@psknet.com.
Brad

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: Brad hi
        tryed several times to send you emails at this email address, for some reason my sever wont allow me to send them, but ill try and send a couple through this web page and see wat hapens.

regards
steve Jolly

Answer
Hi Steve, the 1908 sovereign I've already addressed. I can't tell if there is a mintmark below the horse's hoof or not from the picture.
I got all of your emailed pictures. The pictures were very clear although it is helpful if the extra white space could be cropped out if possible.
The copper penny picture was only of the king. The country and date would be necessary to determine value.
If you list them all by Country, Denomination, and Date, I may be able to give you a range of value estimates. Pictures are usually not needed unless some or none of the above are evident. Sometimes words are worth a 'thousand' pictures. ;-)
The Dutch 1874 2-1/2 Gulden featuring William III (1849-90) should weigh 25.0 grams and would contain .7596 of an ounce of silver. It may be worth about $15 with that amount of wear.
The German coins: without mintmark, or date, on the other side of each coin it is not possible to give a complete valuation. On the silver coins the mintmark is behind Hindenburg's collar.
With more info I'll be glad to help further.
Brad