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Coin and Paper Money Collecting/Saudi Arabia Gold Guinea - Replica?
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Question
I have in my possession several gold coins that are IDENTICAL to the Saudi Arabia Gold Guinea except the diameter is just a smidgen over 19 mm compared to the real Gold Guinea which is 22 mm. Can you explain the discrepancy & mystery of this coin? It has been examined by a coin dealer & is found to be the same high density gold as the original guinea. Thanks, Jay
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Hi Jay,
You are lucky these turned out to be solid gold, as the vast majority of such novelty copies are not gold at all. There is a long history in the Middle East of using coins and medallions designed after coins for jewelry and ornamentation. A famous example are thecoin belts that belly dancers wear.
Usually people cannot afford for them to be made of real silver or real gold. The ones you have were obviously made for someone wealthy, as the quality of the design is much better than most novelty pieces.
I noticed immediately from the picture that this is a gold item - the color and luster is correct for high purity gold. Also the loop is soldered on, which cannot be done with base metal alloys.
My guess is that someone wanted the "bling", but ruining the actual coins by mounting would be somewhat offensive in that culture. So, they went for a slightly smaller version that would not be mistaken for the real coin, but still has the luxurious quality of the real coins.
They would not have a collectible value generally speaking. There may be a small collectible premium if sold locally in the Middle East, but for practical purposes they are worth gold bullion value only.
Thanks for the question! =)
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| Comment | The response is in accord with knowledge I have gleaned & I purposely did not feed you any of it not to cloud your research. You have added to my information considerably & identified what I needed to know about the reason for having them made. Thank you extremely much. | ||
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Answers by Expert:
Dmitry Livshits
Expertise
My specialty is world coins from the 18th to 20th centuries, primarily non-US foreign coins and related areas such as errors and exonumia (tokens, medals, etc.). I can answer questions relating to identification, grading, selling, preservation and evaluation of such items. In addition to catalog value, I can give you the practical market value and trends for specific types of coins. I will also take questions regarding counterfeits (both modern and antique) and on how to identify them. I am NOT knowledgeable in paper money/banknotes, ancient or "shipwreck" coins. Thank you.
Experience
Collector of world coins since early childhood. Access to a variety of auction records and reference material. You can also find me on Facebook.
Education/Credentials
A.S. in Psychology (2006), B.A. in Forensic Psychology (2008), M.A. in Forensic Psychology (2011).
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