Gothic Crown 1847 Queen Victoria Great Britain

Yes CDU, I later noticed Philip's post was an old one.
Your crown is in much better condition than the OP coin and so, obviously, more desirable if genuine.
Quality will always retain value.

Philips coin is definitely kosher, Crown Down under I suspect yours is fake and possibly a Chinese one artifically aged to make it look used.

The way you bought it, a dealer demanding yes or no answer also screams red signs.

Lets hope the world finally wakes up to the atrocities China commits and finally stops allowing Chinese fakes to circulate.

"I also just bought a 1847 Gothic Crown in Australia and it seems to match the one above exactly. I picked it up online, private sale for $1100AUD which is 614UK pounds sterling or $796US at time of writing. I have no experience with numismatics whatsoever and I didn't even check to see if this was authentic."

I guess the obvious question would be; Why?
Knowing nothing about coins you chose to pay £614 for something you have no way of knowing is genuine or fake?
https://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/i.html?_..._sacat=58520

Wow, yeah. I see what you mean about fakes. I guess I like the story it potentially tells. If it is indeed a fake, and I suppose it could very well be, I'll get satisfaction out of putting a hammer to it. TBH, it didn't seem like a dodgy deal. I bought it from a guy selling coins for his grandfather. I don't buy coins for an investment or to make money from them. To me, it's all about the story and this is one of the more interesting ones. About 2 months after buying a "godless" florin off him, he came back to me offering the Crown at a much lower price, along with a bunch of other coins, including pennies, several other gothic coins (godless type also) and an 1804 Bank of England token dollar. Apparently, a local coin dealer offered to buy the crown for the price I mentioned and that's what he then offered it to me for. All the other coins I got were bundled in for a little extra, as he just wanted to get rid of them.

I'm not sure when his grandfather bought this crown, it could have been decades ago but I suppose, the Chinese have been doing this sort of thing for a while.

Does anyone have any advice on how I can get it properly assessed for authenticity? I don't care about the grading, since I can't imagine ever wanting to sell it, I just need to confirm that it's a fake. I'll happily post the end result here down the track, assessment result with a hammered coin.

I have a quick update. I took the coin to what looks like the biggest coin auction house in Sydney, a place on Margaret street before the close of business today. Not sure if it's okay to mention who they are, so I'll hold that for now. They run coin Auction's regularly and even have a couple of these crowns up for sale in an upcoming auction. They examined this crown under 10x magnification and confirmed it as genuine. I was even offered money for it on the spot, as well as the opportunity to auction it off under commission of about 15%.

They did say that this coin has been handled badly, scratched up and all. None of which really bothers me and if this wasn't the case, I wouldn't probably own it now. I'm stoked, it's a coin with and interesting story and it somehow ended up with me.

Anyway, unless they're missing something, I might have just gotten lucky. A guy with virtually no idea, buying something like this online without losing money. I suspect it's a bit of a fluke. Further to this, it looks like all the other coins I received as part of the "extended" deal are genuine also. I'm still new here, learning on the fly but I'm keen to post them here also, in separate, new threads.

In the meantime, I'm still keen to hear opinions about the authenticity. Perhaps something was missed? Or perhaps not?

Princetane wrote: Philips coin is definitely kosher.

Thanks for the reply. Good to hear. Although bougt from a reputable Swedish dealer it's always tricky to buy such a coin online. There are a lot of fakes of this particular coin. Funny detail: this is the only coin I have that came with a lifetime warranty. ;-)

Re reading this thread, Down Under I think you are right, that coin looks genuine and its a nice example, EF or so. But the way you bought it seemed fishy, the price you paid is about right and maybe it was just someone wanting some liquid cash in this age of Covid.

People lose jobs, and for once its the middle and upper end losing jobs rather than precariats like me (Although my job has been secure and led to me buying an explosion of worn and average English silver coins this year). So once you have lost your job, in many cases the first thing to go are the assets and this includes rare and expensive coins.

He may have made you the offer he could not refuse, because he may have spent that grand you paid him before you even said yes.

Yes you got lucky and I envy you with such a nice coin - but in the future that strategy just may bring a dud.

Rule of thumb for your future purchases @ CrownDownUnder. Anything with a price tag that makes the eyes water if it doesn't come with provenance (cert of authenticity or history of past owners). It is a very dangerous purchase. Yes the odd 1 or 2 may well be the real deal but 95% will get you burned. Every coin I purchase I take a copy of the image and put it against known authentic coins. Then I find as many that have sold as I can to get an idea of price versus coins condition . That old saying is very true for the most part ."If it looks too good too be true it probably is". Glad you dodged a bullet. But There's not one of us that hasn't fallen foul to dodgy coins in our early days of collecting. It becomes a steep and very quick learning curve when it hits your pocket. First £200 you should spend on coins is the books and reference material that helps you avoid all the above.